Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-27
CHAPTER w.
Thou Also False.


Dundee was man of many trials and
one on whom fortune seldom smiled; but
the most cruel days of his life were the
ride from Inverness by the Pass of Cor
ryarraCk to Blair Athole and from Blair
Athole by Perth to Dundee He learned
then, az many men have done In times of
their distress, the horror of the night time
and the blessing of the light. Had his
mind not been affected by the universal
freachery of the time and the disappolnt-
nents he had met every side, till it
secmed that every man except himself was
bunting after his own interest, and no one
Nigh or low, could be trusted. he had from
She beginning treated Grimond's story with
contempt and made it a subject of Jest
lie would no more have doubted Jeans
honor than that of his mother lie would
have known that Grimond never lied and
that he did not often drink. but he also
would have been sure that even If 1t was
Jean who met Iivings lone that there was
some good explanation, and he never would
have allowed his thoughts to dwell upon
the matter. If Jean had been told that
Graham had been seen with lady of the
court at Whitehall, she would have scorned
To question him. and, indeed, she had often
laughed at the snares certain frail beau
ties of that day had laid for him in Lon
don. For she knew him, and he also knew
her. But he was sorely tried in spirit and
driven half crazy by the disloyalty of his
friends, and IL is in these circumstances of
morbid, unhealthy feeling that the seeds of
suspicion find a root and grow. as the mi
crobes settle upon susceptible and disor-
dered organs of the body.
AS IT was, he was divided in his mind,
and II was the alienation of dark and
bright moods which made his agony. Spring
had only reached the Highlands as he rode
southwark, but its first touches had made
everything winsome and beautiful. While
patches of snow fingered -on the higher
hills, and glittered in the sunlight. the
grass in the hollows between the heather
was putting on the first greenness of the
season, and the heather was sprouting
bravely; the burns were full-bod:ed with
the melting snow from the higher levels
and rushing with a pleasant noise to Join
the river As he came down from the bare
uplands at Dalnaspidal into the sheltered
glen at Blair Castle. the trees made an
arch OF the most delicate emerald over his
head for the buds were beginning to open,
and the wind blew gently upon his face
The sight OF habitdtions as he came nearer
TO the Lowlands, the sound of the horses
feet upon the road, the gayety of his band
OF troopers. the children playing before
their humble cottages, the exhlarating air,
and the nope OF the season when winter
was gone, told upon his heart and reinforced
him The despair of the night before, when
he tossed TO and fro upon wretched bed
or paced up and down before the farm
y
horrible, passed away q nightmare. Was
there ever such madness that he, john
Graham, should be doubling his wife, Jean
COchrane, whom he had won from the
midst OF his enemies. and who had left her
mother and her mothers house TO be his
bride? How brave she had been how self
sacrificing how accomplishing. how proud
IN heart and high in sptlt she had given
UP the whole world for him she was the
bravest and purest of ladies. That his wife
Of those years of storm and the mother
few weeks ago of his child should forget
her VOWS and her love, and condescend to
a base intrigue; that she should meet a
lover in the orchard where they often used
to walk, where the blossom would now be
opening the trees, that Livingstone,
whom he knew and counted In a sense a
friend, though he held King Williams com
mission now. and had not stood by the
right side, should take the opportunity OF
his absence to Seduce his WIFE, 1t was a
hdeuus and incredible idea. some mad mis-
take which could be easily explained. Dun
dee. throwing off his black and brooding
burden OF thought, would touch his horse
with the spur and galop for mile in
gayety Of heart and then ride on his way,
singing some Cavalier song, till Grimond,
who kept away from his master those days
and rode among the troopers, would shake
his head. and say to himself God grant
he be not fey tpossessed). Dundee would
continue In high spirits till the evening
shadows began to fall, and then the other
shadow would lengthen across his soul.
The night before he met his wife he spent
In CLAIMS Castle, and the GRIM austere
beauty of that ancient house affected his
imagination. Up Its winding stairs with
their bare, stern walls men had gone in
their armor through the thickness of the
outer walls secret stairs connected mys-
ferrous chambers one with another. Strange
deeds had been done in those low-roofed
rooms with their dark carved furniture,
and there were secret places in the castle
where ghosts of the past had their habita-
ton. Weird figures We're said to fit through
the castle at night. restless spirits which
revisited the scene OF former tragedies and
crimes, and the room In which Graham
slept was known 10 be haunted. Alas he
needed no troubled ancestor OF the Strath-
more house TO visit him. for his own
thoughts were sufficient torment, and
through the brief summer night and then
through the dawning light of the morning
he thrashed the question which gnawed his
heart. Evil suggestions and suspicious re-
membranes OF the past. which would have
fled before the sunlight, surrounded him
and looked out at him from the shadow
with gibbering faces. Had he not been
told that Jean laid traps for him in Pals
ley that she might secure the safety of
her lover Pollock. and also of her kins-
man. Sir John Cochrane? Had she not
often spoken warmly of that covenanting
minister and expressed her bitter regret
that her husband had comprised PollOcks
death? She had tried 10 keep him from at
tending the convention, and of late days
had often suggested that he had better
be at peace and not stir up the country.
After ALL can you take out of the life what
is bred in the homeland Jean Cochrane
was of a covenanting stock, and her
mother "A very harridan of bigotry. Might
there not have been some sense in the fear
of his friends that he would longer be
loyal to the good cause, and was Jock
Grimonds grudge against his marriage
mere stupidity and jealousy? Every one
was securing his safety and adjusting him
self to the new regime; there was hardly
n lOwland gentleman who had irretrlevably
pledged himself TO King James, and as for
the chiefs, they would fight for their own
hand they had always done, and could
only be counted on for one thing, and that
was securing plumber. Was not he alone
and would not he soon be either on the