A Campbell was selected for the office of gaining over to the cause of King William men whose only quarrel to King William was that he countenanced the Campbells.

Offers made through such a channel were naturally regarded as at once snares and insults.

After this it was to no purpose that Tarbet wrote to Lochiel and Mackay to Glengarry.

Lochiel returned no answer to Tarbet; and Glengarry returned to Mackay a coldly civil answer, in which the general was advised to imitate the example of Monk, [342] Mackay, meanwhile, wasted some weeks in marching, in countermarching, and in indecisive skirmishing.

He afterwards honestly admitted that the knowledge which he had acquired, during thirty years of military service on the Continent, was, in the new situation in which he was placed, useless to him.