excellent dinner on the plain where they stood. He would not allow his followers to mix with the English for fear that they might quarrel and produce fresh disturbance. One of his officers, however, had a dispute over the wine with a Lieutenant-Colonel Allan, which was afterwards amicably settled by the intervention of the Governor. With this single exception the whole proceedings passed off in the most satisfactory manner. Lochiel wrote the same day to General Monk intimating his compliance so far with the conditions of the treaty. The General sent for him to Dalkeith, whither he started next morning. On his arrival Monk expressed his great pleasure at what had been done, and gave him a letter to that effect, dated Dalkeith, 5th June 1655. Thus a treaty was arranged and carried out between the powerful Government of Oliver Cromwell and a Highland chief upon terms so highly honourable to the latter as to be scarcely credible in the present day.

Almost immediately after these proceedings had been concluded, no end of prosecutions were raised against the Camerons for offences committed even so far back as the wars of Montrose. But General Monk continued Lochiel's friend, and he wrote to the Judges desiring them not to move in any actions raised for crimes committed prior to his capitulation. It was not long, however, before an action was raised against him before the Sheriff of Inverness, when Monk procured an order from the Privy Council "discharging that judge to sustain process for any crime committed preceding the first of June 1655;" and after this the Camerons were allowed for many years to live at peace. Lochiel received many favours from the Government. Among other privileges he secured the management of the public revenues of his district.* About this time he turned young Ist, Lochiel (after he had closed his capitulation with the usurpers) entered into so strict a league and friendship with them, that for his cause they divided Lochaber and the places adjacent from the Shires of Inverness and Perth, and made the said Lochiel both Sheriff, Commissary, Commissioner, and Justice of the Peace of these places, who thereby not only enriched himself, but also did the usurpers severa! good offices, by helping to reduce the Highlanders under their obedience: 2nd, He was assisted in all lawsuits against Mackintosh by the usurpers. So as Mackintosh and his whole kin and friends were forced to deliver their arms to the garrison at Inverness, but Lochiel and the whole name of Clan Cameron were tolerated to bear arms in any part within the kingdom, except only within the garrisons.”—The True Infor mation of the Respective Deportments of the Lairds of Makintoshe, and of Evan Cameron of Loch-ield, in Reference to the Late Unnaturall Warrs.

*

MacMartin of Letterfinlay out of his property, and forced him to leave the country. Old MacMartin and his people sided with the Camerons. Monk intervened; Lochiel arranged with the heir of Letterfinlay, whom he ultimately restored to his rights; and the General was so satisfied with his conduct that he continued a friendly correspondence with him until the Restoration.

Lochiel clearly had no great faith in the Presbyterian clergy of his day, for, though he was anxious to have a minister placed among his people that he "might be of service in reclaiming them," yet "the turbulent tempers of the clergymen of these times, joined with their stupidity and ignorance, their avarice, pride, and cruelty," gave him so bad an opinion of them that he was afraid to admit any of them into his country. Ultimately, however, he agreed to admit the clergy into Lochaber, the Council providing him with eighty pounds yearly for each of two parishes.

Lochiel, now able to live at home in peace, married a young lady to whom he had been for some time engaged, Mary, daughter of Sir Donald Macdonald, eighth Baron, and first Baronet of Sleat. The wedding is said to have been memorable for its magnificence, and on his return to Lochaber he was entertained and "complimented by his Clan with a sum equal at least to all the charges of that expensive wedding." His biographer records an incident, which occurred on the occasion, of so interesting a nature that we shall reproduce it in his own words :"At this meeting he was agreeably entertained by a Highland bard, who sung or recited his verses after the manner of the ancients, and who inherited no small portion of their spirit and simplicity. He laboured under the common misfortune of the brotherhood of Parnassus, and came all the way from Braemar, or thereabout, to petition for three cows that had been taken from him in the late wars. He artfully introduced himself by a panegyric on the Chief; and while he magnified his power, he ingeniously complimented his Clan, whose friendship and protection he begged. He made frequent mention of those qualities that were most favourable for his purpose, with cunning enough; for as pity, generosity, and compassion are virtues inseparable from great souls, so they answered his aim in opening the hearts of those whom he petitioned. The poem is written in a strong, nervous, and masculine style, abounding with

thoughts and images drawn from such simple objects as he had either seen or occasionally heard of; but expressed in a manner peculiar to the emphasis and genius of the Gaelic, for he understood no other language. Here is no ostentation of learning, no allusions to ancient fable or mythology, no far-fetched similes, nor dazzling metaphors brought from imaginary or unknown objects. These are the affected ornaments of modern poetry, and are more properly the issue of art and study, than of nature and genius. But the beauty of this consists in that agreeable simplicity, in that glow of imagination and noble flame of fancy, which give life and energy to such compositions." Our author gives an English translation of the poem, which, he says, no more resembles the original “than the naked and disfigured carcase of a murdered hero does a living one in full vigour and spirit; for the Gaelic has all the advantages of an original language. It is concise, copious, and pathetic; and as one word of it expresses more than three of ours, so it is well-known how impossible it is to preserve the full force and energy of a thought or image in a tedious circumlocution." We regret being unable, for want of space, to give the English version. It by no means lacks "vigour and energy," and we shall print it in "The History of the Camerons," when publishing it in a separate form. The English extends to no less than seventy-six lines of vigorous verse, and if the Gaelic original was so far superior to it as our authority would have us believe it must have been a very highly successful effort indeed.

