314

HISTOBY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XIII.

1(189.

a proverb. It was said that Mac Callum More after Mac- Callum More bad, with unwearied, unscrupulous, and unrelent-ing ambition, annexed mountain after mountain and island afterisland to the original domains of his House. Some tribes hadbeen expelled from their territory, some compelled to paytribute, some incorporated with the conquerors. At length thenumber of fighting men who bore the name of Campbell wassufficient to meet in the field of battle the combined forces ofall the other western clans.* It was during those civil troubleswhich commenced in 1G38 that the pow'er of this aspiring familyreached the zenith. The Marquess of Argyle was the head of aparty as well as the head of a tribe. Possessed of two differentkinds of authority, he used each of them in such a way as toextend and fortify the other. The knowledge that he couldbring into the field the claymores of live thousand half heathenmountaineers added to his influence among the austere Pres-byterians who filled the Privy Council and the General As-sembly at Edinburgh. His influence at Edinburgh added tothe terror which he inspired among the mountains. Of all theHighland princes whose history is well known to us he was thegreatest and most dreaded. It was while his neighbours werewatching the increase of his power with hatred which fear couldscarcely keep down that Montrose called them to arms. Thecall was promptly obeyed. A powerful coalition of clans wagedwar, nominally for King Charles, but really against Mac Cal-lum More. It is not easy for any person who has studied thehistory of that contest to doubt that, if Argyle had supported

* Since this passage was written I was much pleased by finding thatLord Fountainhall used, in July 167(5, exactly the same illustration whichhad occurred to me. lie says that “Argylc’s ambitious grasping at themastery of the Highlands and Western Islands of Mull, Ila, <fcc., stirredup other clans to enter into a combination for bearing him downc, likothe confedcrat forces of Germanic, Spain, Holland, &c., against the growthof tho French.’*