Read Online By Loch and by Lin by Sorche Nic Leodhas - Free Book Online Page B

errand for you to go.”
    â€œIf you would win my blessing this night,” said Bonnie Baby Livingston, “carry this letter to Johnnie Hay at Dundee. Bid him make haste to come and rescue me.” Then she showed the laddie a golden chain, and three golden guineas beside, and promised he should have them all if his errand was well-sped.
    No lad in the Highlands could run so swiftly. He ran over hill and dale as fast as a bird could fly. As the hour of midnight struck, he came to the town of Dundee, and knocked loud and long at Johnnie Hay’s door. Johnnie rose up in alarm and threw open his window and cried out, “Who’s there?”
    â€œI’ve brought you a letter from your lady,” said the laddie. “If you want to save her, you’ll have to come down quickly and speed back to Glenlion with me.”
    When Johnnie read the letter, an angry man was he! He swore that before the morning broke, the Laird of Glenlion would give up Bonnie Baby Livingston, and if any harm had come to her, the Highland laird would sorely rue this day.
    He cried to his grooms, “Come saddle the gray horse for this braw laddie. And saddle for me my milk-white steed, for it is the fleetest that ever rode out of Dundee. He sent word to all his kinsmen for them to come out to join him, and they came riding, one hundred strong.
    â€œArm yourselves well and follow me,” cried Johnnie Hay. “We’re off to Glenlion castle, for the Laird of Glenlion has stolen my true love away. I swear I’ll neither eat nor sleep until Bonnie Baby Livingston is safe at home in Dundee!”
    Then Johnnie mounted his milk-white steed and put the laddie on the gray, and with his kinsmen he galloped off, and reached Glenlion in sight of the castle walls about the break of day. They left their horses on the road and through the gates crept quietly. Johnnie’s kinsmen took places to guard the door, but the laddie took Johnnie to the wall below the window in the tower.
    At the window Baby stood, as the morning mists were rising gray, and she heard her true love calling to her and looked down, and there below was Johnnie Hay!
    â€œJump from the window, Baby!” he said. “You need not fear to fall. My arms are strong to hold you safe, and my kinsmen are at the castle gate, so you’re free from Glenlion’s power.”
    But Baby feared to leap so far, for the tower window was high, so she made a rope of her coverlets and tied it fast above, and then she climbed down along the wall and Johnnie caught her in his arms before her foot could touch the ground. Then he set her before him on his horse and the two of them merrily rode away. As they sped away Baby looked back at the castle and cried with glee, “Glenlion, you have lost your bride. She’s gone off with her true love, Johnnie Hay!”
    Glenlion sat with his brother Jock, waiting for the priest to come. As Johnnie and Baby rode by the gate, the young laird heard the ringing of Johnnie’s bridle chain. The laird called out to his brother Jock. “Go meet the priest and bring him in! I hear the clang of his bridle chain.” Well pleased he was, as he laughed and said, “Now Bonnie Baby Livingston will be my wife before the larks rise up to sing.”
    Jock looked out the grill of the door, and back to his brother he ran and said, “Brother, that was no priest who came, and if he comes now, he’ll come too late. There’s a hundred of Johnnie Hay’s kinsmen, armed with swords, standing outside at the castle door.”
    The Laird of Glenlion stood in his hall, and raised a shout for his men. “Arm yourselves!” cried the Highland laird. “And take your swords in hand. We’ll make these Dundee rascals sorry they came here today!”
    Glenlion’s men all drew their swords and gave a warlike shout. But with a hundred of Johnnie Hay’s men outside to stand against the laird’s twenty