Clan Fraser in Canada

56 ALEXANDER OF BEAUFORT.
young in Wales, and without issue. His younger brothers
were named Hugh, John, Thomas, and James. The cause
of Alexander's flight to Wales forms one of the best known
legends of the family. There are various versions of it, but
I shall give that most commonly related by old people in the
district of the Aird : Alexander arrived, somewhat late, at a
wedding at Teawig, near Beauly. His appearance was the
signal for the piper to strike up the tune, " Tha Biodag air
MacThomais," some of the lines of which run :
Tha biodag air Mac Thomais,
Tha biodag' fhada, mhor, air ;
Tha biodag- air Mac Thomais,
Ach's math a dh' fhoghnadh sgian da.
Tha biodag arms a chliobadaich,
Air mac a bhodaich leibidich ;
Tha biodag anns a chliobadaich,
Air mac a bhodaich romaich.
Tha bhiodag deanadh gliogadaich,
'Si ceann'lt ri bann na briogais aig';
Tha bucallan 'n a bhrogan,
Ged 's math a dh' fhoghnadh ial daibh.
It was whispered to Alexander that the piper selected
this tune to cause merriment at his expense, and the youth, to
turn the jest against the piper, determined to rip open the
bao- of the pipes, with his dirk. But in doing so, his foot
slipped, and he fell heavily towards the piper with the naked
dirk in his outstretched arm. The piper was fatally wounded,
and Alexander, who had been an extreme partizan of the
Jacobites, believed that were he tried for the murder of the
piper, the hostility of Sir George Mackenzie, of Tarbat,
would inevitably secure a sentence of death against him. He
fled to Wales, where he was befriended by Earl Powis, under
whose protection, it is said, he lived on, married, and had
issue, while his next younger brother, Simon, enjoyed the