[Sidenote: _fol._ 288.] May 5th. When in sight of Stornway the Prince sent the guide to Donald MacLeod to inform him that he and the two captains were at such a place, desiring withal that he would forthwith send them a bottle of brandy and some bread and cheese, for that they stood much in need of a little refreshment. Donald immediately obeyed the summons and came to the Prince, bringing along with him the demanded provisions. He found the Prince and his two attendants upon a muir all wet to the skin, and wearied enough with such a long journey through the worst of roads in the world. Donald told the Prince that he knew of a faithful and true friend to take care of him till things should be got ready for the intended voyage. This was the Lady Killdun[133] at Arynish, to whose house Donald conducted the Prince and his two attendants. Here the Prince was obliged to throw off his shirt, which one of the company did wring upon the hearth-stone, and did spread it upon a chair before the fire to have it dried.
The same day, May 5th, Donald was sent back to Stornway to get things in readiness. But when he came there, to his great surprize he found no less than two or three hundred men in arms. The Lewis is inhabited by the MacKenzies, and belongs to the Earl of Seaforth. Donald could not understand [Sidenote: _fol._ 289.] at all what was the matter that occasioned such a sudden rising of men, and therefore, without fear or dread, he went directly into the room where the gentlemen were that had taken upon themselves the rank of officers, and asked them what was the matter. Every one of them immediately cursed him bitterly, and gave him very abusive language, affirming that he had brought this plague upon them; for that they were well assured the Prince was already upon the Lewis, and not far from Stornway, with five hundred men. This they said exposed them to the hazard of losing both their cattle and their lives, as they heard the Prince was come with a full resolution to force a vessel from Stornway. Donald very gravely asked, How sorrow such a notion could ever enter into their heads? 'Where, I pray you,' said he, 'could the Prince in his present condition get 500 or one hundred men together? I believe the men are mad. Has the devil possessed you altogether?' They replied that Mr. John MacAulay, Presbyterian preacher in South Uist, had writ these accounts to his [Sidenote: _fol._ 290.] father in the Harris, and that the said father had transmitted the same to Mr. Colin MacKenzie, Presbyterian teacher in the Lewis. Donald saned these blades, the informers, very heartily, and spared not to give them their proper epithets in strong terms. 'Well then,' said Donald, 'since you know already that the Prince is upon your island, I acknowledge the truth of it; but then he is so far from having any number of men with him that he has only but two companions with him, and when I am there I make the third. And yet let me tell you farther, gentlemen, if Seaforth himself were here, by G---- he durst not put a hand to the Prince's breast.'