"what a night! what a wild, wild night!"
old donald leslie lifted his grizzled head, closed his book on his gnarled forefinger, and listened to the low deep soughing of the wind. as he spoke, a gust of smoke blew out into the room from the wide throat of the chimney; the flames of the burning logs on the open hearth leapt and crackled anew; the lights of the hanging cruse lamps flickered, and the grimy arras hangings over the doors and windows swung heavily to and fro and swelled out like the sails of a ship.
"ay; it's from the north," muttered elspeth macdonald, as she crossed to one of the deep embayed windows and drew aside the curtain to peer out into the night. "it will be bringing snow with it. the clouds were banked up like great mountains in the north when i looked out in the forenoon, and the shepherd was telling me that he saw a white bonnet on ben bhuidhe as he came west over culloden braes yestreen."
"listen!" cried young colin leslie, releasing the cat from his knee and rising to his feet. "did you not hear something, grandfather?"
"well did i hear something," returned the old man. "i've heard it these two hours past. it's the wind howling in the vent."
"nay, but it wasna the wind," pursued the boy. "it was——"
"just hold your tongue, laddie, and let me get reading my book," interrupted the grandfather petulantly. "you're aye putting in your word. a body can do no reading with such chatter for ever dinging in his ears."
"there it is again!" cried colin, not heeding the old man's complaint. "it was some one hammering at the castle door."
"hoots, bairn. who would be out travelling and knocking at folk's doors on a night like this?"
colin approached the hearth and leaned his arm against the cheek of the chimney, staring into the glowing fire.
"it was some one on horseback," said he; "i heard the horse's hoofs on the stones just before you said 'what a night it is!'"
sir donald leslie continued reading under the dim light of the lamp that hung above his head. presently elspeth macdonald left the room on tiptoe, closing the door behind her. colin applied himself to casting a new log upon the fire. regardless of his grandfather, he began to whistle the lightsome air of a certain jacobite song. soon his whistling changed into the song itself and he chanted, half under his breath, the words—
"oh, charlie is my darling,
my darling, my darling,
charlie is my darling,
the young chevalier."
suddenly a fluttering book flew past his curly head.
"how dare you? how dare you sing that accursed jacobite song in my hearing?" cried his grandfather, red with rage. "have i not told you a hundred times that i'll have none of your rebel rantings in my house?"
"i meant no harm, grandfather," said colin, picking up the book and placing it on the corner of the table near the old man's elbow, "i was not thinking of the meaning of the words."
"suddenly a fluttering book flew past his curly head."
"may-be not, may-be not," returned sir donald, as he idly took up his book. then, calming himself, he added more softly, shaking his head the while: "colin, you are just the very reflection of my brother neil. my father had exactly the same trouble with him in the forty-five that i have with you in these more peaceful days. you try to persuade me that you have no real sympathy with the wild adventurer you were now singing about. but i'll be bound that if there were another rising (which heaven forfend!) you'd on with the kilt and be off with another stuart, just as neil leslie went off with the young pretender—luckless loon that he was. but i'll not have it, look you. i'll have none of your jacobite thoughts here; no, not even so much as the whistling of their inflammatory tunes!"
colin raised his eyes and glanced furtively at the old claymore that was suspended over the door, crossed by a rusty lochaber axe. one might have seen by the sudden gleam in his blue eyes that the lad had some lingering sympathy with the romantic adventurer of whose lost cause his grandfather had spoken so contemptuously.
"one rebel in the family has been quite enough, and more than enough," went on sir donald. "but for neil leslie we might now be living in comfort and luxury instead of in poverty. we now feed upon porridge and oaten bannocks instead of good wholesome beef and venison; we drink weak milk instead of wine. our dwelling is a poor broken-down ruin instead of, as it once was, a lordly castle fit for a king. look at our lands; they are wide, but they bear no harvest, for we cannot afford to cultivate them. our stables are empty; our flocks have been reduced to a few skinny sheep that find no food upon the barren ground. even the grouse and the plovers have deserted us. and it is all the work of neil leslie. my very blood simmers when i think of him, the rebel rascal! the scoundrel! the thief!"
"thief?" echoed colin quickly. "thief, grandfather?"
