ockade upon the Master's hat, and (as John
Paul told me) it was wetted with tears when he carried it down to him.

In all that followed, Mr. Henry and my old lord were true to their
bargain. That ever they accomplished anything is more than I could
learn; and that they were anyway strong on the King's side, more than I
believe. But they kept the letter of loyalty, corresponded with my Lord
President, sat still at home, and had little or no commerce with the
Master while that business lasted. Nor was he, on his side, more
communicative. Miss Alison, indeed, was always sending him expresses,
but I do not know if she had many answers. Macconochie rode for her
once, and found the Highlanders before Carlisle, and the Master riding
by the Prince's side in high favour; he took the letter (so Macconochie
tells), opened it, glanced it through with a mouth like a man whistling,
and stuck it in his belt, whence, on his horse passageing, it fell
unregarded to the ground. It was Macconochie who picked it up; and he
still kept it, and indeed I have seen it in his hands. News came to
Durrisdeer of course, by the common report, as it goes travelling
through a country, a thing always wonderful to me. By that means the
family learned more of the Master's favour with the Prince, and the
ground it was said to stand on: for by a strange condescension in a man
so proud--only that he was a man still more ambitious--he was said to
have crept into notability by truckling to the Irish. Sir Thomas
Sullivan, Colonel Burke, and the rest, were his daily comrades, by which
course he withdrew himself from his own country-folk. All the small
intrigues he had a hand in fomenting; thwarted my Lord George upon a
thousand points; was always for the advice that seemed palatable to the
Prince, no matter if it was good or bad; and seems upon the whole (like
the gambler he was all through life) to have had less regard to the
chances of the campaign than to the greatness of favour he might aspire
to, if, by any luck, it should succeed. For the rest, he did very well
in the field; no one questioned that: for he was no coward.

The next was the news of Culloden, which was brought to Durrisdeer by
one of the tenants' sons--the only survivor, he declared, of all those
that had gone singing up the hill. By an unfortunate chance John Paul
and Macconochie had that very morning found the guinea piece--which was
the root of all the evil--sticking in a holly bush; they h