Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

42 HISTORY OF THr: wf;stern islands.
probably, when he was in danger, acknowledged fealty
to them, and, occasionally, to the crown of Scotland also,
with whose dominions he came into perilous contact.
Finding himself strengthened, it must be supposed, by
this last treaty, he made an attempt to dethrone Malcolm
the Maiden, by a descent in 1153, aided by his nephew
Donald (Gilcolumb) the son of Wymund. But he was
defeated by Malcolm's army under the command of Gil-
christ Earl of Angus : escaping, and being afterwards
pardoned, it is said, as if he had been a subject and a
rebel ; which can scarcely be admitted. Wymund had
been Bishop of Mann and was imprisoned by David at
Roxburgh; having been taken in a descent on the coast
of Scotland in Godred's absence in 1141. But I may
pass over the history of his invasion, as it is fully given
in Hailes.
It is fortunate that the balancing and abridging of
chronicles is a different office from that of writing his-
tory ;
for who can discover the " drift of" these " hollow
states, hard to be spelled." Their acts come at once on
us, unprepared : motiveless and disjointed, like those of
the kings of Judah. But the policy of petty and of large
states is much the same ;
and the capacities of the actors
are not so very different as the magnitude of the impli-
cated interests might make the inconsiderate imagine.
If there is any trade which Nature seems to teach, it is
this : and when all is done, there is much more dif-
ference between King George's crown and robes and
King Tamaamaah's scarlet waistcoat and Belcher hand-
kerchief, than between the politics of their several king-
doms. Be that as it may, in 1158 Somerlid thought
proper to invade Mann with fifty-three ships: driving
away Godred, whom we afterwards find in Norway in
1164. But his career was now terminated : for in a sub-