I come to your young chief, as one who had refuge with me in his distress--who ate of my bread and drank of my cup.

I ask of him refuge, which, as I trust, I shall need but a short time." "That makes a different case," replied the herdsman.

"So different, that, if you came at midnight to the gate of MacIan, having the King of Scotland's head in your hand, and a thousand men in pursuit for the avenging of his blood, I could not think it for his honour to refuse you protection.

And for your innocence or guilt, it concerns not the case; or rather, he ought the more to shelter you if guilty, seeing your necessity and his risk are both in that case the greater.

I must straightway to him, that no hasty tongue tell him of your arriving hither without saying the cause." "A pity of your trouble," said the glover; "but where lies the chief ?" "He is quartered about ten miles hence, busied with the affairs of the funeral, and with preparations for the combat--the dead to the grave and the living to battle." "It is a long way, and will take you all night to go and come," said the glover; "and I am very sure that Conachar when he knows it is I who--" "Forget Conachar," said the herdsman, placing his finger on his lips.
"And as for the ten miles, they are but a Highland leap, when one bears a message between his friend and his chief." So saying, and committing the traveller to the charge of his eldest son and his daughter, the active herdsman left his house two hours before midnight, to which he returned long before sunrise.