WIIXIAAl AND MAIIY,

25

for destruction, contrived to escape. They were roused fromsleep by faithful servants. John, who, by the death of hisfather, had become the patriarch of the tribe, quitted hisdwelling just as twenty soldiers with fixed bayonets marchedup to it. It was broad day long before Hamilton arrived. Hefound the work not even half performed. About thirty corpseslay wallowing in blood on the dunghills before the doors. Oneor two women were seen among the number, and, a yet morefearful and piteous sight, a little hand, which had been loppedin the tumult of the butchery from some infant. One agedMacdonald was found alive. He was probably too infirm to fly,and, as he was above seventy, was not included in the ordersunder which Glenlyon had acted. Hamilton murdered the oldman in cold blood. The deserted hamlets were then set on fire;and the troops departed, driving away with them many sheepand goats, nine hundred kine, and two hundred of the smallshaggy ponies of the Highlands.

It is said, and may but too easily be believed, that thesufferings of the fugitives were terrible. How many old men,how many women with babes in their arms, sank dow'n and slepttheir last sleep in the snow; how many, having crawled, spentwith toil and hunger, into nooks among the precipices, died inthose dark holes, and were picked to the hone by the mountainravens, can never be known. But it is probable that those whoperished by cold, weariness and want were not less numerousthan those who were slain by the assassins. When the troopshad retired, the Macdonalds crept out of the caverns of Glencoe,ventured back to the spot where the huts had formerly stood,collected the scorched corpses from among the smoking ruins,and performed some rude rites of sepulture. The traditionruns that the hereditary bard of the tribe took his seat on a rockwhich overhung the place of slaughter, and poured forth a longlament over his murdered brethren and his desolate home.

CHAP

XVIII

11192 .