WILLIAM AND MAKY.
29
mendacity of the Jacobite libellers had brought on them an ap-propriate punishment. Now, when, for the first time, they-told the truth, they were supposed to be romancing. Theycomplained bitterly that the story, though perfectly authentic,was regarded by the public as a factious lie.* So late as theyear 1695, Hickes, in a tract in which he endeavoured to de-fend his darling tale of the Theban legion against the un-answerable argument drawn from the silence of historians, re-marked that it might well be doubted whether any historianwould make mention of the massacre of Glencoe. There werein England, he said, many thousands of well educated menwho had never heard of that massacre, or who regarded it as amere fable.**
Nevertheless the punishment of some of the guilty beganvery early. Hill, who indeed can hardly be called guilty, wasmuch disturbed. Breadalbane, hardened as he was, felt thestings of conscience or the dread of retribution. A few daysafter the Macdonalds had returned to their old dwellingplace,his steward visited the ruins of the house of Glencoe, andendeavoured to persuade the sons of the murdered chief to signa paper declaring that they held the Earl guiltless of the bloodwhich had been shed. They were assured that, if they woulddo this, all His Lordship’s great influence should be employedto obtain for them from the Crown a free pardon and a remissionof all forfeitures.*** Glenlyon did his best to assume an air ofunconcern. He made his appearance in the most fashionablecoffeehouse at Edinburgh, and talked loudly and self-compla-
Charles Leslie in the Appendix to his answer to King. The date of Leslie’sanswer is 1092. But it must be remembered that the date of 1692 was thenused down to what we should call the 25th of March 1693. Leslie’s bookcontains some remarks on a sermon by Tillotson which was not printed tillNovember 1692. The Gallienus Redivivus speedily followed.
* Gallienus Redivivus.
** Hickes on Burnet and Tillotson, 1695.
*** Report of 1696.
CHAP,
XVII I.
"7692.