Summer at the Lake of Monteith

94 The Lake of Monteith.
following morning, Rob ordered the chamberlain to be
brought into his presence. Rob, however, only taunted
him about his present position, mingled with threats, and
again ordered him back to his room. This continued from
day to day for about three weeks, after which Rob Roy al-
lowed him to return home. Before sending him away, how-
ever, he addressed him thus, " Now, chamberlain, if I had
done what your usage of my family demanded in return, I
should have hung you up by the neck; but, as Rob Roy never
avenges himself on defenceless men, I allow you to return
home. Remember, however, that the soil north of the Kelty
is ours. The Macgregors lost it by unfair and cruel perse-
cution, and by a gross breach of the right of succeeding
generations; but so long as Rob Roy Macgregor lives, and
his clan breathes in these glens, he shall not cease to take
care of the rents himself. And you may tell your false
master that, so long as he holds these lands, I shall con-
tinue to be his open enemy — and not of him alone, but of
all who dare to seize the sacred soil of my fathers. For
years my poor clansmen have been hunted, shot, and
murdered; but remember, there is one head in Glengyle,
and swords in Strathfillan, and God shall defend the
right !" After the very merciful treatment which Graham
had thus received, Montrose, partly in consideraion of the
leniency shown to his factor, and on account of the unjust
treatment which Rob had been subjected to at his own
hands, in a great measure ceased to persecute Rob. Mac-
gregor, in turn, ceased to annoy Montrose, and for many
years before his death Rob had given up all raids into the
country of his old enemy.