EXULTATION. 227 



companions, to whose remonstrances he only answered, 

 * D n the brute ! Did he think to give me the go-by ? ' 



" Mr. Skene, who told me this anecdote, was himself the 

 prototype of Sir Walter Scott's story of Highland Hector's 

 contest with the phoca, in the Antiquary ; having related 

 to him on the spot an encounter which he had with seals 

 in descending the rocks at Dunotter, in his passage to a 

 creek, from whence he proposed to make a sketch of the 

 castle." 



During this relation the hill-man stripped off his grey 

 jacket, bared his sinew army, and went through the 

 necessary operations of bleeding and gralloching. Every 

 movement, every finesse was exultingly run over; the dogs 

 fought; the men laughed and drank ; and were as cordial 

 as success and right good Loch Rannoch could make them. 



" But the day wears apace ; we must now separate our 

 forces, and if we forget not our cunning, we will sweep 

 these glens and mountains, and put down such an army of 

 deer as shall give free exercise to the rifles from Blair; their 

 volleying shall scare the roe in his secret glade, and visions 

 of the magnificent herd shall again warm the imagination 

 of the Southron in his festive halls, and great shall be the 

 boast of those who were present on St. Crispin's Day." 



" Heyday ! Why you affect to be Ossianic to-day! And, 

 upon my word, what with the mountain air and scenery, 

 and the heroic deed I have just done, I tread the heather 

 with something of the feeling of a descendant of Fingal 

 myself. But, aliens, cater we now for the general sport ; 

 and here shall end our stalking; here on the old rocks of 

 Cairn-cherie, never to be forgotten, till we depart to where 

 Tullus and Ancus have gone before us." 



The party now began to occupy their posts. The rifle- 

 men remained on the middle hill; Maclaren was sent across 

 by the Craggan-Breach to Sroin-a-chro, and Sandy Macin- 

 tosh to Ben-y-chait. All came forward at the signal, which 

 was the exposure of some man's shirt, by means of un- 

 buttoning his waistcoat ; a luminous mark, that could be 

 readily disoerned through the telescope, which each man 

 carried with him, placed in a leathern case and slung in a 

 belt across his shoulders. 



