EARLS OF ROSS AND LORDS OF THE ISLES. 87 



in gaining his ends. In effect, he told the Lord of the 

 Isles that if he wanted the Earldom, he would have to 

 fight for it. The challenge was accepted. Assuring him- 

 self of the support of an English fleet, superior to anything 

 Scotland could pit against it, Donald gathered in the 

 Hebrides an army of warriors armed with bows and arrows, 

 pole-axes, knives, and swords, and swooped down upon 

 Ross. His victorious arms carried all before them. An 

 unsuccessful resistance was offered at Dingwall by Angus 

 Dubh Mackay of Farr and his brother Rory Gald (the 

 nephews of Malcolm Macleod of Lewis), who posed as 

 loyalists, but after a gallant fight, Angus was taken 

 prisoner, and Rory, with many of his followers, was killed. 



Encouraged by his initial success against the Mackays, 

 Donald determined to carry out a threat he had often 

 made to burn the town of Aberdeen. Assembling all his 

 available men at Inverness, and receiving re-inforcements 

 on the way, he marched unopposed through Moray, and 

 ravaged Strathbogie and the district of Garioch, striking 

 terror into the hearts of the Aberdonians, who gave 

 themselves up for lost. But the Lord of the Isles got 

 no further than Garioch. A small but well-equipped 

 army commanded by the Earl of Mar, marched to meet 

 him and oppose his progress. Mar knew the character 

 and fighting qualities of his opponents well. In his 

 younger days, he himself at the head of some of the most 

 daring and desperate of the Highlanders, had harried, 

 plundered, and slaughtered inoffensive Lowlanders without 

 mercy. But the capture of the murdered Earl of Mar's 

 castle ; the winning of the widowed Countess's hand with 

 his predecessor's title and lands ; an extended experience 

 in the French wars and at the French Court ; all these 

 circumstances combined, had changed the Wolf of Bade- 

 noch's bastard, the ex-cateran, the ex-soldier of fortune, 

 into a skilful commander of trained troops, a courtly 

 pattern of chivalry, a bulwark of the throne, a terror to 

 evildoers, and an upholder of law and order. 



The battle of Harlaw was one of the fiercest encounters 



