m
below. The walls were lined with wood, and there were two tiny slits
that gave air, but hardly any light. The only furniture in the room
was an oaken chest, clasped with iron and curiously locked.

"Our plate chest, Kit; but there 'a not much silver and gold in it,
worse luck for you, lassie; in fact, we're a pack of fools to set store
by it. There 's nothing in the kist but some old clothes, and perhaps
some buckles and such like. I dare say there is a lock of hair also.
Some day we will have a look inside."

"To-day, instantly," and Kate shook her father. "You are a dreadful
hypocrite, for I can see that you would rather Tochty were burned down
than this box be lost. Are there any relics of Prince Charlie in it?
Quick."

"Be patient; it's a difficult key to turn; there now;" but there was
not much to see--only pieces of woollen cloth tightly folded down.

[Illustration: "It's a difficult key to turn."]

"Call Janet, Kate, for she ought to see this opening, and we 'll carry
everything down to my room, for no one could tell what like things are
in this gloom. Yes, Perth lived here for weeks, and used to go up to
the gallery where Black John's mother sat with her maid; but the son
was hiding in the North, and never reached his house till he came to
die."

First of all they came upon a ball dress of the former time, of white
silk, with a sash of Macpherson tartan, besides much fine lace.

"That is the dress your great-grandmother wore as a bride at the Court
of Versailles in the fifties. She was only a lassie, and seemed like
her husband's daughter. The Prince danced with her, and they counted
the dress something to be kept, and that night Locheil and Cluny also
had a reel with Sheena Carnegie, while Black John looked like a young
man, for he had been too sorely wounded to be able to dance with her
himself." And then the General carried down with his own hands a
Highland gentleman's evening dress, trews of the Royal tartan, and a
velvet coat with silver buttons, and a light plaid of fine cloth.

"And this was her husband's dress that night; but why the Stewart
tartan?"

"No, lassie, that is the suit the Prince wore at Holyrood, where he
gave a great ball after Prestonpans, and danced with the Edinburgh
ladies. It was smuggled across to France at last with other things of
the Prince's, and he gave it to Carnegie. 'It will remind you of our
great days,' he said, 'when the Stewarts saw their friends