Historical memoirs of Rob Roy and the Clan Macgregor

1 24 MEMOIR OF ROB ROY.
which drew down upon him also the strong arm of the
law, and he was taken up and put in confinement in the
castle of Edinburgh. Previous to this affair, James
evinced the military ardour of his clan, and along with
his cousin, Macgregor of Glengyle, in 1745, took the
fort of Inversnaid, and made eighty-nine prisoners, with
only twelve men. He then joined prince Charles Stuart
as major, at the head of six companies of Macgregors, in
the fruitless contest which that young man had instituted
for the recovery of the British throne. James Macgregor
had his thigh bone broken in the battle of Prestonpans ;
and though from this accident he could not accompany
the prince on his ill-concerted march into England, James
again joined him in the concluding battle of Culloden,
and with many more of his partizans, came under the
consequent act of attainder, which spared neither rich nor
poor, young nor old ; and covered the country with a
dreadful visitation of fire and sword, in base violation of
those claims of humanity that are the sacred rights of the
conquered.
While James Macgregor was a prisoner in Edinburgh
castle, he received an indictment to stand his trial j and
from a memorial in his own hand-writing, addressed to
prince Charles Stuart, faithfully copied in a subsequent
page, his doom was almost certain.
The address of his daughter in effecting his escape was
admirable. Having previously concerted her plan, she,
on the evening of 16th November, 1752, went to his prison,
in the dress and character of a cobler, carrying in her
hand a pair of mended shoes. Her father immediately
put on the disguise ; and having held some angry conver-
sation with the supposed cobler, for making an overcharge,
60 as to deceive the sentinel, he hastily passed him undia-