Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

216 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
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of Mar's tent, wliere ho and Mackintosh were playing at cards. Huntly ; Ji
suggested to them to give up their play as the enemy were close at hand. ^ ■;
They (the card-players) asked if the enemy were in great force, when { i
Huntly replied that they were not very numerous, but he could see that ! i
they were determined to fight. " Well," said Mackintosh, " we'U play \ ;l
this game, and dispute with these fellows afterwards." Huntly again i
looked out, when he saw the enemy driving on furiously towards them j i g
he goes a second time to the tent, saying, " Gentlemen, fight stoutly, or |
render yourselves to your enemies." Mackintosh replied that they j n
" would play that game, and would do with the enemy what they pleased j i
afterwards, and that lie knew very well the doings of the big-beUied ;■)
carles of the Isles." " "Whatever they be," replied Huntly, " they will i c
fight like men this day," when Mackintosh retorted that "though he him- \i
self (Huntly) should assist them, their (Mackintosh's) party would defeat p
them both." Whereupon Huntly went out of the tent in a rage, saying j i
that he would fight none against the Highlanders that day. He then ( \
drew his men aside, and " was more of a spectator than of either party." '
" Then joining battle, Donald Balloch made a main battle, and a front of ;
his men." The front was commanded by Maclan of Ardnamurchan, and ( i
John Maclean of Coll ; the main battle by Eanald Bkn, son of John Mor, |i
murdered by James Campbell (and a natural brother of Donald Balloch, I
who became progi-nitor of the family of Lairgy), and Allan, son of Allan, i
Laird of Moidart (of whom descended the family of Knoydart), and Mac- i
Duffie of Colonsay, MacQuarrie of Ulva, and MacGee of the Kinds of :
Isla. As the combatants faced one another, Alastair Carrach and his 220 j
archers poured down the brae of the hill on which they had planted them-
selves, and shot their arrows so thick, on the flank of the Eoyal army, as
to compel them to give way. Allan, Lord of Caithness ] a son of Lovat ;
and 990 were killed. Hugh Mackay of Strathnaver was taken prisoner,
and he married a daughter of Alexander Macdonald of Keppoch, " of
whom descended the race of Mackays called Slioc Ean Abrich." Donald
Balloch lost only 27 men. The Earl of I\rar was wounded in the thigh
by an arrow, and was in the hills for two nights accompanied only by his
servant, in a starving condition, for they had no provisions. At last he
fell in with some women tending their cattle, who happened to have a
little barley meal for their own use, and with which they relieved the
Earl and his servant, mixing it with a little water in the heel of the Earl's
own shoe. The Earl, after he and his servant had satisfied their hunger,
composed the following lines in Gaelic : —
'S math an cocaire an t acras,
'S mairg 'bi tailleas air biadli,
Fuarag eorn' a sail mo bhroige
Biadh is fhearr a fhuair mi riamh.
The Earl left his clothes with the woman that he might disguise himself,
and he travelled all night until he came to a small house, on a spot of
land called Beggich, belonging to an Irishman named O'Birrin. He told
this man that he was one of the Earl of Mar's followers, and that necessity
obliged him to disguise himself for fear of being discovered. The man
was going to slaughter a cow as the Earl came to his place, and he
desired the stranger to hold her. " The Earl was more willing to obey
his landlord's orders than skillful to act as butcher." The Irishman, dis' !