BOOK purchase a cessation of arms. X. 1691. That insidious and interested nobleman, void of attachment either to James or to William, employed his emissaries to persuade the clans that to submit to government, till a fairer opportunity should occur to resume their arms, was the most acceptable service which they could perform to the court of St. Germains 3o. Suspicious however that he meant to appropriate the money to himself, the highlanders rose in their demands, and betrayed his advice to government; but it was discovered that they sought permission themselves from James to capitulate, with a design to resume their arms at his command. A severe proclamation was therefore issued in August. They were required to submit to government, and to receive the oaths and a free pardon before the first of January; and to enforce the penalty of military execution, a winter campaign was projected through the highlands. A plan suggested by Breadalbane, was adopted by the cruel policy of Dalrymple; to extirpate every clan in Lochaber that refused, or neglected to submit on the day prescribed. When the day approached, the chieftains, intimidated or apprised of their danger, hastened to disarm the resentment of government by their timely submission. Buchan's and Dundee's officers were permitted to capitulate, and were transported to France, where they were re 30 Burnet, iv. 107-26. Macky's Characters and Mem. Lond. 1733. · X. 1691. duced to a company of private soldiers; and from BOOK the indigence and the hardships sustained during their gallant services in Catalonia and Alsace, few of these unhappy exiles survived to revisit their native country 31. execution 1692. The last man to submit to government was Military Macdonald of Glenco. Towards the end of De- concerted cember he applied to the governor of Fort William, who refused, as not being a civil magistrate, to administer the oaths; but dispatched him in haste, with an earnest recommendation to the sheriff of Argyle. From the snows and other interruptions which he met with on the road, the day prescribed for submission had elapsed, before he reached Inverary, the county town. The benefit of the indemnity was strictly forfeited; the sheriff was moved, however, by his tears and entreaties, to receive his oath of allegiance, and to certify the unavoidable cause of his delay. But his oath was industriously suppressed, by the advice particularly of Stair the president; the certificate was erased from the list presented to the privy council; and it appears that an extensive combination was formed for his destruction. The earl of Breadalbane, whose lands he had plundered, and whose temporizing advice he had betrayed to government, was inured to the most atrocious massacres by the execution of letters of fire and 31 Memoirs of Dundee's Officers in France. 137-40. Dalrymple, iii. 210. Ralph, ii. 331. Carstairs, X. 1692. BOOK Sword against the earl of Caithness, whose estate and titles he had formerly usurped. Dalrymple, the secretary, had imbibed the bloody spirit of Lauderdale's administration; and, instigated by Breadalbane's resentment, he expressed the most savage joy at an opportunity to extirpate a thievish clan. They persuaded William that Glenco was the chief obstacle to the pacification of the highlands. Perhaps they concealed the circumstance that he had applied within due time for the oaths to government, and had received them since. But they procured instructions, signed, and for their greater security, countersigned by the king himself, to proceed to military execution against such rebels as had rejected the indemnity, and had refused to submit on assurance of their lives. As these instructions were found insufficient, they obtained an additional order, signed, and also countersigned, by the king, "that if "Glenco and his clan could well be separated from "the rest, it would be a proper vindication of "public justice to extirpate that sect of thieves." But the directions given by Dalrymple far exceeded even the king's instructions. In his letters to the commander in chief he recommended the cold and long nights of winter as the season fittest for execution, when the highlanders could not escape to their hills with their wives and children; and when, without protection from houses, the human constitution was unable to survive; regretted that X. 1692. the other clans in Lochaber, by their timely sub- BOOK mission, had disappointed his vengeance; directed with the local knowledge which he derived from Breadalbane, that the passes to Glenco should be securely guarded; and exhorted even the subordinate officers to be sudden and secret in the execution of the plan; and not to trouble the government with prisoners, nor to destroy the cattle and houses, which might render the people desperate, unless the whole clan were utterly extirpated. Such atrocious sentiments, uttered as usual with an ardent zeal for the public service, were communicated to the officers with full effect 32. of Glencu Glenco, assured of an indemnity, had remained Massacre at home, unmolested for a month, when a detachment arrived from Fort William, under Campbell of Glenlyon, whose niece was married to one of his sons. The soldiers were received on assurance of peace and friendship; and were quartered among the inhabitants of the sequestered vale. Their commander enjoyed for a fortnight the daily hospitality of his nephew's table. They had passed the evening at cards together, and the officers were to dine with his father next day. Their orders arrived that night, to attack their defenceless hosts while asleep at midnight, and not to suffer a man, under the age of seventy, to escape their swords. From some suspicious circumstances the sons were impressed with a 32 Enquiry into the Massacre of Glenco; State Tracts, iii. Somers's Coll xv. Memoirs of the Massacre of Glenco. X. Feb. 13. BOOK sudden apprehension of danger,' and discovered their approach; but before they could alarm their 1692. father, the massacre spread through the whole vale. Before the break of day, a party, entering as friends, shot Glenco as he rose from his bed. His wife was stript naked by the soldiers, who tore the rings with their teeth from her fingers; and she expired next morning with horror and grief. Nine men were bound and deliberately shot at Glenlyon's quarters; his landlord was shot by his orders, and a young boy, who clung to his knees for protection, was stabbed to death. At another part of the vale the inhabitants were shot while sitting around their fire; women perished with their children in their arms; an old man of eighty was put to the sword; another, who escaped to a house for concealment, was burnt alive. Thirty-eight persons were thus inhumanly massacred by their inmates and guests. The rest, alarmed by the report of musquetry, escaped to the hills, and were preserved from destruction by a tempest that added to the horrors of the night. While the end of the Glen was guarded by Dun canson, with a detachment from Fort William, Hamilton the colonel, to whom the superintendance of the whole was entrusted, had advanced with four hundred men to secure the eastern entrance, and to complete the massacre; but from the inclemency of the night, he was retarded beyond the appointed hour. When he entered the Glen at noon, an old man was the only victim that re |