arms rush out from Fraser's Close, under the command of Culcairn and one Douglas, late surgeon in Culcairn's Independent Company, and march straight to Mackenzie's house, where the 10 Councillors were met, and, without knowing any cause, to find the doors of the house broken open, and the whole Councillors carried away by an armed force. Mr Mackenzie's wife offering to go into the room, was drawn backwards by the cuff of the neck down a narrow turnpike stair, by which she was severely hurt and bruised. When the Councillors demanded to know for what cause they were so roughly used, five men appear as messengers, and apprehend so many of the Council; another collars a sixth, in virtue of a pretended warrant from the same Justices of the Peace, whose names have been already mentioned; but when the Councillors desire to see the several captions, and the warrant, and under form of instrument require to know for what sums, or at whose instance the captions are, and what cause was expressed in the warrant; declaring that they were ready instantly to pay any sums that should be contained in the captions, and likewise to find immediate bail to answer whatever was laid in the warrant; each of these, by order of Culcairn, is refused, and they are dragged out of town while Sir Robert's butler was sent express to call the 200 men, convocated under the pretence of mending the roads, to join the cavalcade; and so many of the Councillors, from debts contained in these sham captions, several of which were actually suspended, and the suspension duly intimated, were carried prisoners in triumph to Tayne, sixteen miles distant; and the whole Councillors forced to forsake the town. The Councillors being thus removed, Sir Robert Munro, Mr Duncan, his brother, with two others who were in his party, proceeded to the Council-house, and made an election; which the other ten Councillers, with the Town-Clerk, having the books of the town, had done some short time before the alarm was brought that Culcairn and Douglas were marching at the head of their banditti to assault them. And scarcely had Sir Robert's election been over, when twenty or thirty of the armed men, who had left the town, returned, and found the Councillors' wives, and others of their female friends, not six men of the town being then in it, calling to Sir Robert to return their husbands and their friends; whilst he and Culcairn answered their complaints, by renouncing all title to common humanity, and ordering their banditti 'to fire sharp shot, east and west, to clear the street.' And these orders were accordingly obeyed, and thereby one boy of ten years of age was shot in the forehead, another shot at the mouth, the ball lodging in the root

of his tongue; and several women were wounded, particularly the wife of Alexander Mackenzie, who is since dead of her wounds, one in the cuff of the neck, which, according to the surgeon's declaration who dressed her wound, was large enough for him to turn his thumb in; and several other women are now lying in so dangerous a way that their lives are despaired of. In short, nothing but the shrieks and cries of women in the agonies of death were to be heard, while the streets were running blood, and to such a height did these barbarities proceed, that upon Sir Robert and Culcairn being told that Mrs Mackenzie was mortally wounded, their answer was, it would do her good to lose some of her foul blood."

Such is the account of the affair as given by Tulloch's party: the following is that given by Sir Robert Munro and his friends: -"On the 30th of September (the election day), five of the King's Messengers required Capt. George Munro of Culcairn, as Sheriff. depute, in terms of the will of letters of caption, to give his assistance in putting the same to execution, they having had certain information that the rebels had convocated a numerous body of men and women, and fortified themselves in and about the house of Alexander Mackenzie, vintner in Dingwall. Accordingly, the Sheriff, with about 10 or 12 in his company, attended with five messengers, who had each of them six assistants and no more, went to Mackenzie's house about ten before noon; where they observed a great mob and convocation of people; by whom they were assaulted, invaded, and opposed with stones and staves, in the discharge of their office, to the effusion of blood. During this tumult Mrs Mackenzie, the landlady, appearing extremely active, was in the calmest manner entreated by Culcairn to keep within doors lest she should be hurt, he having stood all the time in the close, and neither entered the house nor approached the stair leading to the room, where the messengers had by that time apprehended only three persons, viz., Bayne of Tulloch, Bayne of Delnie, and Williani Macneill, mason in Dingwall; and having brought their prisoners to the street, they (although the proclamation against riots were read) were attacked with stones, clubs, and batons, from a numerous mob, to the number of 200 to 300, who pursued the messengers for more than a mile out of the town, and wounded most of the messengers and their party; during which interval the town was in peace and quiet. But the mob despairing of rescuing the prisoners, returned to the town, and increasing their numbers, from the tenants of the neighbouring ground, to betwixt 300 and 400, they beset the house of Bailie William

Fraser, where Sir Robert and Captain Munro, with several other gentlemen were, and set fire to the straw-thatch of the house, on the alarm of which, Sir Robert and the gentlemen within the house came to the gate of the close, where a live coal was extinguished, which had been put to the straw-thatch. Then retiring into the house, to avoid any recounter with the mob, and to prevent mischief, they were thereafter alarmed by a servant acquainting them that they were undone, the mob being ready in great numbers to press in upon them from the streets; whereupon, the Sheriff, with Sir Robert, the Provost, and the two Bailies of the town, went to the close, and from that to the gate leading to the street, where the Sheriff read the proclamation against mobs, explained the same in Irish, and he and the rest of the gentlemen used their utmost endeavours to sooth and mollify them; but, instead of that, with greater rage, and uttering dreadful menaces, they attacked the gentlemen, pouring vollies of stones into the close where they were standing, particularly from a stairhead overlooking the close on the west, and over the roof of the house from the street, by which several were hurt, and the gentlemen obliged to retire to a low room in Bailie Fraser's house, which had no access or communication to the street either by door or window, in which place they continued confined and besieged for about two hours, during which time the windows of the storey above where they had been sitting were broken down by the stones thrown at them by the mob. Whilst thus pinned up, and apprehending every moment to be put to death, they got what arms they could for their defence, but they fired no shot that day, a part of the said arms being a blunderbus without flint or shot. They then heard a report of three shots in the streets; upon which they, in a body, left the room, and came out to the street, where they were informed that about twelve or fourteen men (among whom were three or four constables) with a few arms, but mostly with clubs and staves, were come from the country, upon information of the gentlemen being besieged, and in hazard of their lives; that those men being attacked by the mob, had fired the said three shots, and that they heard Mrs Mackenzie, who is since dead, and one man were wounded; and soon after one of the gentlemen in the company was sent to dress their wounds."

