Ossian Collection > Romance of the Highlands

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THE ROMANCE OF THE HIGHLANDS.
We may be excused if we digress a little here to
follow this fine old Highlander, Kingsburgh. Not long
after this he was taken and put in prison at Fort
Augustus, and being considered a dangerous rebel was,
of course, heavily chained. He was not long in durance
when an order came to the Governor to release Alexander
MacDonald, and this was speedily done. MacDonald
assured the officer that there was a mistake somewhere —
that probably there was another of the same name in the
prison, or some other explanation for the release warrant
— as he was sure they never meant it for him. He got
little thanks for his advice and was soon outside the walls.
He met a friend in the street to whom, no doubt, he told
the story, and his friend suggested that he should make
his escape quickly. But MacDonald did not intend to
escape ; he would go over to the alehouse so as to be
near at hand if the prison officer got into trouble. Sure
enough, in an hour or two the officer was arrested and
MacDonald ran back to prison to be further detained.
It is pleasing to think that although he was taken prisoner
to London he was afterwards liberated.
Flora and the Prince parted shortly after this. He
desired to go over to Raasay if a boat could be procured.
There were no boats to be had. Government officials
swarmed everywhere, but there were resourceful
Jacobites, and they dragged one old and hardlv seaworthy
cobble from an inland loch a mile distant. The one
moment they and the boat would be in the middle of a
bog and the next its bottom would be almost torn out bv
the rocks. The authorities had thought it too worthless
and distant to have it noted and surrendered as they had
required of boats on the sea.
Raasay was the property of Malcolm McLeod,
another staunch supporter. He had been "out," but
probably owing to the isolation of his place had not been