army for the purpose of taking possession, and a ship came from England with a supply of money to carry on the war, which landed at Mull, and the money was given to Mac-Lean of Duart to be distributed among the commanders of the army, which they not receiving in proportion as it should have been distributed among them, caused the army to disperse, which, when the Earl of Lennox heard, he disbanded his own men, and made it up with the king: Mac-Donald went to Ireland to raise men, but he died on his way to Dublin, at Drogheda, of a fever, without issue of either sons or daughters.» the posterity of John Mor of the Isles and Cantyre. For John Cathanach, son of John, son of Donald Ballach, son of John Mor, son of John, son of Angus Og (the chief of the descendants of John Mor), and John Mor, son of John Cathanach, and young John, son of John Cathanach, and young Donald Ballach, son of John Cathanach, were treacherously taken by Mac-Cean in the island of Finlagan, in Isla, and carried to Edinburgh, where he got them hanged at the Burrow-muir, and their bodies were buried in the church of St Anthony, called the New Church. There were none left alive at that time of the children of John Cathanach, except Alexander, the son of John Cathanach, and Agnes | In this history may be traced, though the bard or Flach, who concealed themselves in the glens of Ire-seannachie touches such a delicate discussion with a land. Mac-Cean, hearing of their hiding-places, went to cut down the woods of these glens, in order to destroy Alexander and extirpate the whole race. At length Mac-Cean and Alexander met, were reconciled, and a marriage alliance took place; Alexander married MacCean's daughter, and she brought him good children. The Mac-Donalds of the north had also descendants; for, after the death of John, Lord of the Isles, and Earl of Ross, and the murder of Angus, Alexander, the son of Archibald, the son of Alexander of the Isles, took possession, and John was in possession of the earldom of Ross, and the north bordering country; he married a daughter of the Earl of Moray, of whom some of the men of the north had descended. The Mac-Kenzies rose against Alexander, and fought the battle called Blar na Paire. Alexander had only a few of the men of Ross at the battle. He went after that battle to take possession of the Isles, and sailed in a ship to the south to see if he could find any of the posterity of John Mor alive, to rise, along with him, but Mac-Cean of Ardnamurchan watched him as he sailed past, followed him to Oransay, and Colonsay, went to the house where he was, and he and Alexander, son of John Cathanach, murdered him there. gentle hand, the point of difference between the three principal septs descended from the Lords of the Isles. The first question, and one of no easy solution, where so little evidence is produced, respects the nature of the connexion of John, called by the Archdean of the Isles << the Good John of Ila,» and « the last Lord of the Isles,» with Anne, daughter of Roderick Mac-Dougal, high chief of Lorn. In the absence of positive evidence, presumptive must be resorted to, and I own it appears to render it in the highest degree improbable that this connexion was otherwise than legitimate. In the wars between David II and Edward Baliol, John of the Isles espoused the Balio interest, to which he was probably determined by his alliance with Roderick of Lorn, who was, from every family predilection, friendly to Baliol and hostile to Bruce. It seems absurd to suppose, that between two chiefs of the same descent, and nearly equal power and rank (though the Mac-Dougals had been much crushed by Robert Bruce), such a connexion should have been that of concubinage; and it appears more likely that the tempting offer of an alliance with the Bruce family, when they had obtained the decided superiority in Scotland, induced « the good John of Ila» to disinherit to a certain extent his eldest son Ronald, who came of a stock so unpopular as the Mac-Dougals, and to call to his succession his younger family, born of Margaret Stuart, daughter of Robert, afterwards King of Scotland. The setting aside of this elder branch of his family was most probably a condition of his new alliance, and his being received into favour with the dynasty he had always opposed. Nor were the laws of succession at this early period so clearly understood as to bar such transactions. The numerous and strange claims set up to the crown of Scotland, when vacant by the death of Alexander III, make it manifest how very little the indefeasible hereditary right of primogeniture was valued at that period. In fact, the title of the Bruces themselves to the crown, though justly the most popular, when assumed with the determination of as «A good while after these things fell out, Donald Galda, son of Alexander, son of Archibald, became major; he, with the advice and direction of the Earl of Moray, came to the isles, and Mac-Leod of the Lewis, and many of the gentry of the isles, rose with him: they went by the promontory of Ardnamurchan, where they met Alexander, the son of John Cathanach, were reconciled to him; he joined his men with theirs against Mac-Cean of Ardnamurchan, came upon him at a place called the Silver Craig, where he and his three sons, and a great number of his