Note 535 — Chapter XIX

He was attacked by two troopers who were ignorant of his quality, till the exclamation “Unfortunate Argyle,” uttered as he fell, betrayed him. “The clan of the Riddells,” says Dr. Burns, editor of Wodrow, “have taken the honour, or the disgrace of having furnished one of these two militiamen. A person of this name from Lochwinnoch, within forty years ago, had gone to the Balloch fair, near Dumbarton, in the capacity of a horse-dealer. The Campbells from Argyleshire heard his hated name, which called up to their imaginations one of the principal murderers of their chief, and they were preparing themselves for a feudal clan battle, when the companions of the Lowlander interposed and prevented bloodshed by a cunning device or ruse de guerre, transforming his name from Riddell to Ridet.”—“The spot where Argyle was taken [commonly said to have been near Inchinnan in Renfrewshire] is marked out by a stone, which passes among the country-people by the name of ‘Argyle’s Stone.’” Hist. &c., tom. iv. p. 297.