A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

Sli HISTOHY OF THE HIGHLAND!!
rior the earl of Sutherland, and entreated him, for liis own sake, to joiii
the earl ; but Mackay remained inflexible.
By the mediation of mutual friends, the two earls agreed to a tempo-
rary truce on the ninth of March fifteen hundred and eighty-seven, and
thus the effusion of human blood was stopped for a short time. As
Mackay was the vassal of the earl of Sutherland, tlie latter refused to
comprehend him in the truce, and insisted upon an unconditional sub-
mission, but Mackay obstinately refused to do so, and returned home to
his own country, highly chagrined that the earl of Caithness, for whom
he had put his life and estate in jeopardy, should have acceded to the earl
of Sutherland's request, to exclude him from the benefit of the truce. Be-
fore the two earls separated, they came to a mutual understanding to re-
duce Mackay to obedience; andthathe might not suspect their design, they
agreed to meet at Edinburgh for the purpose of concerting the necessary
measures together. Accordingly, they held a meeting at the appointed
place m the year fifteen hundred and eighty-eight, and came to the reso-
lution to attack Mackay ; and to prevent Mackay from receiving any
intelligence of their design, both parties swore to keep the same secret;
but the earl of Caithness, regardless of his oath, immediately sent notice
to Mackay of the intended attack, for the purpose of enabling him to
meet it. Instead, however, of following the earl of Caithness' advice,
Mackay, justly dreading his hollow friendship, made haste, by the
advice of Mackintosh and the Laird of Foulis, to reconcile himself
to the eai-l of Sutherland, his superior, by an immediate submission.
For this purpose, he and the earl first met at Inverness, and after conferring
together they made another appointment to meet at Elgin, where
a perfect and final reconciliation took place in the month of November,
fifteen hundred and eiijhty-eielit.
CASTLE DUART.