The tragedy of his hero, su£fering the torments of
wounded faith and pride in that wild and wintry
island of Mull, was a real tragedy to Black him-
self ; and when he came, in his prosaic home at Den-
mark Hill, to interweave the scenes which he and
Mr. Wilson had visited together into the story of
Macleod of Dare, his nerves suffered as though he

173



WILLIAM BLACK

were writing of his own actual experiences. He
was wont to say in after -days that the book had
added ten years to his life. There is no doubt that
the way was prepared by the stress of that tragic
creation for the entrance of that obscure nervous
disease which afterwards afflicted him. He was
paying the penalty for that Celtic fervor which,
unknown to the outer world, possessed his soul.
