LEGEND OF FRAOCH. PASS OF AWE. 101 



was .sword-proof, hissed vehemently, and protruded its forked tongue in sucli 

 a way, that it might have put a whole battalion of the " Black Watch" into 

 bodily fear : but Fraoch thought only of Mego. " Shall the lover of Mego," 

 he asked, " succumb to a snake? Never!" And he made another swinging 

 stroke with his claymore. Alas, for that stroke ! it so irritated the dreadful 

 monster, by shearing a slice from its forked sting, that the combat now proceeded 

 to extremities and literally so ; for while Fraoch was recovering his weapon, he 

 got entangled in one of the coils, and there stood fixed like a- nail in Macnuithear's 

 vice.* The horrid animal, too, profiting by the advantage, seized upon that 

 part of his body which some physiologists have described as the seat of honour. 

 We need hardly observe, that as no man has a keener sense of honour than a 

 Highlander, no man resents an insult even from a snake witli more desperate 

 courage. Though writhing under the torture, Fraoch could not die unrevenged ; 

 and, summoning his whole mental and corporeal vigour into one terrible effort, 

 let fall such a blow upon the remaining prong of the monster's sting, that, from 

 the agony it suffered, its coils were relaxed, and the captive was released from their 

 horrid grasp. The snake, having thus lost its sting, rolled itself up in agony 

 and died, while Fraoch had just sufficient strength left to reach, and deposit 

 the hard-earned fruit in the lap of his mistress. " Fairest of the forms of 

 earth," said he, " and gentle as thou art fair, behold the fruit ! . . The snake 

 is slain the fruit is sweet ! . . . but Fraoch thy lover Fraoch, is numbered 

 with the ghosts in the airy halls." Mego was inconsolable. Her restless eye 

 wandered between the pale youth at her feet, and the bright peaches in her 

 lap. The bloom on the latter was irresistible, and she resolved, painful as it 

 was, first to enjoy the dessert, and then indulge her unbounded sorrow for the 

 dead. The fruit, indeed, was as sweet to the taste as it was pleasant to the 

 eye ; and as she stripped peach after peach, her relish for the after-part diminished 

 in proportion, and she determined to continue the feast to-day, and defer her 

 sorrow till the morrow. But mark how she was punished : the fruit for which 

 she had so much longed, contained, like other forbidden fruits, a subtle poison, 

 and before sunset Mego ended her life with her repast. 



The Pass of Awe grand and imposing throughout is beyond dispute one 

 of the most striking defiles in the Highlands. The scene so ably represented in the 

 engraving, recals one of the most remarkable events in the life of Bruce, namely 

 his advance into the west, which John of Lorn had vainly endeavoured to with- 

 stand. Here, having gained a vantage-ground, which the latter had unwarily left 



* See Note to preceding page. 

 VOL. II. D D 



