The purport of this letter could not be misunderstood; but lest Livingston might not feel disposed to imbrue his hands in the blood of Glencoe and his people, additional instructions bearing the date (in Stair’s handwriting) of January 16th, and also signed and countersigned by King William, were despatched to Livingston by the Master of Stair, ordering him to extirpate the whole clan. In the letter containing these instructions, Dalrymple informs Livingston that “the king does not at all incline to receive any after the diet but in mercy,” but he artfully adds, “but for a just example of vengeance, I entreat the thieving tribe of Glencoe may be rooted out to purpose.” Lest, however, Livingston might hesitate, a duplicate of these additional instructions[640] was sent at the same time by Secretary Dalrymple to Colonel Hill, the governor of Fort-William, with a letter of an import similar to that sent to Livingston. From the following extract it would appear that not only the Earl of Breadalbane, but also the Earl of Argyle, was privy to this infamous transaction. “The Earls of Argyle and Breadalbane have promised that they (the Macdonalds of Glencoe) shall have no retreat in their bounds, the passes to Rannoch would be secured, and the hazard certified to the laird of Weems to reset them; in that case Argyle’s detachment with a party that may be posted in Island Stalker must cut them off.”
Preparatory to putting the butchering warrant in execution, a party of Argyle’s regiment, to the number of 120 men, under the command of Captain Campbell of Glenlyon, was ordered to proceed to Glencoe, and take up their quarters there, about the end of January or beginning of February. On approaching the Glen, they were met by John Macdonald, the elder son of the chief, at the head of about 20 men, who demanded from Campbell the reason of his coming into a peaceful country with a military force; Glenlyon and two subalterns who were with him explained that they came as friends, and that their sole object was to obtain suitable quarters, where they could conveniently collect the arrears of cess and hearth-money,—a new tax laid on by the Scottish parliament in 1690,—in proof of which, Lieutenant Lindsay produced the instructions of Colonel Hill to that effect. They thereupon received a hearty welcome, and were hospitably entertained by Glencoe and his people till the fatal morning of the massacre. Indeed, so familiar was Glenlyon, that scarcely a day passed that he did not visit the house of Alexander Macdonald, the younger son of the chief, who was married to Glenlyon’s niece, the sister of Rob Roy, and take his “morning drink,” agreeably to the most approved practice of Highland hospitality.
If Secretary Dalrymple imagined that Livingston was disinclined to follow his instructions he was mistaken, for immediately on receipt of them he wrote Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, who had been fixed upon by the secretary to be the executioner, expressing his satisfaction that Glencoe had not taken the oath within the period prescribed, and urging him, if he wished to approve himself to the government, to execute his commission with the utmost rigour, and “not to trouble the government with prisoners.” In the meantime, the Master of Stair was taking every precaution that the deed should be done suddenly and effectively, and accordingly, on the 13th of January he wrote two letters, one to Livingston, and the other to Hill, urging them on. Addressing the former, he says, “I am glad Glencoe did not come in within the time prefixed; I hope what is done there may be in earnest, since the rest are not in a condition to draw together help. I think to harry (plunder) their cattle and burn their houses is but to render them desperate lawless men to rob their neighbours, but I believe you will be satisfied, it were a great advantage to the nation that thieving tribe were rooted out and cut off; it must be quietly done, otherwise they will make shift for both their men and their cattle.” And in his letter to Hill he says, “Pray, when the thing concerning Glencoe is resolved, let it be secret and sudden, otherwise the men will shift you, and better not meddle with them than not to do it to purpose, to cut off that nest of robbers who have fallen in the mercy of the law, now when there is force and opportunity, whereby the king’s justice will be as conspicuous and useful as his clemency to others. I apprehend the storm is so great that for some time you can do little, but so soon as possible I know you will be at work, for these false people will do nothing, but as they see you in a condition to do with them.”
