But by the mail, ere the morrow, came Hope, and brought new tidings; Round by Rannoch had come, and Philip was not at Rannoch; He had left at noon, an hour ago. With the lassie? With her? the Piper exclaimed. Undoubtedly! By great Jingo’ And upon that he arose, slapping both his thighs like a hero, Partly for emphasis only, to mark his conviction, but also Part in delight at the fun, and the joy of eventful living. Hope couldn’t tell him, of course, but thought it improbable wholly; Janet, the Piper’s friend, he had seen, and she didn’t say so, Though she asked a good deal about Philip, and where he was gone to; One odd thing, by the bye, he continued, befell me while with her; Standing beside her, I saw a girl pass; I thought I had seen her, Somewhat remarkable-looking, elsewhere; and asked what her name was; Elspie Mackaye, was the answer, the daughter of David! she’s stopping Just above here, with her uncle. And David Mackaye, where lives he? It’s away west, she said; they call it Tober-na vuolich. IV _Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error._ So in the golden weather they waited. But Philip returned not. Sunday six days thence a letter arrived in his writing.— But, O Muse, that encompassest Earth like the ambient ether, Swifter than steamer or railway or magical missive electric, Belting like Ariel the sphere with the star-like trail of thy travel, Thou with thy Poet, to mortals mere post-office second-hand knowledge Leaving, wilt seek in the moorland of Rannoch the wandering hero. There is it, there, or in lofty Lochaber, where, silent upheaving, Heaving from ocean to sky, and under snow-winds of September, Visibly whitening at morn to darken by noon in the shining, Rise on their mighty foundations the brethren huge of Ben-nevis? There, or westward away, where roads are unknown to Loch Nevish, And the great peaks look abroad over Skye to the westernmost islands? There is it? there? or there? we shall find our wandering hero? Here, in Badenoch, here, in Lochaber anon, in Lochiel, in Knoydart, Moydart, Morrer, Ardgower, and Ardnamurchan, Here I see him and here: I see him; anon I lose him! Even as cloud passing subtly unseen from mountain to mountain, Leaving the crest of Ben-more to be palpable next on Ben-vohrlich, Or like to hawk of the hill which ranges and soars in its hunting, Seen and unseen by turns, now here, now in ether eludent. Wherefore, as cloud of Ben-more or hawk over-ranging the mountains, Wherefore in Badenoch drear, in lofty Lochaber, Lochiel, and Knoydart, Moydart, Morrer, Ardgower, and Ardnamurchan, Wandereth he who should either with Adam be studying logic, Or by the lochside of Rannoch on Katie his rhetoric using; He who, his three weeks past, past now long ago, to the cottage Punctual promised return to cares of classes and classics.