On the right hand, the mountain rose above the path with almost
equal inaccessibility; but the hill on the opposite side displayed a
shroud of copsewood, with which some pines were intermingled.
'This,' said Evan, 'is the pass of Bally-Brough, which was kept in former
times by ten of the clan Donnochie against a hundred of the Low-Country
carles. The graves of the slain are still to be seen in that little
corrie, or bottom, on the opposite side of the burn; if your eyes are
good, you may see the green specks among the heather. See, there is an
earn, which you Southrons call an eagle. You have no such birds as that
in England. He is going to fetch his supper from the Laird of
Bradwardine's braes, but I 'll send a slug after him.'
He fired his piece accordingly, but missed the superb monarch of the
feathered tribes, who, without noticing the attempt to annoy him,
continued his majestic flight to the southward. A thousand birds of prey,
hawks, kites, carrion-crows, and ravens, disturbed from the lodgings
which they had just taken up for the evening, rose at the report of the
gun, and mingled their hoarse and discordant notes with the echoes which
replied to it, and with the roar of the mountain cataracts.
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