BACK TO PRISON

When I woke up, Ranald made me a wonderful breakfast.
"Time to go now," he said when I finished and sat back in the chair,  "There`s someone I`d like you to meet."
"Who`s that?" I wanted to know.
"A very learned man. A professor of great knowledge. He specializes in all things to do with the kind of experiences you`ve been having. Let`s go to the auto."
I had seen machines of this kind before,but this one was different.It had a a kind of black skirt around it, made of  thick rubber.
We settled down into close-fitting seats. He strapped me in very tightly
"Don`t be alarmed," he said, we shall be travelling at speeds over 300 miles per hour. Best to be safe, but it`s almost impossible to have a collision. Don`t worry."
Now I couldn`t remember much about my time in London,but I was sure that motor cars in those days did not travel at half that speed.
I began to worry that Ranald was not entirely as he seemed and to wonder what I had got myself into this time. When people say "Don`t worry" now,I start worrying straight away



He fired the thing up and it lifted on a carpet of air.  In a few seconds, after he`d twiddled various dials in front of him, he pressed a large red handle and we shot off
Over marsh and mountain we flew and when he came down onto the plain, where you might expect to see roads and towns, there were none.
But our speed never slackened.
I could see Edinburgh Castle and most of the city seemed to be there but the other places had vanished.  Soon we were back up on the hills and before I could catch sight of it, we swept down over a rushing stream and drew up, spinning round, in front of a huge house that had been built to look like a castle.  

We climbed out. A man in a white coat came rushing out to meet us. Behind him in close attendance came two very burly-looking women, also in white coats, who circled round behind me.
"The line was not very clear," said the white-coated man, "What is  this all about?"
"You`ll have your work cut out with this one," said Ranald, "Reckons he fought against General Agricola at Ynis Mon.  Which would make him nearly three thousand years old. He says he was imprisoned in the castle on Loch Fyne, bit that`s been uninhabited for five hundred years at least."
"I see," said the other and nodded tot eh two women, who clasped my arms behind my back.  The white-coated man came up behind me.
I felt a sharp sting in my bottom and almost immediately fell asleep.

                                            Through a storm 

As I trudged wearily away from my castle prison through the pouring rain, I reflected on the strange workings of fate.
Here I was, cold and wet, and there they were, my imprisoners, running off to fight a battle they would certainly lose.
Of course, if I didn`t find some food and shelter soon, I was not going to be going any further myself. After two weeks in a cold, wet dungeon with hardly any food the chances of reaching safety before I was turned into wolf or bear breakfast.
I was trying as hard as I could to remember the key to moving on. It didn`t matter where as far as I was concerned.
What I wanted to do was run.This would keep me warm and bring me nearer to somewhere.  In that part of the world, there can be more than a day`s travel between Somewheres.

As fate decided, I stopped to get a stone out of my shoe when I saw someone striding towards me.
 "Good Heavens, dear boy! What on Earth are you doing?"
He was dressed in a bright red mantle,with a hood and black leggings.  It was quite hard to understand his accent, but his eyes widened as I gave my explanation.
 "Look," he said, "This is all very fascinating. I could listen all day. Thing is, it`s definitely breakfast time and you look done in. I`ve taken a little croft just over there. Would you like to join me?"
I joined him to the extent of demolishing a huge breakfast of porridge and kippers, toast and marmalade until I nearly burst.  


This was a modern house. I must have slipshifted without realizing it while I was trying to wok out my codes, going through all the possibilities.  There was heating of some kind,soft armchairs, a hot bath and a spare bed.   Ranald was a writer, working on a very different area of Scottish history. Luckily, he knew about Druids and was not in the least shocked by what I was saying. It did not cross his mind to have me Sectioned as a dangerous lunatic.


  When I finally woke up it was dark. The rain was still lashing down against the windows.
  A pot of venison stew was bubbling on the stove. A bottle of French wine was taking the air close by.
  As we finished off the wine, we continued our discussions.
  "Listen," he said, "Is there any way that you could take me with you? On your travels." 
I had no idea what to say.  At the back of my I had a vague memory of being warned not to reveal my codes and he saw  the doubts on my face. Two thousand years before. 
  "This is difficult for you," Ranald said, "I see that. I don`t want to put undue pressure on you. Not at all. Why not sleep on it?  See if anything turns up. If it doesn`t, it doesn`t. Is that fair?"
  So I lay down and slept deeply.
 

 

prison diary 2

So there I was,all innocent you might say and willing to help out with the spying. "This,"  I thought to myself, "is where I set myself up. Where I make myself popular."  So I happily squeezed into  the space between the outer wall and the secret wall. ThenI settled down to wait.

The guests came in. As far as I could tell, there were two lots.  One from the islands and one from down Glen Elg, where they had rights to the ferry.  Our man was very cheery with them both, pouring the best claret and the best whisky as if they were water. They wer talkingof a geat battle at which they planned to finish off the English threat. It was all going like  a song  until the laird`s son came running in.

He was soaking wet and covered in mud. "Quick!" he cried, "Mairie`s run away with the son of Strathnever."   At that the laird made his excuses and left. "Enjoy yourselves,"he told his guests. I know where they`ve gone. I`ll be back within the hour. There`s food a-plenty, so do not stint yourselves."

With that he was away with much banging of doors. It had all been arranged because he suspected  these two of treachery of his two guests and he wanted to give them the chance to air their thoughts.  They  sat downand began to make a thorough job of deciding how they were to turn on the laird and kill his whole family. You may be sure I noted all this most carefully and started looking forward to my reward.

When the laird came back, he immediately ran to my hiding place and dragged me out.  Surrounded by his men. He made me tell my tale, then started blaming me for spying, saying I was working for the English, or the Cambells at any rate, and that he would deal with me later. Once again, I was escorted to the dungeon. 