"ay, thief," growled the old man in an angrier tone. "he robbed his own father—my father. all the hard-earned and hard-saved money that my father had put aside for his descendants—for me as his eldest son, and for you in your turn, although that was long, long before you were born—was stolen by neil leslie, and by him appropriated to the accursed cause of the man whom he called his prince. prince? a prince of rascals, a prince of gallows-birds; that is what i call the frog-eating reprobate that presumed to lay claim to the british throne. what did he do—this charles edward stuart? he filled the silly heads of our men and women with his romantic tomfoolery; he turned all scotland topsy-turvy and left it a miserable wreck of its former and better self——don't look like that at me, colin. i'm telling you nothing but the simple truth. and when you are a little older and get the hayseed out of your hair, you will know the wisdom of being loyal to your rightful king. there, i've lost my place in the book, now. let me see; what page was i at?"
the door opened while the old man peevishly turned over the pages, and elspeth macdonald entered. there was an expression of anxious concern in her wrinkled face. she approached the master of castle leslie and mysteriously whispered into his ear.
sir donald gripped the wooden arm of his high-backed chair.
"ossington?" he said questioningly, repeating the name that the housekeeper had announced. "colonel ossington? i know no such name. who can the man be, think you, elspeth?"
elspeth shook her head.
"that's mair than i can tell," said she. "he just asked for the master as he stamped his snowy boots on the step. then he took off his cloak and handed it to geordie, as bold as you please, and bade me give you his name—colonel ossington."
"has he left his horse standing there?" questioned sir donald.
elspeth crossed her hands in front of her, and holding up her head in high dignity, answered—"no. the beast has been taken round to the stables."
"h'm," muttered sir donald. "he evidently intends to stay the night, then. well, it matters little who he may be. we couldna send a body away from the very door on a night of storm like this, even if he were but a mere gaberlunzie. let him come ben here. and see that some supper is sent in. wait," he added, as elspeth was moving away; "see that andrew gets some food for the horse. there should be a handful of oats left in the corners of the bags up in the old loft; and if not, he'll may-be find some dry hay in the byre."
"toots!" objected elspeth, as she swept towards the door, "there's no need to fash yourself about the horse. andrew will see to the beast. trust him to that."
young colin leslie stood before the fire with his face fronting to the room. his grandfather's knotted fingers nervously turned the faded brown leaves of his book, while the wind groaned in the chimney and the fitful flames of the fire cast strange moving shadows about the gloomy room.
the man who presently entered crossed the oaken floor with a somewhat halting gait. his spurs jangled at each step. his clean-shaven face was thin and pinched, but ruddy in contrast with his silvery hair. as he approached into the light of the fire, colin noticed that his active grey eyes were conspicuously clear and bright beneath his furrowed brow. he wore a snuff-coloured riding-coat, with breeches of the same colour, and long military boots. a diamond glistened amid the pure whiteness of his lace-edged cravat.
sir donald leslie rose from his chair and advanced a step to meet him. the two men bowed to each other as strangers.
"you are welcome, sir," said sir donald, standing upright with his right hand on the tall back of his chair. "pray take this seat near the fire. the night is cold, and it may be you have travelled far."
the soldier bent his head courteously.
"not farther than inverness," was his response. he spoke in a distinctly english tone of voice, which sir donald at once detected.
"you are from the south?" he questioned. and then, before the stranger had time to answer, he added, "colonel ottington, i think my housekeeper told me, is your name?"
"ossington," corrected the stranger, seating himself and holding his long, delicate hands in front of the fire. "colonel ossington, late of the king's 17th light dragoons. i am newly returned from canada." he glanced at his host as he spoke, and after a slight pause continued, wrinkling his face into a half smile, "you do not appear to know me, sir? am i not addressing mr. alan leslie—alan leslie, once of the 20th foot?"
there was a moment or two of silence, broken only by the deep-throated growling of the wind in the chimney-vent. colin leslie, who had retired to a shadowed corner of the ingle-nook, looked at his grandfather, wondering at his hesitation.
"my name is donald leslie," came at last the gloomy reply. "i am a brother of alan leslie, and the eldest son of sir john leslie, who died fifty years ago—fifty years almost to the very day."
colonel ossington meditatively nodded his head.
