t, the fanfare of Spanish trumpets is mingled with the skirl
of the pipes, and the rapier of Toledo flashes beside the claymore of
the Highlanders. The story really begins long before the doomed
galleon sought refuge in Tobermory Bay. There were island chieftains
of the Clan MacLean, busy at cutting the throats of their enemies, as
far remote in time as the thirteenth century, but their turbulent
pedigrees need not concern our narrative until the warlike figure of
Lachlan Mo'r MacLean, "Big Lachlan," steps into its pages in the year
of 1576.

It was then that he came of age and set out from the Court of James VI
at Edinburgh, where he had been brought up, to claim his inherited
estates of Mull. His wicked step-father, Hector, met him in the castle
of Duart whose stout walls and battlements still loom not far from
Tobermory and tried to set him aside with false and foolish words. The
astute youth perceived that if he were to come into his own, he must be
up and doing, wherefore he speedily mustered friends and led them into
Castle Duart by night. They carried this scheming step-father to the
island of Coll and there beheaded him, which made Lachlan's title clear
to the lands of his ancestors.

The next to mistake the mettle of young Lachlan Mo'r was no less than
Colin Campbell, sixth Earl of Argyll, head of a family very powerful in
the Highlands even to this day. He was for seizing the estate by force
after plotting to no purpose, and Angus MacDonald of Dunyweg was
persuaded to help him with several hundred fighting men. Thus began
the feud between the MacLeans and MacDonalds which a few years later
was to involve that great galleon _Florencia_ of the Armada. Argyll
and his force wasted the lands of Lachlan with fire and sword, and
besieged one of his strongholds with twelve hundred followers.

War thus begun was waged without mercy, and one bloody episode followed
on the heels of another. At the head of his clansmen, Lachlan swept
into Argyle's country and made him cry quits. This was a large
achievement, and the spirited young Lord of Duart was hailed as a
Highland chief worthy of the king's favor. He went to court, was
flattered by the great men there, and became the hero of as pretty and
gallant a romance as heart could wish. The king arranged that he
should marry the daughter of the powerful Earl of Athol, and Lachlan
could not say his sovereign nay. The contract arranged, he started for
Mull to mak