eized
the prey, feasted and died; and the pious old Pope exulted greatly when
he heard that the corpses of thirty ruffians, who had been the terror
of many peaceful villages, had been found lying among the mules and
packages. The plans of the Master of Stair were conceived in the spirit
of James and of Sixtus; and the rebellion of the mountaineers furnished
what seemed to be an excellent opportunity for carrying those plans
into effect. Mere rebellion, indeed, he could have easily pardoned. On
Jacobites, as Jacobites, he never showed any inclination to bear hard.
He hated the Highlanders, not as enemies of this or that dynasty, but as
enemies of law, of industry and of trade. In his private correspondence
he applied to them the short and terrible form of words in which the
implacable Roman pronounced the doom of Carthage. His project was no
less than this, that the whole hill country from sea to sea, and the
neighbouring islands, should be wasted with fire and sword, that the
Camerons, the Macleans, and all the branches of the race of Macdonald,
should be rooted out. He therefore looked with no friendly eye on
schemes of reconciliation, and, while others were hoping that a little
money would set everything right, hinted very intelligibly his opinion
that whatever money was to be laid out on the clans would be best laid
out in the form of bullets and bayonets. To the last moment he continued
to flatter himself that the rebels would be obstinate, and would thus
furnish him with a plea for accomplishing that great social revolution
on which his heart was set. [224] The letter is still extant in which
he directed the commander of the forces in Scotland how to act if the
Jacobite chiefs should not come in before the end of December. There is
something strangely terrible in the calmness and conciseness with which
the instructions are given. "Your troops will destroy entirely the
country of Lochaber, Lochiel's lands, Keppoch's, Glengarry's and
Glencoe's. Your power shall be large enough. I hope the soldiers will
not trouble the government with prisoners." [225]

This despatch had scarcely been sent off when news arrived in London
that the rebel chiefs, after holding out long, had at last appeared
before the Sheriffs and taken the oaths. Lochiel, the most eminent man
among them, had not only declared that he would live and die a true
subject to King William, but had announced his intention of visiting
England, in the hope of be