"On the evening o' the battle day my father stude on duty as an advanced sentinel frae the French picquets; placed by the Mareschal Saxe in the direction o' Maestricht, where the British army lay. It was just aboot the gloaming, the clouds were gathering in the lift and darkening the flat, level, I may say meeserable landscape; and my faither, puir man, strade sorrowfully to and fro on his lanely post, sighing sairly as he thocht on mony a braw and brave comrade and clansman then lying cauld and stiff on the plain o' Val, and ower wham nae coronach could be sung, or cairn raised in the land o' the stranger. He thocht too o' his humble sheiling at hame, on the Wedders-hill, and compared the view frae it wi' the 'Lawlands o' Holland,' wi' the dull marshy flats, the yellow canals, and slaw-moving barges, the windmills, and smoky toons about Laffeldt. Different indeed was the scenery frae that around the lanely auld thack cottage at hame, where the blue Loch-Archaig rolled to the base o' the dark an' towering mountains, covered wi' the siller birch or black pines to their vera tap.
"Puir man! melancholy and sad he grew, but his surprise was aroused when he saw a Hieland soldier, wearing a garb the vera counterpart o' his ain, walking slowly, at a few yards distance, as if likewise on sentry. My faither stoppit to observe him, and the stranger stoppit also; and the outline o' his form was distinctly seen, as he stude wi' his back to the west, whare the sky was a' crimson and gowd wi' the last flush o' the day that had passed awa'. My faither challenged twice aloud, but gat nae response; and his birse beginning to rise, he made a motion as if handling his musquet, biting his cartridge, and a' that, ye ken. The stranger did sae likewise, imitating his motions exactly as his shadow on the wa' or reflection in a looking-glass wad hae dune. A queer and eerie sensation passed over my father on behauldin' this, and a souching cam ower his heart when he bethoucht him that a' wasna richt. Yet boldly he gaed towards the figure, and step to step as he took them, mimicking ilka motion, the ither advanced also, until my faither made an involuntary stop, and it did sae too.
"At that moment a feeling o' awfu' and immeasurable horror entered the soul o' my faither, when he viewed in the face and figure o' the stranger an exact counterpart o' himsel'—every lineament o' his face, every check in his tartan, were the same—the same his arms and badges. Then did he ken that he beheld his wraith, and that the hour of his departure was at hand.[*] As the expression o' his face became distorted wi' terror and awe, the features o' the wraith or bogle underwent the same change, and his ain een seemed glaring back upon himsel wi' affricht. He rushed madly forward wi' his charged bayonet, but the form melted into thin air, and disappeared.
[*] A species of second sight is believed in by the Highlanders, which is supposed to be a forerunner of death. An apparition haunts them, or appears at times, resembling themselves in every respect. The legendary stories of such appearances are innumerable, indeed, over the whole of Scotland.
"He tauld his comrades o' the sicht he had seen upon the muir, and every true Gael believed him, and knew that his hours were numbered then, and that his time amang them would be short. Yet his heart never trembled, and he went forth to battle the next day wi' a spirit that never flinched, and a hand that never failed, till the death-shot struck him. Sairly his story was jeered by the Lawland loons and men frae south o' Dunkeld; but next day, at the vera return o' the hour in whilk the wraith appeared, he was shot dead in the attack upon the British post at Mount Saint Peter, when the Mareschal Saxe was endeavouring to drive Cumberland beyond Maestricht. Ochone! mony a brave and leal Scot's heart grew cauld that nicht, sirs,—my father's amang the lave. I rowed him up in his plaid, and buried him wi' my ain hands, howking his grave at the side o' the road between Saint Peter's and the Scheld. The live-lang nicht I wroucht in piling a cairn aboon him, that the feet o' the stranger micht no tread ower the place o' his repose.
"Now, sirs, that the things I hae tauld unto ye this nicht are true, and a' happened just as I hae described, I firmly believe; and that some men are doomed to behauld strange sights and unwarldly visions, nae body will deny."
"I decidedly do, Dugald," said Cameron; "but your father, Evan of Tor-a-muilt must have been seeing double when he saw the wraith,—no disparagement to him when I say so, for I have heard that he was as brave a man as ever belted on a broad-sword. But rations of Nantz were more plentiful under the Marshal Saxe than with Lord Wellington's troops, and doubtless Evan Cameron never went on guard without a good allowance."
"Deevil a bit, sir," replied the old man testily. "Ye maun ken there was fechtin' and marchin' enough and to spare, but neither pay nor plunder could be gottin under King Louis. In the year after the battle o' Laffeldt, our chief, the gude and the gallant Lochiel, died o' a broken heart, I'm free to say, for the thocht o' being an exile for life weighed heavy on his soul. Sair I sorrowed for him, and so did a' the Royal Scots regiment, for there wasna ane that wadna hae laid doon his life for Lochiel. After seeing him laid in a foreign grave, I cam awa' cannily hame, to live amang my ain folk by bonnie Loch-Archaig, when the dool and dirdum o' the 'forty-five' was a' passed awa' and blawn ower."
CHAPTER VI.
A BATTLE.