who should be tutor being dead, and Allan, Duncan's son, not being
able to oppose or grapple with Hector), meddled with the estate.
It is reported that Hector wished Allan out of the way, whom he
thought only to stand in his way from being laird, since he was
resolved not to own my Lord Lovat's daughter's children, being all
bastards and gotten in adultery. The reason why they entertained
such thoughts of him was partly this: Hector going to Ellandonnan
(where he placed Malcolm Mac Eancharrich constable) called such
of the country people to him as he judged fit, under pretence
of setting and settling the country, but asked not for, nor yet
called his nephew Allan, who lived at Invershiel, within a few miles
of Ellandonnan, but went away. Allan, suspecting this to have
proceeded from unkindness, sends to one of his familiar friends
to know the result of the meeting, or if there was any spoken
concerning him. The man, perhaps, not being willing to be an ill
instrument twixt so near relations, sends Allan the following Irish
(Gaelic) lines:

Inversheala na struth bras,
Tar as, 's fear foul ga d' fheitheamh,
Nineag, ga caol a cas,
Tha leannan aice gun thios,
A tighinn ga'm fhaire a shios,
Tha i, gun fhios, fo mo chrios
Tha 'n sar lann ghuilbneach ghlas, -
Bhehion urchair dha le fios.

Allan put his own construction on them, and thought a friend warned
him to have a care of himself, there being some designs on him
from a near relation; and so that very night, in the beginning