Colin More’s raid being so unjust, for there was no reason for it but the desire for plunder, it was decided that his punishment should be severe, consequently all the prisoners of any pretension to rank were ordered the morning after the battle to be publicly executed, beginning with the youngest. This happened to be Ewen MacGabhar, who determined to meet his fate without flinching, and as befitted his birth, which he always felt was of noble origin. He accordingly dressed himself with care, and threw over all the scarlet velvet mantle he had preserved for so many years, and girded on the sword, with a sigh to think that he should never know the secret of his birth.
At the time appointed, the prisoners were brought out for execution before the queen and her court, according to the barbarous custom of the time. MacGabhar walked at their head with a stately step, his fine figure as erect, his fair head held as lofty, and his bright blue eye as fearless, as if he were a conqueror and not a captive. As he approached nearer where the queen sat, surrounded by her ladies, her sister Flora started violently, and seizing her husband by the arm, exclaimed, ‘Oh Kenneth, see! see! that mantle, that sword; look at his fair hair, his blue eyes—it must, it must be he.’ Then rushing toward Ewen, she cried out, ‘Your name, your name, young man; where did you get that sword and mantle? Speak, speak—I adjure you by all you hold sacred to tell the truth.’ Young Ewen, considerably surprised by this impassioned appeal, drew himself up, and answered firmly and respectfully, ‘Madam, these articles belong to my father, whom I never knew, and the name I am known by is Ewen MacGabhar, but I know not whether it is my right name or not.’ This answer, far from allaying the lady’s agitation, only served to increase it, and, with an hysterical laugh, she screamed out, ‘MacGabhar! yes, yes, I was sure of it. Sister! husband! see, see, our lost darling—my own dear MacGabhar.’ Then, in the excess of her emotion, she threw her arms around him, and swooned away.
All was now confusion and perplexity. Sir Kenneth hastened to his wife’s assistance. The queen rose and stood with an agitated face and out-stretched hands, looking earnestly at Ewen. The older chieftains who remembered his father, began to remark the extraordinary likeness Ewen bore to the late king; clansmen caught up the excitement and began to shout ‘A MacCoinnich Mòr! A MacCoinnich Mòr!’
After a while, when the Lady Flora had regained consciousness, and some degree of order was restored, the queen began to closely question her sister as to the identity of Ewen; ‘For,’ she sagely remarked, ‘although that mantle and sword did indeed belong to my husband, that does not prove its present possessor to be his heir, and further, though I admit I perceive a great resemblance in that young man to the late king, yet he might be his son without being mine, and until I am persuaded that he is indeed my own lawful son, I will not yield up this honoured seat to him.’ This spirited speech was received with approval by the nobles, but still the common people kept up the cry of ‘A MacCoinnich Mòr! A MacCoinnich Mòr!’
‘Stay, stay,’ exclaimed Kenneth, ‘I think I shall be able to decide if he is indeed MacGabhar; do you remember, Flora, the day when little Ewen was playing with my hunting knife and inflicted a severe cut on his arm? Now, if this young man has the mark of that wound, it will be conclusive. Approach then, and bare your left arm, MacGabhar.’
Ewen stood forward, and amid the anxious, breathless attention of all, bared his muscular arm, when there plainly appeared a large cicatrice, evidently of many years standing.
All doubt was now removed; the queen embraced him and owned him her son. The chieftains crowded round to offer their congratulations, and the clansmen shouted loud and long.
MacGabhar bore himself throughout this strange and exciting scene with a dignity and composure of manner which greatly raised him in the estimation of his new found friends. His first act was to beg the lives and liberty of his late fellow-prisoners, which was readily granted; and when he had explained to his mother how indebted he was to Gillespick for his kindness in bringing him up, and had also told Sir Kenneth how well treated his mother had been, their indignant feelings towards Gillespick gave way to more kindly emotions, and a firm and lasting peace was concluded between the two clans. Sir Kenneth hastened to fetch his mother, whose joy at being thus re-united to her beloved son, after so many years of separation and anxiety, was almost overpowering to the now aged woman. Sir Kenneth took up his abode in his wife’s native country, and by his wise and sagacious council greatly assisted Ewen in the management of his kingdom, the queen, his mother, resigning all her authority in his favour. He ruled his people firmly and well, and by his courage in the field and wisdom in the council, he so raised the strength and increased the dimensions of his kingdom that it became the most prosperous and powerful in the Highlands. He married the only daughter of the Lord of Castle Donain, and by her inherited all that vast estate, in this way fulfilling the old prophecy which had caused so much uneasiness for years to his future father-in-law.