people, were killed, and Donald Galda was immediately declared Mac-Donald : And, after the affair of Ardnamurchan, all the men of the isles yielded to him, but he did not live above seven or eight weeks after it; he died at Carnaborg, in Mull, without issue. He had three sisters daughters of Alex-serting the independence of Scotland, was, upon pure ander, son of Archibald, who were portioned in the north upon the continent, but the earldom of Ross was kept for them. Alexander the son of Archibald, had a natural son, called John Cam, of whom is descended Achnacoichan, in Ramoch, and Donald Gorm, son of Ronald, son of Alexander Duson, of John Cam. Donald Du, son of Angus, son of John of the Isles, son of Alexander of the Isles, son of Donald of the Isles, son of John of the Isles, son of Angus Og, namely, the true heir of the Isles and Ross, came after his release from captivity to the Isles, and convened the men thereof, and he and the Earl of Lennox agreed to raise a great principle, greatly inferior to that of Baliol. For Bruce, the competitor, claimed as son of Isabella, second daugh- ' ter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, and John Baliol, as grandson of Margaret, the elder daughter of the same earl. So that the plea of Bruce was founded upon the very loose idea that, as the great-grandson of David I, King of Scotland, and the nearest collateral relation of Alexander III, he was entitled to succeed, in exclusion of the great-great-grandson of the same David, though by an elder daughter. This maxim savoured of the ancient practice of Scotland, which often called a brother to succeed to the crown as nearer in blood than a grandchild, or even a son of a deceased monarch. But, in truth, the maxims of inheritance in Scotland were sometimes departed from at periods when they were much more distinctly understood. Such a transposition took place in the family of Hamilton, in 1513, when the descendants of James, 3d Lord, by Lady Janet Home, were set aside, with an appanage of great value indeed, in order to call to the succession those which he bad by a subsequent marriage with Janet Beaton. In short, many other examples might be quoted to show that the question of legitimacy is not always determined by the fact of succession; and there seems reason to believe that Ronald, descendant of << John of Ila,» by Ann of Lorn, was legitimate, and therefore Lord of the Isles de jure, though de facto his younger half brother, Donald, son of his father's second marriage with the princess of Scotland, superseded him in his right, and apparently by his own consent. From this Donald so preferred is descended the family of Sleate, now Lords Mac-Donald. On the other hand, from Ronald, the excluded heir, upon whom a very large appanage was settled, descended the chiefs of Glengary and Clanronald, each of whom had large possessions, and a numerous vassalage, and boasted a long descent of warlike ancestry. Their common ancestor, Ronald, was murdered by the Earl of Ross at the monastery of Elcho, A. D. 1346. I believe it has been subject of fierce dispute, whether Donald, who carried on the line of Glengary, or Allan of Moidart, the ancestor of the captains of Clanronald, was the eldest son of Ronald, the son of John of Ila. A humble Lowlander may be permitted to waive the discussion, since a seannachie of no small note, who wrote in the 16th century, expresses himself upon this delicate topic in the following words: I have now given you an account of every thing you can expect of the descendants of the clan Colla (i. e. the Mac-Donalds), to the death of Donald Du at Drogheda, namely, the true line of those who possessed the Isles, Ross, and the mountainous countries of Scotland. It was Donald, the son of Angus, that was killed at Inverness, by his own harper (Mac-i'Cairbre), son of John of the Isles, son of Alexander, son of Donald, son of John, son of Angus Og. And I know not which of his kindred or relations is the true heir, except these five sons of John, the son of Angus Og, whom I here set down for you, namely, Ronald and Godfrey, the two sons of the daughter of Mac-Donald of Lorn, and Donald and John Mor, and Alexander Carrach, the three sons of Margaret Stewart, daughter of Robert Stewart, King of Scotland.»-Leabhar-dearg. Note 8. Stanza xi. the house of Lorn. The house of Lorn, as we observed in a former note, was, like the Lords of the Isles, descended from a son of Somerled, slain at Renfrew in 1164. This son obtained the succession of his main-land territories, comprehending the greater part of the three districts of Lorn, in Argyleshire, and of course might rather be considered as petty princes than feudal barons. They assumed the patronymic appellation of Mac-Dougal, by which they are distinguished in the history of the middle ages. The Lord of Lorn, who flourished during the wars of Bruce, was Allaster (or Alexander) MacDougal, called Allaster of Argyle. He had married the third daughter of John, called the Red Comyn,' who was slain by Bruce in the Dominican church at Dumfries, and hence he was a mortal enemy of that prince, and more than once reduced him to great straits during the early and distressed period of his reign, as we shall have repeated occasion to notice. Bruce, when he began to obtain an ascendancy in Scotland, took the