But at least , sir , '' said I to James , recovering from my little fit of annoyance , `` I am Alan 's friend , and if I can be helpful to friends of his , I will not stumble at the risk . '' I thought it best to put a fair face on my consent , for I saw Alan troubled ; and , besides -LRB- thinks I to myself -RRB- , as soon as my back is turned , they will paper me , as they call it , whether I consent or not . But in this I saw I was wrong ; for I had no sooner said the words , than Mrs. Stewart leaped out of her chair , came running over to us , and wept first upon my neck and then on Alan 's , blessing God for our goodness to her family . `` As for you , Alan , it was no more than your bounden duty , '' she said . `` But for this lad that has come here and seen us at our worst , and seen the goodman fleeching like a suitor , him that by rights should give his commands like any king -- as for you , my lad , '' she says , `` my heart is wae not to have your name , but I have your face ; and as long as my heart beats under my bosom , I will keep it , and think of it , and bless it . '' And with that she kissed me , and burst once more into such sobbing , that I stood abashed . `` Hoot , hoot , '' said Alan , looking mighty silly . `` The day comes unco soon in this month of July ; and to-morrow there 'll be a fine to-do in Appin , a fine riding of dragoons , and crying of ` Cruachan ! ' * and running of red-coats ; and it behoves you and me to the sooner be gone . '' * The rallying-word of the Campbells . Thereupon we said farewell , and set out again , bending somewhat eastwards , in a fine mild dark night , and over much the same broken country as before . CHAPTER XX THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER : THE ROCKS Sometimes we walked , sometimes ran ; and as it drew on to morning , walked ever the less and ran the more . Though , upon its face , that country appeared to be a desert , yet there were huts and houses of the people , of which we must have passed more than twenty , hidden in quiet places of the hills . When we came to one of these , Alan would leave me in the way , and go himself and rap upon the side of the house and speak awhile at the window with some sleeper awakened . This was to pass the news ; which , in that country , was so much of a duty that Alan must pause to attend to it even while fleeing for his life ; and so well attended to by others , that in more than half of the houses where we called they had heard already of the murder . In the others , as well as I could make out -LRB- standing back at a distance and hearing a strange tongue -RRB- , the news was received with more of consternation than surprise . For all our hurry , day began to come in while we were still far from any shelter . It found us in a prodigious valley , strewn with rocks and where ran a foaming river . Wild mountains stood around it ; there grew there neither grass nor trees ; and I have sometimes thought since then , that it may have been the valley called Glencoe , where the massacre was in the time of King William . But for the details of our itinerary , I am all to seek ; our way lying now by short cuts , now by great detours ; our pace being so hurried , our time of journeying usually by night ; and the names of such places as I asked and heard being in the Gaelic tongue and the more easily forgotten .
The first peep of XXXXX , then , showed us this horrible place , and I could see Alan knit his brow .
Campbells Glencoe Stewart XX bounden day eastwards morning night rallying-word