THE CAVE OF EIGG. told, jests were passed, the music sounded crag, now leaping over deep chasms, the its merriest notes, and laugh and song spray of the billows almost blinding them, mingled in one wild scene of gaiety. Even and the roar of the maddened waves thunderthe Earl was unconscious of the rapid flight|ing in the ears. of time. Nearly an hour had passed since accomplished, and, breasting the boiling The last descent was Ulla left the hall, yet he could have sworn surf, they had nearly reached the boat, she had not been gone fifteen minutes, when when their escape was suddenly cut off by suddenly a kinsman of the chieftain rushed a band of Eiggmen, who rushed upon them. in, breathless with speed, exclaiming"Haste, haste! Earl Ranald, your bride powered by numbers, stunned by brutal They fought like lions; but, at length, everis stolen awa'! The bark of the ravishers blows, the blood streaming from many 18 already passing the Skerry-vohr! Haste!" wounds, they were bound hand and foot and "Ha! there is treachery here, then! Vile conveyed to the castle, where they were dog, I expected this!" exclaimed Earl thrown down into the corner of the courtRanald, drawing his sword, and rushing yard like brute beasts packed for the upon the chief of Eigg. butchers' shambles, to wait the return of the chief. With a blow from his heavy broad-sword, the enraged chieftain struck the weapon of the earl from his hand. Far out upon the raging sea, like a thing instinct with life, bearing the fate of two "Would you stop to bandy words with devoted beings, the little bark of Malcolm me, instead of pursuing your bride! Ho, bore bravely on, now riding on the top of men of Eigg! haste, man the boats, pursue, lose not a moment! You, Donald, sweep the mountain waves, now plunging down the huge black gulfs, as it were, into the around the point of Mull; you, Alick, cross very depths of the ocean; on, on, trembling, to Rum, steer for the eastern shore; and reeling, dashes the little boat. Once round the you, Earl Ranald, if you would win your rocky headland, and they are safe; for there bribe again, bear all sail for the main land. rides a stranger ship from England, waitAnd ah! now I bethink me, where are ing to bear the lovers to her own beautiful our guests? Now, by St. Columba, we are land. betrayed!" The range of the chief was terrible as, rushing from the hall, in tones of thunder, he bade his men pause and bring back the slaves alive or dead. tined to reach! For now the boats of the Alas! that headland they were not despursuers are fast gaining upon them; and first the galley of Earl Ranald plunges past All was now confusion. While the men quickly changing her course, bears down like them, half buried in the foaming waves, then flew hither and thither, in obedience to the some huge bird of prey upon the little bark ; orders of McDonald, the women tossed their while the boats of the Eiggmen, with their arms widely, uttering loud wails for the chief standing bare-headed at the prow of stolen bride. Some hastened to cast off the the foremost, his gray locks sweeping to the boats in pursuit of the fugitives, while fore- wind, follow close behind. A wild shout, most the galley of Earl Ranald, bending to which echoes even above the roaring of the the sweeping blast, the black seas rushing blast, proclaims the fate of the unhappy over her deck, dashed like a mad thing be- fugitives. fore the gale, which was now every moment increasing. They are taken, and, loaded with curses In the mêlée, the companions of Malcolm and bitter taunts, borne back to the castle. thought to secure their escape to their boat, McDonald, when, in the abducted of his No language can do justice to the fury of rocking among the dangerous shoals of daughter, he discovered the sunken rocks shelving down from the Scuir- bitterest foe, McLeod, of Skye. Even his son of his Eigg. Already they had scaled the precipitous kinsmen and followers shrank appalled as ridge, and were rapidly making their danger- they listened to such terrible oaths, and ous descent, now hanging from some jutting witnessed the storm of passion. No ray of pity shed its softening light ings, who still breathed, the near kinsmen of o'er his savage soul, as, seizing the wretched McLeod. Ulla, the paleness of death upon her marble The dreadful tidings soon spread; and a brow, her garments wet with the spray of long procession of the islanders, men, women, the ocean clinging to her delicate limbs, and and children, with shrieks of woe and loud her mournful gaze still fastened upon her lamentations, bore the remains of their lover, he dragged her to the side of Earl young chief to Dunvegan. Ranald, and