"Oh, how can you say that?" exclaimed his persecutor. "Who was ever guilty of such an act of treachery as setting fire to the barn at Dunvegan? Macdonald and his men get driven on to Skye by the bad weather; they beg for shelter from their old enemy; Macleod professes to be very great friends with them; and Macdonald is to sleep in the castle, while his men have a barn prepared for them. You know very well, Sir Keith, that if Macdonald had remained that night in Dunvegan Castle he would have been murdered; and if the Macleod girl had not given a word of warning to her sweetheart, the men in the barn would have been burned to death. I think if I were a Macdonald I should be proud of that scene--the Macdonalds marching down to their boats with their pipes playing, while the barn was all in a blaze fired by their treacherous enemies. Oh, Sir Keith, I hope there are no Macleods of that sort alive now." "There are not, Mrs. Ross," said he, gravely. "They were all killed by the Macdonalds, I suppose." "I do believe," said she, "that it was a Macleod who built a stone tower on a lonely island, and imprisoned his wife there--" "Miss White," the young man said, modestly, "will not you help me? Am I to be made responsible for all the evil doings of my ancestors?" "It is really not fair, Mrs. Ross," said she; and the sound of this voice pleading for him went to his heart: it was not as the voice of other women. "I only meant to punish you," said Mrs. Ross, "for having traversed the indictment--I don't know whether that is the proper phrase, or what it means, but it sounds well. You first acknowledge that the Macleods were by far the most savage of the people living up there: and then you tried to make out that the poor creatures whom they harried were as cruel as themselves." "What is cruel now was not cruel then," he said; "it was a way of fighting: it was what is called an ambush now--enticing your enemy, and then taking him at a disadvantage. And if you did not do that to him, he would do it to you. And when a man is mad with anger or revenge, what does he care for anything?" "I thought we were all sheep now," said she. "Do you know the story of the man who was flogged by Maclean of Lochbuy--that is in Mull," said he, not heeding her remark. "You do not know that old story?"