"that would be in the year of culloden, i think," said he. "he was for the young——" he checked himself.
"no," broke in sir donald vehemently. "he was certainly not for the young pretender."
the colonel raised his eyebrows in apparent surprise, dropped his open hands upon his knees, and slowly rose to his feet.
"i had almost expected to hear you say the young chevalier," he said, with a fuller frankness than he had hitherto shown. "i had understood that your brother alan was the only member of your family who was not heart and soul for the stuarts."
"on the contrary," corrected sir donald, "i and my brother alan and our father were always staunch for king george. ah," he added, seeing the door open, "here is some supper. i am afraid it will prove a poor meal; but pray make yourself free with such as there is. pardon me if i leave you for a little while. my grandson colin, here, will entertain you in the meantime." he poured a few drops of whisky into a glass, and dealt similarly but more generously with a glass which he passed to his guest. "to the king!" he said, moistening his lips.
"to the king!" responded colonel ossington, bowing politely to sir donald as he left the room.
the supper which had been set before the stranger was, as his host had expressed it, but a poor meal; but colonel ossington partook of it with as much enjoyment as if it had been a banquet. presently colin leslie emerged from his corner by the ingle and slowly approached the table, standing opposite to the colonel as he ate. the boy's fingers played idly with the ragged fringe of the table-cloth; but now and again he stole a furtive glance at the silver-haired officer at the other side. once or twice he attempted to speak, but his shyness overcame him. it was not often that he encountered a stranger such as the man before him. at last he mustered courage enough to say—
"are you a soldier—a real soldier?"
the colonel smiled at him. "yes," said he, "i am a soldier. is that something strange to you?"
"we don't see many soldiers in these parts," said the boy. "there are some at inverness, of course, and at fort george, but i've never been to either of those places. once when i went to edinburgh with my father, i saw some soldiers at the castle. but i never spoke to one before."
"is your father at home—here in castle leslie?" asked colonel ossington.
"no," answered colin; "he's dead. so is my mother. grandfather and i are quite alone in the world." he hesitated, almost ashamed of having said so much. presently he looked up once more and added, "where is your red coat and your sword? i thought soldiers always wore red coats and swords."
"mine are at home in england," explained the soldier. "i don't wear them now. i have not worn them at all since i came back from america. i am too old."
colin reflected for some moments, leaning his elbows on the table and his chin in his supporting hands.
"did you ever kill a man?" he asked abruptly.
"yes; many men. that is what soldiers are meant to do. but one doesn't like to think of them as men. somehow it seems different when one calls them simply the enemy."
"then you've been in a real battle?"
the soldier nodded.
"that must have been very exciting," remarked colin, with boyish enthusiasm. "i should like to be in a real battle—that is, if it were against frenchmen, or spaniards, or blackamoors, or people of that sort. i don't think i'd like it so much if they were britons."
"i suppose not," agreed colonel ossington, with a sigh. "somehow it does seem to make a difference."
"once," went on colin, growing more communicative now that he had discovered a soldier to be very little different in human nature from any other man—"once, there was a battle near here—near this castle, i mean—over on culloden moor, where our sheep pastures are. and last spring, when peter reid of the mains of kilravock was ploughing, he turned up a rusty old claymore. he gave it to me, and i polished it. there it is, hanging up with that lochaber axe upon the wall."
"turned up a rusty old claymore."
colonel ossington moved his chair to look round at the old sword. his glance travelled to other parts of the dimly lighted room, surveying the few family portraits in their tarnished frames, the dusty antlered heads of stags, the old highland targets, crossbows, and battle-axes that decorated the dark oak panels of the walls.
"there used to be a rack of muskets in that farther corner," he remarked. "and where is the portrait of the beautiful lady leslie—bonnie belinda, they called her—that used to hang up there above that carved settle?"
"oh, that has been put away," explained colin, "because—because lady belinda was a jacobite, you know. but how did you know that the picture and the guns and things were ever there? you have never been in this room before, have you?"
the colonel raised his glass to his lips. "yes," he said.
"when?" demanded colin.
"oh, when i was a youth, a little older than you are now. it must be fifty years ago."
at this moment sir donald leslie re-entered the room.
