y and his
two noble accomplices returned to Edinburgh, and there proceeded to
form a coalition with their old enemies, the defenders of prelacy and of
arbitrary power, [758]

The Scottish opposition, strangely made up of two factions, one zealous
for bishops, the other zealous for synods, one hostile to all liberty,
the other impatient of all government, flattered itself during a short
time with hopes that the civil war would break out in the Highlands with
redoubled fury. But those hopes were disappointed. In the spring of
1690 an officer named Buchan arrived in Lochaber from Ireland. He bore a
commission which appointed him general in chief of all the forces which
were in arms for King James throughout the kingdom of Scotland. Cannon,
who had, since the death of Dundee, held the first post and had proved
himself unfit for it, became second in command. Little however was
gained by the change. It was no easy matter to induce the Gaelic
princes to renew the war. Indeed, but for the influence and eloquence of
Lochiel, not a sword would have been drawn for the House of Stuart.
He, with some difficulty, persuaded the chieftains, who had, in the
preceding year, fought at Killiecrankie, to come to a resolution that,
before the end of the summer, they would muster all their followers and
march into the Lowlands. In the mean time twelve hundred mountaineers of
different tribes were placed under the orders of Buchan, who undertook,
with this force, to keep the English garrisons in constant alarm by
feints and incursions, till the season for more important operations
should arrive. He accordingly marched into Strathspey. But all his plans
were speedily disconcerted by the boldness and dexterity of Sir Thomas
Livingstone, who held Inverness for King William. Livingstone, guided
and assisted by the Grants, who were firmly attached to the new
government, came, with a strong body of cavalry and dragoons, by forced
marches and through arduous defiles, to the place where the Jacobites
had taken up their quarters. He reached the camp fires at dead of night.
The first alarm was given by the rush of the horses over the terrified
sentinels into the midst Of the crowd of Celts who lay sleeping in their
plaids. Buchan escaped bareheaded and without his sword. Cannon ran away
in his shirt. The conquerors lost not a man. Four hundred Highlanders
were killed or taken. The rest fled to their hills and mists, [759]

This event put an end to all