This time I was not so foolish. I had found a pistol lying in the secret passage and stuck it in my waistband. So I was able to fell my jailer with a single blow to the back of the head. I gagged him with his shirt and locked him in.  

There was a terrific row going on the Hall and was able to creep out of the castle. I found the horses, mounted one and drove the others in front of me. My time learning to drive a chariot was not wasted.

And that was how I escaped. I missed eseing Bonnie Prince Charlie,but you can have too muchvfun in one day. As soon as Iwas sure I ad got clear, I peformed the ritual for moving and came back down..... well, you`ll have to wait and see now.  I  have learned to read and write and I know a bit about the Romans. But there are many parts of Diarmid`story I know nthing about . And there are things I have to learn about the modern age.  It is important that I doscover how things are for you.

May the wind be always at your back.

celts v romans: conor`s blog

Sorry. I fell asleep.  I forget now how ling I was in that dungeon. You see I`d gone up to visit the Picts, in Scotland.
I wanted to learn about how they helped teh Brigants in their long fight with the Romans. The were rebellions all the time they were here. The Romans, that is.
Well, you know how it is with this Slipshifting.  I ended up miles out of my way. And in the wrong time.  The Scots were about to rebel and try to put Bonnie Prince Charlie on the throne of England.

At teh time, there were a lot of English spies about. And scottish spies working for the English. And French spies working for the Scots and the English and everyonebwas getting all het up about it. 
At the time, I had been workingon my Scots Gaelic,which was quite good. The only trouble was I had the wrong accent.

So natrually,I was hit on the head. They put me on a cart and dragged me off to a loch in the North-West of the country, in an area called Assynt.  Now Assynt is very wild and windy and cold, and it`s full of bears and wolves. It is also full of castles and to avod the bears and wolves, they build them on islands in the middle of lochs. 

What with all the excitement going on everywhere, people coming and going bday and night, discussion going on with these people and nobody quite sure who to trust, I ws forgotten for a couple of weeks. 
I lay in a dungeon with only rats for company sothat when they did finallpullme out, I was in a bad way. Or rather, avery bad way.  They could see there wanot much left of me, so whenI told them my story,they were very sorry for what had happened.

At that time, people were more likely to believe in ghosts and all that kind of thing, so it was easy for them to accept that I wasn`t lying.  They were holding me out of an upper window by my ankles, which made it more likely that I was telling the truth.  

After that they couldn`t do enough for me.  I was fed and given whisky, which was very pleasant and I had a bed to sleep in.  It turned out that they wanted someone to do a bit of spying, on their best friends and closest neighbours.  For this purpose,they had built a spare wall,just far enough from the outer wall for a body to slip along.  This passage ran along the Great Hall, just under the roof and anyone who was in it could hear what was being said at dinner, about twelve feet below. 

Look, I`m feeling very tired again I htnik ll`I sujt go to plees agina........................

                                                         PRISON

Hello. Greetings. (Both of you)  I`ve been in prison. It was all very unfortunate, the way things tend to be when I`m around.  Also, it`s a long story. But I have time on my hands now.

It was like when the Romans came. How was I to know they were going to kill all the Druids? I was only young.  A mere boy. So I was condemned to wander through space and time, trying to explain about the Celts and what the Romans did to them and why they did it. A lot of this has to do with the hero Diarmid, who became famous and the subject of many songs and tales. Only the thing is,you find yourself in strange places and the odds are stacked against you, you just have to do the best you can.

The trouble is, I haven`t got the hang of this Slipshifting at all. They gave me passwords and phrases to say when I wanted to move on. If I`m very frightened or in a great hurry, I can`t remember them. As you may have noticed when I went to school, you can end up in the wrong by place quite by accident and even if you haven`t done anything wrong.

That`s what happened this time.  I got caught in a narrow valley, up in Scotland. That`s what they call it now, and the nearest island you`ll know is The Isle of Skye. The hills are very steep there, and slippery in Winter.  I forget what clan the people were. I just landed there, straight out of Rome and wearing Roman clothes.  

That must be why they took against me. I was just looking round, trying to get my bearings. It was very cold and I badly needed to get under cover before I froze. About six of them came running up towards me, waving swords. I had no idea what they were shouting but take it from me, it wasn`t "Happy Birthday! Come and have a wee dram!"  When peole wave swords at my advice is: get out quick. I turned and ran, straight up the hillside and down the other side. They didn`t give up. They don` give up easily, you know, Picts. A very tough lot. At least I knew that much.

So I wasn`t that surprised at the top when I saw them still coming after me. They were closing in. The next mountain was a proper mountain. It was tall and th e top was a spike of rock. Off I went. When I reached the top, allI could see was a line of three more peaks sticking bleakly out of the snow. The sides were all steep. I was tired. My legs  were going wobbly and I felt I could not go on any further. But still they were coming after me. What could I do? One option was just to throw myself down the side. "If I die, at least I`ll get some sleep," I thought. All teh same, I did not really like the idea of getting battered to death on the rocks. Or waking up with no legs.

Then I had an idea.  I quickly looked around the peak.The slope at the back, facing North looked easiest. So I sat down. Bracing myself with my legs, I slid. Only my legs were not strong enough. Before I knew it, I was travelling at great speed. The men behind started whistling furious tumes on their whistles. I couldn`t care less. I had escaped them. Faster and faster I went, until I started to roll over. I hit my head.  When I woke up I was in a bed, warm and dry, but with  a fearsome bunch of red-bearded warriors gazing down at me, all looking very grim.

Soon afterwards, my situation became pretty grim too.