r trials, they were charged with being not only murderers, but
notorious thieves and receivers of stolen goods. Robert was proved to
have boasted of having drawn the first blood of the Maclarens; and the
brothers were all accused of having followed this murder by houghing and
killing forty head of young cattle belonging to a kinsman of the
deceased.

Robert Roy, the principal party in the crime, did not appear before the
High Court of Justiciary, to which he was summoned: he was therefore
outlawed. The other brothers were tried, and the prosecution was
conducted by the celebrated Duncan Forbes, of Culloden. The prisoners
were acquitted of being accessory to the murder of Maclaren; but the
jury were unanimous in thinking that the charge of being reputed thieves
was made out, and they were ordered to find caution for their good
behaviour.

Robert Roy was advised to retire to France: his brother James remained
in Scotland, and took an active part in the Rebellion of 1745; when,
with the assistance of his cousin Glengyle, he surprised the fort of
Inversnaid; he afterwards led to the battle of Preston Pans six
companies of his clan. His thigh-bone was broken in that battle; yet he
appeared again at Culloden, and was subsequently attainted.

The life of James Macgregor was spared only to present a tissue of
guilty schemes, and to end in infamy and exile. That of Rob Roy was dyed
yet deeper in crimes, of which a second trial and an ignominious death
were the dreadful result. He was hung in the Grass Market in Edinburgh,
in the year 1754. James, his brother, being reduced to the most
humiliating condition, died in France, after exhibiting in his conduct,
whilst in Scotland, if possible, almost a deeper shade of depravity than
that displayed by his brother.

Their father was, however, released from his existence before these
desperate men had sullied the name which he transmitted to them by their
transgressions.

As he declined in strength, Rob Roy became more peaceable in
disposition; and his nephew, the head of the clan, renounced the enmity
which had subsisted between the Macgregors and the Duke of Montrose. The
time of this celebrated freebooter's death is uncertain, but is
generally supposed to have occurred after the year 1738. "When he found
himself approaching his final change," says Sir Walter Scott, "he
expressed some contrition for particular parts of his life. His wife
laughed at these scruples of conscience, a