it is reported that the Macgregors murdered a number of youths, whom report of the intended battle had brought to be spectators, and whom the Colquhouns, anxious for their safety, had shut up in a barn to be out of danger.  One account of the Macgregors denies this circumstance entirely; another ascribes it to the savage and bloodthirsty disposition of a single individual, the bastard brother of the Laird of Macgregor, who amused himself with this second massacre of the innocents, in express disobedience to the chief, by whom he was left their guardian during the pursuit of the Colquhouns.  It is added that Macgregor bitterly lamented this atrocious action, and prophesied the ruin which it must bring upon their ancient clan. ...

“The consequences of the battle of Glen Fruin were very calamitous to the family of Macgregor, who had already been considered as an unruly clan.  The widows of the slain Colquhouns, sixty, it is said, in number, appeared in doleful procession before the king at Stirling, each riding upon a white palfrey, and bearing in her hand the bloody shirt of her husband displayed upon a pike.  James vi. was so much moved by the complaints of this ‘choir of mourning dames,’ that he let loose his vengeance against the Macgregors without either bounds or moderation.  The very name of the clan was proscribed, and those by whom it had been borne were given up to sword and fire, and absolutely hunted down by bloodhounds like wild beasts.  Argyll and the Campbells, on the one hand, Montrose, with the Grahames and Buchanans, on the other, are said to have been the chief instruments in suppressing this devoted clan.  The Laird of Macgregor surrendered to the former, on condition that he would take him out of Scottish ground.  But, to use Birrel’s expression, he kept ‘a Highlandman’s promise;’ and, although he fulfilled his word to the letter, by carrying him as far as Berwick, he afterwards brought him back to Edinburgh, where he was executed with eighteen of his clan (Birrel’s Diary, 2d Oct. 1903).  The clan Gregor being thus driven to utter despair, seem to have renounced the laws from the benefit of which they were excluded, and their depredations produced new acts of council, confirming the severity of their proscription, which had only the effect of rendering them still more united and desperate.  It is a most extraordinary proof of the ardent and invincible spirit of clanship, that notwithstanding the repeated proscriptions providently ordained by the legislature, ’for the timeous preventing the disorders and oppression that may fall out by the said name and clan of Macgregors, and their followers,’ they were, in 1715 and 1745, a potent clan, and continue to subsist as a distinct and numerous race.”

426.  Leven-glen.  The valley of the Leven, which connects Loch Lomond with the Clyde.

431.  The rosebud.  That is, Ellen.  “Note how this song connects Allan’s forebodings with Roderick’s subsequent offer” (Taylor).