He acted, for example, with great and suspicious lenity to those
freebooters who made restitution on his summons and offered personal
submission to himself, while he rigorously pursued, apprehended, and
sacrificed to justice all such interlopers as dared to despise his
admonitions or commands. On the other hand, if any officers of justice,
military parties, or others, presumed to pursue thieves or marauders
through his territories, and without applying for his consent and
concurrence, nothing was more certain than that they would meet with some
notable foil or defeat; upon which occasions Fergus Mac-Ivor was the
first to condole with them, and after gently blaming their rashness,
never failed deeply to lament the lawless state of the country. These
lamentations did not exclude suspicion, and matters were so represented
to government that our Chieftain was deprived of his military command.
[Footnote: See Note 19.]
Whatever Fergus Mac-Ivor felt on this occasion, he had the art of
entirely suppressing every appearance of discontent; but in a short time
the neighbouring country began to feel bad effects from his disgrace.
Donald Bean Lean, and others of his class, whose depredations had
hitherto been confined to other districts, appeared from thenceforward to
have made a settlement on this devoted border; and their ravages were
carried on with little opposition, as the Lowland gentry were chiefly
Jacobites, and disarmed.
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