To carry off persons from the Lowlands, and to put them
to ransom, was a common practice with the wild Highlanders, as it is said
to be at the present day with the banditti in the south of Italy. Upon
the occasion alluded to, a party of caterans carried off the bridegroom
and secreted him in some cave near the mountain of Schiehallion. The
young man caught the small-pox before his ransom could be agreed on; and
whether it was the fine cool air of the place, or the want of medical
attendance, Mac-Nab did not pretend to be positive; but so it was, that
the prisoner recovered, his ransom was paid, and he was restored to his
friends and bride, but always considered the Highland robbers as having
saved his life by their treatment of his malady.
NOTE 18
This happened on many occasions. Indeed, it was not till after the total
destruction of the clan influence, after 1745, that purchasers could be
found who offered a fair price for the estates forfeited in 1715, which
were then brought to sale by the creditors of the York Buildings Company,
who had purchased the whole, or greater part, from government at a very
small price. Even so late as the period first mentioned, the prejudices
of the public in favour of the heirs of the forfeited families threw
various impediments in the way of intending purchasers of such property.
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