his departure, and to guard against surprise or design on John's
part. Accompanied by these, he soon arrived at Torridon, where he
found his thirty fellow adventurers and the galley awaiting him.
They at once set sail, and with a fair wind made for the Isles,
in the direction of, and as if intending to make for, Ireland.
The retinue sent by Hector Roy returned home, and informed their
master that they saw John and his companions started before a
fair wind, with sails set, in the direction of Ireland when Hector
exclaimed, referring to Anne of Lovat, "We may now sleep without
fear of Anne's children."

John, sailing down Loch Torridon, and judging that Hector's men had
returned home, made for a sheltered and isolated creek, landed in
a wood, and dispersed his men with instructions to go by the most
private and unfrequented paths in the direction of Alit Corrienarnich,
in the braes of Torridon, where he would meet them. This done,
they followed Hector's men, being quite close up to them by the
time they reached Fairburn. John halted at some little distance
from Hector's house until about midnight, when, calling his men
together, he feelingly addressed them thus: "Now, my good friends,
I perceive that you are indeed affectionate to me, and resolute
men, who have freely forsaken your country and relations to share
in my not very promising fortune but my design in seeking only
such as would voluntarily go along with me was that I might be
certain of your affection and resolution, and since you are they
whom I ought only to rely upon in my present circumstances and
danger, I shall now tell you that I was never so faint-hearted as
to quit my inheritance without attempting what is possible for
any man in my capacity. In order to this I feigned this design
for Ireland for three reasons; first, to put my uncle in security,