bade the priest porform his The grief of the aged McLeod at first office. It was, indeed, a refinement of stunned even the desire for vengeance on cruelty, even in the presence of Malcolm, the murderers of his son. But the more thus to make his Ulla the bride of another! terrible was the revulsion from this overFate could have nought in store to equal whelming sorrow. His own, his brave, his the bitter anguish of that moment; neither noble boy, the hope of his aged years, thus torture or death itself could now appal his foully slain! With deep and bitter oaths, soul. he vowed he would exterminate the race of No sooner was this unhallowed rite con- McDonald, sparing neither sex nor age; and summated, than, bearing off his insensible with a numerous force did the chief of Skye bride, Earl Ranald immediately set sail for now bear down upon Eigg. the Orkneys. Then McDonald, bidding his| But McDonald had already anticipated the myrmidons seize the young chieftain, they approach of the foe; and, knowing it was bore him with savage yells to immediate vain to compete with numbers more than death. In a few moments, all that re-double the whole population of the island, mained of that brave and noble youth was had recourse to stratagem. a lifeless, mutilated corse! Among the numerous caverns with which This done, the chief of Eigg hastened to Eigg abounds, there was one which was complete his vengeance upon the unfortu- known only to the chief himself, and this nate kinsmen of Malcolm, who, young and cavern he had long determined upon as a ardent like himself, had so generously volun- means of escape in an emergency like the teered to share in the adventure fraught present. It was situated about midway of with so much danger, and which was des- the island, its mouth or entrance being tined to terminate so fatally. First strip- hidden by an impetuous fall of water plungping them of their clothing, and shockingly ing down the overhanging mass of rocks. maltreating their persons, their tongues This entrance was so very narrow that but were slit with red-hot knives, and then, one person could at one time pass through; chained to the dead body of the young chief, but this effected, it soon opened into an area they were cast into a worthless boat and set of some two hundred feet. adrift upon the stormy ocean. "Go now," cried the chief-" go find your master, and bid him see how Skyemen are entertained by the chief of Eigg!" To this cave, then, did the chief of Eigg, with every living soul upon the island, hastily betake himself. The boats of the enemy swiftly approached; and, like bloodAs if guided by an unseen hand, the boat hounds scenting their prey, did the Skyemen with its appealing freight kept steadily and spring upon the shore, handed by McLeod. safely on over the storm-tossed billows to- But they fonnd no one. Not a human being wards the coast of Skye. Some fishermen, met their infuriated search. Again and again overtaken by the storm, were just nearing they explored every part of the island; but the shore, when their attention was attracted in vain. It was evident that, fearing the by the drifting boat, and steering for it, they vengeance of McLeod, the inhabitants, with were struck with horror at the spectacle their chief, had left the island. Setting fire it presented. They recognized at once the to the castle, therefore, and the surrounding body of their beloved young chieftain, and, dwellings, McLeod and his followers realthough so cruelly mutilated, they also dis- treated to their boats. But it was now near covered in those other bleeding, helpless be- night, and, in the mean time, so dense a fog THE CAVE OF EIGG. had arisen that it was impossible to steer pleasant green holm, through which it had with any safety from the shore, through the wound its way to the rocky precipice. dangerous rocks and shoals with which they were surrounded. They, therefore, resolved Donald to surrender. It was answered by Once more did McLeod call upon Me to remain where they were until the morn- the same burst of defiance, and such bitter, ing. During the night, there was a fall of snow, and, with the dawn of day, the island appeared shrouded as with a wedding-sheet, while the smoke of the smouldering ruins at the mouth of the cavern. hung like a funeral-pall above it. chief of Skye. Then, bidding his men bring insulting taunts as well nigh maddened the thither everything of a combustible nature which could be procured, he sat fire to them Unmoved by the shrieks of the females, or The chief of Skye, unwilling to lose his the cries of helpless infancy, the greedy prey, resolved upon making another search flames were