CHAP.
I. [The Foster Brothers]
II. [The Feudal Lords of the Nineteenth Century]
III. [Mr. Ephraim Snaggs]
IV. [The Rock of the Boar]
V. [Callum Dhu]
VI. [Which Treats of many Things]
VII. [The Rent Court]
VIII. [Minnie]
IX. [The Red Priest of Applecross]
X. [The Stone of the Sun]
XI. [My Mother]
XII. [The Gathering]
XIII. [The Stone of Strength]
XIV. [The Seven Bullets]
XV. [The Sixth Day]
XVI. [Sir Horace]
XVII. [Mr. Snobleigh]
XVIII. [Death!]
XIX. [The Eviction]
XX. [Desolation]
XXI. [The Heather on Fire!]
XXII. [The Uisc Dhu]
XXIII. [The Ruined Cottage]
XXIV. [The White Stag]
XXV. [The Gael and the Saxon]
XXVI. [A Last Interview]
XXVII. [Dumbarton]
XXVIII. [My Regiment]
XXIX. [The Route—We Sail]
XXX. [The Troop Ship]
XXXI. [The Reefs of Palegrossa]
XXXII. [The Yuze Bashi]
XXXIII. [The Khan]
XXXIV. [Story of the Greek Lieutenant]
XXXV. [The Execution]
XXXVI. [In Orders for Duty]
XXXVII. [I March To Rodosdchigg]
XXXVIII. [The Vision of Corporal Moustapha]
XXXIX. [The Turkish Veil]
XL. [A Love Adventure]
XLI. [A Strange Task]
XLII. [Two Charming Eyes]
XLIII. [I Scale the Window]
XLIV. [Temptation and Folly]
XLV. [Story of the Wise King and the Wicked Geni]
XLVI. [Hussein's Wrath]
XLVII. [Sequel to Chapter Forty-Three]
XLVIII. [The Turkish Boat]
XLIX. [The Bagnio]
L. [The Two Turkish Lieutenants]
LI. [Dreams and Longings]
LII. [The Galiondoi]
LIII. [A Row in the Bagnio]
LIV. [Flight]
LV. [Resume my Command]
LVI. [Biodh Treun!]
LVII. [The Isle of Marmora]
LVIII. [The Fairy Bell]
LIX. [A Gleam of other Days]
LX. [Farewell]
THE HIGHLANDERS OF GLEN ORA.
CHAPTER I.
THE FOSTER-BROTHERS.
It was after sunset in the month of April three years ago.
The hills of the Western Highlands were still tipped with a golden gleam, but the deep and savage hollows of Glen Ora were gloomy and full of dark shadows. Still crowned with the snow of last winter, above it towered Ben Ora, beneath whose mighty scalp the giant peaks of the north and west were dwindled down to little hills; for among those stupendous mountains the eye becomes so accustomed to their colossal proportions, that all just ideas of size and distance are lost. At its base spread one of those vast tracts of brown or purple heath so common in the Scottish Highlands, overspread by a wilderness of stones, and torn by ghastly ravines from which the mist of downward torrents rose. The sides of these were tufted by those black whin bushes, the introduction of which tradition ascribes to the hunting Stuarts, as a cover for their game.
On the western shoulder of Ben Ora, a ridge of riven and naked rocks, resembling the skeleton of a mountain range, stood a herd of deer, with all their proud antlers visible against the clear bright flush of the sunset sky.
Two men were observing them from the rugged bank of one of the watercourses, in which they were half hidden. One carried a fishing-rod, and the other a gun.
He with the rod was a tall, stout, and well-made lad of some twenty years, with dark-blue eyes, curly brown hair, and a sunburnt visage; he wore a grey shooting-jacket and kilt, a sporran, of badger-skin, and a heather-coloured bonnet. His companion was a few years older, larger in form, brawny, thickset, and strong as a Highland bull, and his knees, where shown by his tattered kilt and well-worn hose, of no colour known in nature, were almost as hairy as those of the same animal. He wore the usual coarse blue jacket and bonnet of a Highland peasant.