Keppoch song

40 A KEPPOCH SONG. canto u.
Monteith does therefore guard the throne,
And he as governor is known.
He former selfish rule does bear,
Thus the old nobility fear,
That, by crown lands, this siveep's pretence
Must sweep them soon from hold and fence.
The governor now at nothing sticks,
And priestcraft joins with knavish tricks.
The heiress Ross persuades to leave
The world, and her own friends deceive;
Her estate the earldom to dispone
In Buchan's favour — his second son.
She takes the vail, and he assumes s
This new-pluck'd feather to his plumes.
* " Donald, Lord of the Isles, married a daughter of Wal-
ter Lesslie, who, in right of his wife, daughter of William,
last earl of Ross, was earl of that estate. He had one son,
who left only one daughter, heiress to that earldom, which
daughter, having become a nun, disponed her estate to John
Stewart, earl of Buchan*, second son to Robert, earl of Fife,
and Monteith, then governor of Scotland. The Lord of the
Isles judging himself pre-judged by the said right, applied
to the governor for redress, but to no purpose," &c. — William
Buchanan of Auchmars Inquiry.
* The earldom of Buchan was one of the new forfeiture?, it
having been the property of the name of Coroyn.