168 WEATHER AGAIN UNPROPITIOUS. 



slowly shifting their ground to get under the hill to the 

 leeward, for they did not look back to the point from 

 which they came, or show any jealousy ; neither were 

 they in any hurry, but walked slowly, stopping occasion- 

 ally to feed. During this tedious time the rain fell heavily, 

 and came trickling through the bonnets of the recumbents. 

 Could they have been posted in concealment one short 

 half-mile nearer, all this they would have borne patiently, 

 as they had borne it many a time and oft. But now that 

 the chance was almost nothing, cold, rheumatism, and 

 all the ills that flesh is heir to, appeared in sad and hideous 

 array before Tortoise's imagination ; and, as the cast was 

 now nearly ended, the base thought of going homeward, 

 without waiting for the chance, came across his mind. 



Hear it not, O noble shade of stout Glengarry ; you who 

 would lie abroad in cavern or in moss for nights together, 

 the grey stone or the drifted snow your pillow : you who 

 would swim through lakes and flooded rivers, alike heedless 

 of the tempest and all the barriers that rugged nature 

 threw across your course hear not, I beseech you, the 

 recreant thought that came across our mind ! Alas ! had 

 not your generous spirit departed prematurely ; had not 

 the mournful sound of your coronach been borne on the 

 hollow blast through your rocky glens and mountains, 

 lamented as you were by many a true heart and brave 

 clansman; oh! had you still lived, buoyant in all your 

 strength and national spirit, I would have sung lo Pceans 

 to your triumphs ; though, after this confession, candid 

 as it is, your heart never would have warmed towards 

 me again, which you once told me it did, as being the 

 descendant of a borderer. 



