g4 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



inferior officer, named Lindsay, was charged with a special order to see the 

 old chief M'lan put to death. This they knew was a formidable undertaking ; 

 for being a man of athletic form, a true descendant of the " heroes of Fingal," 

 and with a courage that shrank from no danger, they well knew that if he once 

 drew his broadsword, he would not fall unavenged. Caution, therefore, was 

 necessary; and resolving to accomplish by the basest treachery the object of 

 his mission, Lindsay called at Glenco's house, pretending that he was the 

 bearer of a friendly message. The ruse succeeded ; he was admitted without 

 scruple ; and while the old chief was rising from his bed to receive him, a volley 

 of musketry from the soldiers stationed at the window, struck their victim 

 between the shoulders,* and left him prostrate in his blood. Several of his 

 domestics were killed on the spot. From his wife's fingers the assassins tore 

 off the rings with their teeth ; she only survived the night ; agony and despair 

 overcame her reason, and the following day she died a raving maniac. By a 

 timely warning the chief's two sons escaped ; but thirty-eight of their friends 

 were shot or put to the sword as they woke out of sleep. In Campbell'sf 



* These particulars of his death are slightly varied in the relations by different authors. See preceding 

 account, p. 76. 



f- The following fact, as illustrative of the religious tenets with which the Highlanders' rninds are imbued 

 particularly as regards that of retributive judgments in this life may here be aptly introduced. The 

 late Colonel Campbell of Glenlyon, grandson of him who commanded the military at the massacre above 

 related, retained, through a period of thirty years' service in the 42d regiment, the belief that the punish- 

 ment of the cruelty, oppression, or misconduct of an individual, descended as a curse on his children to 

 the third and fourth generations. In 1748, he was a supernumerary captain in the above regiment, and 

 retired on half-pay. He then entered the marines, and in 1762 received his majority with the brevet rank 

 of lieutenant-colonel, and commanded eight hundred of his corps at the Havannah. In 1771, he was 

 ordered to superintend the execution of a soldier of marines, who had been tried by a court-martial, and 

 condemned to be shot. A reprieve was sent; but in order to impress a salutary lesson on those around, 

 the whole ceremony of the execution was ordered to proceed until the criminal should be upon his knees, 

 with a cap over his eyes, prepared to receive the volley, and at that moment he was to be informed of his 

 pardon. No person was to be told previously ; and Colonel Campbell was directed not to inform even 

 the tiring; party, who were warned that the signal to fire would be the waving of a white handkerchief by 

 the commanding officer. When all was prepared, the clergyman having left the prisoner on his knees in 

 momentary expectation of his fate, and the firing party looking with fixed attention for the signal, 

 Colonel Campbell put his hand into his pocket for the reprieve ; but, in pulling it out of the pocket, the 

 white handkerchief accompanied it, and catching the eyes of the party, they instantly tired, and the unfor- 

 tunate prisoner was shot dead. The same instant the paper dropped from Campbell's fingers, and clapping 

 'his hand distractedly to his forehead, he exclaimed, " The curse of God, and the curse of Glenco is here! 

 I am an unfortunate ruined man !" He ordered the soldiers to their barracks, quitted the parade, and 

 shortly after retired from the service. His retirement, adds General Stewart,* was not the result of any 

 reflection or reprimand, as the unfortunate affair was known to be purely accidental; but the melancholy 

 impression on his mind was never effaced. 



Vol. i. p. 110. 



