"'Now, Angus, I would never suspect you, though I have heard that dark men are more constant than fair.'
"'And fair women more constant than dark.'
"'Oh, fie! to say so, dear Angus Roy, after my pretty compliment.'
"My heart leaped within me; methought I was a wretch to suspect her; and, taking my gun, I climbed the western cliffs of the isle in quest of a great golden eagle, which had then built an eyry there, and the yellow pinions of which I resolved to bring Una, though at the risk of my neck.
"It was Di Donich, or St. Duncan's day, as we call the Sabbath in the west, from some great missionary of the olden time; and I remember it well, as if every hour of it had passed but yesterday. I was long away; when, descending towards my house on the beach, I heard the sound of pipes and the song of the rowers. A turn of the rocks brought me in view of the azure Sound, then tinged red with the flush of a western sun; the bannered barge of M'Lean was speeding across as fast as the broad flashing blades of twenty oars could carry it. M'Lean was at the stern, and a lady sat beside him. Anxiety and fear must have sharpened my vision; for, even at the vast distance between us, I could recognise the dark hair of Una, bound by its fillet of gold, and, among the green tartans of the M'Leans, her scarlet plaid, with its bridal brooch, that shone like a star. That brooch I had placed upon her shoulder at the altar. It was indeed my wife; she had left me! I was alone upon the rock—and the fury of a demon swelled up within me.
"I levelled my gun at Una, but my heart failed me; then I pointed it at M'Lean, but withdrew it from my shoulder; for the distance was too great. I sat down on the hillside and wept like a deserted child. Long I lingered there; the daylight faded from the ocean, and its tints of gold and blue deepened into black; the moon rose, and waned again; the shadows of night melted into the light of day—but, alas! I was still sitting there. The sun came out of the waters, and his rays shed a roseate tint on Ulva's brows of rock, and the loftier peaks of Mull; while that beautiful island, with its deep inlets, its rock-built castles, and grey old Scandinavian burghs, raised by the long-haired warriors of Ivar and Acho, were before me; but I saw only one spot in all that line of coast. It was the tall grim tower of M'Lean.
"Upon the solitary shore, with no eye upon me but the blessed one of God, with my knees on the sand, and the dirk on my lips—the Holy Iron—I swore by the black stones of Iona, by the grey rock of M'Gregor, by the four blessed Gospels, and by my own soul, a terrible vow, to revenge myself upon M'Lean, and to make his hand the means of punishing Una. I remembered the proverb—that deeds are men, and words are women; but I was resolved that my deeds should make me little less than a fiend.
"My people met me with shame, with anger, and with silent sorrow; there were some who showed the wounds they had received from the Leine Chrios of M'Lean, for they had manfully resisted the departure of my wife, and blows had been given and arrows shot before that abduction—to which she consented with a willingness she was at no pains to conceal—had been effected. A savage thought seized me.
"'By the soul of Mary! I have still a hostage!' said I; "'where is M'Garadh—the cub of yonder wolf?'
"'The M'Leans were too wary to trust the child among us after the deed of yesterday, and he is away with his father in the birlinn.'