The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. VI] OF SCOTLAND 93
against the gentry of the western counties of Scotland, where
they were long after remembered under the denomination of the
Highland host.
The revolution which placed the Prince of Orange on the
throne of Great Britain, again called the Highlanders forth to
attempt the restoration of that family for whom they had already
effected so much, and they once more found themselves in arms
under a leader as fully able to guide their energies as Montrose
had been. Bearing the same name, and with a character as
enterprising as his illustrious predecessor, Dundee was soon at
the head of 3000 Highlanders, and if his career of victory had
not been arrested at the outset by his death after the
^me^cranky.
battle of Killiecranky, he would probably have effected
his object. His death left no one of sufficient energy
to follow out the enterprise, and the fruits of their victory were
accordingly lost. The Highland chiefs had now so frequently
taken up arms in behalf of the Stuart family, that they began to
feel themselves in a manner identified with the cause, and from
this period they appear to have kept up a close correspondence
with the exiled court in France. Their sons were frequently
sent to be educated in that country, and thus their devotion to
the cause of hereditary' right was strengthened by personal
attachment to the individuals of the family which had been
especially as the proceedings of
driven from the throne ; more
the eovernment towards the clans were little calculated to
conciliate their attachment. At one time they were persecuted
with unexampled severity, and at others their honour insulted
by attempts to buy them off from their adherence to the exiled
family. They spurned these offers with disdain, while the
severities but irritated them the more, and the massacre of
Glencoe has left a stain on the memory of King William which
will not soon be forgotten.
The period now approached \\-hen they were once
^^Tnt^^"^ more to raise the Highland standard in favour of the
Stuarts, and the unconciliating manners and the
mistaken policy of George I. hastened the event, which for some
time previous, had been in contemplation. The Highlanders, to
the amount of nearly 15,000 men, assembled in the year 171 5, at
the instigation of the Earl of Mar. Under such leaders as either