"Pardon," she exclaimed, "pardon, for the sake of your father's ashes--pardon, for the sake of the pain with which I bore thee, the care with which I nurtured thee!--Hear it, Heaven, and behold it, Earth--the mother asks pardon of her child, and she is refused!" It was in vain that Hamish endeavoured to stem this tide of passion, by assuring his mother, with the most solemn asseverations, that he forgave entirely the fatal deceit which she had practised upon him.
"Empty words," she said, "idle protestations, which are but used to hide the obduracy of your resentment.

Would you have me believe you, then leave the hut this instant, and retire from a country which every hour renders more dangerous.

Do this, and I may think you have forgiven me; refuse it, and again I call on moon and stars, heaven and earth, to witness the unrelenting resentment with which you prosecute your mother for a fault, which, if it be one, arose out of love to you." "Mother," said Hamish, "on this subject you move me not.

I will fly before no man.

If Barcaldine should send every Gael that is under his banner, here, and in this place, will I abide them; and when you bid me fly, you may as well command yonder mountain to be loosened from its foundations.