FORESTER AND POACHERS. 119 



men they had to deal with, to shrink from bringing 

 matters to a crisis ; and preferring to connive at what 

 their own interest and safety deterred them from 

 preventing, so long as depredations were not too 

 flagrant, they studiously avoided any collision with the 

 marauders. 



On the occasion in question, the party assembled 

 was composed of some of the most notorious and daring 

 individuals in the neighbourhood. The storms of the 

 previous day had driven the deer in large numbers to 

 the shelter of the corrie below the cave; and the object 

 of the band was to await the dawn, and then, inter- 

 cepting the herd as they took their departure by a 

 favourite pass to the more secluded heights above, 

 to single out the finest for their own use. 



It so chanced that one of the foresters, by name 

 Donald Oag, or the younger Donald, was returning 

 from his rounds on the mountain. The storm had 

 detained him to a later hour than usual in some 

 sheltered cranny ; and the shades of evening had been 

 succeeded by the gloom of night, ere his homeward 

 route brought him by the foot of Ben Fionan. Passing 

 within a few yards of the King's Cave, he was 

 surprised on seeing rays of light issuing forth in a long 

 stream from the cheerful blaze of a fire within its 

 gloomy penetralia; and on scrambling some little 

 distance up the rugged path leading to the entrance, 

 his astonishment was increased by the scene which 

 revealed itself. In the centre of the cavern was a 

 huge fire, composed of the dry heather which had formed 

 the pallet of some former occupant; and around it were 

 seated some ten or twelve Highlanders. Seldom was 

 seen a group more worthy of the painter's brush, from 

 the glitter of the fire-arms and the picturesque attitudes 



