472 THE CHIEFTAIN AND HIS VASSAL. 



circumstance of his having fought with his Chieftain, especially 

 when he reflected on the probable consequences of his gallantry. 

 Agreeably to the feudal consuetudes, the Chieftain claimed the right 

 and possessed the power to confisc.ite any retainer's estate who pre- 

 sumed to marry in opposition to his pleasure ; and that power, Lind- 

 say felt persuaded, would be exercised in his case. Nevertheless, 

 so devoted, so enthusiastic was his attachment to his Albertina, that 

 it completely triumphed over every consideration of a personal 

 nature ; and he urged her to consent to an immediate union, what- 

 ever might be the consequences. But Albertina's prudence was 

 almost commensurate wilh her love for Lindsay. She succeeded in 

 persuading him to remain as they were, until fortune should prove 

 so propitious to them as that they might wed without the almost 

 certain prospect before them of extreme poverty, and all the ills 

 which usually follow in its train. 



Innes, in the mean time, was superlatively wretched. His mind 

 was torn by contending passions. His love for Albertina, so far 

 from diminishing by recent events, seemed rather to increase from 

 the consciousness of having a powerful rival to contend with ; while 

 the wound his vanity had rece ved from the circumstance of his 

 fiiihting for and fighting zcilh his own vassal preyed on his mind 

 with a force which defies description, and fired him with a determi- 

 nation to be revenged on his late victorious foe, in some shape or 

 other. 



It is unnecessary to remark that, at the close of the combat between 

 Innes and Henry Lindsay, the festivities of the day were concluded, 

 and the vast assemblage broken up. Albertina, with the rest of the 

 Chieftain's superior vassals, returned to the castle, while Lindsay 

 prudently repaired for a time to his own estate, where he principally 

 amused himself by hunting. 



Wheti one day engaged in the sports of the field, a messenger 

 came up to him in bi-eathless haste, and delivered to him a letter, on 

 the back of which were inscribed the words, " With extreme de- 

 spatch." Lindsay suddenlj- broke open the letter : it was from his 

 Albertina. It mentioned that Innes had that day made an attempt 

 on her virtue — that she had succeeded with difficulty in repelling 

 him— but that she dreaded a renewal of the attack, and concluded 

 by imploring him to come to her rescue from the castle, with all 

 possible haste, as under existing circumstances she could not by any 

 effort she could make escape of herself. 



What was to be done? In desperate emergencies men have often 

 recourse to desperate measures, and frequently evince an ingenuity 

 of mind of which, in their cooler moments, they would be quite 

 incapable. The recollection darted across Lindsay's mind that a 

 deadly animosity bad long subsisted between Innes and a neigh- 

 bouring Chieftain of another clan. To that Chieftain's mansion he 

 instantly fled — stated as explicitly as the violent indignation which 

 burned in his breast would permit the circumstances of the case — 

 and most pressingly solicited his immediate aid. Delighted at the 

 idea of so serious a diff"erence having arisen between his formidable 

 foe and one of the most influential of his vassals, and anxious that 



