REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 287 



among the gems of the Scottish main, is now in pos- 

 session of an English Banker, and supporting deer and 

 rabbits, but it was once the principality of an independent 

 chief, who waged war and made treaties and slew and cap- 

 tured as opportunity offered. He acknowledged the superior- 

 ity of the King in Edinburgh only when down on his luck 

 and hard pressed by his enemies, and paid little heed to the 

 Church as shown by the entry in the inventory of the High 

 Dean of the Isles " a fine rough countrie and excellent for 

 fishing, appertaining to Macgilliechallallum of Raasay by the 

 sword, and to the Bishop of the Isles by heritage." 



Hostilities were sharp and sudden in those days. No 



declaration of war was required against the Mackenzies across 



the narrow sea. Were not those sons of devils holding hills 



and straths in former times pastured by the Macleods ? Was 



not blood of the Siol Torquil still unwashed on their hands ? 



Had not their chief been " put to the horn" by the Council ? 



And were not their best men at the great Fair in the East 



country ? Therefore man the black birlinns, muster the Clan. 



A wild and ravening crew, in whom the quality of mercy had 



been dried up by hunger and privation, they swept silently 



through the sound and at the time of the milking of cows, when 



the maids heard the croak of the ravens on the side of Beinn 



Dubh, cast anchor in a secluded inlet. At grey dawn they were 



in hiding, after a forced march, in the birchwood above Bada- 



chroe and its yellow patches of oats and barley sloping down to 



the sea. The cattle were being driven to the heights not yet 



bereft of their herbage ; and little recked the shouting boys 



and girls of the direful faces peering from among the heather. 



The township was seen to be undefended and the invaders 



rushed forth to plunder and devastate amid the screams of 



children, the cries of women, and the execrations of men 



done to the death. Destruction and desolation were soon 



complete. Smoking ruins were all that remained of smiling 



