The Token
The Lady of Loch Awe sighed as she asked: “But if you die away in that distant land how shall I know? What will become of me if at last such woeful tidings should be brought?”
“Wait for me seven years, dear wife,” said Colin, “and if I do not return before the end of that time you may marry again and take a brave husband to guard your rights and rule the glen, for I shall be dead in the Holy Land.”
“Wait for me seven years, dear wife”
“That I will never do. I will be the Lady of Glenurchy till I die, or I will become the bride of Heaven and find peace for my sorrowing soul in a nunnery. No second husband shall wed me and hold your land. But give me now some token that we may share it between us; and you shall swear that on your deathbed you will send it to me; so shall I know indeed that you are no longer alive.”
“It shall be as you say,” answered Black Colin, and he went to the smith of the clan and bade him make a massive gold ring, on which Colin’s name was engraved, as well as that of the Lady of Loch Awe. Then, breaking the ring in two, Colin gave to his wife the piece with his name and kept the other piece, vowing to wear it near his heart and only to part with it when he should be dying. In like manner she with bitter weeping swore to keep her half of the ring, and hung it on a chain round her neck; and so, with much grief and great mourning from the whole clan, Black Colin and his sturdy following of Campbell clansmen set out for the Holy Land.