Arthurian romances; Lady of the Lake (Legendary character) -- Romances
"The Lennox, as the district is called which encircles the lower
extremity of Loch Lomond, was peculiarly exposed to the incursions of
the mountaineers, who inhabited the inaccessible fastnesses at the upper
end of the lake, and the neighboring district of Loch Katrine. These
were often marked by circumstances of great ferocity, of which the noted
conflict of Glen Fruin is a celebrated instance. This was a clan-battle,
in which the Macgregors, headed by Allaster Macgregor, chief of the
clan, encountered the sept of Colquhouns, commanded by Sir Humphry
Colquhoun of Luss. It is on all hands allowed that the action was
desperately fought, and that the Colquhouns were defeated with
slaughter, leaving two hundred of their name dead upon the field. But
popular tradition has added other horrors to the tale. It is said that
Sir Humphry Colquhoun, who was on horseback, escaped to the Castle of
Benechra, or Bannochar, and was next day dragged out and murdered by
the victorious Macgregors in cold blood. Buchanan of Auchmar, however,
speaks of his slaughter as a subsequent event, and as perpetrated by the
Macfarlanes. Again, it is reported that the Macgregors murdered a
number of youths, whom report of the intended battle had brought to be
spectators, and whom the Colquhouns, anxious for their safety, had shut
up in a barn to be out of danger. One account of the Macgregors denies
this circumstance entirely; another ascribes it to the savage and
bloodthirsty disposition of a single individual, the bastard brother of
the Laird of Macgregor, who amused himself with this second massacre of
the innocents, in express disobedience to the chief, by whom he was left
their guardian during the pursuit of the Colquhouns. It is added that
Macgregor bitterly lamented this atrocious action, and prophesied the
ruin which it must bring upon their ancient clan. ...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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