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CHAPTER XII. 



WHILE Cromwell was pursuing the Royalists in England, 

 General Monck was engaged in the task of bringing Scot- 

 land under the domination of the Commonwealth. So 

 thoroughly did he perform his mission, that by the end 

 of 1651, the whole of the Lowlands had submitted, Inver- 

 ness was in the hands of the English, and the country 

 became, to all intents and purposes, a province of England. 

 The Marquis of Huntly had disbanded his men ; the Earl 

 of Balcarres had followed his example ; and there was no 

 organised resistance to the victorious arms of the Republic. 

 A few stalwarts, however, continued to hold out, among 

 them Kenneth Mor Mackenzie, then a youth of sixteen, 

 who, on his father's death, became Earl of Seaforth and 

 Chief of Clan Kenneth. The career of this chief has been 

 strangely overlooked by Highland historians. Indeed, the 

 insurrection itself, in which he took so prominent a part, 

 and in which the Island of Lewis bulked so largely, has 

 received but the scantiest notice at the hands of all writers 

 who have dealt with this period. An attempt will be 

 made in the following pages to supply the omission, to 

 some extent. 



After subjugation came administration. Monck, the 

 capable general, proved himself a capable governor. 

 Moderation was the keynote of his policy, and in his 

 care to avoid exasperating, he succeeded in reconciling 

 the Scottish people to his rule. The institutions of the 

 country were re-organised and Anglicised, and inter- 

 meddling of the clergy with State affairs was put down 

 with a strong hand. But it cannot be asserted that, 

 except for the loss of its independence, the country 



