ent. Murray promised to do what he could. He did not profess to
be very sanguine of persuading the men of Athole to fight for William;
but for the castle, he could not suppose that Ballechin would dare to
shut the gates of his own father's house against him. "Keep the Athole
men from joining Dundee," said Mackay, "and that is all I ask, or can
expect from your father's son." He pressed Murray to start at once for
Blair, promising to follow as soon as he could collect the necessary
force of troops and stores.

It was tedious work preparing for a campaign in Edinburgh, where, nobody
feeling himself in immediate danger, nobody was concerned to guard
against it. Mackay was detained longer than he had expected, and before
he could take the field bad news had come down from Perthshire.
Ballechin was strongly entrenched in Blair, and resolute not to budge an
inch. The Athole men had gathered readily enough to their young lord's
summons; but when they found he had summoned them to fight for King
William they had gone off in a body shouting for King James.[92] And
there was yet worse news. The fiery cross was speeding once more through
the Western Highlands. There could be no doubt that Ballechin was acting
under orders from Dundee. A few men had stayed with Murray, and with
these he proposed to watch the castle and the pass till Mackay should
come. But the clans were mustering fast. Dundee himself was said to be
in the neighbourhood. Unless troops could be brought up at once, Blair
would be irretrievably lost, and the key of the Highlands in the hands
of Dundee.

Dundee was in the neighbourhood. He was at Struan, close to Blair,
whence he wrote more than one letter to Murray, using every argument he
could think likely to influence the interests or the prejudices of
Athole's son. Professing to be convinced that Murray was really for
James, though doubtful about the time for declaring himself, he declared
that he had only sent help to Ballechin to keep the rebels at bay till
Murray was able to act as his principles and education would naturally
suggest. The King, he said, had seen the mistakes into which Melfort had
hurried him. He had now given his word to secure the Protestant
religion as by law established, to allow full liberty of conscience to
all dissenters, and to grant a general pardon for all except those who
had been actively engaged in dethroning him. What more might be
necessary to satisfy the people, Dundee begged M