The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
A Flaming Arrow.
A story still related in Spey-side describes the way in
which the old Chmxh of Kincardine was deliberately gutted
by fire when, some time during the fifteenth century, a band
of men intent on revenge sent into its thatched roof an
arrow, to which was attached a flaming piece of lint.
While a Grant of Rothiemurchus and a number of
Comyns were on a visit to the Baron of Kincardine, a fierce
dispute broke out between the guests—a dispute that
terminated only when the Grant fell dead beneath the
sgian-duhh of one of the Comyns. Aware of the
consequences that were sure to pursue them at the hands
of the Clan Grant, who at a moment's notice could summon
to arms a formidable force, the Comyns betook themselves
to the Church of Kincardine, wherein they sought sanctuary.
As they bolted the church-door behind them, they must have
realised that, on the most generous calculation, their
capitulation was a matter of a day or two, since not only
was a contingent of Grants at their heels, but they had in
their place of refuge neither food nor water. Before long
the Grants were reinforced by the Stewarts, who likewise
sought the blood of the Comyns in respect of the gross
breach of the etiquette of Highland hospitality one of their
number had perpetrated.
As Stewarts and Grants clamoured outside the Church,
they decided not to protract matters, since they knew that
thirst and starvation were bound to effect either the death or
the surrender of the refugees within. The fever of
vengeance was high ; and an immediate reprisal was
demanded. So, the polite formality of waiting was
dispensed with ; and an arrow with a fragment of flaming
lint was shot into the roof of sun-parched thatch. " The
missile rose slowly and fell," writes a modern reciter of
Highland tales, " striking the rushes without sound, and
silence fell upon the attackers as a little, scarlet line ran
along the ridge where the thatch was driest." ^ Soon the
entire edifice was ablaze. When the rafters gave way and
the roof fell in, the doom of the hapless Comyns was sealed.
1 The Secret of Spey, by Wendy Wood, p. 128.
198