of this extraordinary family."
"Their history," she adds, "unites the extravagance of romance with the
sober reality of truth."

The twelve daughters of Lochiel were admirably educated, and the fame of
their modest virtues soon extended through the Highlands. The great
point in matrimonial alliances in those rude regions was to obtain a
wife well born, and well allied; and little fortune was ever expected
with the daughter of a chief. Ancestry was the great point with a
Highlander, for he believed that defects of mind, as well as of person,
were hereditary. All, therefore, sought the daughters of Lochiel, as
coming of an untainted race. The elder ones were married early, and
seemed, as Mrs. Grant expresses it, by the solicitude to obtain them, as
ever to increase, like the Sibyl's leaves, in value, as they lessened in
number. Of the daughters, one, the youngest and the fairest, was
actually married to Cameron of Glendinning, in the twelfth year of her
age. She became a widow, and afterwards married Maclean of Kingasleet,
so that she was successively the wife of two heads of houses. Another,
Jean Cameron, who was the least comely of her family, but possessed of a
commanding figure and powerful understanding, was married to Clunie, the
Chief of the Clan Macpherson. She is said to have been celebrated in the
pathetic poem, entitled "Lochaber no More," the poet, who laments his
departure from Lochaber, and his farewell to his Jean, having been an
officer in one of the regiments stationed at Fort William.

By the marriage of his twelve daughters with the heads of houses, the
political importance of Lochiel was considerably enhanced, and a
confederacy, containing many noted families who were bound together by
opinion and kindred, formed a strong opposition to the reigning
Government. The sons-in-law of Lochiel were the following chiefs:
Cameron of Dungallan, Barclay of Urie, Grant of Glenmoriston, Macpherson
of Clunie, Campbell of Barcaldine, Campbell of Auchalader, Campbell of
Auchlyne, Maclean of Lochbuy, Macgregor of Bohowdie, Wright of Loss,
Maclean of Ardgour, and Cameron of Glendinning. All the daughters became
the mothers of families; "and these numerous descendants, still,"
observes Mrs. Grant, "cherish the bonds of affinity, now so widely
diffused, and still boast their descent from these female
worthies."[255]

Among most of the influential chieftains who espoused the daughters of
Lochiel, was the celebrated Macp