Here , too , were many of that old , proscribed , nameless , red-handed clan of the Macgregors . They had always been ill-considered , and now worse than ever , having credit with no side or party in the whole country of Scotland . Their chief , Macgregor of Macgregor , was in exile ; the more immediate leader of that part of them about Balquhidder , James More , Rob Roy 's eldest son , lay waiting his trial in Edinburgh Castle ; they were in ill-blood with Highlander and Lowlander , with the Grahames , the Maclarens , and the Stewarts ; and Alan , who took up the quarrel of any friend , however distant , was extremely wishful to avoid them . Chance served us very well ; for it was a household of Maclarens that we found , where Alan was not only welcome for his name 's sake but known by reputation . Here then I was got to bed without delay , and a doctor fetched , who found me in a sorry plight . But whether because he was a very good doctor , or I a very young , strong man , I lay bedridden for no more than a week , and before a month I was able to take the road again with a good heart . All this time Alan would not leave me though I often pressed him , and indeed his foolhardiness in staying was a common subject of outcry with the two or three friends that were let into the secret . He hid by day in a hole of the braes under a little wood ; and at night , when the coast was clear , would come into the house to visit me . I need not say if I was pleased to see him ; Mrs. Maclaren , our hostess , thought nothing good enough for such a guest ; and as Duncan Dhu -LRB- which was the name of our host -RRB- had a pair of pipes in his house , and was much of a lover of music , this time of my recovery was quite a festival , and we commonly turned night into day . The soldiers let us be ; although once a party of two companies and some dragoons went by in the bottom of the valley , where I could see them through the window as I lay in bed . What was much more astonishing , no magistrate came near me , and there was no question put of whence I came or whither I was going ; and in that time of excitement , I was as free of all inquiry as though I had lain in a desert . Yet my presence was known before I left to all the people in Balquhidder and the adjacent parts ; many coming about the house on visits and these -LRB- after the custom of the country -RRB- spreading the news among their neighbours . The bills , too , had now been printed . There was one pinned near the foot of my bed , where I could read my own not very flattering portrait and , in larger characters , the amount of the blood money that had been set upon my life . Duncan Dhu and the rest that knew that I had come there in Alan 's company , could have entertained no doubt of who I was ; and many others must have had their guess . For though I had changed my clothes , I could not change my age or person ; and Lowland boys of eighteen were not so rife in these parts of the world , and above all about that time , that they could fail to put one thing with another , and connect me with the bill . So it was , at least . Other folk keep a secret among two or three near friends , and somehow it leaks out ; but among these clansmen , it is told to a whole countryside , and they will keep it for a century . There was but one thing happened worth narrating ; and that is the visit I had of Robin Oig , one of the sons of the notorious Rob Roy . He was sought upon all sides on a charge of carrying a young woman from Balfron and marrying her -LRB- as was alleged -RRB- by force ; yet he stepped about Balquhidder like a gentleman in his own walled policy .
It was he who had shot James XXXXX at the plough stilts , a quarrel never satisfied ; yet he walked into the house of his blood enemies as a rider * might into a public inn .
Balfron Castle Highlander Lowlander Macgregor Maclaren Scotland dragoons month week