"I have said that your mother had been brought up in
solitude, and without having seen the face of another
man than her father. Such was the case;--Colonel Beverley,
of English name, but Scottish connections, was an old
gentleman of considerable eccentricity of character. He
had taken a part in the rebellion of 1715; but sick and
disgusted with an issue by which his fortunes had been
affected, and heart-broken by the loss of a beloved wife,
whose death had been accelerated by circumstances connected
with the disturbed nature of the times, he had resolved
to bury himself and child in some wild, where the face
of man, whom he loathed, might no more offend his sight.
This oasis of the mountains was the spot selected for
his purpose; for he had discovered it some years previously,
on an occasion, when, closely pursued by some of the
English troops, and separated from his followers, he had
only effected his escape by venturing on the ledges of
rock I have already described. After minute subsequent
search, at the opposite extremity of the oblong belt of
rocks that shut it in on every hand, he had discovered
an opening, through which the transport of such
necessaries as were essential to his object might be
effected; and, causing one of his dwelling houses to be
pulled down, he had the materials carried across the
rocks on the shoulders of the men employed to re-erect
them in his chosen solitude.
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