first opportunity in his power to requite these injuries. He marched into Argyleshire to lay waste the country. John of Lorn, son of the chieftain, was posted with his followers in the formidable pass between Dalmally and Bunawe. It is a narrow path along the verge of the huge and precipitous mountain called Cruachan Ben, and guarded on the other side by a precipice overhanging Loch Awe. The pass seems to the eye of a soldier as strong, as it is wild and romantic to that of an ordinary traveller. But the skill of Bruce had anticipated this difficulty. While his main body, engaged in a skirmish with the men of Lorn, detained their attention to the front of their position, James of Douglas, with Sir Alexander Fraser, Sir William Wiscman, and Sir Andrew Grey, ascended the mountain with a select body of archery, and obtained possession of the heights which commanded the pass. A volley of arrows descending upon them directly warned the Argyleshire men of their perilous situation, and their resistance, which had hitherto been bold and manly, was changed into a precipitate flight. The deep and rapid river of Awe was then (we learn the fact from Barbour with some surprise) crossed by a bridge. This bridge the mountaineers attempted to demolish, but Bruce's followers were too close upon their rear: they were, therefore, without refuge and defence, and were dispersed with great slaughter. John of Lorn, suspicious of the event, had early betaken himself to the galleys which he had upon the lake; but the feelings which Barbour assigns to him, while witnessing the rout and slaughter of his followers, exculpate him from the charge of cowardice. To John of Lorn it should displease, As to themselves to tholl the ill.——— After this decisive engagement, Bruce laid waste Argyleshire, and besieged Dunstaffnage Castle, on the western shore of Lorn, compelled it to surrender, and placed in that principal strong-hold of the Mac-Dougals a garrison and governor of his own. The elder MacDougal, now wearied with the contest, submitted to the victor: but his son, « rebellious,» says Barbour, « as he wont to be,» fled to England by sea. When the wars between the Bruce and Baliol factions again broke out in the reign of David II, the Lords of Lorn were again The aunt, according to Lord Hailes. But the genealogy is distinctly given by Wintoun : The third daughter of Red Comyn, WINTOUN'S Chronicle, Book VIII, c. VI. line 206. Too strong in courage and in might And Oxford's famed De Vere. Bottetourt and Sanzavere; Ross, Montague, and Mauley, came, At Falkirk, Methven, and Dunbar, XXVI. grace Unflinching foot 'gainst foot was set, And in the battle-yell. Yet fast they fell, unheard, forgot, Some fought from ruffian thirst of blood, From various cause the same wild road, On the same bloody morning, trode, To that dark inn, the grave! XXVII. The tug of strife to flag begins, XXVIII. Bruce, with the pilot's wary eye, The slackening of the storm could spy. « One effort more, and Scotland 's free! Rush on with Highland sword and targe; At once the spears were forward thrown, The foe is fainting fast! Each strike for parent, child, and wife, XXIX. The fresh and desperate onset bore Alone, De Argentine Yet bears on high his red-cross shield, To hem the Islesmen round; And ye that look thus tamely on, XXX. The multitude that watch'd afar, When strove the Bruce for Scotland's right; A frenzy fired the throng; Our sloth-the dumb our duties teach- To us, as to our lords, are given The vengeance for our nation's wrongs, ΧΧΧΙ. Already scatter'd o'er the plain, O! give their hapless prince his due! (24) spears, Bis person 'mid the I needs must turn again. Speed hence, my liege, for on your trace He shouted loud his battle-cry, « Saint James for Argentine !» And, of the bold pursuers, four The gallant knight from saddle bore; But not unharm'd-a lance's point Has found his breast-plate's loosen'd joint, An axe has razed his crest; Yet still on Colonsay's fierce lord, Who press'd the chase with gory sword, He rode with spear in rest, And through his bloody tartans bored, And through his gallant breast. Nail'd to the earth, the mountaineer Yet writhed him up against the spear, And swung his broadsword round! -Stirrup, steel boot, and cuish gave way, Beneath that blow's tremendous sway, The blood gush'd from the wound; And the grim lord of Colonsay Hath turn'd him on the ground, And laugh'd in death-pang, that his blade The mortal thrust so well repaid. Fell faintly on his ear! « Save, save his life,» he cried, « O save The kind, the noble, and the brave!»The squadrons round free passage gave, The wounded knight drew near. He raised his red-cross shield no more, He strove e'en then to couch his lance The effort was in vain! The spur-stroke fail'd to rouse the horse; As boon from ancient comrade, crave- XXXIV. Bruce press'd his dying hand-its grasp It stiffen'd and grew cold- The courteous mien, the noble race, found upon the losing side, owing to their hereditary enmity to the house of Bruce. Accordingly, upon the issue of that contest, they were deprived by David II and his successor of by far the greater part of their extensive territories, which were conferred upon Stewart, called the Knight of Lorn. The house of Mac-Dougal | continued, however, to survive the loss of power, and affords a very