THE AUTUMN CAMPAIGN. 95 



of the crofters in question by Mr. Beaton. They asked him 

 to accept the " paper," but he would have nothing to do 

 with it ; he did not understand that it was anything else 

 than a paper the reception of which would end in his 

 being reduced to misery and want. Then, as we proceeded, 

 we met people who told us that a reception was quite 

 prepared at the Braes for the officers, and for the police. 

 Here, and at several other points, information which we 

 received in Portree last night was confirmed, information, 

 namely, that the crofters had been advised that officers were 

 approaching them, had been counselled to receive the 

 papers, and that they had been on the watch all night. We 

 passed on and on through a country which plainly had at 

 one time been thickly peopled, but which is now a scene 

 solitary to an extent that is painful to contemplate. At a 

 little township near the Braes, women stopped their work at 

 the peats to look at the passing carriages. A little further 

 on the officers and policemen left their waggonettes, and 

 walked to Gedintailler a distance of over two miles on 

 foot. We adopted the same course. 



The high green hill which, at the very entrance to the 

 township of Gedintailler, rises right up from the roadside, 

 was soon before us a little over a mile ahead. We could 

 see that there were groups of people on the height, and a 

 couple of crofters belonging to a place immediately on the 

 Portree side of Gedintailler, and who joined us here going 

 forward to see the fun said that sixty people had been on 

 the watch there ever since the dawn of day, and that they 

 carried flags with which they were to wave to the whole 

 community signals of approaching strangers. As soon as we 

 approached the borders of Gedintailler, it was plainly seen 

 that the officers, who were now a third of a mile ahead 

 of us, were engaged in a task of a most delicate and 



