"Who dares abuse our cattle," said a rough voice; "shoot him down, Angus!"
"A rescue--a rescue!" shouted Rashleigh, instantly comprehending what had taken place, and, firing a pistol, he wounded the man who had spoken.
"_Claymore!_" cried the leader of the Highlanders, and an affray instantly engaged. The officers of the law, unused to such prompt bloodshed, offered little real resistance. They galloped off in different directions as fast as their beasts would carry them. Rashleigh, however, who had been dismounted, maintained on foot a desperate and single-handed conflict with the leader of the band. At last he dropped.
"Will you ask forgiveness for the sake of God, King James, and auld friendship?" demanded a voice which Frank knew well.
"Then, traitor, die in your treason!" retorted Mac-Gregor, and plunged his sword into the prostrate antagonist.
Rob Roy then drew out the attorney Clerk Jobson from the carriage, more dead than alive, and threw him under the wheel.
"Mr. Osbaldistone," he said in Frank's ear, "you have nothing to fear. Your friends will soon be in safety. Farewell, and forget not the Mac-Gregor!"
But I was instantly overwhelmed by the rush of a living wave.
"No, no," cried the children, throwing themselves upon me, "you must tell us what became of Rob Roy--of the Bailie--of Dougal!"
"And if Diana married Frank, or went to the convent?" interjected Sweetheart.
"Well," I said, "I can soon answer all these questions. Sir Frederick died soon after, but before his end he relieved his daughter from her promise to enter a convent. She married Mr. Frank Osbaldistone instead."
"And lived happy ever after?" added Maid Margaret, who was at the "fairy princess" stage of literature.
"Except when she got cross with him," commented Sir Toady, an uncompromising realist, with pessimistic views on womenkind.
"And Rob Roy held his ground among his native mountains until he died."
"Tell us about the Bailie," said Hugh John; "I liked the Bailie--he's jolly!"
I told him that he was far from being alone in that opinion.
"The Bailie," I answered, "lived, as the Maid says, happily ever after, having very wisely married his servant Mattie. He carried on all the northern affairs of Osbaldistone and Tresham, now a greater commercial house than ever, and lived to be Lord Provost of the city of Glasgow."