e Camerons. A
small fleet of armed frigates drawing a light draft was to cruise off
the western coasts, and to watch those dangerous islands whence issued
the long war-galleys of the Macdonalds and the Macleans. Stores and
transport enough to keep a considerable force in the field for one month
was to be collected; and a skilled body of pioneers, equipped with all
the tools necessary for road-making, was to accompany the column.

Having already sketched out this plan in a letter to Hamilton, Mackay
was in hopes to find on his arrival in Edinburgh that measures had been
begun to put it into operation. He was grievously disappointed. He found
nothing but quarrels and intrigues in the Parliament House and out of
it. Each man was too intent on out-manoeuvring his neighbour in the
great struggle for place, to spare a thought for a foe who was happily
separated from them by a vast barrier of mountains and many hundreds of
miles of barren moorland, deep waters, and dense forests. He saw that
his plan for subduing the warriors of the Highlands must wait till the
Lowland politicians were at leisure to listen to him; yet he determined
to return to his duty, and to do his best with such means as he could
find or make for himself. It was possible that Argyle might now have
sufficiently repaired his affairs to be able to render some assistance
from the West; and there was an ally in Perthshire who might, if he
would, prove of even more value than Argyle.[91]

Lord Murray, Athole's eldest son, had, unlike his father, made up his
mind early in the Revolution and kept to it. But it happened that there
was one now in possession of Blair Castle who had also chosen his side
with equal resolution. Athole had slunk off to England, leaving his
castle and his vassals to the charge of his agent, Stewart of Ballechin.
Ballechin was a sturdy Jacobite; and though he had not yet dared to arm
the Athole men for James, he had managed on more than one occasion to do
timely service to Dundee. Blair was one of the most important posts in
the proposed line of garrisons. It commanded on one side the only road
by which troops could march from the low country of Perth into the
Highlands, and on the other the passes leading to the Spey and the Dee.
Whoever held Blair practically held the key of the Highlands. Mackay
therefore urged Murray, who was then in Edinburgh, to get rid of this
unjust steward and make sure of so valuable a stronghold for the
Governm