Ossian Collection > History of the Highlands and of the Highland clans > Volume 1

222 HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS.
accordingly did. In this new expedition the earl of Huntly did great
damage to tlie lands of the rebels, killed several of them, and returned
home with a large booty.*
The earl of Huntly, after thus subduing his enemies in the north, now
found himself j)l.iced at the ban of the government on account of an
alleged conspiracy between him and the earls of Angus and Errol and
the crown of Spain, to overturn the state and the church. The king
and his councillors seemed to be satisfied of the innocence of the earls,
but the ministei-s, who considered the reformed religion in Scotland in
danger while these catholic peers were protected and favoured, impor-
tuned his majesty to punish them. The king yielding to necessity and
to the intrigues of Queen Elizabeth, forfeited their titles, intending to
restore them when a proper opportunity occurred, and to silence the cla-
mours of the ministers, convoked a parliament, which was held in the end
of the month of May, fifteen hundred and ninety-four. As few of the
peers attended, the ministers, having the commissioners of the burghs on
their side, carried every thing their own way, and the consequence was,
that the three earls were attainted without trial and their arms were torn
in presence of the parliament, according to the custom in such cases.
Having so far succeeded, the ministers, instigated by the Queen
of England, now entreated the king to send the earl of Argylc, a youth ol
nineteen years of age, in the pay of queen Elizabeth, with an armj' against
the Catholic earls. The king, still yielding to necessity, complied, and
Argyle having collected a force of about twelve thousand men, entered
Badenoch and laid siege to the castle of Ruthven, on the twenty-seventh
day of September, fifteen hundred and ninety-four. He was accom-
panied in this expedition by the earl of Athol, Sir Lauchlan Maclean
with some of his islanders, the chief of the Mackintoshes, the laird of
Grant, the Clan-Gregor, Macneil of Barra with all their friends and
dependents, togetlicr with the whole of the Campbells, and a variety of
others whom a tliirst for plunder or malice towards the Gordons had
induced to join tlie earl of Argyle's standard. The castle of Ruthven
was so well defended by the Clan-Pherson, who were the eai'l of Hunt-
ly 's vassals, that Argyle was obliged to give up the siege. He then
marched through Strathspey, and encamped at Drummin, upon the
river Avon, on the second day of October, from whence he issued or-
ders to Lord Forbes, the Frasers, the Dunbars, the Clan-Kenzie, the
Irvings, the Ogilvies, the Leslies, and other tribes and clans in the
north, to join his standard with all convenient speed.
The earls, against whom this expedition was directed, were by no
means dismayed. They knew that although the king was constrained
by popular clamour to levy war upon them, he was in secret friendly to
them ; and they were, moreover, aware that the army of Argyle, who
was a youth of no military experience, was a raw and undisciplined
• Sir Robert Goidoii, p. 21S.