Life of Flora Macdonald and her adventures with Prince Charles

'S biodh Nial Mac Eachainn Mhic Sheumais a ris fo chis,
Mar grad-ghreas e gu Tearlach, 'na ruith is 'na leum.
Ochan ! Fhionghail Nighinn Raonuill, gum b' eutrotn do cheum,
'Dol a dh'fhaicinn do Thearlaich air ardach' mar righ,
'Sa chur failt air 'da luchairt, le 'chrun-oir nan seud,
Is e 'riaghladh na rioghachd, le ciuineas 's le sith !
On the arrival of the party in Edinburgh, Flora remained
with kind friends for about three weeks, retaining her faithful
valet, Niel Mac Eachainn, and the Skye girl, Kate Mac-
donald, as her trusty body-guards. During her stay in the
Scottish Metropolis, where she had been for three years pre-
viously prosecuting her education, she lived very much in
privacy. She had been wearied with the amount of atten-
tion previously paid to her. From Edinburgh she made the
best of her way to Inverness, where she had some respected
friends, who made her their guest for about ten days.
At that period the public roads betwixt Inverness and
Skye had not been formed, and the only access to that
Island was by rough riding-paths over the intervening hills
and dales. Hugh Macdonald,* her stepfather at Armadale,
in Skye, sent a horse and saddle all the way to Inverness,
to convey her to her mother's house, where she arrived
in safety, and was affectionately received by her fond
mother.
She complained of nothing particularly except her fingers,
which were blistered and bleeding from holding the bridle,
on such a rough and lengthened journey.
* Hugh was one of the most powerful men of his clan. He was blind of
an eye, which he lost by the branch of a tree, when a mere youth ; hence he
was called Uisdean Cam Mac Shoirle Mhic Sheumais Mhoir Mhic
Dhomhnuill Ghuirm Oig, and was the seventh in lineal descent from
Domhnull Gorm Mor, who lost his life by a barbed arrow that pierced his
thigh, aimed from the battlement of Eileandonnan Castle in Kintail. Hugh
hardly ever met with his equal in wrestling, and other feats of strength.