---
Do this, and I may think you have forgiven me---
refuse it, and again I call on moon and stars,
heaven and earth, to witness the unrelenting resentment
with which you prosecute your mother
for a fault, which, if it be one, arose out of love to
you.
``Mother,'' said Hamish, ``on this subject you
move me not. I will fly before no man. If Barcaldine
should send every Gael that is under his
banner, here, and in this place, will I abide them;
and when you bid me fly, you may as well command
yonder mountain to be loosened from its foundations.
Had I been sure of the road by which they
are coming hither, I had spared them the pains of
seeking me; but I might go by the mountain,
while they perchance came by the lake. Here I
will abide my fate; nor is there in Scotland a voice
of power enough to bid me stir from hence, and be
obeyed.''
``Here, then, I also stay,'' said Elspat, rising up
and speaking with assumed composure. ``I have
seen my husband's death---my eyelids shall not
grieve to look on the fall of my son. But MacTavish
Mhor died as became the brave, with his
good sword in his right hand; my son will perish
like the bullock that is driven to the shambles
by the Saxon owner who had bought him for a
price.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292