Notwithstanding, the gloom on the Chief's brow was scarcely lightened. He even besought Waverley to betake himself at once out of the kingdom by an eastern port, to marry Rose Bradwardine, and to take Flora with him as a companion to Rose, and also for her own protection. Edward was astonished at this complete change in Fergus. "What!" he cried, "abandon the expedition on which we have all embarked?" "Embarked," answered the Chief, bitterly; "why, man, the expedition is going to pieces! It is time for all those who can, to get ashore in the longboat!" "And what," said Edward, "are the other Highland chiefs going to do?" "Oh, the chiefs," said Fergus, contemptuously, "they think that all the heading and hanging will, as before, fall to the lot of the Lowlands, and that they will be left alone in their poor and barren Highlands, to 'listen to the wind on the hill till the waters abate.' But they will be disappointed. The government will make sure work this time, and leave not a clan in all the Highlands able to do them hurt. As for me, it will not matter. I shall either be dead or taken by this time to-morrow. I have seen the _Bodach Glas_--the Grey Spectre." Edward looked the surprise he did not speak. "Why!" continued Fergus, in a low voice, "were you so long about Glennaquoich and yet never heard of the Bodach Glas? The story is well known to every son of Ivor. I will tell it you in a word. My forefather, Ian nan Chaistel, wasted part of England along with a Lowland chief named Halbert Hall. After passing the Cheviots on their way back, they quarrelled about the dividing of the spoil, and from words came speedily to blows. In the fight, the Lowlanders were cut off to the last man, and their leader fell to my ancestor's sword. But ever since that day the dead man's spirit has crossed the Chief of Clan Ivor on the eve of any great disaster. My father saw him twice, once before he was taken prisoner at Sheriff-Muir, and once again on the morning of the day on which he died." Edward cried out against such superstition. "How can you," he said, "you who have seen the world, believe such child's nonsense as that?" "Listen," said the Chief, "here are the facts, and you can judge for yourself. Last night I could not sleep for thinking on the downfall of all my hopes for the cause, for the Prince, for the clan--so, after lying long awake, I stepped out into the frosty air. I had crossed a small foot-bridge, and was walking backward and forward, when I saw, clear before me in the moonlight, a tall man wrapped in a grey plaid, such as the shepherds wear. The figure kept regularly about four yards from me." "That is an easy riddle," exclaimed Edward; "why, my dear Fergus, what you saw was no more than a Cumberland peasant in his ordinary dress!"