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THE ROUA PASS;

OR,

ENGLISHMEN IN THE HIGHLANDS.

BY

ERICK MACKENZIE.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.

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THEC

[The right of Translation is reserved.]

LONDON:

Printed by SMITH, ELDER, & Co., 15, Old Bailey.

THE ROUA PASS;

OR,

ENGLISHMEN IN THE HIGHLANDS.

CHAPTER I.

ENGLISH SPORTSMEN.

It's no in titles nor in rank,

It's no in wealth like Lon'on Bank,
To purchase peace and rest.

Nae treasures nor pleasures

Could make us happy lang;

The heart ay's the part ay

That makes us right or wrang. BURNS.

THE English lessee of the shooting of Dreumah had arrived in the Highlands three days ere the 12th of August, accompanied by his two friends. It was a shooting which in extent and wild

VOL. I.

1

ness ranked as one of the best in the Highlands, being inhabited by every prized species, from the high-ranging Ptarmigan to the far-ranging Red Deer, and brought a rent commensurate with the sport it afforded, and with that wealth which only epicurean Englishmen are willing to lavish on this exciting enjoyment.

The lodge, a small grey stone building, stood on a platform of heather closely surrounded by high mountains; which, in their desolate grandeur, shut it in from all more outward view; showing, in summer, but the play of light and shadow on the many coloured rock-the glaring sun sending down its rays with fiery fervour; and, in winter, only dreary heights sheeted with snow, seeming as if threatening to crush in upon the lonely gaze of the prisoned keeper of the place. There appeared to be neither egress from nor approach to it; though a track did lead to it, branching from the parliamentary road about a mile to the west, and winding in a zig-zag pass through the mountain chain until it abruptly ceased at this heather-clad opening.

The wild country beyond was wholly unmarked by human foot tread. The sportsmen and the shepherds tracked their way by nobler signs. There, on the blue horizon, stood the blasted trunks of a pine forest, looking on moonlight nights like a battle field of gigantic skeletons, or a fearful group of clans,-Ossian's mighty menarrested by one death stroke in their attitudes of strife.

The father mountain of Dreumah-that is to say, the mountain which based the lodge flat, was so peculiarly peaked that it might have served as a landmark to the Lowlands. The crowning rocks were fantastically heaped like an upraised cross; and probably Saint Columba himself, struck with the similitude, had given it its name, when wandering in this part of the Highlands more than twelve hundred years ago; for since then it has been called Craigchrisht.

Behind the lodge ran a brawling river, rushing ceaselessly, with many a fall from the glens beyond, towards the large loch of Nightach. On the brink of the river stood a detached shedding

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