kland to tell the news, though
we should die on the spot, and so they marsht through the town and
got not so much as the rise of a cap. And they were so afraid that
they did not return, but went down over the Hank Hill, and east to
the minister's land; and their they faced about and fired twenty
shots in upon the peple that were looking at them, but, glory to
God, without doing the least hurt. And so they went off to the
Formand Hils, and plundred all the could carry or drive, and
threatned dreadfully they should be avenged on Leslie and burn it."

The pursuit of plunder was considered by Rob Roy as a far more venial
offence than if he had fought against Lord Mar, or offended Argyle, with
whom he continued on such convenient terms, that he did not leave Perth
until after the arrival of that General. He then retired with the spoils
he had acquired, and continued for some years in the practice of the
same marauding incursions which had already proved so troublesome and
distressing to his neighbours.

In the subsequent indemnity, or free pardon, the tribe of Macgregor was
specially excepted; and their leader, Robert Campbell, alias Macgregor,
commonly called Robert Roy, was attainted.

The severities which followed the Rebellion of 1715, drove Rob Roy to a
remote retreat in the Highlands, where he lived in a solitary hut, half
covered with copsewood, and seated under the brow of a barren mountain.
Here he resided in poverty, and what was worse to his restless spirit,
in idleness. Here he was in frequent dread of pursuit from the agents of
the law; and several anecdotes are told with what veracity it is
difficult to judge, of his dexterity in evading justice. Attainted,
disappointed, aged, and poor, he had one grievous addition to his
sorrows, which it required a cheerful and energetic mind to
sustain,--that of a family devoid of principle.

Among the five sons of Macgregor, Coll, James, Robert, Duncan, and
Ronald, four were known to be but too worthy of the name given by the
enemies of the Macgregors to the individuals of that tribe--"devils." Of
Coll, the eldest, little is ascertained. Robert, or Robbiq, or the
younger, as the Gaelic word signifies, inherited all the fierceness,
without the generosity, of his race. At sixteen years of age, he
deliberately shot at a man of the name of Maclaren, and wounded him so
severely that he died. His brothers were implicated in this murder. On
thei