* * * * *

So fair shines the morning sun on the white sands of Iona!  The three days’ gale is over.  Behold, how Ulva—­Ulva the green-shored—­the Ool-a-va that the sailors love—­is laughing out again to the clear skies!  And the great skarts on the shores of Erisgeir are spreading abroad their dusky wings to get them dried in the sun; and the seals are basking on the rocks in Loch-na-Keal; and in Loch Scridain the white gulls sit buoyant on the blue sea.  There go the Gometra men in their brown-sailed boat to look after the lobster-traps at Staffa, and very soon you will see the steamer come round the far Cailleach Point; over at Erraidh they are signalling to the men at Dubh-artach, and they are glad to have a message from them after the heavy gale.  The new, bright day has begun; the world has awakened again to the joyous sunlight; there is a chattering of the sea-birds all along the shores.  It is a bright, eager, glad day for all the world.  But there is silence in Castle Dare!

THE END.

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[Transcriber’s Notes: 

1) Chapter IX was misprinted as Chapter XI in the original text.

2) Inconsistent hyphenation was standardized.

3) Several obvious misprints were corrected (some based on context); alterative/alternative, Christiana/Christina, Gertude/Gertrude, have have/have, entravagant/extravagant, handerchief/handkerchief, imposssible/impossible, Kinlock/Kinloch (for consistency within text), litterally/literally, Macintyre/MacIntyre (for consistency within text), Medditerranean/Mediterranean, af/of, Oglivie/Ogilvie, (for consistency within text), nansense/nonsense, Pyschological/Psychological, reay/ready, sailers/sailors, Sgirobh/Sgriobh, thay/they, thrist/thirst, then/them, though/thought, tyrany/tyranny, umrest/unrest, visting/visiting.

4) CHAPTER XLIII:  “And it was with a gentleness equal to her own that Hamish shut the little doors after her.”  The ‘was’ was added based on context.]