to have been
peculiarly "born to trouble." To our modern notions of honour and
consistency, his conduct in becoming a courtier of William the Third,
appears to betray that unsoundness and hollowness of political principle
which, more or less, was the prevalent moral disease of the period, and
which was attributable to some of the most celebrated men of the day. It
undoubtedly forms an unfavourable contrast to the stern independence of
Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel, and of other Highland chieftains, and too
greatly resembles the code of politics adopted by the Earl of Mar. But
those who knew Sir John Maclean intimately, considered him a man of
straightforward integrity; they deemed him above dissimulation, and have
placed his name among those who despised every worldly advantage for the
sake of principle, and who loved the cause which he had espoused for its
own sake. The broken towers of Duart and of Aros, the ruins of those
once proud lords of the soil, attest the sacrifices which they made, and
form a melancholy commentary upon their history.

The castle of Aros, in the Island of Mull, "is interesting," says
Macculloch,[92] "from the picturesque object which it affords to the
artist; the more so, as the country is so devoid of scenes on which his
pencil can be exerted. Still more striking, from its greater magnitude
and more elevated position, is Duart Castle, once the stronghold of the
Macleans, and till lately garrisoned by a detachment from Fort William.
It is fast falling into ruin since it was abandoned as a barrack. When a
few years shall have passed, the almost roofless tenant will surrender
his spacious apartments to the bat and the owl, and seek shelter, like
his neighbours, in the thatched hovel which rises near him. But the
walls, of formidable thickness, may long bid defiance even to the storms
of this region; remaining to mark to future times the barbarous
splendour of the ancient Highland chieftains, and, with the opposite
fortress of Ardtornish, serving to throw a gleam of historical interest
over the passage of the Sound of Mull."

Hitherto Iona had received the last remains of the Lords of Duart; but
Sir John Maclean was not carried to the resting-place of his
forefathers. He was buried in the church of Raffin in Bamffshire, in the
family vault of the Gordons of Buckie. In Iona, that former "light of
the western world," are the tombs of the brave and unfortunate Macleans.
Their bones are interred in th