the corner of one of their plaids.

In the full exultation of vengeance, they stopped at the house of
Ardvoirlich and demanded refreshment, which the lady, a sister of the
murdered Drummond-ernoch (her husband being absent), was afraid or
unwilling to refuse. She caused bread and cheese to be placed before
them, and gave directions for more substantial refreshments to be
prepared. While she was absent with this hospitable intention, the
barbarians placed the head of her brother on the table, filling the
mouth with bread and cheese, and bidding him eat, for many a merry meal
he had eaten in that house.

The poor woman returning, and beholding this dreadful sight, shrieked
aloud, and fled into the woods, where, as described in the romance,
she roamed a raving maniac, and for some time secreted herself from all
living society. Some remaining instinctive feeling brought her at length
to steal a glance from a distance at the maidens while they milked the
cows, which being observed, her husband, Ardvoirlich, had her conveyed
back to her home, and detained her there till she gave birth to a child,
of whom she had been pregnant; after which she was observed gradually to
recover her mental faculties.

Meanwhile the outlaws had carried to the utmost their insults against
the regal authority, which indeed, as exercised, they had little reason
for respecting. They bore the same bloody trophy, which they had so
savagely exhibited to the lady of Ardvoirlich, into the old church of
Balquidder, nearly in the centre of their country, where the Laird of
MacGregor and all his clan being convened for the purpose, laid their
hands successively on the dead man's head, and swore, in heathenish
and barbarous manner, to defend the author of the deed. This fierce and