I will say I met you
on your return, and the punishment will be light---
but give up your musket---Come on, men.''
Instantly he rushed forward, extending his arm
as if to push aside the young man's levelled firelock.
Elspat exclaimed, ``Now, spare not your
father's blood to defend your father's hearth!''
Hamish fired his piece, and Cameron dropped dead.
---All these things happened, it might be said, in
the same moment of time. The soldiers rushed
forward and seized Hamish, who, seeming petrified
with what he had done, offered not the least resistance.
Not so his mother, who, seeing the men
about to put handcuffs on her son, threw herself on
the soldiers with such fury, that it required two
of them to hold her, while the rest secured the
prisoner.
``Are you not an accursed creature,'' said one
of the men to Hamish, ``to have slain your best
friend, who was contriving, during the whole march,
bow he could find some way of getting you off
without punishment for your desertion?''
``Do you hear _that_, mother?'' said Hamish, turning
himself as much towards her as his bonds would
permit-but the mother heard nothing, and saw
nothing. She had fainted on the floor of her hut.
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