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CHAPTER VI.

Character and habits of the Scottish Highlanders.-Lord Dundee's opposition to William.-Sketch of his character.Anecdote of Lord Dundee.-Battle of Killicrankie, and death of Dundee.-Epitaph on him by Dr. Pitcairn.-Flight of the survivors of his army to France, and their subsequent sufferings. Their daring in battle. They are ultimately disbanded. Unsettled state of the Highlands.-Lord Breadalbane's proposal to distribute money among the disturbed districts. Accepted at first by the English Government, but afterwards declined, at the instigation of his Lordship's enemies. Circumstances that led to the massacre of Glencoe.-Details of that massacre. — Treachery of Captain Campbell of Glenlyon.- Extract from Sir Walter Scott's poems.-Anecdotes connected with the massacre.-Horror excited by it throughout the kingdom.-William's explanation of the affair.-Letters addressed to him by Lord Tarbet on the subject of the state of the Highlands, discovered after his death.-Probability that William was utterly ignorant of the extent to which it was proposed to carry on the massacre.

THE circumstances connected with the dreadful massacre of Glencoe are fraught with an interest of at once so romantic and so painful a nature, and the concurrence of William in that dark and detestable tragedy has fixed so indelible a blot upon his character, that it would be impossible to pass over such an event in silence. At the period

of which we are treating, the enthusiasm excited in favour of the exiled King had extended itself, almost universally, among the free hearts and wild fastnesses of the Highlands of Scotland. This singular and interesting people were then, as at the present day, divided into distinct clans, but united by stricter bonds and higher notions of partisanship, than at present constitute the distinguishing features of their national character. The sentiments with which each individual of his tribe regarded his brother clansman, resembled that sacred feeling which unites an attached family, rather than the cold ties of distant consanguinity. Each tribe could trace its descent from a single ancestor or common head, and, although, in the course of years, the parent stream might have branched off into various channels, still the simple fact, that even the most indigent clansman could claim a relationship with his chief, served to cement between them a bond of family union, and generated in the humblest Highlander an honourable self-respect. In fact, in honouring his chieftain each honoured himself; the dignity of the clan constituted a family compact; and an insult offered to a single individual was regarded as an injury and affront to the whole. The attachment with which the clansman regarded his chieftain partook of the character of enthusiasm, and, as it was invariably repaid by the latter with a fatherly and protecting kindness, obligations

were cemented on both sides, which were found mutually advantageous. The sword and the advice of the chieftain were always to be had in the hour of need; his hall was the common meeting-place of the clan, and afforded food to the hungry, and to the weary shelter and the hospitable blaze. The very walls of the chieftain's castle, from being associated with wild legends of battles and sieges, inspired an interest common to all. Its courts were still the general assembling-place in the hour of danger. In war they echoed with the clang of arms and the shrill notes of the pibroch, and in peace with the sounds of rude festivity and social mirth.

The character of the Scottish Highlander presented at this period a singular mixture of good and bad qualities. On the one hand, it was distinguished by an almost patriarchal simplicity, by romantic courage, and feelings of the most high-minded independence; while, on the other, it was tarnished by a savage ferocity, a mean cunning, and an invincible addiction to plunder, and even to low theft. It appears, indeed, almost incredible, that the same men, who gave up their bed to the weary and their food to the hungry, who tended the sick stranger with an almost feminine interest and care,-could enter mercilessly on the most barbarous reprisals, and, losing sight of every feeling of humanity, alike rejoice in the burning of the castle or the cot;

could mingle their wild music with the screams of the widow and the orphan, and listen with scorn and derision to the dying curses and agonies of a brave though hereditary foe.

The light and picturesque garb of the Highlander was equally adapted to the romantic scenes among which he dwelt, as to the feats of strength and activity he was called upon to perform. None, indeed, but those who have seen the tartan floating on the free hills, and among the wild ravines of Scotland, can imagine the stirring interest excited, and the extraordinary beauty of the scene, when the gathering of a clan clothed the hills around with a host of warlike mountaineers; when the pibroch echoed from fastness to fastness; and when, inspirited by their native music to an almost frenzied courage, they advanced to meet the foe;-the eye now catching a glimpse of their polished weapons and gaudy habiliments as they wound round some rugged height, and then again losing sight of them, as some intervening promontory excluded them from the view.

The Highlander usually built his rude hut by the side of one of the mountain streams which flow through his beautiful valleys. Here, with the exception of the spring and autumn months, when he was employed in sowing and reaping his grain, his time was in general occupied in the tumult of war or the pleasures of the chase.

During the summer he invariably lived in the open air, the sky above him his only canopy, and his plaid his only covering; while, in winter, either in the hall of his chieftain or in his own cottage, he sat beside the cheerful blaze, listening with eager attention either to the bard of his clan, or to one of the grey-headed fathers of the tribe as he recounted some wild tale or tradition, the story of almost superhuman valour on the field of battle, or,-what was more intensely absorbing to the superstitious Highlander, -a legend of the re-appearance of the dead.

The tastes of the Highlander were rude; his pleasures few, and his wants fewer his enjoyments, however, were suited to his condition, and his means sufficient for his wants. The notes of his native bagpipe, however discordant and repulsive to more refined ears, served alike to soften him to pity, to arouse his valour on the field of battle, or to enliven and inspirit him in the dance.

It was chiefly from among these gallant mountaineers that the brave and unfortunate Dundee contrived to fill his ranks, when, for the last time, he drew his sword in the cause of his exiled sovereign. Having determined to oppose by force the claims of King William, his first step was to fly to Inverness, in the neighbourhood of which town the Highland clans were in open arms against each other. Having ascertained