in the heather , and the light coming slowly clearer in the east . * Village fair . I say Alan did as I did . Not that ever I looked at him , for I had enough ado to keep my feet ; but because it is plain he must have been as stupid with weariness as myself , and looked as little where we were going , or we should not have walked into an ambush like blind men . It fell in this way . We were going down a heathery brae , Alan leading and I following a pace or two behind , like a fiddler and his wife ; when upon a sudden the heather gave a rustle , three or four ragged men leaped out , and the next moment we were lying on our backs , each with a dirk at his throat . I do n't think I cared ; the pain of this rough handling was quite swallowed up by the pains of which I was already full ; and I was too glad to have stopped walking to mind about a dirk . I lay looking up in the face of the man that held me ; and I mind his face was black with the sun , and his eyes very light , but I was not afraid of him . I heard Alan and another whispering in the Gaelic ; and what they said was all one to me . Then the dirks were put up , our weapons were taken away , and we were set face to face , sitting in the heather . `` They are Cluny 's men , '' said Alan . `` We couldnae have fallen better . We 're just to bide here with these , which are his out-sentries , till they can get word to the chief of my arrival . '' Now Cluny Macpherson , the chief of the clan Vourich , had been one of the leaders of the great rebellion six years before ; there was a price on his life ; and I had supposed him long ago in France , with the rest of the heads of that desperate party . Even tired as I was , the surprise of what I heard half wakened me . `` What , '' I cried , `` is Cluny still here ? '' `` Ay , is he so ! '' said Alan . `` Still in his own country and kept by his own clan . King George can do no more . ''
I think I would have asked farther , but XXXXX gave me the put-off .
Alan Ay Cluny George Macpherson dirk dirks fiddler out-sentries years