Series 1 > Loyall dissuasive

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THE LOYALL DISSUASIVE
regained for his clan and its chief, thus beset on one side
by the ‘ gallant Graham,1 ‘ the middle-sized, weel-favoured, and
high-nosed1 Dunfermline,1 Cannon and Buchan, while Mackay,
Livingston, and Hill, domineered on the other? That he
came out of the fire in a condition to hold his own with
the Mackintosh, who had adhered, with circumspection, to
the winning side, is a marvel. He had, but a month or two
before the turmoil, arranged a marriage for his only child,
Anne Macpherson, with Archibald Campbell, second son of
Sir Hugh Campbell of Calder, and fixed the dower at six
thousand merks. By some malicious spirit there was infused
into the minds of the clansmen a conviction that Cluny meant
to convey the chiefship with his daughter to Calder. There
was not a particle of truth in it, but remembering the claims of
Mackintosh to chiefship, through the marriage of his ancestor
to Eva, the heiress of Clan Chattan, they caught up the idea,
and gave vent to the following declaration:—
{Wee undersubscribers considering that Duncan M'phersone of
Cluny our present Chiefe is of full purpose and resolution to
talyie not only his whole estate, but also the representatione of
us and all others our kinsmen by 2 his righteous heir male with his
daughter to a stranger, and that without all peradventure our
ruine is therby threatned (if God Almightie by ane entire unione
among our selves doe not prevent the same), doe hereby declear
and swear upon our great oath, that we shall not own nor counten¬
ance any persone as the said Duncan M'phersone his representative
(failing heirs male of his own body) excepting William M'phersone
of Noid, who is his true lineall successor, and the heirs male of
his body, quhilkis failing the heirs male quhatsomever and safurth
successibly, and that wee shall to the utmost of our power asist
and mantain the said William and his forsaids in attaining and
posessing the said estate by all just means imaginable. And
furder we the undersubscribers and in particular the said William
1 Lieutenant Nisbet depones that after Killiecrankie he was examined in a
low room in the Castle of Blair, by the said Earl of Dunfermline, and he says
that ‘he was middle sized, weel favoured, and high nosed.’—Acts Pari. Scot.,
1690, Ap.,p. 56. 2 ‘by,’ i.e. past.