`` Ye 're a good lad in a fight , '' said Alan ; `` but , man ! ye have Whig blood in ye ! '' He spoke kindly enough , but there was so much anger under his contempt that I thought it was wise to change the conversation . I expressed my wonder how , with the Highlands covered with troops , and guarded like a city in a siege , a man in his situation could come and go without arrest . `` It 's easier than ye would think , '' said Alan . `` A bare hillside -LRB- ye see -RRB- is like all one road ; if there 's a sentry at one place , ye just go by another . And then the heather 's a great help . And everywhere there are friends ' houses and friends ' byres and haystacks . And besides , when folk talk of a country covered with troops , it 's but a kind of a byword at the best . A soldier covers nae mair of it than his boot-soles . I have fished a water with a sentry on the other side of the brae , and killed a fine trout ; and I have sat in a heather bush within six feet of another , and learned a real bonny tune from his whistling . This was it , '' said he , and whistled me the air . `` And then , besides , '' he continued , `` it 's no sae bad now as it was in forty-six . The Hielands are what they call pacified . Small wonder , with never a gun or a sword left from Cantyre to Cape Wrath , but what tenty * folk have hidden in their thatch ! But what I would like to ken , David , is just how long ? Not long , ye would think , with men like Ardshiel in exile and men like the Red Fox sitting birling the wine and oppressing the poor at home . But it 's a kittle thing to decide what folk 'll bear , and what they will not . Or why would Red Colin be riding his horse all over my poor country of Appin , and never a pretty lad to put a bullet in him ? '' * Careful .
And with this XXXXX fell into a muse , and for a long time sate very sad and silent .
* Alan Ardshiel Colin David Whig bonny byres mair thatch