pension for
them. Numerous are the stories told of the encounters between Sir Harry
Torrens (Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief) and himself for
his persistent applications for pensions and promotions. These poor
fellows, for whom he was never tired of interceding, were naturally
grateful for his fatherly feeling towards them. Such is an outline of
the characteristics of the subject of the following Biographical sketch.

CHAPTER II.

THE sires of the subject of our memoir were of the tribe of Camerons'
known as _Sliochd Eoghainn 'ic Eoghainn_, and descended directly from
the parent stock of the chiefs of the clan, to whom they stood next in
relationship after the Fassiferns. The lands assigned for their
occupation, and on which they lived from the earliest settlement of the
Camerons in Lochaber, were within a short distance of the castle of the
chiefs, and the homestead of Sir Alan's family was named _Earrachd_, and
situated on an elevated plateau at the entrance of _Gleann Laoidh_ (Glen
Loy) which leads off in a westerly direction. It is close to, and seen
from, the banks of that portion of the Caledonian Canal between
Gairlochy and Banavie Locks.

The parents of Alan were Donald Cameron and _Marsali_ (Marjory) MacLean
(of the family of Drimnin in Morvern). Two incidents connected with the
infancy of both father and son are peculiarly remarkable. The father was
an infant in the arms of his mother when she went to the gathering place
to support the Earl of Mar (1715) to bid farewell to her husband the day
the clan left; and Alan was an infant in the arms of his mother when
_his_ father marched out with the clan to meet Prince Charles at
Glenfinnan (1745). The battle of Sheriffmuir ended the career of Alan's
grandfather, and the disasters on the field of Culloden made the father
a wanderer from his hearth and home for the next three years, while his
family were subjected during that time to cruelties and indignities,
which were a disgrace to men calling themselves the soldiers of the
king. Domiciliary visits were made at frequent intervals, and on every
occasion numbers of cattle were driven off the lands for the use of the
garrison at Fort-William. These spoliations continued for several months
after the _rising_ was suppressed, and proved ruinous to the poor people
whose only crime was that they risked their lives in support of the
claims of one whom they believed to be the rightful heir to the Crown of