Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/357

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PART OF SCOTLAND.
339

Macdonalds to their father's house, it was in flames; and the old man was shot dead in his wife's arms: and a guest in the house, of another district, who had a protection in his pocket, was also murdered without question. It is said a boy, of eight years old, fell down at Campbell's feet imploring mercy, and offering to serve him for life. Some say a subaltern officer stabbed the boy; others, that Campbell himself took him by the feet and dashed out his brains. The design was to murder all the men under seventy in the valley, amounting to about 200; but as the passes were not sufficiently secured, 160 escaped. After Campbell had finished this murderous deed, he ordered all the houses to be burnt, made a prey of the cattle and all the effects that were found in the vale; and left the women and children without food or shelter, in the midst of the snow that covered the whole face of the country, at a distance of six Scotch miles from any inhabited place. Most of them from grief, cold, fright, and apprehension of immediate death, perished in the waste before they could receive comfort or assistance.

In order to satisfy my curiosity with respect to Glen Coe, I turned out of my way to go thither