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Show MEETING OF ANCIENT ENEMIES. It is almost two hundred years since William III of England, violating his own royal proclamation, sent a band of his soldiers of the Campbell clan and slaughtered all the inhabitants of the valley of Glencoe, by the stream which Ossian calls "the dark torrent of Gods." The Macdonalds, to which class those unhappy people belonged, have never forgotten that 'military execution,' which was really a wholesale murder; and to this day the old resentful feeling crops out, sometimes suddenly; and in unexpected places The Halifax (N. S. ) Herald says. A good story is told of the Marquis of Lorne and two Glengary Highlanders who called on him the other day. Ever since the massacre and Glencoe, in which the Campbells did the bloody work of the Crown, the clan Campbell have been in bad odor with the clan Macdonald, and other sects; indeed, it is a proverb that the Macdonalds and Campbells 'canna eat o' the same ka???pot.' The Glengary men, Macdonalds to the backbone, were in Ottawa on business, and, after much debate, resolved to pay their respects to the Marquis of Lorne as the Governor General, not as the son of the Callum Mor. On their way to the hall they talked the matter over again, and one of them suggested that perhaps the Marquis, being a Campbell, would refuse to see a Macdonald, in which case their position would be humiliating. At the gate they met the Marquis with Major de Wintons, and taking them for servants, the Highland man asked if the Marquis would care to meet "??? Macdonalds" to call on the Marquis. His Excellency replied that the Marquis bore no malice to the Macdonalds, and that Sir John Macdonald being his first Minister, it was clear the Macdonalds had forgiven the Campbells. "Forgiven the Campbells!" cried one of the visitors, "forgotten Glencoe! Sir John is paid for that; he has $80,000 a year for it, but the ded [dead] take me 'gin we forgie [forgive] or forget!" and with this the choleric Gaels turned their faces toward Ottawa. The Marquis, however, disclosed himself, and, after a hearty handshaking, the feud was temporarily healed. The visitors were turned over to the Argyleshire piper, who is a prominent member of the household, and by him treated so handsomely that on their departure they frankly acquitted the Marquis of all responsibility for the massacre. |
