a charm, and fifteen minutes later I had the
pleasure of seeing the chaise roll out of the lighted yard into the night.
Need it be said that Kenneth Montagu was ahorse and after the coach within
a few minutes.

All night I jogged behind them, and in the morning rode up to the inn
where they stopped for breakfast. From Mistress Aileen I got the slightest
bow in the world as I passed to my solitary breakfast at a neighbouring
table. Within the hour they were away again, and I after to cover the
rear. Late in the day the near wheeler fell very lame. The rest of the
animals were dead beat, and I rode to the nearest hamlet to get another
horse. The night was falling foul, very mirk, with a rising wind, and
methought the lady's eyes lightened when she saw me return with help to
get them out of their difficulty. She thanked me stiffly with a very
straight lip.

"At all events there will be no end to the obligations I am under, Mr.
Montagu. They will be piling high as Ben Nevis," she said, but 'twould
have taken a penetrating man to have discovered any friendliness in the
voice.

Yet henceforth I made myself one of the party, admitted on sufferance with
a very bad grace. More than once I tried to break through the chill
conventionals that made the staple of our conversation, but the girl was
ice to me. In the end I grew stiff as she. I would ride beside the coach
all day with scarce a word, wearying for a reconciliation and yet
nourishing angry pride. When speech appeared to be demanded between us
'twas of the most formal. Faith, I think we were liker a pair of spoilt
children than sensible grown folks.

While we were still in the northern counties rumours began to reach us
that General Cope's army had been cut to pieces by the Highlanders. The
stories ran that not a single man had escaped, that the clans, twenty
thousand strong, were headed for England, that they were burning and
destroying as they advanced. Incredible reports of all kinds sprang out of
the air, and the utmost alarm prevailed. The report of Cope's defeat was
soon verified. We met more than one redcoat speeding south on a
foam-flecked weary steed, and it did not need the second sight to divine
that the dispatches they carried spoke loudly of disaster fallen and of
reinforcements needed.

After we had crossed the border parties of foraging Highlanders began to
appear occasionally, but a word in the Gaelic from Hamish Gorm always
served as a password for us