WILLIAM AND MARY.

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five hundred years before his birth, and depicted, — such chap.is the power of genius, — in colours which will be fresh - 16S3 ~as many years after his death. He was the Ulysses of theHighlands.*

He held a large territory peopled by a race which reverencedno lord, no king but himself. For that territory, however, heowed homage to the-House of Argyle. He was bound to assisthis feudal superiors in war, and was deeply in debt to them forrent. This vassalage he had doubtless been early taught toconsider as degrading and unjust. In his minority he had beenthe ward in chivalry of the politic Marquess, and had beeneducated at the Castle of Inverary. But at eighteen the boybroke loose from the authority of his guardian, and foughtbravely both for Charles the First and for Charles the Second.

He was therefore considered by the English as a Cavalier, waswell received at Whitehall after the Restoration, and wasknighted by the hand of James. The compliment, however,which was paid to him, on one of his appearances at theEnglish Court, would not have seemed very flattering to aSaxon. “Take care of your pockets, my lords,” cried his Ma-jesty; “here comes the king of the thieves.” The loyalty ofLochiel is almost proverbial: but it was very unlike what wascalled loyalty in England. In the Records of the Scottish Par-liament he was, in the days of Charles the Second, described

* See the singularly interesting Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron ofLochiel, printed at Edinburgh for the Abbotsford Club in 1842. The MS.must have been at least a century older. See also in tho same volume theaccount of Sir Ewan’s death, copied from the Balhadie papers. I ought tosay that the author of tho Memoirs of Sir Ewan, though evidently wellinformed about the affairs of the Highlands and the characters of the mostdistinguished chiefs, was grossly ignorant of English politics and history.

I will quote what Van Citters wrote to the States General about Lochiel,

1689: “Sir Evan Cameron, Lord Loclieale, een man, — soo ik hoor

Dec. 0.

van die hem lange gekent on dagelyk hebbon medc omgegaan,— van sogroot vcrstanl, courage, cn bcleyt, als weyniges syns gelycke syn.”