Of Allan himself it is said,that,in a wonderfully short space after the deed was committed,he burst into a room in the Castle of Inverary,where Argyle was sitting in council,and flung on the table his bloody dirk.
"Is it the blood of James Grahame?"said Argyle,a ghastly expression of hope mixing with the terror which the sudden apparition naturally excited.
"It is the blood of his minion,"answered M'Aulay--"It is the blood which I was predestined to shed,though I would rather have spilt my own."
Having thus spoken,he turned and left the castle,and from that moment nothing certain is known of his fate.As the boy Kenneth,with three of the Children of the Mist,were seen soon afterwards to cross Lochfine,it is supposed they dogged his course,and that he perished by their hand in some obscure wilderness.
Another opinion maintains,that Allan M'Aulay went abroad and died a monk of the Carthusian order.But nothing beyond bare presumption could ever be brought in support of either opinion.
His vengeance was much less complete than he probably fancied;
for Menteith,though so severely wounded as to remain long in a dangerous state,was,by having adopted Major Dalgetty's fortunate recommendation of a cuirass as a bridal-garment,happily secured from the worst consequences of the blow.But his services were lost to Montrose;and it was thought best,that he should be conveyed with his intended countess,now truly a mourning bride,and should accompany his wounded father-in-law to the castle of Sir Duncan at Ardenvohr.Dalgetty followed them to the water's edge,reminding Menteith of the necessity of erecting a sconce on Drumsnab to cover his lady's newly-acquired inheritance.