ighest
penalties the law allows, any reset, correspondence, or intercommuning
with these rebels." This monstrous mandate, which was in fact the
death-warrant of many thousand innocent people, no distinction being
made of age or sex, would, in all human probability, have been put into
execution, but for the remonstrance of one high-minded nobleman. Lord
Carmarthen, afterwards Duke of Leeds, accidentally became aware of the
proposed massacre, and personally remonstrated with the monarch against
a measure which he denounced as at once cruel and impolitic. After much
discussion, William, influenced rather by an apprehension that so
savage and sweeping an act might prove fatal to his new authority, than
by any compunction or impulse of humanity, agreed to recall the general
order, and to limit himself, in the first instance, to a single deed of
butchery, by way of testing the temper of the nation. Some difficulty
seems to have arisen in the selection of the fittest victim. Both
Keppoch and Glencoe were named, but the personal rancour of Secretary
Dalrymple decided the doom of the latter. The Secretary wrote
thus:--"Argyle tells me that Glencoe hath not taken the oath, at which I
rejoice. It is a great work of charity to be exact in rooting out that
damnable set." The final instructions regarding Glencoe, which were
issued on 16th January, 1692, are as follows:--

"William R.--As for M'Ian of Glencoe, and that tribe,
if they can be well distinguished from the rest of the
Highlanders, it will be proper for public justice to extirpate
that set of thieves." "W.R."

This letter is remarkable as being signed and countersigned by William
alone, contrary to the usual practice. The Secretary was no doubt
desirous to screen himself from after responsibility, and was further
aware that the royal signature would insure a rigorous execution of the
sentence.

Macdonald, or, as he was more commonly designed, M'Ian of Glencoe, was
the head of a considerable sept or branch of the great Clan-Coila, and
was lineally descended from the ancient Lords of the Isles, and from
the royal family of Scotland--the common ancestor of the Macdonalds
having espoused a daughter of Robert II. He was, according to a
contemporary testimony, "a person of great integrity, honour, good
nature, and courage; and his loyalty to his old master, King James, was
such, that he continued in arms from Dundee's first appearing i