Macaulay, who can never be fairly charged with undue praise to his Highland countrymen-in his History of England, refers to this poem, and the occasion of it, in the following terms. Of Lochiel, whom he describes as the "Ulysses of the Highlands," and of it he says-"As a patron of literature, he ranks with the magnificent Dorset. If Dorset, out of his own purse, allowed Dryden a pension equal to the profits of the Laureateship, Lochiel is said to have bestowed on a celebrated bard, who had been plundered by marauders, and who implored alms in a pathetic Gaelic ode, three cows and the almost incredible sum of fifteen pounds sterling." We shall next follow the famous chief through, perhaps, the most interesting period of his career, from the Restoration to the Revolution.

(To be continued.)

THE HIGHLAND

BAGPIPE.

"Will you play upon this pipe?

Give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse

Most eloquent music."

HAMLET-Act iii., Scene 2.

It is not proposed to give in this article a description of the construction of the bagpipe, but merely a short sketch of its history, gleaned from a variety of sources, the principal among these being Logan's invaluable work. Dion Chrysostom, a Greek writer, informs us that the Emperor Nero played upon the flute, with a leather bladder under his arm. This, undoubtedly, was a primitive form of bagpipe, and it is said that its music afforded the Emperor great pleasure. It was called tibia utricularius by the Romans. Nero had the figure of a man playing upon this instrument impressed upon several of his coins, a few of which are still in existence. There is also preserved in the Palace of Santa Croce at Rome, a fine Greek marble, upon which is represented, in basso relievo, a man playing upon something strongly resembling a bagpipe. The Roman Catholic Church has gathered round itself some strange traditions, but perhaps the most curious of all is, that the shepherds who first received the news of Christ's birth, signified their joy by playing a salute upon the bagpipe, and Albrecht Durer, the great engraver, has worked out this idea in a woodcut of the "Nativity." In the library of King's College, Old Aberdeen, there is an old Dutch missal, the illuminator of which has actually ventured to pourtray one of the appearing angels playing upon that instrument.

The introduction of the bagpipe into Scotland is a point which has given rise to much discussion. In a book entitled the "National Music of Ireland," by Michael Conran, it is said that the Romans took it from the Greeks, and afterwards introduced it into Scotland, where, from its warlike sound, it was quickly adopted by the people, who used it as an incentive to battle; and it soon became the national instrument of Caledonia.

In the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for 1879-80, we are told that in 1362 forty shillings was paid to

the King's pipers, and mention is also made in that work of a set of bagpipes belonging to Mr Robert Glen, bearing date 1409. James I. of Scotland writes in his "Peblis to the Play" as follows:

"The bagpype blew and they outhrew

Out of the townis untald,

Lord, sic ane schout was thame among

Quhen their were owre the wald."

And again, in the same poem :

"With that Will Swane come sueitand out,

Ane meikle miller man,

Gif I sall dance have done, lat se

Blaw up the bag-pyp than."

In 1598, the then minister of Logie wrote, in a poem on the fate of the Spanish Armada :

"Caus michtelie the weirlie nottes breike,

On Heiland pipes, Scottes and Hybernicke."

After the Reformation, the Scottish Reformers held the bagpipe to be the devil's own musical instrument, and in consequence pipers were severely persecuted, especially from 1570 to 1624. In the Highlands, however, where scarcely any other music was known, the bagpipe was esteemed highly, and the tail of no chief was complete without the piper and the piper's servant, the former of whom was higher in rank than any of the other retainers, and was entitled to the name of a gentleman. Logan gives a number of very good anecdotes of pipers, one or two of which we may be permitted to give. At a dinner given by a Mr Thomas Grant at Cork, several years ago, MacDonell, the famous North of Ireland piper, was sent for to entertain the company. Although MacDonell was quite entitled to a place at the dinner-table, the master of the house had a table and chair placed for him on the landing, outside the room. A bottle of claret and a glass were put on the table, and a servant stood behind the chair. MacDonell arrived, looked at the refreshment set apart for him, filled up a glass of claret, stepped to the door of the room where the company were assembled, said, "Mr Grant, your health and company!" and drank it off. He then threw half-a-crown upon the little table, saying to the servant, "There, my lad, is two shillings for my bottle of wine, and sixpence for yourself," and he immediately