Page:Life and exploits of Rob Roy MacGregor.pdf/6

 committed an outrage on the property of a neighbour, and carried off fifteen head of cattle, an express was sent to Rob, informing him of the circumstance. Being the first call of the kind he had received since he became the protector of the vicinity, he instantly summoned a dozen of his men, and followed the plunderers. Two days and a night he travelled, without obtaining any other information as to their track, than at times seeing the impression of the cattle's feet on the ground. The second night, being fatigued, the party lay down in a glen, near the march of Badenoch. They had now rested long, when a fire was discovered at a little distance. They instantly set forward to reconnoitre, when they found it was a band of jolly tinkers, carousing near their tent, their mirth, however, was soon interrupted, when they beheld Rob Roy and his party. The tinkers informed him they had seen the Macras, who were but at a little distance; and two of the tinkers agreed to conduct the party to the spot.

The freebooters had halted, for the security of their spoil, in a narrow part of the glen, when the M'Gregors overtook them, as they were- setting out in the morning. Rob, with a loud and ter-