Rob Roy | Page 9

that time, besides being anxiously
ambitious to keep up what was called their Following, or military
retainers, were also desirous to have at their disposal men of resolute

character, to whom the world and the world's law were no friends, and
who might at times ravage the lands or destroy the tenants of a feudal
enemy, without bringing responsibility on their patrons. The strife
between the names of Campbell and Graham, during the civil wars of
the seventeenth century, had been stamped with mutual loss and
inveterate enmity. The death of the great Marquis of Montrose on the
one side, the defeat at Inverlochy, and cruel plundering of Lorn, on the
other, were reciprocal injuries not likely to be forgotten. Rob Roy was,
therefore, sure of refuge in the country of the Campbells, both as
having assumed their name, as connected by his mother with the family
of Glenfalloch, and as an enemy to the rival house of Montrose. The
extent of Argyle's possessions, and the power of retreating thither in
any emergency, gave great encouragement to the bold schemes of
revenge which he had adopted.
This was nothing short of the maintenance of a predatory war against
the Duke of Montrose, whom he considered as the author of his
exclusion from civil society, and of the outlawry to which he had been
sentenced by letters of horning and caption (legal writs so called), as
well as the seizure of his goods, and adjudication of his landed property.
Against his Grace, therefore, his tenants, friends, allies, and relatives,
he disposed himself to employ every means of annoyance in his power;
and though this was a circle sufficiently extensive for active
depredation, Rob, who professed himself a Jacobite, took the liberty of
extending his sphere of operations against all whom he chose to
consider as friendly to the revolutionary government, or to that most
obnoxious of measures--the Union of the Kingdoms. Under one or
other of these pretexts, all his neighbours of the Lowlands who had
anything to lose, or were unwilling to compound for security by paying
him an annual sum for protection or forbearance, were exposed to his
ravages.
The country in which this private warfare, or system of depredation,
was to be carried on, was, until opened up by roads, in the highest
degree favourable for his purpose. It was broken up into narrow valleys,
the habitable part of which bore no proportion to the huge wildernesses
of forest, rocks, and precipices by which they were encircled, and

which was, moreover, full of inextricable passes, morasses, and natural
strengths, unknown to any but the inhabitants themselves, where a few
men acquainted with the ground were capable, with ordinary address,
of baffling the pursuit of numbers.
The opinions and habits of the nearest neighbours to the Highland line
were also highly favourable to Rob Roy's purpose. A large proportion
of them were of his own clan of MacGregor, who claimed the property
of Balquhidder, and other Highland districts, as having been part of the
ancient possessions of their tribe; though the harsh laws, under the
severity of which they had suffered so deeply, had assigned the
ownership to other families. The civil wars of the seventeenth century
had accustomed these men to the use of arms, and they were peculiarly
brave and fierce from remembrance of their sufferings. The vicinity of
a comparatively rich Lowland district gave also great temptations to
incursion. Many belonging to other clans, habituated to contempt of
industry, and to the use of arms, drew towards an unprotected frontier
which promised facility of plunder; and the state of the country, now so
peaceable and quiet, verified at that time the opinion which Dr.
Johnson heard with doubt and suspicion, that the most disorderly and
lawless districts of the Highlands were those which lay nearest to the
Lowland line. There was, therefore, no difficulty in Rob Roy,
descended of a tribe which was widely dispersed in the country we
have described, collecting any number of followers whom he might be
able to keep in action, and to maintain by his proposed operations.
He himself appears to have been singularly adapted for the profession
which he proposed to exercise. His stature was not of the tallest, but his
person was uncommonly strong and compact. The greatest peculiarities
of his frame were the breadth of his shoulders, and the great and almost
disproportionate length of his arms; so remarkable, indeed, that it was
said he could, without stooping, tie the garters of his Highland hose,
which are placed two inches below the knee. His countenance was open,
manly, stern at periods of danger, but frank and cheerful in his hours of
festivity. His hair was dark red, thick, and frizzled, and curled short
around the face. His fashion of dress