338 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



general lukewarmness of the clan, and in some cases, their 

 active opposition, to the Stuart dynasty in the risings of 

 the eighteenth century, may conceivably be attributable, 

 in part, to the neglect which they experienced at the hands 

 of Charles II. after the Restoration. Roderick and his 

 brother were knighted, but received no other recognition 

 of their services and the clan's sacrifice. Norman Macleod 

 was taken prisoner at Worcester and tried for his life, but 

 he escaped and lived to prove a thorn in Cromwell's side. 

 The Mackenzies do not appear to have obeyed with 

 unanimity the summons to arms. The Kintail men refused 

 to rise under the young laird, who was a mere schoolboy. 

 Seaforth himself they would follow anywhere and the 

 King was censured for not bringing him over from Holland 

 and placing him at their head but to commit their 

 destinies to Lord Kintail, who was " but a child," was not 

 in accordance with their ideas of the fitness of things. 

 That doughty fighter, Mackenzie of Pluscardine, with 

 Alexander, son of the laird of Gairloch, brought, however, 

 a force of Mackenzies south, who shared in the experience 

 of Cromwell's "crowning mercy" at Worcester. 



There is no satisfactory explanation of Seaforth having 

 remained abroad, while these stirring events were in pro- 

 gress. From a letter written by Montrose to the Earl on 

 1 5th August, 1649, we have a hint that Seaforth's presence 

 elsewhere presumably in Scotland would be desirable ; 

 but, writing on i8th January, 1651, Elizabeth, Queen of 

 Bohemia, informed the Earl that " I now finde you have 

 a great reason not to venture to soone amongst them." 

 What that reason was we are left to surmise, but from the 

 Queen's ironical reference to the loyalty of "that brave, 

 valiant Lord Argille," we may assume that the enmity 

 of Argyll had something to do with Seaforth's continued 

 absence from Scotland.* We are told that on receiving 

 the news of the disaster at Worcester, Seaforth fell into 

 a deep melancholy and died at Schiedam in 1651. But it 



* Wishart's Memoirs, pp. 444-5. 



