"I am the widow of MacTavish Mhor--I am the mother of Hamish MacTavish Bean,--give me to eat, that I may once more see my fair-haired son." Her demand was never refused, though granted in many cases with a kind of struggle between compassion and aversion in some of those to whom she applied, which was in others qualified by fear.

The share she had had in occasioning the death of Allan Breack Cameron, which must probably involve that of her own son, was not accurately known; but, from a knowledge of her violent passions and former habits of life, no one doubted that in one way or other she had been the cause of the catastrophe, and Hamish Bean was considered, in the slaughter which he had committed, rather as the instrument than as the accomplice of his mother.
This general opinion of his countrymen was of little service to the unfortunate Hamish.

As his captain, Green Colin, understood the manners and habits of his country, he had no difficulty in collecting from Hamish the particulars accompanying his supposed desertion, and the subsequent death of the non-commissioned officer.

He felt the utmost compassion for a youth, who had thus fallen a victim to the extravagant and fatal fondness of a parent.

But he had no excuse to plead which could rescue his unhappy recruit from the doom which military discipline and the award of a court-martial denounced against him for the crime he had committed.
No time had been lost in their proceedings, and as little was interposed betwixt sentence and execution.