fired if Malcolm had not caught his arm.
They were careful to pass through the hostile MacLeod country at night,
and at break of day arrived in Strath, the country of the Mackinnons.
Malcolm MacLeod had a sister married to a Mackinnon, an honest,
warm-hearted follow who had followed his chief and served as captain in
the Prince's army. To his house they directed their steps; Mackinnon
himself was away, but his wife received her brother and his friend with
the utmost kindness. The Prince passed for a certain Lewis Caw, a
surgeon's apprentice (who was actually 'skulking' in Skye at the time),
and acted his part of humble retainer so well that poor Malcolm was
quite embarrassed; and the rough servant-lass treated him with the
contempt Highland servants seem to have for their own class, if 'Lowland
bodies.' Both the tired travellers lay down to sleep, and when Malcolm
awoke late in the afternoon he found the sweet-tempered Prince playing
with Mrs. Mackinnon's little child. 'Ah, little man,' he cried, in a
moment of forgetfulness, 'you may live to be a captain in my service
yet.' 'Or you an old sergeant in his,' said the indignant nurse, jealous
of her charge's position.

Next day Malcolm went out to meet his brother-in-law. He had absolute
confidence in Mackinnon's faithfulness and loyalty, but he feared that
his warm-hearted feelings might lead him into indiscretions which would
betray the Prince; and in spite of all warnings Mackinnon could not
restrain his tears when he saw his Prince under his roof in such a
wretched plight.

It was important that Charles should be at once taken to the mainland,
and John Mackinnon went off at noon to the house of the chief of the
Mackinnons to borrow a boat. This old man was a fine type of a Highland
gentleman. It was his daily--probably his only--prayer that he might die
on the field of battle fighting for his king and country. He was
simple-minded, brave, and faithful, and though now between sixty and
seventy, as active and courageous as any young man. John had received
injunctions not to betray the Prince's presence in the neighbourhood to
the laird, but to keep such a piece of news from his chief was quite
beyond honest John's powers. Nothing would restrain the old man from
going off at once with his wife to pay their homage to the Prince. Nor
would he hear of anyone conducting Charles to the mainland but himself.

[Illustration: PRINCE CHARLIE'S WANDERINGS.

The black lines ind