ing permitted to kiss His Majesty's hand. In
London it was announced exultingly that every clan, without exception,
had submitted in time; and the announcement was generally thought most
satisfactory. [226] But the Master of Stair was bitterly disappointed.
The Highlands were then to continue to be what they had been, the shame
and curse of Scotland. A golden opportunity of subjecting them to the
law had been suffered to escape, and might never return. If only the
Macdonalds would have stood out, nay, if an example could but have been
made of the two worst Macdonalds, Keppoch and Glencoe, it would have
been something. But it seemed that even Keppoch and Glencoe, marauders
who in any well governed country would have been hanged thirty years
before, were safe. [227] While the Master was brooding over thoughts
like these, Argyle brought him some comfort. The report that Mac Ian had
taken the oaths within the prescribed time was erroneous. The Secretary
was consoled. One clan, then, was at the mercy of the government, and
that clan the most lawless of all. One great act of justice, nay of
charity, might be performed. One terrible and memorable example might be
given. [228]

Yet there was a difficulty. Mac Ian had taken the oaths. He had taken
them, indeed, too late to be entitled to plead the letter of the royal
promise; but the fact that he had taken them was one which evidently
ought not to have been concealed from those who were to decide his fate.
By a dark intrigue, of which the history is but imperfectly known, but
which was, in all probability, directed by the Master of Stair, the
evidence of Mac Ian's tardy submission was suppressed. The certificate
which the Sheriff of Argyleshire had transmitted to the Council at
Edinburgh, was never laid before the board, but was privately submitted
to some persons high in office, and particularly to Lord President
Stair, the father of the Secretary. These persons pronounced the
certificate irregular, and, indeed, absolutely null; and it was
cancelled.

Meanwhile the Master of Stair was forming, in concert with Breadalbane
and Argyle, a plan for the destruction of the people of Glencoe. It was
necessary to take the King's pleasure, not, indeed, as to the details
of what was to be done, but as to the question whether Mac Ian and his
people should or should not be treated as rebels out of the pale of
the ordinary law. The Master of Stair found no difficulty in the royal
closet. W