`` But aside from that , '' I continued , `` what have I done that you should even me to dogs by such a supposition ? I never yet failed a friend , and it 's not likely I 'll begin with you . There are things between us that I can never forget , even if you can . '' `` I will only say this to ye , David , '' said Alan , very quietly , `` that I have long been owing ye my life , and now I owe ye money . Ye should try to make that burden light for me . '' This ought to have touched me , and in a manner it did , but the wrong manner . I felt I was behaving badly ; and was now not only angry with Alan , but angry with myself in the bargain ; and it made me the more cruel . `` You asked me to speak , '' said I. `` Well , then , I will . You own yourself that you have done me a disservice ; I have had to swallow an affront : I have never reproached you , I never named the thing till you did . And now you blame me , '' cried I , `` because I cannae laugh and sing as if I was glad to be affronted . The next thing will be that I 'm to go down upon my knees and thank you for it ! Ye should think more of others , Alan Breck . If ye thought more of others , ye would perhaps speak less about yourself ; and when a friend that likes you very well has passed over an offence without a word , you would be blithe to let it lie , instead of making it a stick to break his back with . By your own way of it , it was you that was to blame ; then it shouldnae be you to seek the quarrel . '' `` Aweel , '' said Alan , `` say nae mair . '' And we fell back into our former silence ; and came to our journey 's end , and supped , and lay down to sleep , without another word . The gillie put us across Loch Rannoch in the dusk of the next day , and gave us his opinion as to our best route . This was to get us up at once into the tops of the mountains : to go round by a circuit , turning the heads of Glen Lyon , Glen Lochay , and Glen Dochart , and come down upon the lowlands by Kippen and the upper waters of the Forth . Alan was little pleased with a route which led us through the country of his blood-foes , the Glenorchy Campbells . He objected that by turning to the east , we should come almost at once among the Athole Stewarts , a race of his own name and lineage , although following a different chief , and come besides by a far easier and swifter way to the place whither we were bound .
But the XXXXX , who was indeed the chief man of Cluny 's scouts , had good reasons to give him on all hands , naming the force of troops in every district , and alleging finally -LRB- as well as I could understand -RRB- that we should nowhere be so little troubled as in a country of the Campbells .
Alan Breck David Dochart Kippen Lyon Rannoch Stewarts gillie whither