OLD BARON OF BRAICHLEY.

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Quoich had met with from Donald of Castleton, joined the M'Intoshes; and having swept Braemar, they descended the Dee through Crathie, to visit on a similar errand Glen Muick, Glengairn, and Tullich. They took, however, the precaution to send spies before them. There is a legend connected with these spies which will be best told here :

A son of Adam Gordon of Auchindoun had committed some misdemeanour, for which he was for ever banished from his father's presence. Young Gordon, who from that time led a very unsettled life, came one night upon the old castle of Braichley. As was customary in the Highlands, he was hospitably entertained; and so agreeable did Gordon make himself to the baron, that he would not allow him to depart in the morning.

The baron, an old man, had lately married a young wife, and to this lady Gordon succeeded also in making himself equally agreeable. In consequence of this, some dark ideas were forming themselves in his mind. These incipient plans were suddenly brought to maturity by the following circumstance: One evening, while about the Milton of Tullich, he observed two men wandering about; he made up to them, and after some talk brought them into the hostelry and treated them liberally.

These two men were the spies of the Clan Chattan, and Gordon succeeded in bribing them to murder

L

the old baron. After committing the deed they returned to Gordon, who, instead of rewarding them as he had promised, pretended the greatest horror at their crime, and with the help of the baron's servants put the two men to death. A short time after, Gordon married the young widow, and so became laird of Braichley. His share in the death of the old baron at length became known, and being henceforth shunned and detested both by his wife and tenantry, he died miserably.

To return to the Clan Chattan. In revenge for the death of their spies, many of the proprietors of Glen Muick were killed, their castles and houses burnt to the ground. Braichley alone escaped, as it was well fortified, and garrisoned also by the tenantry.

About the time of this raid Donald of Castleton died; and it fell, therefore, upon Abergeldie, now Bailie of Strathdee, Strathaven, and Badenoch, to see that the Clan Chattan and their accomplices were punished for this outrage. The better to secure the aid of the Farquharsons, Abergeldie offered his daughter Catherine in marriage to James the fourth son of Donald of Castleton. The proposal was at once accepted; for, besides the match being in other respects eligible, the Farquharsons had suffered in the raid along with the rest of the Strathdee people. So the whole clan turned out in its strength.

The first offender to be dealt with was Lamont of

DARK DOOM'S PINE.

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Inverey. With the force now assembled, there was little difficulty in seizing him. No proof was needed of Lamont's guilt; his part in the raid had been too conspicuous for that: so his punishment was summary. He was led out to a pine tree, not far from his own dwelling, and hanged on one of its branches. The tree still stands, with the branch on which poor Lamont was hanged stretching out sternly beyond the others; and from the tragical circumstance just related, and another which took place at the execution, it has been named the 'Dark Doom's Pine.'

Lamont was the only son of his widowed mother; and when the party marched him off to execution, she followed them, pleading, as only mother in such circumstances could plead, to spare his life, and take all they had in place of it. Seeing all her entreaties to be unavailing, and believing that the Farquharsons were the principal agents in the whole affair, she cursed them in the bitterness of her spirit, and also, in a sort of Gaelic rhyme, predicted the downfall of the clan. The substance of the rhyme was, that the tree would be green and flourishing when not one of the Farquharson tribe would be found on the banks of the Dee.

This prophecy is regarded by many of the people as accomplished, as of the Farquharsons of Monaltrie, Inverey, Auchendryne, Balmoral, Allen-Quoich, Tullochcoy, etc., not one remain, and even Invercauld has become

extinct in the male line. Captain Ross, who married the daughter and only child of the last laird of Invercauld, assumed the name of Farquharson. The Fenzean Farquharsons, however, are of the old stock; and as they had nothing to do with this affair at Inverey, they are supposed to have escaped the ban.

After the summary proceedings with Lamont, Abergeldie and the Farquharsons, joined also by the M'Donalds, continued the avenging march, and laid waste all the lands of the M'Intoshes or Clan Chattan in Badenoch, the Grants also in Strathspey. Then, joined by the Earl of Huntly, they devastated all Pettie; after which they returned home laden with plunder, or, as they termed it, 'spulzie.' James Farquharson, as beforehand arranged, married Catherine Gordon, and received with her, as a portion, the confiscated lairdship of Inverey. Besides being the first laird of Inverey, he was also the ancestor of the Farquharsons of Auchendryne and Tullochcoy.

Another and very different version of this raid is given, which is indignantly repudiated by the Braemar people as a total misrepresentation of the whole. matter; and it must be admitted that local traditions and historical notices of it bear them out in that.

CHAPTER III.

Donald Oig.

OF the second Donald of Castleton little is known, except that he exchanged Castleton with the Earl of Mar for Monaltrie about the end of the reign of Queen Mary. His son, however, Donald Oig, was much more celebrated; and round his quaint name not a few vague and mysterious legends still linger. These cannot be received as true, yet probably there existed some foundation for them. Others of them, being more historical in their nature, afford almost an epitome of his life and times. In the following chapter I give a specimen of both.

The first public appearance of Donald after being appointed bailie for the lands of Strathaven was in 1630, in connection with the burning of the Tower of Frendraught. The history of that dolorous tower' is as follows:

James Crichton of Frendraught and George Gordon'