Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 2

306 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
Donald Macleocl of Galtrigal, and was the cause of liis imprisonment. On
the IMajor's entering tlie drawing-room, and receiving the ordinary gratu-
lations of the company, he held out his hand to Flora, Avhereupon she
tartly expressed herself in these terms, — "Yes, Sir, I give you my hand,
but not entirely with my heart. I wish to show all courtesy to the pro-
fession Avhich you have disgraced by a low and base stratagem, utterly un-
worthy of the conduct of a soldier, of a Highlander, and of a gentlemen !"
This piquant repartee, for a moment, paralysed the whole company, and
the gallant Major silently retired to a corner of the room. It was only on
one f'ther occasion that the equable temper of our distinguished heroine
was ever known to be ruffled, and that was at the instance of the Prince
himself. When all preparations had been made at the place Avhere his
Royal Highness was concealed at Corrodale for his hazardous passage to
Skye, he continually insisted on his friend. Captain O'Neal's accompany-
ing him in the boat, from the Island. At this juncture. Flora smartly re-
plied that such a proposal was utterly impracticable. The Prince, not-
withstanding, still persisted in his unreasonable demand. At length,
Flora, becoming somewhat indignant at his continued pertinaciousness,
sharply replied, and said, " If your Royal Highness insist up^n a step so
very imprudent and unreasonable, I must deem it my duty to relinquish
the enterprise at once. Your Royal Highness may immediately observe,
that as I procured passports for three persons only — for myself, and ser-
vant, And my mother's spinning-maid — -the attempt for a fourth to escape
without a passport, and especially Captain O'Neal, so well known to every
officer and soldier, would unquestionably jeopardise the lives of the
whole." This prudent reasoning of Flora was at once satisfactory. The
Prince was silenced, and Captain O'Neal was left beliind.
After some other visits to respectable families in the neighbourhood
of Portree, where all were delighted to see her. Flora resorted to the man-
sion-house* of Kingsburgh, tlie residence of her future faiher-in-law, Mr
Alexander Macdonald, but found on her arrival that the old gentleman,
who had but lately returned from his imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle,
had gone to Flodigarry, in the north end of Skye, where his son, Allan,
resided. Flodigarry, which is a beautiful and romantic place, was rented
at the time by Allan, and is about sixteen miles distant from Kingsburgh.
The scenery around it is exceedingly grand. The low grounds are studded
with small natural tumuli, grass-covered and green, which are probably
the results of ancient glaciers or some such convulsions of Nature. Above
it are the serrated towering cliffs of the far-famed Quiraing, frowning
in their stern majesty, and in appearance baffling the attempts of the eager
tourist to approach them. To •'jhe east, the broad Sound or Gairloch, with
Loch Staffin and its little Isle, lie fully in view ; while on the opposite
coast, the Gairloch hills, in successive vistas, and the projecting Secoin-
Rudha, are seen stretching away in soft and distant perspective. Close
* It may appear strange to niiiny that the mansion-house of Kingsburgh, where the
Prince, Dr Johnson, Boswell, and many others, shared of its hospit.ility, was merely a
heath thatched cottage, surrounded by a few trees. At that period, it is said, that there
■were only three slated houses in the Islaud, except Armadale and Dunveg,\u Castles,
and one of the three was a prison. The thatched houses were warm, comfortable, and
■well furnished,