Statement of the Breadalbane case

Translation.
The pipe and the banner
Are making proclamation in Bealach,
Benlawers in a blaze,
And the warriors rising.
Carles of the breeches,
The * lurachs and the breeches,
Carles of the breeches,
'Tis time to be rising.
Beautiful though threatening of aspect,
Is the fierce band of the cold hills,
Marching to Caithness,
To put the Northmen to extremity.
Carles, &c.
It was at Invernahavon,
You closed in the slashing conflict,
"Which laid many a swordsman,
On a bed from which there is no rising.
Carles, &c.
Swarthy John is blamed for seizing on the lands of the Sinclairs
for the debts of the Earl, as, according to the Cleachda or law of
the patriarchal clan, the land belonged to the people. The Sinclairs,
however, were not regarded as a clan, or of native descent, but
northmen who got lands from the Ceann-cath, and he could not be
recognised by the clans, as in a legal title, to give away the lands of
the people.
The peculiar power given to John, the swarthy, in his patent of
nobility, to leave the title to whichever of his two sons by Lady
Mary Rich he might prefer, by any writing under his own hand at
any time during his life, shows that the Crown was aware of the
• Lurach was a padded coat used for protection by such Lowlanders as could not afford tteel
armour.