THE LAST OF THE SIOL TORQUIL. 263 



way). It was midnight when they boarded her, and the 

 crew were all asleep. A scuffle ensued, in which Alexander 

 and several of his crew were wounded, but eventually the 

 Lowlanders were all overpowered and their ship captured. 

 But Macleod had other business on hand. This was a 

 matter of profit, but an affair of revenge now claimed his 

 attention. Landing with twenty men, he came, under 

 the guidance of the Harrismen, to the house of John 

 Mackenzie, Lord Kintail's piper, who was settled at 

 " Ratirnes " (Ranish), murdered him in his bed, killed 

 some of his servants, destroyed his house, and returned on 

 board boasting of the exploit. The Burntisland ship was 

 then taken in tow to the anchorage where Malcolm's vessel 

 lay, and her cargo, consisting of wine and general mer- 

 chandise, was transhipped. The unfortunate master of the 

 merchantman and his crew lost everything, down to their 

 very shirts, but their lives appear to have been spared. 

 The plunder was divided between the pirates and their 

 Harris confederates. The latter took their spoil to 

 Dunvegan Castle, where they openly sold it.* 



The exploits of Malcolm Macleod as a pirate were 

 followed by an attempt on his part to organise an insur- 

 rection in Lewis, in 1616, which, as we have seen, was 

 sternly repressed by the Tutor, at whose hands Macleod 

 would probably have received short shrift had he fallen 

 into them. But Malcolm had as perfect a genius for 

 evading his foes as his great prototype, Neil, and once 

 more he got away, on this occasion to Spain, where he 

 joined his friend Sir James Macdonald, with whom he 

 returned to Scotland in 1620. We shall meet the elusive 

 Malcolm on two later occasions. 



The little that we know of the remaining representatives 

 of the Siol Torquil may be told in a few words. Sir 

 Robert Gordon informs us that at the time he wrote his 

 history ,t Ruari, the eldest son of Torquil Dubh, was a 



* Keg. of P.C., Vol. X., pp. 634-5. And all this time Rory Mor was loud 

 in his protestations to the Privy Council that not a man of Malcolm Macleod's 

 following would receive the slightest countenance from any of his tenantry ! 



t History of the Earldom of Sutherland. 



