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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
Rob Roy's Promise to Mac Alpine.
The folk-tale about the duel fought by Rob Roy and
Black Roderic the Unjust recalls a tale arising from the fact
that the Clan Gregor and the Clan Grant always claimed
a kinship dating back to very early times, and to a bond of
amity that held them together for many generations.
Frequently in
another.
time of stress did these clans succour one
The story is still recounted in the Highlands of how the
Grants, in the time of Rob Roy, were able to call upon their
rebellious ally to assist them in
And this is the story. At a
rebuffing the MacKintosh.
time when the Laird of
Rothiemurchus, who was known as MacAlpine, had so
offended the Chief of the Clan Grant that the latter pledged
himself not to assist him, were he to find himself in danger
at the instance of any other clan or chief, the MacKintosh
sought to pick a quarrel with him. MacAlpine knew quite
well that, without the help of the whole of the Clan Grant, he
could never prevail against armed aggression on the part of
a clan as numerous and powerful as the Clan MacKintosh.
But, as it so happened, he had entered into a secret
agreement with Rob Roy, whereby the Clan Gregor
guaranteed to protect him. Thus it was that, when the
MacKintosh threatened to divert the course of a stream
running through his own territory, but which thereafter
turned the mill-wheel at Rothiemurchus, MacAlpine did not
hesitate in writing him a peremptory epistle. So incensed
by this was the MacKintosh that he determined to take
reprisal by way of marching on the Doune, the ancient
family home of the Grants of Rothiemurchus, with the
object of setting fire to it. One night, as the MacKintoshes
were getting everything in readiness for their sortie, and
MacAlpine sat anxiously in the Doune, earnestly waiting for
help from the MacGregors, he felt a strong hand on his
shoulder.
Rob Roy.
This was the hand of none other than that of
" Though the purse be empty the night,"
"
observed Rob
Roy, " it may be full by the morn !
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