"What he who shows the sulphurous spring of Alange?" "Ay; he is as arrant a knave as we have on this side the pass of Roncesvalles. But the sun is setting now, senor caballero: I see the trees are casting long shadows across the plain towards the eastward." "Haud ye awee, Pedro. As sure as I live, I hear—I hear the skirlin o’ a bag-pipe?" "A pipe, Evan?" exclaimed Stuart, "a pipe? I trust it is not imagination! By all that’s sacred I hear it too!" he added, stooping his ear anxiously to listen. "’Tis playing—what is the air?" "The ’Haughs o’ Cromdale.’ O, sir! I ken it weel," replied the Highlander in a thick voice, while his eyes began to glisten. "_Senor officiale_," said Pedro, who had been reconnoitring through the vine bushes, "there are British troops moving on the plain,—red uniforms at least." "Highlanders! Highlanders!" replied Ronald exultingly, as he beheld a long way off a party of kilted soldiers marching across the dusty plain. The setting sun was shining on the polished barrels of their sloped arms, which flashed and gleamed between the trunks of the trees at every step; even the ribbons fluttering from the drones on the piper’s shoulders could be discerned, and the heart-stirring strain he was blowing came floating towards them on the fitful wind. "What troops are these? and where can they have come from? They march towards Merida, and the French are there." "What regiment they belang to, sir, I dinna care: let that flea stick to the wa’. But they are some o’ oor ain folk, that’s certain. I see the braw feathered bonnet, the filledh-beg, and the gartered hose. O Maister Stuart! can we no fa’ on some plan to win their attention? They are fast leaving us behind; and it’s an awfu’ thocht to be here, hunted in a hole like a yirded tod lowrie, and yet to see the tartan waving in the sun, and hear the wild skirl of the piob mhor. O’d, sir! my birse is getting up; I feel myself turning wild." "Stay, Evan. Unless you want a bullet to make a button-hole in your skin, keep back! A man on horseback has met them;—they have halted." "’Tis a pity the knaves cannot see them, senor. By the elevation of this place, we command a farther view than the post which these rascals occupy by the river-side." "They must have heard the sound of the pipe to which they marched." "I do not think so; they would have fled had they heard it. Sound is said to ascend, senor." "True—" "O’d, sir," interrupted Evan, who continued to look through the vines in spite of one or two shots which were fired at him, "I would fain ken if thae chields are Gordon Highlanders or no. I think they belang to the auld forty-twa: they have some red feathers in their bonnets." "Red feathers? Not one; they are all black and white,—I see them distinctly; but whether they are the Ross-shire Buffs or any of ours, I know not. They are certainly not 42nd men; their long feathers are all white."