[78]
But for what loyalty to the House of Stuart was powerless to effect a
motive was found in the hatred to the House of Argyle. Nearly all the
chiefs of the Western Highlands were vassals to Mac Callum More, the
head of the great clan of Campbell. The numerous branches of the
Macdonalds, who had once been lords of the Hebrides and all the mountain
districts of Argyleshire and Invernessshire, the Camerons, the
Macnaghtens, the Macleans, the Stuarts of Appin, all these paid tribute
(it would be probably more correct to say owed tribute) to the Marquis
of Argyle, and all were ready to welcome any chance of freedom from that
odious bondage. The early loyalty of Lochiel had probably been as much
inspired by the fact that he was fighting against an Argyle as for a
Stuart, as it is possible had been the loyalty of Montrose himself. In
1685 he had cheerfully summoned his clan to repel the invasion of
another chief of that hated House; and now the Revolution had brought
back from exile yet another to exercise the old tyranny. This was enough
to make the Revolution a hateful thing in the eyes of Lochiel and his
neighbours. But it was also believed that James had conceived the idea
of buying up from the great Highland nobles their feudal rights over the
clans, and had only been prevented from carrying his idea into effect by
the Revolution.
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