Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN ISLANDS. 59
Three were executed ; and, among them, two powerful
chiefs, each leaders of a thousand men. Of the remain-
der, some were afterwards set at liberty, and others exe-
cuted. Alexander seems to have been also liberated in
about a year; and though his mother was detained as a
hostage, he attacked and burnt Inverness, if Abercrom-
bie has stated these events correctly. James then col-
lected an army against him, in which he was aided by the
Clans Chattan and Cameron, and defeated him in Locha-
ber. Having then demanded peace in vain, he proceeded
privately to Edinburgh ;
and, appearing before the high
altar at Holyrood chapel in his shirt, presented his sword
on his knees to the King. His life was consequently
granted, and he was imprisoned in Tantallan Castle.
Donald's chief motives seem to have been avarice and
pride, though the ostensible one was to revenge Alex-
ander his chief and kinsman. The Earls of Caithness and
Mar had marched to Inverlochy, probably intending to
attack him in his own islands ;
but were surprised by him
and defeated. After this, he overran Lochaber and ra-
vaged it; but hearing that the King was advancing
against him in person, he retreated to his islands with his
plunder. The Chiefs of the Clans, as they were even then
called, on this came in and made submission; leaving
hostages, and delivering up three hundred persons, who
were hanged. These were the unhappy vassals doubt-
less, who thus acted the part of scape goats ; happy (as
we have been told) to be justified in so good a cause.
On Donald's final defeat, he fled for protection to an Irish
chief, by whom he was killed ; while many of his fol-
lowers were hanged. To attempt to be more minute, is
to incur the chance of greater confusion.
But these measures only produced a temporary effect.
In the reign of James the second, in 1456, Donald, Lord