THE ISLES AND WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 385 



the truth is, that the man for whom he worked was neither 

 King James nor King William, but John Campbell, Earl of 

 Breadalbane. How the money which was placed at his 

 disposal was employed, remains a mystery to this day. 

 M The money is spent, the Highlands are quiet, and this 

 is the only way of accounting among friends," was his 

 answer when required to give an account of his steward- 

 ship. Wherever the money went, there is nothing to show 

 that the Highland chiefs received much benefit from 

 it. As the result, however, of the negotiations between 

 Breadalbane and the Jacobites, who received the sanction 

 of James for arranging a treaty, the Government issued a 

 proclamation, on 2/th August, 1691, promising an in- 

 demnity to all who had been in arms, and who should take 

 the oath of allegiance to King William before the ist of 

 January, 1692. James and his supporters recognised that 

 their cause was, for the time, hopeless, and that the stern 

 necessity was forced upon the Highlanders to come to 

 terms with the Government. But the expectation of the 

 Government, that at last the trouble was over, proved to 

 be illusory. 



In the autumn of 1691, the Highlands were once more 

 in a state of political ferment. A fresh rising was being 

 organised, and a number of Highlanders again unsheathed 

 their claymores. Among the latter was Seaforth, who was 

 driven to the hills, and Brahan Castle was occupied by 

 a garrison under Ross of Balnagown. King William's 

 Councillors were divided in their opinion as to the best 

 means of putting down the rising, and preventing a spread 

 of the conflagration. There was the peace party, the ablest 

 exponent of whose policy was Lord Tarbat ; and there 

 was the party whose sole remedy was uncompromising war 

 to the knife. "Several of your Councillors," wrote Tarbat 

 to King William, " thought it dishonourable to treat with 

 them, and all these thought it better to root them out by 

 war than to give them any favour." The Earl of Argyll 

 trimmed. Without going the length of the war party, he 

 "was against such concessions as affected his interests." 



