"The Lennox, as the district is called which encircles the lower
extremity of Loch Lomond, was peculiarly exposed to the incursions of
the mountaineers, who inhabited the inaccessible fastnesses at the upper
end of the lake, and the neighboring district of Loch Katrine. These
were often marked by circumstances of great ferocity, of which the noted
conflict of Glen Fruin is a celebrated instance. This was a clan-battle,
in which the Macgregors, headed by Allaster Macgregor, chief of the
clan, encountered the sept of Colquhouns, commanded by Sir Humphry
Colquhoun of Luss. It is on all hands allowed that the action was
desperately fought, and that the Colquhouns were defeated with
slaughter, leaving two hundred of their name dead upon the field. But
popular tradition has added other horrors to the tale. It is said that
Sir Humphry Colquhoun, who was on horseback, escaped to the Castle of
Benechra, or Bannochar, and was next day dragged out and murdered by
the victorious Macgregors in cold blood. Buchanan of Auchmar, however,
speaks of his slaughter as a subsequent event, and as perpetrated by the
Macfarlanes. Again, it is reported that the Macgregors murdered a
number of youths, whom report of the intended battle had brought to be
spectators, and whom the Colquhouns, anxious for their safety, had shut
up in a barn to be out of danger. One account of the Macgregors denies
this circumstance entirely; another ascribes it to the savage and
bloodthirsty disposition of a single individual, the bastard brother of
the Laird of Macgregor, who amused himself with this second massacre of
the innocents, in express disobedience to the chief, by whom he was left
their guardian during the pursuit of the Colquhouns. It is added that
Macgregor bitterly lamented this atrocious action, and prophesied the
ruin which it must bring upon their ancient clan. ...
"The consequences of the battle of Glen Fruin were very calamitous to
the family of Macgregor, who had already been considered as an unruly
clan. The widows of the slain Colquhouns, sixty, it is said, in number,
appeared in doleful procession before the king at Stirling, each riding
upon a white palfrey, and bearing in her hand the bloody shirt of
her husband displayed upon a pike. James VI. was so much moved by the
complaints of this 'choir of mourning dames,' that he let loose his
vengeance against the Macgregors without either bounds or moderation.
The very name of the clan was proscribed, and those by whom it had been
borne were given up to sword and fire, and absolutely hunted down by
bloodhounds like wild beasts. Argyll and the Campbells, on the one hand,
Montrose, with the Grahames and Buchanans, on the other, are said to
have been the chief instruments in suppressing this devoted clan. The
Laird of Macgregor surrendered to the former, on condition that he would
take him out of Scottish ground. But, to use Birrel's expression, he
kept 'a Highlandman's promise;' and, although he fulfilled his word to
the letter, by carrying him as far as Berwick, he afterwards brought
him back to Edinburgh, where he was executed with eighteen of his clan
(Birrel's Diary, 2d Oct. 1903). The clan Gregor being thus driven to
utter despair, seem to have renounced the laws from the benefit of which
they were excluded, and their depredations produced new acts of council,
confirming the severity of their proscription, which had only the
effect of rendering them still more united and desperate. It is a most
extraordinary proof of the ardent and invincible spirit of clanship,
that notwithstanding the repeated proscriptions providently ordained
by the legislature, 'for the timeous preventing the disorders and
oppression that may fall out by the said name and clan of Macgregors,
and their followers,' they were, in 1715 and 1745, a potent clan, and
continue to subsist as a distinct and numerous race."
426. Leven-glen. The valley of the Leven, which connects Loch Lomond
with the Clyde.
431. The rosebud. That is, Ellen. "Note how this song connects Allan's
forebodings with Roderick's subsequent offer" (Taylor).
444. And chorus wild, etc. The MS. has "The chorus to the chieftain's
fame."