THE LAST OF THE SIOL TORQUIL. 265 



gressions of a lifetime on his bowed shoulders ; his sons, 

 some of them bearing the brand of Cain on their fore- 

 heads, and wading through a sea of blood to the con- 

 summation of their ambitions ; his grandsons, living in an 

 atmosphere of perpetual violence, and striving in vain 

 against the inexorable Fate, which decrees that the sins of 

 the father shall be visited upon the children ; what wonder 

 is it that, with the inevitability of a life drama, the tragic 

 note persists throughout? The prologue of the tragedy 

 sounded a note of disaster ; the epilogue voices the wail of 

 despair. In ringing down the curtain on the unfortunate 

 Macleods of Lewis, let it be done with a pitying hand. If 

 they sinned much, they suffered much ; if many were their 

 faults, heavy was their punishment. Let it at least be 

 remembered, to their credit, that they bravely saved their 

 native island from the domination of an alien people, who 

 came to conquer, and not to coalesce with, the inhabitants 

 of Lewis. But although the Siol Torquil lost Lewis for 

 ever, the Macleods have far from disappeared from the 

 island. On the contrary, not only are they at the present 

 day, the most numerous clan in their ancient patrimony, 

 but their influence is felt in every department of activity 

 which marks the modern life of Lewis. The male line of 

 the Siol Torquil being extinct, the chiefship passed to the 

 family of Raasay, the present representative of which is 

 now in Australia. The female line is represented by the 

 descendant of the Tutor of Kintail, in the person of the 

 present Countess of Cromartie. 



