Historical memoirs of Rob Roy and the Clan Macgregor

90 MEMOIR OF ROB ROT.
his mother's funeral ; but after doing that last duty to his
parent, he would go, if his lordship insisted upon it. Athol
said, the funeral could take place without him, and would
not delay. A long remonstrance ensued ; but the duke
.was inexorable, and Rob, apparently complying, went
away amidst the cries and tears of his sisters and kindred.
Their distress roused his soul to a pitch of irresistible
desperation, and, breaking from the party, several of whom :
he threw down, he drew his sword. Athol, when he saw
him retreat, and his party intimidated by such resolution,
drew a holster pistol and fired at him. Rob Roy fell at
the same instant, not by the ball, which never touched
him, but by slipping his foot. One of his sisters, the lady
of Glenfallach, a stout woman, seeing her brother fall,
and believing he was killed, made a furious spring at
Athol, seized him by the throat, and brought him from
his horse to the ground. In a few minutes that nobleman
would have been choked, as it defied the by-standers to
unfix the lady's grasp, until Rob Roy went to his relief,
when the duke was in the agonies of suffocation.
Several of our hero's friends, who observed the suspicious
haste of Athol and his party towards his house, dreading
some evil design, speedily armed, and, running to his as-
sistance, arrived just as Athol's eyeballs were beginning
to revert into their sockets. Rob Roy declared, that had
the duke been so polite as allow him to wait his mother's
burial, he would have then gone along with him ; but this
being refused, he would now remain in spite of all his
efforts ; and the lady's embrace having much astonished
the duke, he was in no condition to enforce his orders, so
that he and his men departed as quickly as they could
Had they staid till the clan assembled to the exequies of
the old woman, it is doubtful if either the chief or his