Biographical fiction; Historical fiction; Outlaws -- Fiction; Rob Roy, 1671-1734 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 1689-1745 -- Fiction
"I was born a Highland gentleman, and can never accept that which
would make me the disgrace of my family and the scoff of my country."
Shortly afterwards he died of _starvation_ in the streets of Paris,
when George III. was king.
In his thirteenth year Robin Oig shot MacLaren of Invernentie dead
between the stilts of his plough, for insulting his mother; and the
gun with which he perpetrated this terrible act is now at Abbotsford.
He fled, became a soldier in the 42nd Regiment, and fought gallantly
at Fontenoy, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the French;
but five years after the battle, by an overstrained power of the
officers of the Crown, he died on the scaffold at Edinburgh. For the
others, I must refer my readers to Burke's "Landed Gentry."
"Happily, now-a-days," says a recent writer, "the Celt and the
Sassenach--Scotsman and Englishman--fight side by side, under one
standard. _How_ the brave soldiers of the Highlands fight has been
shown in many a glorious struggle--at Talavera, Salamanca, and
Waterloo; nor will history forget _the thin red line_ of Balaclava,
or the shrill pibroch of Havelock's small but gallant force, which
came like home-music to the ears and hearts of those who defended
Lucknow!"
* * * * *
At the east end of the old church of Balquhidder, within an enclosure
formed by the foundations of the more ancient Catholic place of
worship, lies the grave of Rob Roy.
It is covered by a rough stone of hard mica, on which a number of
emblems are rudely sculptured. Among these the figure of a
Highlander and a large broadsword can be distinctly traced.
Under this stone, in February, 1754, were also interred the remains
of his son, Robin Oig.
Such is the story of ROB ROY the Outlaw.
THE END.
WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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