ch
(it is said) they offered payment to the proprietor. The Laird of Luss
seized on the offenders, and, by the summary process which feudal barons
had at their command, had them both condemned and executed. The
MacGregors verify this account of the feud by appealing to a proverb
current amongst them, execrating the hour _(Mult dhu an Carbail ghil)_
that the black wedder with the white tail was ever lambed. To avenge this
quarrel, the Laird of MacGregor assembled his clan, to the number of
three or four hundred men, and marched towards Luss from the banks of
Loch Long, by a pass called _Raid na Gael,_ or the Highlandman's Pass.

Sir Humphrey Colquhoun received early notice of this incursion, and
collected a strong force, more than twice the number of that of the
invaders. He had with him the gentlemen of the name of Buchanan, with the
Grahams, and other gentry of the Lennox, and a party of the citizens of
Dumbarton, under command of Tobias Smollett, a magistrate, or bailie, of
that town, and ancestor of the celebrated author.

The parties met in the valley of Glenfruin, which signifies the Glen of
Sorrow---a name that seemed to anticipate the event of the day, which,
fatal to the conquered party, was at least equally so to the victors, the
"babe unborn" of Clan Alpine having reason to repent it. The MacGregors,
somewhat discouraged by the appearance of a force much superior to their
own, were cheered on to the attack by a Seer, or second-sighted person,
who professed that he saw the shrouds of the dead wrapt around their
principal opponents. The clan charged with great fury on the front of the
enemy, while John MacGregor, with a strong party, made an unexpected
attack on the flank. A great part of the Colquhouns' force consisted in
cavalry, which could not act in the boggy ground. They were said to have
disputed the field manfully, but were at length completely routed, and a
merciless slaughter was exercised on the fugitives, of whom betwixt two
and three hundred fell on the field and in the pursuit. If the MacGregors
lost, as is averred, only two men slain in the action, they had slight
provocation for an indiscriminate massacre. It is said that their fury
extended itself to a party of students for clerical orders, who had
imprudently come to see the battle. Some doubt is thrown on this fact,
from the indictment against the chief of the clan Gregor being silent on
the subject, as is the historian Johnston, and a Profess