EARLS OF ROSS AND LORDS OF THE ISLES. 91 



Highlands and Isles were at rest. Donald of the Isles 

 never recovered the Earldom of Ross ; that was reserved 

 for his son Alexander. 



When James I. returned, in 1424, from his captivity in 

 England to his native country, he found the northern part 

 of the kingdom in a state of chaos. Might reigned supreme ; 

 right was relegated to limbo ; law and order hid their 

 diminished heads. James I. was no coward, but the task 

 of restoring good government was such as to make even a 

 strong heart quail before its magnitude; yet the vigorous 

 mind of the poet-king was equal to the emergency. His 

 was a chivalrous nature, but chivalry had no place in his 

 plans for quelling the insubordinate Highlanders. Regard- 

 ing them as outside the pale of honourable dealings, he 

 employed the arts of treachery to attain his ends. In 

 1427 he held a Parliament at Inverness, and summoned 

 the Highland chiefs to attend. Unsuspicious of danger, 

 trusting in the honour of their King, the principal chiefs 

 obeyed the call and assembled at Inverness. But they 

 soon discovered that James had played them false ; for 

 they found themselves in a trap. They were all seized, 

 put in irons and imprisoned, each in a separate compart- 

 ment, communication with one another, or with their 

 followers, being thus prevented. Some of the most 

 troublesome were subjected to a mock trial and imme- 

 diately executed, among them being Alexander Macruari, 

 whose properties were forfeited to the Crown, and John 

 MacArthur of the Campbell family, who had laid claim 

 to a portion of Garmoran and the North Isles. The 

 remainder, including Alexander, son of Donald, Lord of 

 the Isles who, on the downfall of the Albany family, had 

 peaceably succeeded to the Earldom of Ross and his 

 mother, the Dowager Countess of Ross (described by 

 Drummond of Hawthornden as " a mannish implacable 

 woman "), were imprisoned for different periods according 

 to the alleged nature of their offences. And thus by a 

 stroke of treachery which does little credit to the memory 

 of James I., the power of the chiefs was for a time 



