Such strength upon the blow was put,
The helmet crush’d like hazel nut;
The axe shaft, with its brazen clasp,
Was shiver’d to the gauntlet grasp.
Springs from the blow the startled horse,
Drops to the plain the lifeless corse.
First of that fatal field, how soon,
How sudden fell the fierce De Boune!”
A real Lochaber axe-head we have seen, never the complete weapon properly shafted, though surely real and genuine specimens of the old and famous war-arm must be found in some of our museums. At what period the Lochaber axe ceased to be carried as a battle-arm by the Highlanders it is impossible to say; probably soon after the general introduction of fire-arms into the northern half of the kingdom, for it was certainly not used in the ’45, nor, so far as we know, in the ’15, nor even in the wars of Montrose; so that for upwards of two hundred years at least it has not been used in actual combat.