Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/354

336 amongst the drovers, and had kept the small room for themselves. I mention this circumstance, to caution travellers never to depend upon the two dreadful huts on the Moor in Glen Dochart.

I much wished to see the Glen, which was the seat of the sad massacre in King William's time, and for which that monarch has been severely censured; but in all probability he knew nothing of the matter, as throughout, it has the resemblance of private pique, cloaked in public punishment. One would think the name of the district was prophetic, for Coe signifies lamentation.

The Earl of Breadalbane having been grievously thwarted in a favorite scheme, by Macdonald of Glen Coe; he was determined to wreak his vengeance on him the first opportunity that offered. To be sure, Macdonald's motive for frustrating the earl's intentions arose from a private circumstance, which ought not to have been confounded with matters wherein the public weal was concerned.

King William had, by proclamation, offered an indemnity to all those who had been in arms against him, provided they submitted and took the oaths by a certain day; with a denunciation