The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

232 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
CHAPTER IV.
The Gx\.i.OM£.L—(contmued).
Notwithstanding the ill success of the two attempts which
the Macdonalds had made to set up
one of their race as lord
of the Isles, they remained determined not to give up all
prospect of having a chief of their own race without a farther
struggle. The effects of the last insurrections had indeed so
completely depressed and crushed them for the time, that they
appear to have been, during the remainder of the reign of
James V., in no condition to attempt such an enterprise ; and
it was in consequence not till the regency of Mary of Guise,
that an apparently favourable opportunity offered itself for the
purpose. The race of Celestine, John's immediate younger
brother, being now extinct, they turned their thoughts towards
Donald Du, the son of Angus Og, in whose favour the first
attempt had been made shortly after the death of the last lord
they now determined to make a final effort
of the Isles ; and
to place him in possession of the inheritance which they conceived
to have been unjustly wrested from him. Donald Du
had been carried off, when still a minor, on the successful siege
of Kerneburgh, by Sir Andrew Wood, and had been detained
in captivity ever since in Inchconnel ; but a sudden and
unexpected attack upon his castle by the Macdonalds of
Glenco effected his liberation, and he had no sooner arrived
in the Isles than he was declared lord, and received the submission
of the chiefs of the different branches of the Macdonalds
and the other Island lords. In this insurrection, Donald Du
was supported by the earl of Lennox, who was at
A.D. 1545. . . , T- ,. , . , ,
that time \n the English interest ; and as long as
Lennox continued in league with him, he remained in pos-
soon after made his
session of the Isles ; but that earl having