`` James Stewart , '' said Alan , `` I will ask ye to speak in Scotch , for here is a young gentleman with me that has nane of the other . This is him , '' he added , putting his arm through mine , `` a young gentleman of the Lowlands , and a laird in his country too , but I am thinking it will be the better for his health if we give his name the go-by . '' James of the Glens turned to me for a moment , and greeted me courteously enough ; the next he had turned to Alan . `` This has been a dreadful accident , '' he cried . `` It will bring trouble on the country . '' And he wrung his hands . `` Hoots ! '' said Alan , `` ye must take the sour with the sweet , man . 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 , XXXXX , '' said James , in his frightened and somewhat fawning way .
* Alan Appin Ay Roy Stewart accident go-by ladders war