Lairds of Glenlyon

THE LAIRDS OF GLENLVON. 127
Edinburgh, under the pain of fine and imprisonment, to
give bail for his allegiance to the existing Government —
From his hostility to the whole race of " wee lairdies," and
to their chief in special, he was known at this time among
his Jacobite friends by the nick-name of " Elector."
Mar thought it of much importance to gain the hearty
co-operation of the " Elector of Struan." He was anxious
to humour him himself, and endeavoured to make others
do so also. At the beginning of the rebellion, Perth was
seized by the Jacobites of Fife. Colonel Hay, brother to
the Earl of Kinnoull, was appointed governor of the cap-
tured city, with very despotic instructions indeed. Alex-
ander of Struan, with his Robertsons, reinforced Hay by
order of Mar. In his letter to Hay, Mar thus introduces
Struan : — " You must take care to please the Elector of
Struan, as they call him. He is an old colonel ; but, as he
says himself, understands not much of the trade. So he'll
be ready to be advised by Colonel Balfour and Urquhart.
As for money, I am not so rife of it as I hope to be soon ;
but I have sent off the little I have, fifty guineas, by the
bearer." Struan's enthusiasm was of that infectious kind
which spread from man to man. His zeal shamed the
sluggish and inflamed the lukewarm. One of the ways by
which he dragged half-unwilling recruits to the standard
of the Chevalier may be seen from the following lines : —
STRUAN TO HIS BROTHER, DUNCAN VOIR, OVER A BOTTLE.
" To retrieve your good name
And establish your fame
Dear Goth* let your fiddling alone :
'Tis better to go
* Struan calls his brother by this nickname very often.