In pursuance of these fresh instructions from the secretary, Hill, on the 12th of February, sent orders to Hamilton, forthwith to execute the fatal commission. Accordingly, on the same day, Hamilton directed Major Robert Duncanson of Argyle’s regiment to proceed immediately with a detachment of that regiment to Glencoe, so as to reach the post which had been assigned him by five o’clock the following morning, at which hour Hamilton promised to reach another post with a party of Hill’s regiment. Whether Duncanson, who appears to have been a Campbell,[641] was averse to take an active personal part in the bloody tragedy about to be enacted, is a question that cannot now be solved; but it may have been from some repugnance to act in person that immediately on receipt of Hamilton’s order, he despatched another order from himself to Captain Campbell of Glenlyon, then living in Glencoe, with instructions to fall upon the Macdonalds precisely at five o’clock the following morning, and put all to the sword under seventy years of age.[642]
Glenlyon appears to have been a man equal to any kind of loathsome work, especially against a Macdonald; one who
“Could smile, and murder while he smiled.”
With this sanguinary order in his pocket, and with his mind made up unhesitatingly and rigorously to execute it, he did not hesitate to spend the eve of the massacre playing at cards with John and Alexander Macdonald, the sons of the chief, to wish them good night at parting, and to accept an invitation from Glencoe himself to dine with him the following day. Little suspecting the intended butchery, Glencoe and his sons retired to rest at their usual hour; but early in the morning, while the preparations for the intended massacre were going on, John Macdonald, the elder son of the chief, hearing the sound of voices about his house, grew alarmed, and jumping out of bed threw on his clothes and went to Inverriggen, where Glenlyon was quartered, to ascertain the cause of the unusual bustle which had interrupted his nocturnal slumbers. To his great surprise he found the soldiers all in motion, as if preparing for some enterprise, which induced him to inquire at Captain Campbell the object of these extraordinary preparations at such an early hour. The anxiety with which young Macdonald pressed his question, indicating a secret distrust on his part, Campbell endeavoured by professions of friendship to lull his suspicions, and pretended that his sole design was to march against some of Glengarry’s men. As John Macdonald, the younger son of Glencoe, was married to Glenlyon’s niece, that crafty knave referred to his connexion with the family of Glencoe, and put it to the young man, whether, if he intended any thing hostile to the clan, he would not have provided for the safety of his niece and her husband. Macdonald, apparently satisfied with this explanation, returned home and retired again to rest, but he had not been long in bed when his servant, who, apprehensive of the real intentions of Glenlyon and his party, had prevented Macdonald from sleeping, informed him of the approach of a party of men towards the house. Jumping immediately out of bed he ran to the door, and perceiving a body of about 20 soldiers with muskets and fixed bayonets coming in the direction of his house, he fled to a hill in the neighbourhood, where he was joined by his brother Alexander, who had escaped from the scene of carnage, after being wakened from sleep by his servant.
The massacre commenced about five o’clock in the morning at three different places at once. Glenlyon, with a barbarity which fortunately for society has few parallels, undertook to butcher his own hospitable landlord and the other inhabitants of Inverriggen, where he and a party of his men were quartered, and despatched Lieutenant Lindsay with another party of soldiers to Glencoe’s house to cut off the unsuspecting chief. Under the pretence of a friendly visit, he and his party obtained admission into the house. Glencoe was in bed, and while in the act of rising to receive his cruel visitors, was basely shot at by two of the soldiers, and fell lifeless into the arms of his wife. The lady in the extremity of her anguish leaped out of bed and put on her clothes, but the ruffians stripped her naked, pulled the rings off her fingers with their teeth, and treated her so cruelly that she died the following day. The party also killed two men whom they found in the house, and wounded a third named Duncan Don, who came occasionally to Glencoe with letters from Braemar.
While the butchery was going on in Glencoe’s house, Glenlyon was busily doing his bloody work at Inverriggen, where his own host was shot by his order. Here the party seized nine men, whom they first bound hand and foot, after which they shot them one by one. Glenlyon was desirous of saving the life of a young man about twenty years of age, but one Captain Drummond shot him dead. The same officer, impelled by a thirst for blood, ran his dagger through the body of a boy who had grasped Campbell by the legs and was supplicating for mercy.