74 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



in a manner that fully evinced that the lord of Badenoch, in the present instance, 

 would accept no commutation-money. The fact produced an instant and 

 powerful sensation ; fear rose into defiance : the men whom the chief regarded 

 as serfs the mere slaves of his will now drew their swords, and planting 

 themselves in front of their trembling brides, declared that the first attempt to 

 offend their delicacy should cost the dastard his life. Fired at this act of 

 defiance, the armed attendants stepped boldly forward to enforce obedience to 

 the chief, and were received at the point of the sword. A fierce conflict ensued ; 

 the hands of the injured were strengthened by a hearty cooperation on the part 

 of their village comrades : the young women were rescued ; and Comyn, after 

 losing both his sons in this disgraceful enterprise, was compelled to fly for his 

 life ; whilst the country, rising on his track, soon put on the appearance of a 

 general insurrection. The body guard, by which he was attended, screened him 

 for a time from the fate which had already overtaken his sons, and he arrived at 

 length on a hill near fort Augustus. Here he sat down, apparently to rest ; but 

 when his pursuers came up, they found that the object of their just indignation 

 was already in the hands of death. The spot where he died is still named 

 " Suidh Chuiman," or Comyn's seat the same that we have already mentioned 

 in a former page. 



The accompanying view of Loch-an-Eilan, though not in the Lochaber district, 

 is here introduced as one of the mountain strongholds where the powerful family 

 of Comyn, just mentioned, too frequently indulged in similar acts of despotism 

 and oppression. As the retreat of a lawless chief, nothing could have been more 

 suitable in respect to strength and situation. It reminds the traveller of some of 

 those isolated dens in the Alps or mountains of the Abruzzi, where the bandit-lord 

 of former times could secure his plunder, and prosecute his schemes of rapine 

 among the neighbouring valleys with impunity. 



The castle, though neither extensive nor elegantly constructed, is of solid 

 materials, and capable of affording, during the period to which it refers, ample 

 security against all the weapons of ancient warfare. The island on which it 

 stands is nearly covered by the mason work ; so that the massy walls seem as if 

 they rose through the surface of the lake, which encloses them like an impas- 

 sable moat, reflecting the dark rampart on its bosom. Over the rocky precipices 

 that skirt the water, birch, hazel, and mountain pine throw their intermingling 

 shade, and where more densely grouped, impart a melancholy gloom that well 

 becomes the scene. In other parts, the shore is beautifully varied with minia- 

 tures of bay and promontory, the former delicately bordered with layers of 

 bright sand, sparkling in the sun, the latter crowned with isolated trees, through 



