Page:Life and exploits of Rob Roy M'Gregor (3).pdf/18

 at such cruelty, ordered the perpetrators to stop, and demanded ‘why they treated a helpless female with such barbarity?’— The officer ordered him to begone, otherwise he would experience the same treatment, for daring to interrupt the king’s instructions,’ The miscreants were just about to toss the girl in the stream over a precipice. Rob became frantic with rage, sprung upon the soldiers, and in an instant eight of them were struggling in the pool.

The officer and the remaining ten men were confounded and stood motionless. In this pause Rob cut the cords that bound the girl; and killed the officer at one stroke. The soldiers attacked him, but he killed two of them, and the rest fled to the town, leaving him master of the field, to the unspeakable joy of the young woman, and the great delight of the peasantry who stood around.

Our hero now devoted himself to military pursuits. He selected a body of men no less resolute than himself. These bold McGregors entered into a bond of union; which no hardship could tear assunder, no contention overcome; while the masterly discipline, established by Rob, rendered them the terror of surrounding counties. They mutually recited the wrongs of their clan, and renewed the determination of