of a disposition to atone for his defection
by violence and intolerance. He had however, in no long time, an
opportunity of proving that the fear and love of a higher Power had
nerved him for the most formidable conflicts by which human nature can
be tried.

To his companions in adversity his assistance was of the highest moment.
Though proscribed and a fugitive, he was still, in some sense, the most
powerful subject in the British dominions. In wealth, even before his
attainder, he was probably inferior, not only to the great English
nobles, but to some of the opulent esquires of Kent and Norfolk. But his
patriarchal authority, an authority which no wealth could give and which
no attainder could take away, made him, as a leader of an insurrection,
truly formidable. No southern lord could feel any confidence that, if he
ventured to resist the government, even his own gamekeepers and huntsmen
would stand by him. An Earl of Bedford, an Earl of Devonshire, could not
engage to bring ten men into the field. Mac Callum More, penniless and
deprived of his earldom, might at any moment, raise a serious civil war.
He bad only to show himself on the coast of Lorn; and an army would,
in a few days, gather round him. The force which, in favourable
circumstances, he could bring into the field, amounted to five thousand
fighting, men, devoted to his service accustomed to the use of target
and broadsword, not afraid to encounter regular troops even in the open
plain, and perhaps superior to regular troops in the qualifications
requisite for the defence of wild mountain passes, hidden in mist,
and torn by headlong torrents. What such a force, well directed, could
effect, even against veteran regiments and skilful commanders, was
proved, a few years later, at Killiecrankie.

But, strong as was the claim of Argyle to the confidence of the exiled
Scots, there was a faction among them which regarded him with no
friendly feeling, and which wished to make use of his name and
influence, without entrusting to him any real power. The chief of this
faction was a lowland gentleman, who had been implicated in the Whig
plot, and had with difficulty eluded the vengeance of the court, Sir
Patrick Hume, of Polwarth, in Berwickshire. Great doubt has been thrown
on his integrity, but without sufficient reason. It must, however, be
admitted that he injured his cause by perverseness as much as he could
have done by treachery. He was a man incapable alike