Colin Roy is dead , and be thankful for that ! '' `` Ay '' said James , `` and by my troth , I wish he was alive again ! It 's all very fine to blow and boast beforehand ; but now it 's done , Alan ; and who 's to bear the wyte * of it ? The accident fell out in Appin -- mind ye that , Alan ; it 's Appin that must pay ; and I am a man that has a family . '' * Blame . While this was going on I looked about me at the servants . Some were on ladders , digging in the thatch of the house or the farm buildings , from which they brought out guns , swords , and different weapons of war ; others carried them away ; and by the sound of mattock blows from somewhere farther down the brae , I suppose they buried them . Though they were all so busy , there prevailed no kind of order in their efforts ; men struggled together for the same gun and ran into each other with their burning torches ; and James was continually turning about from his talk with Alan , to cry out orders which were apparently never understood . The faces in the torchlight were like those of people overborne with hurry and panic ; and though none spoke above his breath , their speech sounded both anxious and angry . It was about this time that a lassie came out of the house carrying a pack or bundle ; and it has often made me smile to think how Alan 's instinct awoke at the mere sight of it . `` What 's that the lassie has ? '' he asked . `` We 're just setting the house in order , Alan , '' said James , in his frightened and somewhat fawning way . `` They 'll search Appin with candles , and we must have all things straight . We 're digging the bit guns and swords into the moss , ye see ; and these , I am thinking , will be your ain French clothes . We 'll be to bury them , I believe . '' `` Bury my French clothes ! '' cried Alan . `` Troth , no ! '' And he laid hold upon the packet and retired into the barn to shift himself , recommending me in the meanwhile to his kinsman .
XXXXX carried me accordingly into the kitchen , and sat down with me at table , smiling and talking at first in a very hospitable manner .
* Alan Appin James accident kinsman ladders mattock troth war