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I told him how in ancient days three warriors came from Green Ierne, to dwell in the wild glens of Cowal and Lochow, how one of them, the swart Breachdan, all for the love of blue-eyed Eila, swam the Gulf, once with a clew of thread, then with a hempen rope, last with an iron chain, but this time, alas! the returning tide sucks down the over-tasked hero into its swirling vortex, how Diarmid O' Duin, i.e. son of "the Brown," slew with his own hand the mighty boar, whose head still scowls over the escutcheon of the Campbells, how in later times, while the murdered Duncan's son, afterwards the great Malcolm Canmore, was yet an exile at the court of his Northumbrian uncle, ere Birnam wood had marched to Dunsinane, the first Campbell i.e.
Hoo can I tak the verra sunsheen oot o' her life 'at I lo'ed afore I kent she was my ain sister, an' jist thoucht lang to win near eneuch till to du her ony guid turn worth duin? An' here I am, her ane half brither, wi' naething i' my pooer but to scaud the hert o' her, or else lee!
"But wadna 't be better to believe in twa Gods nor nane ava'?" propounded Malcolm; "ane a' guid, duin' the best for 's he cud, the ither a' ill, but as pooerfu' as the guid ane an' forever an' aye a fecht atween them, whiles ane gettin' the warst o' 't, an whiles the ither? It wad quaiet yer hert ony gait, an' the battle o' Armageddon wad gang on as gran' 's ever."
"Ye son o' a deevil's soo!" cried the woman; "I s' hae amen's o' ye for this, gien I sud ro'st my ain hert to get it." "'Deed, but ye re duin that fine a'ready! I wonner what he thinks o sawmon troot noo! Eh, mem?" "Have done, Malcolm," said Florimel. "I am ashamed of you. If the woman is not hurt, we have no business in her house." "Hear till her!" cried Mrs Catanach contemptuously. "The woman!"
"Return," says the Duin Glichd to Donald, "to the place where you lost your brother a year and a day from the time. You will insert in your garment a Rowan Cross, which will protect you from the fairies' interposition.
"I wadna hae muckle chance o' duin' onything, gien a' body was like you. But did ye never hear tell o' ane 'at said:'Ye wad du naething for nane o' mine, sae ye refeesed mysel'?" "Deed, an' I wull refeese yersel'," returned the old man. "Sic a chield for jaw an'cheek saw I never nane as the auld sang says! Whaur on this earth cam ye frae?"
"An' gien I had ta'en the disgrace ye offert me, ye wad hae drawn back?" "No, certainly." "Ye wasna tryin' me, then: ye was duin' yer best to corrup' me." "I'm no splitter of hairs." "My lord, it's nane but the corrup'ible wad seek to corrup'." The marquis gnawed a nail or two in silence. Miss Horn dragged an easy-chair within a couple of yards of him.
"Hoo's gran'mamma?" asked Cosmo. "Ow, duin' weel eneuch, sir weirin awa' bonny. She has naither pang nor knowledge o' sorrow to tribble her. The Lord grant the sowls o' 's a' sic anither lowsin'!" "Hae ye naething better nor cauld watter to gie 'im a drink o', Grizzie, wuman?" asked the laird, but in mere despair.
"Glenwarlock, yoong sir, ken ye what ye're duin'? The Lord preserve's! he's an innocent!" she added, turning with an expression of despair to Aggie, who regarded the two with a strange look. "Grizzie!" cried Cosmo, in no little astonishment, "what on earth gars ye luik like that at the mention o' ane wha has this moment helpit us oot o' the warst strait ever we war in!"
He was stooping over it, his lens in his eye, busy with a watch, of which several portions lay beside him protected from the dust by footless wine-glasses, when the laird and Cosmo entered. He put down pinion and file, pushed back his chair, and rose to receive them. "A fine mornin', Jeames!" said the laird. "I houp ye're weel, and duin' weel."
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