Fiction > Book editions > London, 1889 - Master of Ballantrae

8 THE MASTER OF BALLANTIiAE.
think it was the last, for I have it by all accounts that
Mr. Henry was more made up to from that hour.
Altogether it was in pretty ill blood with his family
that the INIaster rode to the North; which was the more
sorrowful for others to remember when it seemed too
late. By fear and favour he had scraped tog-ether near
upon a dozen men, principally tenants' sons : they were
all pretty full when they set forth, and rode up the hill
by the old abbey, roaring- and sing-ing, the white cock-
ade in every hat. It was a desperate venture for so
small a company to cross the most of Scotland unsup-
ported ; and (what made folk think so the more) even
as that poor dozen was clattering iip the hill, a great
ship of the king's navy, that could have brought them
under with a single boat, lay with her broad ensign
streaming in the bay. The next afternoon, having
given the Master a fair start, it Avas Mr. Henry's turn ;
and he rode off, all by himself, to offer his sword and
carry letters from his father to King George's Govern-
me!^.t. Miss Alison was shut in her room, and did little
but weep, till both were gone ; only she stitched the
cockade upon the Master's hat, and (as John Paul told
me) it was wetted with tears when he carried it down
to him.
In all that followed, Mr. Henry and my old lord
were true to their bargain. That ever they accom-
plished anything is more than I could learn ; and that
they were anyway strong on the king's side, more than