answer to himself and the repeated insults heaped upon his relative,
and through her upon her family. He therefore dispatched his
great steward, Maclean, to collect his followers in the Isles, as
also to advise and request the aid of his nearest relations on the
mainland - the Macdonalds of Moidart and Clan Jan of Ardnamurchan.
In a short time they mustered a force between them of about fifteen
hundred men - some say three thousand - and arranged with Macdonald
to meet him at Contin. They assumed that Alexander Mackenzie, now
so old, would not have gone to Kintail, but would stay in Ross,
judging that the Macdonalds, so recently come under obligations
to the King to keep the peace would not venture to collect their
forces and invade the low country. But Kenneth, foreseeing the
danger from the rebellious temper of Macdonald, went to Kintail at
the commencement of his enemy's preparations, and placed a strong
garrison, with sufficient provisions, in Ellandonnan Castle; and
the cattle and other goods in the district he ordered to be driven
and sent to the most remote hills and secret places. He took
all the remaining able-bodied men along with him, and on his way
back to Kinellan he was joined by his dependants in Strathconan,
Strathgarve, and other glens in the Braes of Ross, all fully
determined to defend Kenneth and his aged father at the expense,
if need be, of their lives, small as their united forces were in
comparison with that against which they knew they would soon have
to contend.

Macdonald had meanwhile collected his friends, and, at the head
of a large body of Western Highlanders, advanced through Lochaber
into Badenoch, where he was joined by the Clan Chattan; marched
to Inverness, where they were met by the young laird of Kilravock
and some of Lovat's people; reduced the Castle (then a royal