Rob Roy | Page 3

the
space of three years. The reader will find this particular fact illustrated
in the Introduction to the Legend of Montrose in the present edition of
these Novels.
Other occasions frequently occurred, in which the MacGregors testified
contempt for the laws, from which they had often experienced severity,
but never protection. Though they were gradually deprived of their
possessions, and of all ordinary means of procuring subsistence, they
could not, nevertheless, be supposed likely to starve for famine, while
they had the means of taking from strangers what they considered as
rightfully their own. Hence they became versed in predatory forays,
and accustomed to bloodshed. Their passions were eager, and, with a
little management on the part of some of their most powerful
neighbours, they could easily be hounded out, to use an expressive
Scottish phrase, to commit violence, of which the wily instigators took
the advantage, and left the ignorant MacGregors an undivided portion
of blame and punishment. This policy of pushing on the fierce clans of
the Highlands and Borders to break the peace of the country, is
accounted by the historian one of the most dangerous practices of his
own period, in which the MacGregors were considered as ready agents.

Notwithstanding these severe denunciations,---which were acted upon
in the same spirit in which they were conceived, some of the clan still
possessed property, and the chief of the name in 1592 is designed
Allaster MacGregor of Glenstrae. He is said to have been a brave and
active man; but, from the tenor of his confession at his death, appears
to have been engaged in many and desperate feuds, one of which
finally proved fatal to himself and many of his followers. This was the
celebrated conflict at Glenfruin, near the southwestern extremity of
Loch Lomond, in the vicinity of which the MacGregors continued to
exercise much authority by the coir a glaive, or right of the strongest,
which we have already mentioned.
There had been a long and bloody feud betwixt the MacGregors and the
Laird of Luss, head of the family of Colquhoun, a powerful race on the
lower part of Loch Lomond. The MacGregors' tradition affirms that the
quarrel began on a very trifling subject. Two of the MacGregors being
benighted, asked shelter in a house belonging to a dependant of the
Colquhouns, and were refused. They then retreated to an out-house,
took a wedder from the fold, killed it, and supped off the carcass, for
which (it is said) they offered payment to the proprietor. The Laird of
Luss seized on the offenders, and, by the summary process which
feudal barons had at their command, had them both condemned and
executed. The MacGregors verify this account of the feud by appealing
to a proverb current amongst them, execrating the hour (Mult dhu an
Carbail ghil) that the black wedder with the white tail was ever lambed.
To avenge this quarrel, the Laird of MacGregor assembled his clan, to
the number of three or four hundred men, and marched towards Luss
from the banks of Loch Long, by a pass called Raid na Gael, or the
Highlandman's Pass.
Sir Humphrey Colquhoun received early notice of this incursion, and
collected a strong force, more than twice the number of that of the
invaders. He had with him the gentlemen of the name of Buchanan,
with the Grahams, and other gentry of the Lennox, and a party of the
citizens of Dumbarton, under command of Tobias Smollett, a
magistrate, or bailie, of that town, and ancestor of the celebrated author.

The parties met in the valley of Glenfruin, which signifies the Glen of
Sorrow---a name that seemed to anticipate the event of the day, which,
fatal to the conquered party, was at least equally so to the victors, the
"babe unborn" of Clan Alpine having reason to repent it. The
MacGregors, somewhat discouraged by the appearance of a force much
superior to their own, were cheered on to the attack by a Seer, or
second-sighted person, who professed that he saw the shrouds of the
dead wrapt around their principal opponents. The clan charged with
great fury on the front of the enemy, while John MacGregor, with a
strong party, made an unexpected attack on the flank. A great part of
the Colquhouns' force consisted in cavalry, which could not act in the
boggy ground. They were said to have disputed the field manfully, but
were at length completely routed, and a merciless slaughter was
exercised on the fugitives, of whom betwixt two and three hundred fell
on the field and in the pursuit. If the MacGregors lost, as is averred,
only two men slain in the action, they had slight provocation for an
indiscriminate massacre. It is said that their fury extended itself to a
party of students