rare, if not an unique, instance of a family of such unlimited power, and so distinguished during the middle ages, surviving the decay of their grandeur, and flourishing in a private station. The castle of Dunolly, near Oban, with its dependencies, was the principal part of what remained to them, with their right of chieftainship over the families of their name and blood. These they continued to enjoy until the year 1715, when the representative incurred the penalty of forfeiture, for his accession to the insurrection of that period; thus losing the remains of his inheritance, to replace upon the throne the descendants of those princes, whose accession his ancestors had opposed at the expense of their feudal grandeur. The estate was, however, restored about 1745, to the father of the present proprietor, whom family experience had taught the hazard of interfering with the established government, and who remained quiet upon that occasion. He therefore regained his property when many Highland chiefs lost theirs. Nothing can be more wildly beautiful than the situation of Dunolly. The ruins are situated upon a bold and precipitous promontory, overhanging Loch Etive, and distant about a mile from the village and port of Oban. The principal part which remains is the donjon or keep; but fragments of other buildings, overgrown with ivy, attest that it had been once a place of importance, as large apparently as Artornish or Dunstaffnage. These fragments inclose a court-yard, of which the keep probably formed one side: the entrance being by a steep ascent from the neck of the isthmus, formerly cut across by a moat, and defended doubtless by outworks and a draw-bridge. Beneath the castle stands the present mansion of the family, having on the one hand Loch Etive, with its islands and mountains, on the other two romantic eminences tufted with copsewood. There are other accompaniments suited to the scene, in particular a huge upright pillar, or detached fragment of that sort of rock called plum-pudding stone, upon the shore, about a quarter of a mile from the castle. It is called Clach-na-cau, or the Dog's Pillar, because Fingal is said to have used it as a stake to which he bound his celebrated dog Bran. Others say, that when the Lord of the Isles came upon a visit to the Lord of Lorn, the dogs brought for his sport were kept beside this pillar. Upon the whole a more delightful and romantic spot can scarce be conceived; and it receives a moral interest from the considerations attached to the residence of a family once powerful enough to confront and defeat Robert Bruce, and now sunk into the shade of private life. It is at present possessed by Patrick Mac-Dougal, Esq. the lineal and undisputed representative of the ancient Lords of Lorn. The heir of Dunolly fell lately in Spain, fighting under the Duke of Wellington,-a death well becoming his ancestry. the most beautiful and interesting which is witnessed I watched the water-snakes, They moved in tracks of shining white, Note 10. Stanza xxiv. Hewn in the rock, a passage there : So strait, so high, so steep, And plunged them in the deep. The fortress of a Hebridean chief was almost always on the sea-shore, for the facility of communication which the ocean afforded. Nothing can be more wild than the situations which they chose, and the devices by which the architects endeavoured to defend them. Narrow stairs and arched vaults were the usual mode of access, and the draw-bridge appears at Dunstaffnage, and elsewhere, to have fallen from the gate of the building to the top of such a staircase: so that any one, advancing with hostile purpose, found himself in a state of exposed and precarious elevation, with a gulf between him and the object of his attack. These fortresses were guarded with equal care. The duty of the watch devolved chiefly upon an officer¦ called the Cockman, who had the charge of challenging all who approached the castle. The very ancient family of Mac-Niel of Barra kept this attendant at their castle about an hundred years ago. Martin gives the following account of the difficulty which attended his procuring entrance there: «The little island Kismul lies about a quarter of a mile from the south of this isle (Barra); it is the seat of Macneil of Barra; there is a stone wall round it two storeys high, reaching the sea; and within the wall there is an old tower and an hall, with other houses about it. There is a little magazine in the tower, to which no stranger has access. I saw the officer called the Cockman, and an old cock he is: when I bid him, ferry me over the water to the island, he told me that | he was but an inferior officer, his business being to attend in the tower; but if (says he) the constable, who then stood on the wall, will give you access, I'll ferry you over. I desired him to procure me the constable's permission, and I would reward him; but having wailed some hours for the constable's answer, and not receiving any, I was obliged to return without seeing this famous fort. Macneil and his lady being absent, was the cause of this difficulty, and of my not seeing the place. I was told, some weeks after, that the constable The phenomenon called by sailors Sea-fire, is one of was very apprehensive of some design might have in Note 9. Stanza xxi. Those lightnings of the wave. เ |