pp. 223-224] THE MACKINTOSHES                            191

[page 224.]

apud fluvium Findornium illis obviam fortuitû factus est
prædictus Milcolumbus oig, qui, exploratâ totâ re, consilio
juvenum illum sequentium motus a Johanne partem prædæ
petiit. Johannes 24 vaccas et taurum offert. Hoc ille fastidiosè
et incautè respuit, et prædæ tertiam partem oult, et nihil
minus, quod Johannes contemptim venuit, et nihil daturus
progreditur. Milcolumbus fremens, hoc notum amicis statim
facit, et subito accolas Strathamiæ, Pettiæ et Lairchardellæ
Johannem insequi, et prædam impedire mandat, donec ipse
cum Strathernensibus subsequerentur. Mandato obsequium
datur, et Johannem trans fluvium Nessam sequuntur, et, ad
locum vocatum Clachnaherri eum cursû apprehendunt.
Johannes 40 de suis cum prædà dimisit, et reliquos pro se
pugnare stimulat. Fit atrox conflictus. Pauci utriusque
partis evadunt, et Johannes penè exanimatus, ut mortuus
relinquitur. Sed Dominus Lovat de eventû certior factus,
eum sanari curat. Johannes postea Backhlach, i.e. mutilatus,
vocabatur, quia in eo conflictû manû mutilabatur, et ab illo
familia Miltonia orta est. Milcolumbus, cujus temeritate hæc
evenerunt, non adfuit pugnæ; Nam, ante ejus adventum,

their approach had come thither, wasted the lands, and carried
off the cattle. On their return, when at the river Findhorn,
it so happened that the aforesaid Malcolm oig met them, who
having inquired into the whole matter, was moved by the
advice of the young men who followed him to ask a part of
the booty from Monro. John offered him twenty-four cows
and a bull. This he disdainfully and rashly rejected, and
demanded the third part of the booty and nothing less;
which John contemptuously refused, and, marching on, would
give him nothing. Malcolm, in a rage, made this known
forthwith to his friends, and at once ordered the men of
Stratherne, Petty, and Lairchardel to follow John, and impede
the moving of the cattle until he with the Stratherne men should
come up. In obedience to this command, they followed John
across the river Ness, and overtook him in flight at the place
called Clachnaharry. John sent forty of his men onwards with
the booty, and stimulated the rest to fight for him. The conflict
was fierce: few of either party escaped, and John, almost lifeless,
was left for dead. But Lord Lovat, on being informed of the
event, used means to restore him. John was afterwards called
Backhlach, that is, mutilated, because in the fight his hand was
cut off. From him the Milton family sprung. Malcolm, by