'Let us drag him to prison,' said I.
'Prison—ha—but there is none nearer than the Castle of Inverness.'
'Then let us fling him into the Poul-a-baidh, where the bones of many a better man are whitening among the weeds.'
'Right—mona mon dioul! but few stones will be on your cairn, dog!'
And snatching by the throat and heels the terrified wretch, who could scarcely gasp for mercy, we rushed to the edge of the pool, where justice was executed of old, and flung him headlong in.
'The curse of the Red Priest be on him!' cried Callum, as Snaggs disappeared with a scream of terror. Anon, he rose to the surface, floundering, dashing, and bellowing for aid, until he laid hold of the long weeds and broad-bladed water-docks, that fringed the margin, and after being nearly suffocated by the floating watercresses (of which, I suppose, he would in future share the horror of the learned Scaliger), he scrambled out in a woful plight, and ran towards his pony, which was cropping the scanty herbage that grew among the blasted pines. The moment he was mounted, he turned towards us a face that was ghastly and white with fear and fury; he was minus a hat, and his grizzled hair hung lank and dripping about his ears.
'Scoundrels!' he cried, 'for this outrage you shall both rot in the Castle of Inverness.'
'I will not be the only one of my race who has been within its towers,' said I; 'but they suffered for fighting brave battles on the mountain side—not for ducking a yelping hound like you.'
In token of vengeance, he shook his clenched hand at us, and galloped away. Long before this, the situation of Minnie attracted all our attention, and excited our wonder and alarm.
'Laoighe mo chri—speak to me—hear me!' implored Callum, kneeling beside her on the grass and taking her tenderly in his arms. But she remained quite insensible and unconscious of all he said to her.