ENGLAND AND THE ISLES. 139 



gated by the Earl of Glencairn the latter being under the 

 influence of the English Ambassador decided to release 

 the chiefs who had been confined in the Castles of Edin- 

 burgh and Dunbar since 1 540. We are left in no doubt as 

 to the object of Arran, who at this period was completely 

 dominated by the English party. Sadler tells us that " the 

 Governor hath now let them loose and sent them home 

 i only of policy to keep the Earl of Argyll occupied. . . . 

 I So that, as the Governor and others here tell me, the Earl 

 of Argyll shall have his hands so full, that he shall have 

 no leisure to look hithervvards." No sooner had the chiefs 

 reached their homes, than a force of 1,800 Islesmen ravaged 

 the country of the Campbells and their allies, and reaped 

 a rich harvest in spoil. Sadler comments on this raid : 

 " And yet the said Governor took bonds of the said Irish- 

 men when he put them to liberty, that they shall not make 

 any stir or breach in their country, but at such time as he 

 shall appoint them. But how they shall observe these 

 bonds now since they be at liberty, it is hard to say, for 

 they be noted such perilous persons as it is thought it 

 shall not lie in this Earl of Argyll's power to daunt them, 

 nor yet in the Governor's to set that country again in a 

 stay and quietness a great while. But once the Earl of 

 Argyll shall by this means be so matched at home as he 

 shall not dare nor be able to go from home, he shall have 

 so much ado to keep his own ; and this is done of policy 

 as aforesaid."* 



The policy proved in the result short-sighted in the 

 extreme, as far as Arran was concerned, for it ultimately 

 recoiled on his own head. In a state of society where men 

 changed their politics as readily as their coats, it was dan- 

 gerous for these shifty faction-mongers to adopt a course 

 of action having far-reaching consequences, lest the food of 

 to-day should prove the poison of to-morrow. The Earl 

 of Arran changed sides soon afterwards, and reaped the 

 fruits of his policy. He dug a pit for Argyll, into which the 



* Utters and Negotiations of Sir Ralph Sadler, pp. 334-5. 



