e Council at
Edinburgh, setting forth the special circumstances which had induced the
Sheriff to do what he knew not to be strictly regular. [217]

The news that Mac Ian had not submitted within the prescribed time was
received with cruel joy by three powerful Scotchmen who were then at the
English Court. Breadalbane had gone up to London at Christmas in order
to give an account of his stewardship. There he met his kinsman Argyle.
Argyle was, in personal qualities, one of the most insignificant of
the long line of nobles who have borne that great name. He was the
descendant of eminent men, and the parent of eminent men. He was the
grandson of one of the ablest of Scottish politicians; the son of one of
the bravest and most truehearted of Scottish patriots; the father of one
Mac Callum More renowned as a warrior and as an orator, as the model of
every courtly grace, and as the judicious patron of arts and letters,
and of another Mac Callum More distinguished by talents for business and
command, and by skill in the exact sciences. Both of such an ancestry
and of such a progeny Argyle was unworthy. He had even been guilty
of the crime, common enough among Scottish politicians, but in him
singularly disgraceful, of tampering with the agents of James while
professing loyalty to William. Still Argyle had the importance
inseparable from high rank, vast domains, extensive feudal rights,
and almost boundless patriarchal authority. To him, as to his cousin
Breadalbane, the intelligence that the tribe of Glencoe was out of the
protection of the law was most gratifying; and the Master of Stair more
than sympathized with them both.

The feeling of Argyle and Breadalbane is perfectly intelligible.
They were the heads of a great clan; and they had an opportunity of
destroying a neighbouring clan with which they were at deadly feud.
Breadalbane had received peculiar provocation. His estate had been
repeatedly devastated; and he had just been thwarted in a negotiation
of high moment. Unhappily there was scarcely any excess of ferocity
for which a precedent could not be found in Celtic tradition. Among all
warlike barbarians revenge is esteemed the most sacred of duties and the
most exquisite of pleasures; and so it had long been esteemed among the
Highlanders. The history of the clans abounds with frightful tales,
some perhaps fabulous or exaggerated, some certainly true, of vindictive
massacres and assassinations. The Macdonalds of Gl