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Appin, accordingly, settled as tenants there, at an easy quit-rent, the MacLarens, a family dependent on the Stewarts, and from whose character for strength and bravery, it was expected that they would make their right good if annoyed by the MacGregors.
No great clan held rule there; it was filled and disputed by small septs, and broken remnants, and what they call "chiefless folk," driven into the wild country about the springs of Forth and Teith by the advance of the Campbells. Here were Stewarts and Maclarens, which came to the same thing, for the Maclarens followed Alan's chief in war, and made but one clan with Appin.
No great clan held rule there; it was filled and disputed by small septs, and broken remnants, and what they call "chiefless folk," driven into the wild country about the springs of Forth and Teith by the advance of the Campbells. Here were Stewarts and Maclarens, which came to the same thing, for the Maclarens followed Alan's chief in war, and made but one clan with Appin.
"Raise me from my bed," said the invalid; "throw my plaid around me, and bring me my claymore, dirk, and pistols it shall never be said that a foeman saw Rob Roy MacGregor defenceless and unarmed." His foeman, conjectured to be one of the MacLarens before and after mentioned, entered and paid his compliments, inquiring after the health of his formidable neighbour.
"I did not know ye were in my country, sir," says Robin. "It sticks in my mind that I am in the country of my friends the Maclarens," says Alan. "That's a kittle point," returned the other. "There may be two words to say to that. But I think I will have heard that you are a man of your sword?" "Unless ye were born deaf, Mr. Macgregor, ye will have heard a good deal more than that," says Alan.
Shortly after Rob Roy's death, the ill-will which the MacGregors entertained against the MacLarens again broke out, at the instigation, it was said, of Rob's widow, who seems thus far to have deserved the character given to her by her husband, as an Ate' stirring up to blood and strife.
"I did not know ye were in my country, sir," says Robin. "It sticks in my mind that I am in the country of my friends the Maclarens," says Alan. "That's a kittle point," returned the other. "There may be two words to say to that. But I think I will have heard that you are a man of your sword?" "Unless ye were born deaf, Mr. Macgregor, ye will have heard a good deal more than that," says Alan.
Soon he was sent with some legal papers to the Maclarens, who lived in that beautiful lake country about Loch Lomond which Scott was later to make famous in "The Lady of the Lake." It was the first time he had been in that country, and the changing panorama unrolled before his eyes like a land of dreams.
Chance served us very well; for it was a household of Maclarens that we found, where Alan was not only welcome for his name's sake, but known by reputation. Here then I was got to bed without delay, and a doctor fetched, who found me in a sorry plight.
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