WILLIAM AND MAEY.

317

immediately from the Crown, had been prepared, and was ciiap.about to pass the seals, when the Revolution suddenly extin— ^guished a hope which amounted almost to certainty.*

The Macleans remembered that, only fourteen years before, The Mac-their lands had been invaded and the seat of their chief taken leal ' s 'and garrisoned by the Campbells.** Even before William andMary had been proclaimed at Edinburgh, a Maclean, deputeddoubtless by the head of his tribe, had crossed the sea toDublin, and had assured James that, if two or three bat-talions from Ireland were landed in Argyleshire, they wouldbe immediately joined by four thousand four hundred clay-mores.***

A similar spirit animated the Camerons. Their ruler, Sir The ca-

i ' m crons•

Ewan Cameron, ofLochiel, surnamed the Black, was in per- Lochiei.sonal qualities unrivalled among the Celtic princes. He was agracious master, a trusty ally, a terrible enemy. His counte-nance and bearing were singularly noble. Some persons whohad been at Versailles, and among them the shrewd and ob-servant Simon Lord Lovat, said that there was, in person andmanner, a most striking resemblance between Lewis the Four-teenth and Lochiei; and whoever compares the portraits of the

* Skene’s Highlanders of Scotland; Douglas’s Baronage of Scotland.

** See the Memoirs of the Life of Sir Ewan Cameron, and the Historicaland Genealogical Account of the Clan Maclean, by a Senachie. Thoughthis last work was published so late as 1838, the writer seems to have beeninflamed by animosity as fierce as that with which the Macleans of theseventeenth century regarded the Campbells. In the short compass of onepage the Marquess of Argyle is designated as “the diabolical Scotch Crom-well,” “the vile vindictive persecutor,” “the base traitor,” and “theArgyleimpostor.” In another page he is “the insidious Campbell, fertile invillany,” “the avaricious slave,” “the coward of Argyle,” and “the Scotchtraitor.” In the next page he is “the base and vindictive enemy of theHouse of Maclean,” “the hypocritical Covenanter,” “the incorrigible trai-tor,” “the cowardly and malignant enemy.” It is a happy thing that pas-sions so violent can now vent themselves only in scolding.

*** Letter of Avaux to Louvois, April ft. 1689, enclosing a paper en-titled M&noire du Chevalier Macklean.