for
us, and furthermore an escort of a score of men, so I'm thinking we
have very little choice about the matter."

"Very well," returned the king with a shrug of indifference, "let us
be off and see our new host. I wonder if he will be as easily
flattered as the one we are leaving."

"I doubt it," said MacDonald seriously.

THE KING DRINKS

The two young men mounted the small shaggy horses that had been
provided for them by the forethought of their future host, MacLeod of
Dunvegan. Apparently the king had forgotten all about his crushing
defeat in the poetical contest of the day before, for he was blithe
and gay, the most cheerful of those assembled, adventuring now and
then scraps of Gaelic that he had picked up, and his pronunciation
contributed much to the hilarity of the occasion.

MacDonald, on the other hand, was gloomy and taciturn, as if already
some premonition of the fate that awaited him at Dunvegan cast its
shadow before. The news of the great condescension of the laird in
inviting two strangers to his castle had spread through all the land,
and, early as was the hour, the whole population of the district had
gathered to wish the travellers a cordial farewell. The escort, as the
king called the score of men, who were to act as convoy from one port
to the other; or the guard, as MacDonald termed them, sat on their
horses in silence, awaiting the word of command to set forth.

At last this word was given, and the procession began its march amidst
the cheers of the people and a skirling of the pipes. The distance was
little more than seven leagues over a wild uninviting country.
MacDonald sat his horse dejected and silent, for the prospect
confronting him was far from alluring. The king was incognito, he was
not; and he had begun to doubt the wisdom of having given his actual
designation to the people of Skye, for the relations between this
island and the mainland were at that time far from being of the most
cordial description.

[Illustration: "THE KING, HOWEVER, APPEARED TO HAVE NO FOREBODINGS,
BUT TROTTED ALONG WITH GREAT COMPLACENCY."]

Dunvegan Castle was a grim stronghold in which the MacLeods sat so
secure that all the efforts of all the MacDonalds, even if they were
for once united, could not dislodge them. It was one of the most
remote inhabited places in all Scotland, its next neighbour to the
west being that new land of America discovered not yet fifty years.
For the son of one H