THE ROUA PASS; OR, ENGLISHMEN IN THE HIGHLANDS. BY ERICK MACKENZIE. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., 65, CORNHILL. THE ROUA PASS; OB, ENGLISHMEN IN THE HIGHLANDS. CHAPTER I. THE HIGHLAND SHEPHERD'S FATE. The snow was so deep, That his heart it grew weary, In the moorland so dreary. HOGG. It gars the life-blood quicker run, CURLER'S SONG. WINTER set in at Glenbenrough with great severity in the month of January, just after Esmé and Ishbel, with their father, returned VOL. III. 1 from Strathshielie, where a large party had kept New Year with Highland honours and unabated spirit for nearly a fortnight after its entrance. They congratulated themselves on having arrived at home, for the snow-flakes began silently to fall so fast and thick, that twelve hours' delay would have made the road almost impassable. Snow fell almost uninter. ruptedly for a week, until the whole face of the country was wrapped in the white windingsheet of nature's death-like sleep; and then hard frost set in: yet the air felt warmer than it had done for weeks, for the slight breeze that occasionally shook their snowy burthen from the trees, blew from the west. Beautiful it was to stand at the open window and gaze upon the scene: the snow lay deep in a wide unstained expanse of glittering whiteness, far as the eye could reach, over hill and glen and forest; varied by shades and tints of diverse beauty, as the sun's rays gave a warm glow to the snowy waste, and cast long shadows of the trees. Groups of silvery-frosted birch hung drooping their long-veiled heads like frozen brides, and serried ranks of stalwart pines reared their snowy crests in bold relief against a wintry sky of ethereal blue, without a flake or rack of cloud; while younger pines, crowding near, brightened the old brown neutral tints with foliage of dark green. The high peak of the rocks glittered like icy spears in the sunshine, and cast their forked shadows upon the lower jutting crags. Death-like stillness reigned throughout; but it was the stillness of nature's repose-of the hybernation of the frost-bound earth; yet not without indications of the future awakening of vegetable life. There was none of the vivid colouring of summer to distract the eye: each object lay distinct in shape as if carved in marble, or clothed in a mantle of white; producing an impression of sublime tranquillity. The scenery looked loftier, the trees more massive and individualized; and, as the eye took in that vast amphitheatre of shrouded hills and forests, extending far beyond its range in one |