LEAVES FROM A GAME BOOK. 97 



to the support of their beloved chief, who, turning on 

 the Earl sword in hand, retorted in the same spirit, 

 " And here are sixty -five Lochaber dogs, each one athirst 

 to taste the blood of your Athol wedders." 



As the Lochaber men were nearer to the chieftains 

 than the Athol people, the Earl saw at a glance it would 

 be folly to engage so superior a force with a certainty 

 of being himself the first man killed ; therefore, changing 

 his tone, he frankly admitted Lochiel had outwitted him, 

 and, consenting to yield all points in dispute, he then 

 and there swore on the hilt of his sword — in those days 

 the Highlander's most solemn form of oath — that he 

 would renounce all claim to the grazings of Ben-y-Vricht, 

 in token of which he hurled his sword into the loch, 

 ** to remain for ever there as an acknowledgment of this 

 compact." 



In the year 1826, this very sword, or all that remained 

 of it, was picked out of the loch in a season of great 

 drought by the son of the Caimb herd, who took it to 

 a collector of ancient relics, the Rev. Dr. Ross, of Kil- 

 monivaig. The story, however, got noised abroad, and 