"grandfather!" cried colin, "colonel ossington has been here before! he was here fifty years ago."
sir donald turned sharply to his guest.
"is this true?" he asked.
"quite true," responded the old campaigner. "i was here in the year 1746. you, i think, were at that time abroad."
"yes," acquiesced sir donald. "i was in leyden. i am sorry you did not inform me at once that this was not your first visit. i should have given you a warmer welcome if i had known. as it is, i have treated you as a stranger, and have not even offered you my hand."
"it is hardly too late to repair the omission," said colonel ossington, and he thrust forth his hand, which his host grasped.
"ossington?" muttered sir donald, trying to recall the name. "ossington? dear me, i'm afraid i must seem very stupid. but for the life of me i cannot remember to have heard of you. if i may be so inquisitive, what was the occasion of your former visit, colonel?"
"i will tell you," returned the soldier frankly. "indeed, my present appearance here is wholly on account of what occurred at that long distant time." he put his hand to his breast pocket. "may i smoke?" he asked.
"certainly," said sir donald. "i am afraid, however, that i cannot offer you any tobacco. we can ill afford such a luxury in these hard times."
"thank you. i have some very fine american tobacco with me," rejoined the colonel. "ah, i forgot," he added. "i find i have left it in my saddle-bag."
"colin will fetch it," urged sir donald, anticipating the promised pleasure of renewing a habit which economy alone had compelled him to abandon.
"oh, don't trouble," said his guest, "i will go myself. i think i remember where the stable is situated. although perhaps the lad might, after all, accompany me."
colin was already at the door, prepared for the guest. he conducted the colonel out into the hall, where they got their hats and a lantern, and then through the house and out by one of the back doors, and into the spacious, wind-swept garden, along by a high blank wall and across to the stable. by the aid of colin's lamp, the colonel soon found his tobacco and, giving a caressing pat to his horse's flanks, he followed the boy back into the garden.
a wild gust of wind met them as they came out from the stable door, extinguishing their light. the snow had ceased to fall, and the sky was clear, saving only for a few fleecy white clouds that drifted southward across the moon. the ruined and ivy-covered walls of the older parts of the castle stood out black against the steel-blue brightness of the sky. an owl flew with silent wings from out the ruins and disappeared among the tall bare trees that creaked and groaned in the wind at the rear of the keep.
colin walked in advance over the crisp white snow. suddenly he drew back with a half-smothered cry, gripped his companion's arm, and pointed with agitated finger into the dark shadows of the ruined walls.
"look!" he ejaculated, trembling in every limb. "do you see it? do you see it? see! there it goes—there, in at the old postern gate! come! come quickly back to the house. i'm afraid!"
colonel ossington held the lad's arm, supporting him.
"afraid of what, boy?" he demanded. "there is nothing."
"did you not see it?" gasped colin, in a mysterious, scarcely audible whisper. "it went in at the postern, there."
"i saw nothing to alarm you to this degree, my boy," returned the soldier. "what was it? tell me what it was!"
colin's fingers crept down the colonel's right arm until they grasped his hand. the lad had implored his companion to return with him to the house, but he himself now stood still as if rooted to the spot.
"what was it?" repeated colonel ossington.
colin answered in the same low, mysterious whisper. "it was the ghost—the ghost of neil leslie. it is often seen here. elspeth has seen it. so has grandfather. i have seen it before, too; but never so plainly as now. it glided along there by the wall, with its plaid wrapped round it. i saw the yellow stone glistening in the hilt of its dirk. its sword flashed in the moonlight. when it got to the gate it stopped a moment and put out its hand, holding something—something that looked like a little bag. it turned its face this way and then disappeared."
"come," said the colonel, putting his arm about the lad and drawing him onward towards the house. "your imagination has been playing you some trick. it was the moonlight and the moving bushes, perhaps. you will forget all about it when we get indoors."
as they passed by the postern gate, colin craned round and peered within. seeing nothing but black darkness, he heaved a deep sigh of relief and walked boldly on, saying nothing until he had closed and barred the door behind him. then, touching colonel ossington's arm, he said calmly—
"please say nothing to grandfather about neil's ghost, colonel ossington. it would only disturb him."
