124 THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. 



and friends, many of whom were steeped in tears. The 

 special correspondent of the Inverness Courier, who was 

 present, informs us that "John Macpherson, who is a 

 man of striking appearance, bold and manly bearing, great 

 intelligence, and considerable mental power, had a word of 

 comfort and re-assurance for all. ' If I was going,' he said 

 to them in Gaelic, ' to jail for a sheep or for a lamb, you 

 might be very sorry. But, as it is, you ought to be very 

 glad. For we go to uphold a good cause ; we go to defend 

 the widow and the fatherless, and the comfort and needs of 

 our hearths and homes.' This he told to his wife and 

 family, and, with these characteristic words, delivered with 

 the eloquence for which he is distinguished among his 

 fellows, he reassured the people who gathered here and 

 there on the roadside between Milovaig and Colbost." 



On the following Wednesday, the men arrived in Glasgow, 

 and called on some of their friends, who provided for them 

 in a comfortable hotel. Immediately afterwards, a letter 

 was sent the Prosecuting Agents in Edinburgh, that the 

 three men would appear before the Court of Session as 

 soon as a diet could be fixed. The reply to this letter was 

 the unexpected appearance of a messenger-at-arms and his 

 officers at their hotel, before six o'clock in the morning on the 

 following Friday, who at once gained admittance 'to their 

 bedrooms, arrested them, and hurried them off by train to 

 Edinburgh, without even allowing them to partake of break- 

 fast, which had been ordered the night before. They were, 

 on their arrival, taken to the Calton Prison, but the governor 

 refused to admit them on the warrant produced, when they 

 were removed to the Ship Hotel, and there provided for 

 under the charge of Mr. MacTavish, the Messenger-at-arms 

 who arrested them. 



Their case was taken up by Mr. Robert Emslie, S.S.C., 



