=17. Battle of Harlaw.=--The kingdom was now threatened on the other border, the northern march which parted the Saxons of the north-eastern Lowlands from the Celtic clans of the mountains. The hatred between the hostile races had been growing more and more bitter, and was fostered by constant inroads on the one hand and cruel laws upon the other. The time seemed now to have come when there must be a trial of strength between them. The head of the Celts was _Donald, Lord of the Isles_, who, though he had sworn fealty to David the Second, again claimed sovereign power over all the clans of the West, and entered into treaties with England as though he had been an independent monarch. He claimed the _Earldom of Ross_ in right of his wife, as her niece, the heiress, had taken the veil. By getting this earldom, the Lord of the Isles became lord over half the kingdom, and he resolved to invade the territory of the King, whom he looked on as a rival. Now the district that lay nearest him, the Lowlands north of the Forth, as it had not been touched by the Border wars, was at this time at once the richest part of the kingdom and the part least accustomed to self-defence. Great therefore was the terror of the burghers and husbandmen at the news that a horde of plundering savages would soon be let loose upon them. They took up arms in their own defence, and they were fortunate in finding a leader whose experience, gained in similar warfare on his own account, well fitted him to withstand the ambitious Donald. This was _Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar_, the illegitimate son of the Wolf of Badenoch. He had won his reputation by valour in the French wars, and his earldom by carrying off and marrying an heiress, who was Countess of Mar in her own right. The rival races met at _Harlaw_, in Aberdeenshire, July 24, 1411. Here, as at Bannockburn, the determination and stedfastness of each man in the smaller force decided the fortune of the day. For, though the Highlanders, reckless of life, charged again and again, they made no impression on the small compact mass that kept the way against them, and they were at last forced to retreat. This battle was justly looked on as a great national deliverance, greater even than the victory at Bannockburn, and many privileges and immunities were granted to the heirs of those who had fallen.