It is possible that Dundee, who was ignorant of Creichton’s departure, thought that his appearance might bring the dragoons over to his side at once.  But the officer who was then in command kept his troops quiet; and after manoeuvring his men up to the very walls of the town Dundee drew off as night fell to Glen Ogilvy.[83] It is impossible that even he can have conceived the idea of a serious attack on the place; and the story of his actually entering and plundering the town is certainly apocryphal, though his men very probably made free with Rollo’s camp.

Meanwhile Mackay at Inverness was busy in his turn among the clans.  Lochiel had only sent the cross round among those chiefs who, like him, hated the Campbells.  Dundee had gone further afield, but had not been successful.  The gratitude of the Mackintoshes was not enough to do more than keep them neutral,—­which was perhaps fortunate, for had they joined the muster at Lochaber they would inevitably have been at blows with the Macdonalds before a day had passed.  The Macphersons also kept aloof, and the Macleods.  Mackay’s invitations were received with the same indifference.  Some of the Grants, whose chief had suffered under the late Government for his allegiance to Argyle, joined him; and from the northern shires of Ross and Sutherland a few Mackays came to fight for a captain of their own blood.  But the two sources on which the Government had mainly relied for help were both found wanting.  The Campbells had suffered so severely from the invasion of Athole in the previous year that Argyle found it impossible to rally them in time to be of service in the present campaign.  The Covenanters, though hailing the rule of William as a deliverance from the rule of James, were persuaded by their ministers that it was a sin to take military service, even against the abhorred Dundee, with men whose orthodoxy was, to say the least, not above suspicion.  Seaforth, Lovat, Breadalbane, and the other great lords of the east and south Highlands, would not bid their vassals arm for either side.  Athole had indeed once more professed allegiance to the new order, but while affairs were still in an uncertain state he would not commit himself to any decisive action.  It was clear to Mackay that the name of William was no name to charm with in Scotland, and that the most he could hope to effect was to prevent a general rising of the clans for James.  The sagacious Tarbat had already pointed out to him how this might be done.  Five thousand pounds, he said, would be ample to satisfy all Argyle’s claims upon the chiefs who owed him vassalage.  If these claims were satisfied, and the clans assured that under William they would secure the freedom they had hoped for from James, though it might not be possible to persuade them to fight for the former, not a single claymore would follow Dundee to the field for the latter.  William was now induced to try the experiment.  But by a blunder so extraordinary as to suggest treachery somewhere, the agent entrusted to manage the affair was himself a Campbell.  The chiefs naturally refused to listen to such a messenger, and treated all subsequent overtures with a contemptuous refusal or a still more contemptuous silence.  It is not certain that any money was actually expended; but if so, it is very certain that not a penny of it went to any Cameron or Macdonald.