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CHAPTER VIII.

ROB ROY MACGREGOR, THE SCOTTISH ROBIN

HOOD.

'But, doomed and devoted by vassal and lord,
Macgregor has still both his heart and his sword.

Then courage, courage, courage, gregalich!'

'While there's leaves in the forest, and foam on the river,
Macgregor, despite them, shall flourish for ever!
Then gather, gather, gather, gregalich !'

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

Y tribe is royal,' was the proud motto of a Highland clan whose chief, in the time of the two Pretenders, was

M

called the Scottish Robin Hood.'

The house of Alpine, from whom the robber chief of 1715 claimed descent, was so ancient that it was said, 'none are older, except the hills and rivers!' The Stuarts could not date a lineage more remote than the Macgregors; and the latter tribe claimed kindred with the Scottish kings, on the ground that both families were descended from the same remote race, who had flourished in the eighth century.

Feuds of the Macgregors.

319

Macgregor's country was situated in parts of the counties of Argyle, Perth, Dumbarton, and Stirling. The clan had always been troublesome as an enemy, to all who opposed the depredations that they never hesitated to commit, when inclined to levy a creach,' head a foray, or 'lift' an enemy's cattle. Many a feud had the Macgregors with other tribes; and though their frequent contests with their neighbours, the Campbells, did not always result in victory being theirs, their ferocity and courage were proverbial, and their power dreaded, for they did not scruple to levy 'black mail' on all who refused to pay them tribute. To be a 'kearnach,' or cattle-lifter, was not thought dishonourable among Highlanders, as long as the booty was only taken from an enemy's grass, though honour and fidelity were often the leading features among freebooters, who, in these more civilised days, would be called by the more ignominious term of thieves and robbers.

In the sixteenth century the clan was noted for being desperate, fierce outlaws; and so glaring were the outrages that they and their chiefs were constantly committing, that their extermination was ordered in 1563, while other Highlanders were forbidden to shelter, house, or befriend a Macgregor. The clan then became desperate; and endless were the bloody outrages committed by these descend

ants of the ancient Alpine kings. Oppression led to retaliation; and the Macgregors, feeling that all their misfortunes originated in the fact that they were surrounded by powerful and ambitious neighbours, were goaded to acts of turbulence and rapacity, while the estates of their laird, Macgregor of Glenstrae, in Glenorchy, were attainted and forfeited to the Crown.

Among the most determined and desperate feuds of the clan, none was so bitter as the hostility that existed between them and the Colquhouns of Luss.

An old quarrel had been renewed by the chiefs of the two rival clans. Aggressions had been committed by both tribes, and Alexander Macgregor, chief of the Clan Gregor, accompanied by two hundred of his kinsmen and friends, went into Lennox, which was close to the chief of the Colquhouns' country, with the full intention of making up the feud.

Now, the Laird of Luss was hot and fiery, and moreover distrustful, and he suspected Macgregor. The two clans met, but could not agree; and then the Macgregors marched homewards. They were tall, handsome fellows; and as the Laird of Luss watched their retreat along the mountain side, their bagpipes playing inspiriting airs, he could not but believe his suspicions were well founded, and that

Defeat of the Colquhouns.

321

their large swords, bows, and arrows would soon be levied against the wooden targets and battle-axes of his own tribe. He assembled all his vassals, to the number of 300 foot and 500 horse, and pursued them.

When Macgregor found out Colquhoun's design, he determined not to be caught in a trap. He divided his party into two divisions, and as each glen and pass was well known to the freebooters, sent his brother John back to the confines of Luss; so that when Luss came up in pursuit after the first troop, close to Loch Lomond, he found that his men were attacked in the rear, and the bloody encounter ended in the complete overthrow of his clan, 200 being slain.

Enraged by such a defeat, although it had been caused by his own treacherous conduct, Luss sent the two hundred bloody shirts of the slain to Edinburgh, entreating James the Sixth to punish the clan Gregor, and proclaim them rebels.

The Earl of Argyle was sent to punish the offenders. The unfortunate tribe were hunted from place to place; and, to track them out more effectually, the Campbells took blood or sloughhounds with them, to scent out the haunts of the friendless freebooters. The clan was forbidden any longer even to bear the name of Macgregor.

'If they rob us of name, and pursue us with beagles,
Give our roofs to the flames, and our flesh to the eagles,
Come then, Gregalich! come then!'

they might cry, but in vain. They were overcome at last by their pursuers, and one of their chieftains fell, slain by a well-aimed arrow from the yewbow of a 'Cameron man,' who, with two hundred others of that clan, had joined in the pursuit with the Campbells.

The vale in which the Colquhouns and Macgregors fought was called 'The Glen of Sorrow,' in memory of the event; and that fierce and violent conflict for a long time disturbed the whole of the Western Highlands.

The date of the battle of Glenfreon-as the fray, followed by such fierce revenge, was called-was 1602.

The Macgregor chief, weary at last of leading the life of a hunted animal, petitioned King James for an interview. The monarch granted it, and thirty of Macgregor's followers were left as hostages in the Highlands for the laird's return. No sooner had he quitted his mountains, and proceeded towards the Border, than he was seized and executed with all the hostages.

Notwithstanding such severity, the clan were loyal to the Stuarts. Nameless and houseless, they still joined Montrose, and never submitted to Cromwell's troops.

Charles II. repealed the cruel edicts against the Macgregors, and allowed them for their loyalty

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