All that day the Prince had lain in closest hiding on a hill on the
confines of Knoydart, not a mile from the chain of sentinels. He had
slept some hours while two of the party had kept watch and the other two
had gone and foraged for food, bringing back two dry cheeses as the
result. (Old Borodale had gone back at this time; the party consisted of
his son John, Glenaladale and his brother, and Cameron of Glenpean.) All
day parties of soldiers had been searching the neighbourhood, and now
the sentinel fires were alight all along the line of defence. At
nightfall the little band started, walking silently and rapidly up a
mountain called Drumnachosi. The way was very steep, and the night very
dark. Once crossing a little stream the Prince's foot slipped, he
stumbled, and would have fallen down over a cliff had not Cameron caught
one arm and Glenaladale the other and pulled him up. From the top of the
hill they could see the sentinel fires close in front of them, and were
near enough to hear the voices of the soldiers quite distinctly. Under
cover of the friendly darkness they crept up another hill and came out
opposite another fire. At a point midway between these two posts a
mountain torrent had made a deep fissure on the side of a hill on the
further side. Could they break through the line and reach this river-bed
the overhanging banks, aided by the darkness of night, would conceal
their figures, and following the stream they could cross over into wild
broken country, where they could hide themselves. Donald Cameron, with
a fine Highland gallantry, undertook to make trial of the way first. If
he could reach the spot and return again to report 'all safe,' the rest
of the party might make the attempt. It had all to be done in a quarter
of an hour, for that was the interval at which the patrolling parties
succeeded each other.
In dead silence they waited till the sentinels had past; then as
stealthily and rapidly as a cat Cameron slipped down the hillside and
disappeared into the darkness. The rest stood breathless, straining
every nerve for the faintest sound; no footfall or falling pebble broke
the stillness, and in a few long, heavily-weighted minutes Cameron
returned and whispered that all was well. It was two o'clock now and the
darkness was growing thinner. They waited till the sentries had crossed
again and had now their backs to the passage, then they all moved
forward in perfect silence. Reaching the torrent, they sank on all fours
and one after the other crept up the rocky bed without a sound. The
dreaded cordon was passed, and in a short time they reached a place
where they were completely hidden and could take a little much-needed
rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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