ck, looking splendidly handsome
in his military attire, stood to take his last farewell of wife and
kindred, and to drink a parting cup to the success of the expedition.

"Fill me the quaick, Maisie," he said, with a kindly smile turning to
his pale and heavy-eyed young wife. "Ye'll soon see me come back again
to bid ye all put on your braws to grace the king's coronation at
Edinburgh." To which hope Lady Glenlivet piously cried "Amen"; and
Maisie turned to mix the stirrup cup, for the morning was raw and cold.

"Let Isobel lift the kettle, lass; it's far too heavy for thee," cried
Lady Glenlivet; but alas! too late, for Maisie stumbled as she turned
from the fire, and the chief part of the scalding water was emptied into
one of the young man's long riding boots.

Alick's sudden yell of pain almost drowned Maisie's sobbing cry, and old
Lady Glenlivet furiously exclaimed, forgetful of all courtesies,--

"Ye wretched gawk! ye little fule! ye ha' killed my puir lad!"

"Nay, nay, na sae bad as that, I judge. Dinna greet, Maisie, my bonnie
bird--ye couldna help it, my dow," cried Alick, recovering himself, and
making a heroic effort to conceal the pain he felt. "Look to her, some
of ye," he added sharply, as Maisie sank fainting on the floor.

It was a very severe scald, said the doctor whom the alarmed household
quickly summoned, and it would be many a long day before Sir Alick would
be fit to wear his boot or put foot in saddle again.

But thanks greatly to the devoted nursing he received from wife and
mother, and to his own youth and health, Sir Alick completely recovered
from the injury. But in the meantime, the bubble had burst, Sherrifmuir
had been fought, Mar's army had been totally routed, the prisons in
England and Scotland had been filled with his misguided followers, and
the headsman and the hangman were beginning their ghastly work.

Sir Alick, thanks to the accident which had prevented his taking any
overt part in the rebellion, had escaped both imprisonment and
confiscation; and it was probably Simon Glenlivet's influence which had
availed to cover over Sir Alick's dalliance with the Jacobite plotters.

Maisie had proved herself a most tender and efficient nurse, but it was
now her turn to be ill, and one quiet day, after she had presented her
lord with an heir to the Glenlivet name, she told him the whole truth
about that lucky accident with the boiling water; but auld Leddy
Glenlivet never knew that h