His heat did not overwhelm his wit, for he took a legal
procedure, obtained a commission of fire and sword against Glengarry
and his complices, which he prosecuted so bravely as in a short
time by himself and his brother he soon forced them to retreat
from his lands, and following them to their own bills, he soon
dissipated and destroyed them, that young Glengarry and many
others of their boldest and most outrageous were killed, and the
rest forced to shelter themselves amongst the other Macdonalds
in the islands and remote Highlands, leaving all their estates to
Kenneth's disposal. This tribe of the Clan Ranald seem to have
been too barbarous for even those lawless times, while by a strange
contumacy in latter times, a representative of that ancient family
pertinaciously continued to proclaim its infamy and downfall by the
adherence to the wild strain of bagpipe music (their family pibroch
called Cillechriost), at once indicative of its shame and submission.
Kenneth's character and policies were of a higher order, and in
the result he was everywhere the gainer by them." He was
supported by Murdoch Mackenzie, II. of Redcastle; and by his own
brothers - Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Coigeach, Alexander of Coul,
and Alexander of Kilcoy, all men of more than ordinary
intelligence and intrepidity.
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