209 CHAPTER X. FORT AUGUSTUS.-DUBLIN.—BLACKHEATH. MAY-SEPTEMBER, 1752. It was a long summer day's march through grandly wild scenery from Inverness to Fort Augustus. The journey, though agreeable and exhilarating for those who rode and could appreciate nature in her sternest mood, was toilsome enough to subalterns and soldiers who travelled afoot. For a distance of ten or twelve miles the road runs along the south-eastern side of Loch Ness, skirting the mountain range which here walls in the waters of the great Caledonian vale. As a highway could only have been made by cutting off so much from the base of the rocky barrier, the artificial pass, while washed on one hand by the lake, on the other is overhung by huge cliffs, which appear as if ever threatening to fall. Ere the morning mists had "gathered up their fleecy wings," those companies of Lord Bury's regiment bound for Fort Augustus were on their march by the loch-side. The secluded road they travelled was in itself an enduring memorial of their fellow-soldiers' labour as well as of the ability of the military engineer. By noon they had reached the "General's hut," so called from having been Р Wade's headquarters while superintending the operations of his "highwaymen,"-as he facetiously termed the working soldiers; about a mile beyond which, "Among the heathy hills and ragged woods, A little further on, the road, leaving the verge of the Dear Sir, Fort Augustus, May 28, 1752. We have been here about ten days, and the garrison at ** Highland Note-Book.' present consists of two field-officers, five or six other officers, and fourscore recruits. Lord Bury was soon tired and went off to Fort William; from thence he goes to Lord Breadalbaine's, and in a little while after to England. I can't find work enough to employ me here, and as the weather is tolerably fair, will visit some of our posts, and perhaps accept of an invitation from the Laird of Macleod, who offers to show me a very extraordinary old castle in the Isle of Skye.* Mr. Collingwood, our Lieutenant-Governor, is an old acquaintance of yours; he expresses great esteem for you, and desires me to tell you so. He is very agreeable to us all in his character of Governor, and if he can't make the place quite pleasant, he endeavours to make it easy. You have heard of the strange murder that was committed about a fortnight since by two Highlanders, at the instigation, it is believed, of a lady, the wife of a banished rebel. The gentleman was an Argyleshire man, and factor upon some of the forfeited estates. Several men are apprehended upon suspicion, but I'm sure it will be very difficult to discover the actors of this bloody deed. The factor intended to remove the old tenants and to plant others in their room, and this is supposed to be their reason for killing him. One of our officers has sent me a roebuck. It is a curious kind of deer, less than our fallow-deer, but seldom fit to eat. I intend to have it tamed and carried to England, as a present to my mother. It will be three weeks or a month before we shall be told whether we may go or must stay. They are more exact and ready in warning us of the expiration of our * Dunvegan Castle, the family-seat of the Macleods, though a very ancient structure is still in perfect repair. It stands upon a rock projecting into the water, at the head of a bay formed by two low promontories, between the points of which the distant mountains of Long Island are visible. The castle forms three sides of an oblong figure enclosing an area facing the sea, and fenced by a low wall pierced with embrasures. A fine view of Dunvegan forms one of the illustrations of Pennant's 'Tour in Scotland.' See also Anderson's 'Guide to the Highlands,' where will be found an account of the fairy flag, the horn of Rorie More, and other relics of the Macleods. leave than in granting it. I wish you much health, beg my duty to my mother, and am, Dear Sir, etc., J. WOLFE. The murder of Colin Campbell, of Glenure, caused a great sensation for some time. He had been appointed by the court of Exchequer, factor of the forfeited estate of Charles Stewart, of Ardshiel. Having been directed by the court to eject the tenants of the late proprietor, Campbell, on his way to execute his orders, whilst passing through a wood, was shot dead from behind a tree. One Allan Breck Stewart, a French cadet, was strongly suspected to be the assassin; but although a large reward was offered for his apprehension, he effected his escape. James Stewart, natural brother of the late owner of the estate, was convicted of participation in the murder, and sentenced to be hung on a conspicuous eminence near the place where the foul deed had been perpetrated. Tied upon a horse, and guarded by a large body of soldiers, he was carried from Inverary to Fort William, whence he was conveyed to Ballachelish, under a guard of 100 men of Bockland's regiment. On their arrival at the ferry the weather was so boisterous that the river could not be crossed until the next morning, and it was midday when they reached the place of execution. "The storm was so great all the time," wrote the correspondent of the Edinburgh Courant,' "that it was with the greatest difficulty one could stand upon the hill, and it was near five o'clock before the body was hung in * Some interesting incidents of the future career of Allan Breck Stewart are related by Sir Walter Scott in the introduction to 'Rob Roy.' chains." It does not appear from the report of the trial, which is continued month after month in the Scots Magazine,' that the murder was instigated by the wife of the banished rebel, as was rumoured; but his sister, it was shown, had sheltered and facilitated the escape of the fugitive. This was neither the first nor the last of such outrages, for the lives of factors were then held as cheap in the Highlands as those of agents have more recently been in Ireland. The small barrack here was But, returning to our hero; he was not kept quite so long in suspense as he had anticipated, for it is evident, from his subsequent proceedings, that he set out on his travels about a fortnight after the date of the last letter. On his way to Perth he visited some of the posts occupied by his regiment. One of these, the first en route, was at Ruthven, in the district of Badenoch, six or seven miles from the fort. built in 1718, on a mount by the Spey-side, from the ruins of an old castle which previously occupied the site. It was stoutly defended in 1746, by Sergeant Molloy and twelve men, against 300 of the rebels. It was in this neighbourhood also that the Highland chiefs re-assembled after the battle of Culloden, in hopes the Chevalier would try another engagement. The adjacent village of Ruthven is only remarkable as the birthplace, in 1738, of (Ossian) M'Pherson. We trace Wolfe at Ruthven by means of a report forwarded to the Commander-in-Chief at Edinburgh, on the 4th of July, by Lieutenant Hartley, who, speaking of the capture of two notorious thieves, says :-" M'Pherson and William M'Donald, alias Gilbrandick, are con |