mala,
and a host of shadowy chieftains and warriors, but they are not
distinctively Scotch. They are only Highland Gaelic versions of the
Irish Gaelic hero-legends, Scotch embodiments of Finn and Oisin, whose
real home was in Ireland, and whose legends were carried to the
Western Isles and the Highlands by conquering tribes of Scots from
Erin. These heroes are at bottom Irish, the champions of the Fenians
and of the Red Branch, and in the Scotch legends they have lost much
of their original beauty and chivalry.

The Highland Clans

It is rather in the private history of the country, as it were, than
in its national records that we are likely to find a hero who will
have something of the mythical in his story, something of the romance
of the Middle Ages. The wars and jealousies of the clans, the
adventures of a chief among hostile tribesmen, the raids and forays,
the loves and hatreds of rival families, form a good background for a
romantic legend; and such a legend occurs in the story of Black Colin
of Loch Awe, a warrior of the great Campbell clan in the fourteenth
century. The tale is common in one form or another to all European
lands where the call of the Crusades was heard, and the romantic
Crusading element has to a certain extent softened the occasionally
ferocious nature of Highland stories in general, so that there is no
bloodthirsty vengeance, no long blood-feud, to be recorded of Black
Colin Campbell.

The Knight of Loch Awe

During the wars between England and Scotland in the reigns of Edward
I. and Edward II. one of the chief leaders in the cause of Scottish
independence was Sir Nigel Campbell. The Knight of Loch Awe, as he was
generally called, was a schoolfellow and comrade of Sir William
Wallace, and a loyal and devoted adherent of Robert Bruce. In return
for his services in the war of independence Bruce rewarded him with
lands belonging to the rebellious MacGregors, including Glenurchy, the
great glen at the head of Loch Awe through which flows the river
Orchy. It was a wild and lonely district, and Sir Nigel Campbell had
much conflict before he finally expelled the MacGregors and settled
down peaceably in Glenurchy. There his son was born, and named Colin,
and as years passed he won the nickname of Black Colin, from his
swarthy complexion, or possibly from his character, which showed
tokens of unusual fierceness and determination.

Black Colin's Youth

Sir Nigel Campbell, as all Highland