i 9 o HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



him a grant of land in Lewis, and secure a free pardon 

 from the King for all his offences. Neil's cupidity thus 

 aroused proved too much for his fraternal instincts, and he 

 gave his assent to the proposal. Whatever the means 

 he adopted for getting his brother into his power, he 

 succeeded, by an act of base treachery, in capturing 

 Murdoch, with twelve of his followers. The latter were at 

 once executed without further ceremony, and their leader 

 was handed over to the tender mercies of the colonists.* 

 As Moysie puts it, by means of " ane speciall Hielandman 

 of that lie" thus is Neil described twelve were seized 

 and beheaded ; their heads were sent in a " pok " to Edin- 

 burgh and set upon the city gates. A ghastly cargo of 

 human heads in a sack from the distant Island of Lewis 

 was an object-lesson to the burgesses of Edinburgh which, 

 it may be hoped, they took to heart. But it was, after all, a 

 poor freight for an impecunious King, whose chief concern 

 was to secure his rents. 



Murdoch Macleod such is the irony of fate was sent 

 to Balcomie in Fife, where he was detained as the prisoner 

 of John Leirmont of Birkhill, brother and successor of the 

 laird who ended his days in the Orkneys. While at Bal- 

 comie, he made a written confession, dated 3Oth January, 

 1600, of the events of 7th December, 1 598. Four days after- 

 wards, he signed a written discharge of all sums stipulated 

 as due to him for the ransom of James Leirmont, and a 

 quitclaim of all right to pursue either the executors of the 

 late laird, or Donald Macleod of Assynt, for recovery of 

 the money. The document was drafted by Balcomie's 

 factor, John Orme, and one of the witnesses was Thomas 

 Cunningham, the quondam prisoner of Murdoch. 



It is fairly evident from these documents that the prospects 

 of a pardon were held out to Macleod, in consideration of 

 his renouncing all benefits derived from his capture of 

 Leirmont. But the very day he signed the quitclaim 

 at Balcomie (3rd February), a Royal order was despatched 



* Spotswood (p. 468), who states that Neil laid an ambush for his brother. 



