Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/234

184 should not remain here too long. He said, 'Let the poor man repose himself after his fatigues! and as for me, I care not, though they take off this old grey head ten or eleven years sooner than I should die in the course of nature.' he then wrapped himself in the bed-clothes, and again fell fast asleep." That same afternoon the two fugitives set off for Portree, where the Prince took boat for Raasay.

Had our travellers ridden the whole distance from Kingsburgh to Dunvegan they would have travelled a weary way in rounding

THE FERRY TO KINGSBURGH.

Lochs Snizort and Grishinish. But they sent their horses by land to a point on the other shore of the further loch, and crossed over themselves in Macdonald of Kingsburgh's boat. "When," said Johnson, "we take into computation what we have saved and what we have gained by this agreeable sail, it is a great deal." They had still some miles of dreary riding through the most melancholy of moorlands. There were no roads or even paths. "A guide," writes Boswell, "explored the way, much in the same manner as, I suppose, is pursued in the wilds of America, by observing certain marks known only to the inhabitants." In some places the ground