Historical memoirs of Rob Roy and the Clan Macgregor

THE CLAN MACGREGOR. 25
after transmitted to Edinburgh, where king James the
Sixth then resided. This account, sent by the laird of
Luss, was accompanied with two hundred and twenty
bloody shirts, many of which, it was believed, had been
so stained by the way, and were presented to the king, it
is said, by sixty widows of those slain in Glenfruin, who
rode upon white poneys, each carrying a long pole to ex-
pose those murderous proofs, and give the exhibition its
due effect on the mind of his majesty.
However melancholy those mourning dames might
appear when they set out on their journey, they returned
with different feelings ; for having arrived at Drymen, they
are reported to have had recourse to some of their native
beverage, which so elevated their disconsolate spirits, that
they quarrelled ere they reached their homes, to which
many of them were obliged to be carried ; and this seems
to prove, that they were a parcel of hirelings, procured
for the purpose of imposing on the credulity of the king.
Unfortunately for the clan Gregor, they had no friend
at court to plead their cause, and give a faithful account
of the unhappy affair, so that the former misguided male-
volence of James towards them, which, owing.to the pres-
sure of more imperative concerns, had been dormant for
some time, was easily rekindled, and he instantly de-
nounced letters of rebellion and intercommuning against
them.
But we have before remarked of this monarch, that al-
though mean and unaccomplished, he was vain and un-
principled ; and from religious weakness, credulous, and
readily submitted to imposition. Destitute of inborn sen-
timent, of manly resolution, his opinions and decisions
varied with every breath, and were altered according to
the whim and selfish designs of all those who came in his