he was obliged to mortgage half of the remaining moiety of his
paternal property. This loss he might have recovered by dint of
severe economy, but on the breaking out of Argyle's rebellion
Dennis Bertram was again suspected by government, apprehended,
sent to Dunnotar Castle on the coast of the Mearns, and there
broke his neck in an attempt to escape from a subterranean
habitation called the Whigs' Vault, in which he was confined with
some eighty of the same persuasion. The apprizer therefore (as the
holder of a mortgage was then called) entered upon possession,
and, in the language of Hotspur, 'came me cranking in,' and cut
the family out of another monstrous cantle of their remaining
property.

Donohoe Bertram, with somewhat of an Irish name and somewhat of an
Irish temper, succeeded to the diminished property of Ellangowan.
He turned out of doors the Reverend Aaron Macbriar, his mother's
chaplain (it is said they quarrelled about the good graces of a
milkmaid); drank himself daily drunk with brimming healths to the
king, council, and bishops; held orgies with the Laird of Lagg,
Theophilus Oglethorpe, and Sir James Turner; and lastly, took his
grey gelding and joined Clavers at Killiecrankie. At the skirmish
of Dunkeld, 1689, he was shot dead by a Cameronian with a silver
button (being supposed to have proof from the Evil One against
lead and steel), and his grave is still called the Wicked Laird's
Lair.

His son Lewis had more prudence than seems usually to have
belonged to the family. He nursed what property was yet left to
him; for Donohoe's excesses, as well as fines and forfeitures, had
made another inroad upon the estate. And although even he did not