fast fed, until the deep silence through the island, and landed accord- of the grave assured McLeod the deed was ingly with his men. They had not pro-done and his revenge completed! ceeded far, when, upon the surface of the 'pure white snow, they found the fresh track meet their dreadful fate within that dark Thus did the whole population of Eigg of a man's foot! This discovery was hailed cavern, which is still visited by the traveller. with a shout; for it proved the foe were yet upon the island. Eagerly now did they Voyage to the Hebrides and the Orkney Sir Walter Scott, in his "Diary of a pursue the track until it was lost in the Islands," says: foam of the torrent. The entrance to the cave was soon dis- is strewed with the bones of men, women, "The rude and stony bottom of this cave covered, while the shouts of the invaders and children, being the sad relics of the were answered by the yell of defiance from ancient inhabitants of the island, two hunwithin. dred in number, who were slain on the fol To make egress through the narrow open-lowing occasion." Sir Walter then relates a ing would be certain death, as but one per- portion of the legend from which this sketch son could at the same time pass through. is drawn. McLeod, therefore, called upon the chief of Eigg to surrender himself and followers into made of the fate of the unfortunate Ulla. No further record seems to have been his hands. This demand was met with shouts of derision. He then dared MeDonald to an equal combat; this was also received with defiance. TO-MORROW. Don't tell me of to-morrow; If we act and never wait; Then did McLeod determine upon a horrible vengeance; although to effect it would require a labor Herculean. To turn that powerful stream from its natural channel was the first thing to be accomplished; and the chief himself, with his men, began eagerly the stupendous undertaking with such rude implements as they could procure, either from their boats or amid the ruins of the castle. Strengthened by revenge and hatred, in less time than could be deemed possible the work was accomplished, and the stream which for ages on ages had pends not so much on affairs of moment as leaped over that cavern's mouth, now spread on the disposition of the trifles that daily itself out into a small lake, overflowing the occur. Of the past that comes too late! THE calm or disquiet of our temper de THE SUPERFLUOUS MAN. BY CAROLINE CHEESEBRO. and significance of the piece, that he might well gaze upon it in critic mood with calm delight, occasioned by the fine display of She “To know another perfectly would cost the study of a artistic skill. The lady who stood near him life. What, then, is meant by knowledge of mankind? Governed, they may be, by each other, but understood was young, and it was touching to see these by God alone."--MADAME DE STAEL. beings, one on the free mountain-top of youth, THERE is in a certain gallery a painting the other, a tenant of the vale of years, that is a poem, a history, a world in itself. yielding this silent testimony to the touching Unto how many has it been the occasion of symbol of an awful truth-for apparently a shudder, and a hasty turning away! how the lady, too, had proved its reality. many-toned have been the voices that said, was not a child, yet scarcely a woman; you “Thank God, I am not as these!"-how saw, at a glance, that she was powerful many are the eyes that have turned, tear- through intellectual gifts, though in nature filled away, to find rest and refreshment in still undeveloped. the clear, holy landscapes near! The artist It seemed as though she had been drawn has embodied an idea, meet to haunt one in by some fascination to the painting, for the loneliness of dreams, through dreary twice, before, during the hour of her visit, days of solitude, in, she had paused before it, and gazed upon the several pictures long and earnestly, THE LINEN WEAVERS OF SILESIA. How has the heart of the philanthropist though without any visible sign of emotion: leaped within him as he gazed upon it! the expression of the scene had penetrated How wearily and sickened has the scholar beyond the fountain of tears. turned away from this new revelation of the To a discerning third party these two had unmitigable sentence! All who have learned proved as much a study as the painting the "knowledge" that "by suffering en was to them. Overwhelming disappointment tereth," have seen in the picture an embodied had doubtless fallen upon the man, and the sentiment of universal signification and exlady was evidently conscious of the allegoric perience. and wide significance of the drama before You do not see before you an able