What chance could there be of inducing such spirits as these to
combine in one great confederacy, and to undertake a long and desperate
struggle for the sake of a king of whom the most part had never heard,
and of a cause which they could not understand?
But Dundee had learned something at Dunblane which had given him fresh
views. During the few hours he had passed there he had talked much with
a Highland gentleman, Alexander Drummond of Bahaldy, son-in-law to Sir
Ewan Cameron of Lochiel, the great chief of the clan Cameron. Drummond
told him that Lochiel had been busy all the winter among his neighbours,
that they were now ripe for war, and were only waiting a leader and some
succours of regular troops and ammunition; that James had been
communicated with, and had approved their plan in a letter written with
his own hand to Lochiel; and that an early day had been appointed for a
rendezvous of the clans in Lochaber, the headquarters of the Camerons.
It is now generally acknowledged that on this occasion, however it may
have been in the next century, the action of the Highland chiefs was not
inspired by devotion to the House of Stuart. Lochiel himself may indeed
have been moved by some personal consideration for the exiled King. He
had fought bravely under Montrose for Charles the First, and under
Middleton for Charles the Second.
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