The abductors of the widowed young heiress of Edenhelly were Rob’s sons,
Robin Oig, who went through a form of marriage with the girl, and James
Mohr, a good soldier, but a double-dyed spy and scoundrel. Robin Oig was
hanged in 1753. James Mohr, a detected traitor to Prince Charles, died
miserably in Paris, in 1754. Readers of Mr. Stevenson’s _Catriona_ know
James well; information as to his villanies is extant in Additional MSS.
(British Museum). This is probably the latest ballad in the collection.
It occurs in several variants, some of which, copied out by Burns, derive
thence a certain accidental interest. In Mr. Stevenson’s _Catriona_, the
heroine of that name takes a thoroughly Highland view of the abduction.
Robin Oig, in any case, was “nane the waur o’ a hanging,” for he shot a
Maclaren at the plough-tail, before the Forty-Five. The trial of these
sons of Alpen was published shortly after Scott’s _Rob Roy_.