'We had not learned that,' said Jamie, his laughter gone. 'But we didn't know that the Law was so cruel as to make us go back and down to Inveraray in such weather. Even our eyelashes were frozen. He could see that! And how could we have got there in time? In good weather it would have been just possible, over the hills. But in that blizzard! Colonel Hill knew it was impossible.'
There was worse. They had bumped into a patrol of Redcoats, who had thrown them into a dungeon for a day and night.
'The old year had gone by before we were let out,' said Jamie bitterly. 'And we still had a long way to go.