298 NETHER LOCHABER. 



latterly been too clever by half ; for he who could foresee the mis- 

 fortunes of others the death even of a cow couldn't evidently 

 foresee the well-merited fate that awaited himself; for he was 

 hanged, and we have no doubt at all that he richly deserved that 

 species of exaltation. What Thomas the Rhymer him of Ercil- 

 doune was in the south of Scotland at a much earlier period, this 

 Coinneach Odhar, comparing small things with great, seems to 

 have been in the North- West Highlands during the latter half of 

 the seventeenth century. " True Thomas," however, was a gentle- 

 man and a scholar; whereas Coinneach was, of course, utterly 

 illiterate, conducting his scheme of imposture solely by the aid of 

 natural talents, which must have been considerable, and a large 

 and ever-ready stock of impudence and cunning, nicely calculated 

 to impose upon the vulgar. He made his grand mistake when he 

 flew at such high game as Lady Seaforth and her domestic affairs. 

 She was too clever, too intelligent and well-educated to be imposed 

 upon. She ordered him to be hanged, a doom to which many were 

 led at that period who probably less richly deserved it than such a 

 prying, meddling, mischief-maker as was Kenneth the Seer. 