repre- her. To the man it was experience-to the sentation of the fainting and despairing woman, she arrayed in those funeral garments weaver-woman only. You are not spell-who, standing in this presence had thrown bound there, limited to time, and place, an aside her long veil, revealing thus the blueincident. Alas! were it but so! But the eyed, fair-haired beauty that she wore, to soul of the beholder hears the groan ascend-her-to her-what was it? a vision merely, ing from every people, and nation, and an improved revelation of the inmost rekindred, and tribe, and tongue; sees the cesses of reality? universal heart swooning beneath the mandate of fate, the destiny, the doom-sees it fall back from the pitiless presence, as SHE before the supercilious judges of linen fabric -sees the starved soul, the baffled intellect, the thwarted, repulsed love, the mocked ambition, the taunted aspiration, lying helpless under the weight of the dreadful disappointment. There was, in another hemisphere, another gallery, wherein was placed the original of this picture. "I will copy it," said the old man, halfturning towards her, yet speaking as to himself, "and I'll hang it where it shall be always in my sight. I will learn the lesson in such a way that it shall never escape my mind again." 66 "It is a dreadful lesson," said the lady; once learned, I should not think it could be forgotten!" "Why, then, do you look upon it so many times ?" "It fascinates me." "You will shudder to think of such a There stood at the close of an autumnal day, before this painting, two persons rapt in thought, and an unterrified admiration. So deeply had the iron entered into the soul of the fascination hereafter. I had rather see one elder, so little had he yet to learn of the spirit like you passing before those radiant images of life. THE SUPERFLUOUS MAN. You are so young, you should not be able to see the force of this." Half-smiling, the lady replied, "I need) 66 Are your own mind, fearing a forced, involuntary "I am an artist," she said quietly. survey of the work?" "I have been studying it." "No." "Nor yet an actress, perhaps?" "You are a Poet." "I am, thank God !" "With what do you contend ?" "The common lot," said he, pointing to the painting. "I have energy equal to Napoleon's." "And may I ask the conclusion-the of Waterloo." judgment at which you have arrived ?" said the old man, respectfully. Without raising her eyes, gazing still steadfastly upon the picture, she said I "He who does is fit for exile." "I would never have suffered this to stand noble. If I had met you in my youth!" "My path has been filled with stumbling frenzy of despair, impassioned, strong, and blocks." bent on victory-and in that determination victorious, crowned with a fore-knowledge as to walk on them? Is that so?" of honour." "And you could not elevate yourself so "For that is your idea of life!" "I am an artist. Should an artist live and cherish another belief? "Child, what do you teach me ?" It was growing dark in the gallery, and My creed is faith the shades that settled along the pictures in aspiration-I believe it to be the prophet first rendered the lady conscious of this; as of success. I am strong: I know I am, be- she bowed, with a deal of reverence, before cause I have been weak, and I know too well the grey head of the old man, and turned to what weakness is. I have said, 'I will go, he saidtriumph.' You, sir, are an artist? said that long ago to yourself!" You "I begin this copy to-morrow; will you like to know my progress?" 66 She had been gazing full in his face during the latter part of the conversation, and ing on the serene, sad, beautiful face of the "Yes," she replied, with confidence, look, had seen all the emotion of his soul speak- stranger; and he watching her closely, ing there in language unmistakable. was a disappointed, grieved, distrustful glisten as she turned away slowly, repeating He blessed her, for he thought he saw her eyes "You are young," was his reply; "Ithoven's life I said, 'I will never repine ;' the words of another, "When I read Beetrust you will never learn another language when I heard his symphony, I said, 'I will than this. You will triumph! What you triumph." man. have to overcome ?" "You are happy to have found in anything "A barrier of condition. The pride, and above the human your consoler and your inhate, and jealousy of those who should be spiration. That is, indeed, worthy of a poet, friends and helpmates. Wounds which life, and most glorious. Who told you that you not death shall heal Wrongs which have were a poet ?” been inflicted falsely-which shall be fairly overcome. "You are not a painter ?" "God." |