THE MACLEODS OF LEWIS. 151 



daughter of Angus Macdonell of Glengarry,* and by so 

 doing, had further strengthened his hands. About 1568, 

 he managed to get his father into his possession, and kept 

 him in captivity for four years, only releasing him on Ruari 

 undertaking to acknowledge Torquil as his lawful son and 

 heir. Ruari complained bitterly of his treatment by Torquil 

 and his accomplices, asserting that his " lugeing " was 

 entered by them at night and burnt, and that he himself 

 was kept in captivity in the hills and in caves, and almost 

 starved to death by cold and hunger.! On 2ist June, 

 1569, Torquil's name appears in connexion with an affray 

 at Loch Carron Glengarry's, afterwards Mackenzie's, 

 country in which the heir, wife and family and principal 

 kinsmen of "John Mclan Mor " were killed. Colin Mac- 

 kenzie undertook to cause Torquil Conanach to get a list 

 of the slain, upon receipt of which, Robert Munro of Foulis 

 bound himself to deliver to Mackenzie or Torquil, a sum 

 of 200 merks placed in his hands by certain merchants of 

 Edinburgh, " as for the assyithment of the slauchteris 

 committit at Loch Carron." Apparently this somewhat 

 cryptic entry in the Privy Council records has reference to 

 a fishing fray at Loch Carron. 



On 1st August, 1569, before the Regent (the Earl of 

 Moray) and the Secret Council, a decreet arbitral was 

 signed by Colin Mackenzie and Donald Gorm, by which 

 (inter alia], provision was made for the protection of 

 Donald Gorm against Torquil Conanach. Failing the 

 discontinuance of the latter's harassing tactics, Mackenzie 

 was charged to withdraw his protection from him, and 

 " pursue, invade, and expel " him from his lands. This 

 shows that Torquil Conanach was wont to make excursions 

 over the sea to Skye for the purpose of worrying his 

 rival ; a dangerous game, in which Torquil had the 

 decided advantage of being without any land to ravage. 

 The Mackenzies supported him, not only because his 



* She was a widow of one of the Cuthberts of Inverness, by whom she 

 became the progenitrix of Colbert, the famous minister of Louis XIV. of 

 France. 



t Traditions of the Morisons of Ness. 



