Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/366

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A DESCRIPTION OF

my expedition, I cannot say. He reported, however, from the distance he met me from King's House, that he was sure I could not return thither that night; but he was mistaken.

When I was in Glen Coe, I heartily wished I had been provided to go on to Bellaheulish, where I was told is a striking view of mountain and lake; but it was then out of my power to do so, and I continued my route in Glen Coe, as far as the time before dark would permit. The plain of the glen may be about four miles, with a lake in the middle of it: it now consists of two sheep farms, and there are not more than three or four mean habitations in the glen; and its population is much under thirty persons. As I passed by the spot where old Macdonald and the greatest part of his clan were massacred, I could not help paying the tribute of a sigh for their melancholy fate. To be in friendship one hour, and butchered indiscriminately the next, by those whom they had feasted and caressed, is a tale to shudder at. The spot on which the bloody deed was perpretrated is about the midway of the plain.

When I had walked and carted for about nine miles from King's House, I was with regret obliged, out of compassion for the Highlandman