Such is the statement of the affair as given in by, or for, Sir Robert. Both accounts are said to be in terms of two precognitions taken at different times; but Tulloch's party alleged that the witnesses examined on behalf of Sir Robert were his brothers, his

gardener, butler, groom, and certain of his dependents. Warrants were issued by the Justiciary Court for the apprehension of Sir Robert and Captain Munro, and the case set down for trial in Edinburgh, but on Sir Robert's application the trial of the case was removed to the Circuit Court at Inverness. The jury returned a unanimous verdict against Sir Robert and his brother, fining them £200. Sir Robert appealed against this decision, but I have as yet been unable to discover with what result, the old documents from which I have unearthed the above being silent on that point.

11TH MARCH 1885.

On this date, the Secretary read a paper by Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie of Gairloch, Bart., on a Contract of Friendship, dated 1549, between Mackenzie of Kintail, Lord Lovat, and Chisholm of Comar. Sir Kenneth's paper was as follows::

OLD CONTRACTS OF FRIENDSHIP.

In the sale catalogue of the Abertarff books and papers, which were disposed of at Inverness towards the close of last autumn, I was attracted by the entry, "Contract of friendship, Alexander Lord Lovat and John Chisholm, John Mackenzie, and Kenneth Mackenzie, 2nd May 1549;" and having given a commission for the purchase of this document, I became the possessor of a rather torn and ragged half sheet of foolscap, which was folded and endorsed "Contract of mutuall frendship betwix my Lord Louat and Jone M'Kenze of Kintaill." Internally the writing was in good preservation, except where the paper was torn ; but it contained some words in which the characters and abbreviations were almost illegible. As illustrative of the state of society in the Highlands in the middle of the 16th century, it may have an interest for the Gaelic Society of Inverness, one of whose objects is to rescue from oblivion manuscripts bearing on the history of the Gaelic people. The document, which, so far as I am aware, has not hitherto been published, is as follows:

"At Bewling ye second day of may in ye yeir of God ane thousand vc and xlix yiers it is appointit aggreit & fynale endit betwex ane nobill & potent lord Alexander Lord frayser of Louet Johne Chessolm of Comer on ye tane part and Johne M'Kenze of Kyntaill and Kennocht M'Kenze his sone and apperand ayr on ye toyr part in maner form and effect as eftr followis, that is to say

ye sayd Johne M'Kenze of Kyntaill and Kennocht M'Kenze his sone hes bundin and oblist yam selffis be ye faytht and treutht in yair bodeis ye haly ewangelist tucheit corporly that yai sall defend matayne & tak afald pt wt ye sayd Lord frayser of Louet and Johne Chessolm of Comer in yair querellis quhat sumeuyr in contrar all mortall man ye authorite my Lord of huntlie ye Erle of Suthyrland & James Grant of Fruquhy allanerly exceppit And in lykwyss ye sayd Lord frayser & Johne Chessolm of Comer hes bundin & oblist yam selffis be ye faytht and treutht in yr bodeis ye haly ewangelist tucheit corporly yat yai sall defend matayne and tak afald pt wt ye sayde Johne Mckenze and Kennocht his sone in contrar all man mortall ye authorite my lord of huntlye & ye lard of Balnagowyn allanerle exceppit and yis band of kyndnes mayd becauss of ye tendyrnes & kyndnes qlk hes beyne abefoyr betwex or forbears; and [for observing ?] and keeping and fulfilling of yis or band of kyndnes ye sayd Johne McKenze and Kennocht my sone hes subscribit and selit our part hereof to remane interchengeble wt ye sayd Lord frayser and Johne Chessolm. At Bewling the yeir day effoyr wretin before yir wytness Hewchon Symson off Brigend Alexander Bayne and Sir Wylleam Dow chaplane wt wderis diueress. And in lykwss ye sayds pteis abune wretin hes bundin & oblist yair kyn freynds [and serwands?] in maner form as is abune wretin.

"Johne McKenze of Kyntail wt my

hand led at ye pen

"Kennocht McKenze wt my hand led at ye pen."

Bonds of this nature seem to have been not uncommon at the period when the above contract was entered into. Law received but doubtful recognition, or at least its rule was too frequently superseded by that of might; and men who could not rely on their own strength as sufficient for their protection were glad to purchase the support of their more powerful neighbours, or exemption from their ill-will, or to strengthen the bonds of alliance with their kinsmen and friends. There seem to have been at least three distinct classes of bonds employed for these purposes.

(1) There were bonds of assurance in which one man undertook not to molest another. Thus, on 22nd October 1527, Hector Mackintosh, Captain of the Clan Chattan,* assures Ewen Alan son, Captain of the Clan Cameron, "hymeself, his kyne, party, purcheis and enyrdance, his & thare landis, gudis purcheis and

* Shaw's Mackintoshes and Clan Chatten, p. 198.