w not
where to get the smallest assistance!""

Meantime the news reached Lochiel of the total destruction of his house
at Achnacarrie. Previously to the demolition of the house, the family
had buried or concealed many things in the earth. The English soldiers,
encamping round the smoking ruins, are said, on tradition, to have
actually boiled their kettles at the foot of each of a fine avenue of
plane-trees. The avenue remains, and fissures can still be traced
running up the stem of each tree. Not a memorial of the House of
Achnacarrie remained. For this, and other acts of wanton barbarity, the
pretext was that the Camerons, as well as other tribes, had promised to
surrender arms at a certain time, but had broken their word. "His Royal
Highness, the Duke of Cumberland," to borrow from a contemporary writer,
"began with the rebels in a gentle, paternal way, with soft admonitions,
with a promise of protection to all the common people that would bring
in their arms, and submit to mercy." Since, however, some equivocated,
and others broke their word, the Duke was obliged to lay "the rod on
more heavy." Fire and sword were therefore carried through the country
of the Camerons; the cattle were driven away; even the cotter's hut
escaped not: the homes of the poor were laid in ashes: their sheep and
pigs slaughtered: and the wretched inmates of the huts, flying to the
mountains, were found there, some expiring, some actually dead of
hunger. The houses of the clergy were crowded with the homeless and
starving: whole districts were depopulated: the Sabbath was outraged by
acts of destruction, which wounded, in the nicest point, the feelings
of the religious mountaineer; and the goods of the rebels were publicly
auctioned, without any warrant of a civil court. During all these
proceedings, the "jovial Duke," as he was called, was making merry at
Fort Augustus in a manner which, if possible, casts more odium on his
memory even than his atrocious and unpunished cruelties.[292]

Achnacarrie was razed to the ground. A modern structure, suitable in
splendour to the truly noble family who possess it, has arisen in its
place; but no erection can restore the house of Sir Ewan Dhu, and the
home of his "gentle" grandson, Donald Cameron. As the plunderers
ransacked the house, they found a picture of Lochiel, and one which was
accounted a good likeness. This was given to the soldiers, who were
dispatched over Corryarie in search of the wounde