Ossian Collection > Romance of the Highlands

Ii6 THE ROMANCE OF THE HIGHLANDS.
friends — in a Royal palace. It is not position that makes
the man — more often it is his undoing — and the spirit
which may be found in the poorest menial may be lacking
in the bosom of the most aristocratic citizen. Our
national poet has finely put it in the lines : —
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that."
These Glenmoriston outlaws were desperate men.
One day they had a large haul of provisions taken from
the Royal forces, after shooting two of the soldiers, and
on another occasion they reclaimed a herd of cattle which
evidently the King's men had commandeered. They
were out all day on marauding expeditions, and, as may
be expected, had many adventures. Prince Charles, with
his unfailing good humour, called them his Privy
Council. So faithful were they to their oath, that the
Prince had been for twelve months safely in France
before they revealed the fact that he had sought shelter
from them.
On one occasion they went so far as to kill an officer's
servant (probably because he offered resistance) on his
way to Fort William with baggage, in order that the
Prince might have a good disguise. The simplicity of
these good-hearted fellows was such that when one of
them went into Fort Augustus to spy into the movements
of the Royal troops, he spent a penny on a piece of
gingerbread as a treat for his Royal master.
When it became necessary for that unhappy man to
move away, two of his hosts accompanied him to share
all future dangers and to help in his escape. It was a
project in which their own lives were endangered, and
which, but for the reason of true fidelity, was not required
of them. We may be sure if there was any spark of
humanity left in the Prince he must have felt in later days