



Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and
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available by the Canadian Institute for Historical
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THE HUNTED OUTLAW

OR

DONALD MORRISON, THE CANADIAN ROB ROY


By Anonymous


_"Truth is stranger than Fiction."_




PROLOGUE.

Psychology strips the soul and, having laid it bare, confidently
classifies every phase of its mentality. It has the spring of every
emotion carefully pigeon-holed; it puts a mental finger upon every
passion; it maps out the soul into tabulated territories of feeling; and
probes to the earliest stirrings of motive.

A crime startles the community. The perpetrator is educated, wise,
enjoys the respect of his fellows. His position is high: his home is
happy: he has no enemies.

Psychology is stunned. The deed is incredible. Of all men, this was the
last who could be suspected of mental aberration. The mental diagnosis
decreed him healthy. He was a man to grace society, do credit to
religion, and leave a fair and honored name behind him.

The tabulation is at fault.

The soul has its conventional pose when the eyes of the street are upon
it. Psychology's plummet is too short to reach those depths where motive
has its sudden and startling birth.

Life begins with the fairest promise, and ends in darkness.

It is the unexpected that stuns us.

Heredity, environment and temperament lead us into easy calculations
of assured repose and strength, and permanency of mental and moral
equilibrium.

The act of a moment makes sardonic mockery of all our predictions.

The whole mentality is not computable.

Look searchingly at happiness, and note with sadness that a tear stains
her cheek.

A dark, sinister thread runs through the web of life.




CHAPTER I.

  "Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
  Their homely joys and destiny obscure,
  Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
  The short and simple annals of the poor." _Gray_.

The Counties of Compton and Beauce, in the