"Three days I remained with the trapper or hunter, for such he seemed to be, and on the fourth, after having carefully reconnoitred all the neighbourhood, he announced his intention of conducting me to Colonel Maclean's outposts upon the Richelieu; and being now thoroughly refreshed, I was glad to hear the tidings.
"'I shall never forget your kindness to me,' said I; 'and I value it all the more, because you are one of those who are in arms against the king.'
"'It is maybe not the first time I have been so,' said he, with a deep smile puckering all his eyelids.
"'And you saved my life simply because I was a 25th man?'
"'Yes—because one of your regiment—it was Lord Leven's—no, Lord Semple's then—saved mine, at a harder pinch, some thirty years ago,' said he, gravely, as he marched on before me through the snow, with his long rifle sloped on his shoulder.
"'You have been a soldier, then?'
"'Like yourself, Lowlander, for I know you are southland bred by your tongue.'
"'In what regiment?' I asked.
"'In the clan regiment of Macdonald of Keppoch. Rest him, God!' he exclaimed, taking off his cap and looking upward, while his keen grey eyes glistened, it might be in the frosty wind, under his bushy eyebrows.
"'When was this—and where?'