p ie ; their proteftor, their friend, their father. No injury they
‘ ever received, paired unrevenged; for no one excelled me in,
f confering benefits on my clan,, or in repaying infults on their
‘ enemies. A thoufand o f my kindred followed me in arms,
wherefoever I commanded. Their obedience was to me implicit;
f f° r my word was to them a law: my name, the moft facred of
oaths. I was (for nothing now can be concealed) fierce, arrogant,
defpotic, irritable: my paffions were-ftrong, my anger
l' tremendous,: yet I had the arts o f conciliating the affeftions o f
my people, and was the darling o f a numerous brave. They
‘ knew the love I bore them : they faw, on a thoufand occafions,
‘ the ftrongeft proofs o f my affeftion. In the day of battle I
‘ have covered the weak with my ffiield ; and laid at my feet their
*: hoftile antago'nifts. The too grateful vaflal, in return, in the.
‘ next conflitt, has fprung before me, and received in his own
bofom the fhaft that has been levelled at mine. In retreats from
‘ over-powering numbers, I was ever laft in the field. I alone.
^ have kept the enemy at bay, and purchafed fafety for my people
‘ with a hundred wounds.
‘ Inthelhort intervals of peace,, my hall was filled, with my
* friends and kindred: my hofpitality was equal to my deeds of
‘ arms; and hecatombs of beeves and deer covered m.y rude but
‘ welcome tables. My neareft relations fat next to me, and then
‘ -fucceeded.the braveft o f my clan;. and below them, the eniu-
‘ lous youth leaned forward, to hear the gallant recital o f our
‘ paft aftions. Our bards rehearTed the valiant deeds of our great
‘ anceftors, and inflam’d our valour by the fublimity o f their
‘ verfe,J
verfe, accompanied with the inlpiring found of the ear-piercing
* Peebirechts.
The crowds of people that attended at an humble diftance,
‘ ^partook of my bounty : their families were my care : for I beheld
‘ in their boys a future fupport o f the greatnefs of my houfe: an
‘ hereditary race o f warriors.
My numerous kindred lived on lands the gift of my diftarit
progenitors, who took care to plant their children near the main
ftock: the cions took firm root, and proved, in after-times, a
grateful ihelter to the parent -tree, againfl: the fury o f the ievereit
ftorms. Thefe I confidered, not as mercenary tenants, but as
the friends of good and of adverfe fortune. Their tenures were
eafy; their Dachas * inviolate. I found my interefi: interwoven
with theirs. In fupport of our mutual welfare, they were ena-
‘ bled to keep a becoming hofpitality. They cherilhed their
neighboring dependents; and could receive my vifits in turn
‘ with a well-cover’d board.
‘ Strong fidelity and warm friendihip reigned among us; dif-
‘ turbed perhaps by the momentary gufts of my paffions : the fun
‘ that warmed them might experience a ihort obfcurity; but the
‘ cloud foon pafled away, and the beams of love returned with
‘ improved advantage. I lived beloved and revered: I attained
‘ the fulnefs of years and of glory .; and finilhed- my courfe, at-
• From D u i . h a i c h , native country. They held their farms at a fmall rent, from
father to fon, by a kind of prefcribed right, which the highlanders call’d Ducbas.
This tenure, in the feudal times, was efteemed facred and inviolable.
‘ tended