Branches even of the same stock did
not conceive themselves inevitably bound by the tie of blood, though it
was a claim never forgotten when it was convenient to make or allow it.
Sometimes a few of the smaller clans would make common cause against the
oppressions of a more powerful, or the cattle of a wealthier neighbour;
but it was rarely that friendship went beyond the conditions of an armed
neutrality. Though the feudal system had long prevailed in many parts of
the Highlands, it had never superseded the older patriarchal system. The
chief of the clan might pay homage to a great lord like Argyle or
Athole; but in the clan he was king, and his word was law. Moreover,
brave as the Highlanders undoubtedly were, they were not a warlike race.
They would rise to the signal of the fiery cross, without questioning
the cause; and they would on occasion fight for their own hand, for
revenge or plunder. But the long service of a regular war was little to
their taste. Of military science and military discipline they knew
nothing. To win the battle with the rush of the first onset, and when
the battle was won to make off to their homes with all the plunder they
could lay hands on,--this was their notion of warfare, and it was a
notion which the chiefs were too ignorant or too prudent to interfere
with.
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