The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

354 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
but were now to be held of the crown upon condition of holding
in readiness one ship of twenty-six oars, and two of sixteen, for
the king's service when required. After this period, the Mac-
leods, like the other clans who had formerly been dependent
upon the Macdonalds, appear to have become involved in a
succession of feuds with the remaining branches of that great
but now reduced clan, and these feuds seem to have been
prosecuted with all the bitterness and barbarit}^ of the age.
The Macleods took an active share in the conflicts and
mutual injuries inflicted upon each other in the contest between
the Macleans and the Macdonalds of Isla, towards the end of
the sixteenth century, and by means of their support were
mainly instrumental in causing the success of the former, and
consequent ruin of the latter. But the most barbarous perhaps
of any of these feuds was that carried on between the Macleods
themselves and the clan Ranald.
The Macleods had long been in a state of irritation against
the latter, in consequence of the bad treatment which a daughter
of Macleod of Glenelg had some time before experienced from
her husband, the captain of clan Ranald, and they only waited
for a fitting occasion to satisfy their vengeance on that ground.
Towards the close of the sixteenth century an opportunity
presented itself, when a small party of Macleods having accidentall}'
landed on the island of Egg, they were at first received
with hospitality, but having been guilty of some incivilities to
the young women of the island, the inhabitants resented it so
far as to bind them hand and foot and turn them adrift in
their boat to perish if assistance did not reach them ; they
had the good fortune, however, to be met by a boat of their
own clansmen, and brought to Dunbegan, where they gave
an account of the treatment they had met with. Macleod
eagerly availed himself of the opportunity of executing his
long meditated revenge on the clan Ranald, and having
manned his galleys, set sail for the island of Egg. When
the inhabitants became aware of his approach, and feeling
conscious of their inability to offer any effectual resistance
against the force that threatened them, they took refuge, along
with their wives and families, to the amount of two hundred,
in a large cave, the situation and difficult discovery of which