egging for mercy.

[451]

'Here, in Badenoch, here in Lochaber anon, in Lochiel, in
Knoydart, Moydart, Morrer, Ardgower, and Ardnamurchan,
Here I see him and here: I see him; anon I lose him.'

Clough's _Bothie_, p. 125

[452] See his Latin verses addressed to Dr. Johnson, in this APPENDIX.
BOSWELL.

[453] See _ante_, ii. 157.

[454] See _ante_, i. 449.

[455] See _ante_, ii. 99.

[456] See _ante_, iii 198, note 1.

[457] 'Such is the laxity of Highland conversation, that the inquirer is
kept in continual suspense, and by a kind of intellectual retrogradation
knows less as he hears more.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 47. 'They are not
much accustomed to be interrogated by others, and seem never to have
thought upon interrogating themselves; so that if they do not know what
they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive it to be
false. Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the result of
his investigations was, that the answer to the second question was
commonly such as nullified the answer to the first.' _Ib._, p. 114.

[458] Mr. Carruthers, in his edition of Boswell's _Hebrides_, says (p.
xiv):--'The new management and high rents took the tacksmen, or larger
tenants, by surprise. They were indignant at the treatment they
received, and selling off their stock they emigrated to America. In the
twenty years from 1772 to 1792, sixteen vessels with emigrants sailed
from the western shores of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, containing
about 6400 persons, who carried with them in specie at least L38,400. A
desperate effort was made by the tacksmen on the estate of Lord
Macdonald. They bound themselves by a solemn oath not to offer for any
farm that might become vacant. The combination failed of its object, but
it appeared so formidable in the eyes of the "English-bred chieftain,"
that he retreated precipitately from Skye and never afterwards
returned.'

[459] Dr. Johnson seems to have forgotten that a Highlander going armed
at this period incurred the penalty of serving as a common soldier for
the first, and of transportation beyond sea for a second offence. And as
for 'calling out his clan,' twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe made a
rebellion. WALTER SCOTT.

[460] Mackintosh (_Life_ ii. 62) says that in Mme. du Deffand's
_Correspondence_ there is 'an extraordinary confirmation of the talents
and accomplishments of our Highland Phoenix, Sir James Macdonald. A
Highland chi