The Doc emails me and asks:

"But was Rob Roy duplicitious for national reasons or purely personal? To say the first is coy and good Machiavellian politics; to say the second is greed and treason."

Nation? What nation? And what personal reasons? My goodness, Doc, I am a little shocked. I think that both of those categories are a wee bit anachronistic for a 1700's Highland Chieftan.

Rob Roy was looking after Clan McGregor who were already, if I mistake not, forbidden to actually use their name; hence they were called "The Nameless Clan", and hence we know him as Rob Roy rather than Rob Roy McGregor. This is all tucked into Kidnapped and Catriona; Stevenson knew his history. As a Highland Chief at this moment in time, Rob Roy was really the last generation to think of the tribe as the paramount political, social and cultural identifier. So I think that "treason" is a bit much; sure, from either the Jacobite or Hanoverian perspective he was betraying them. But as far as the McGregor's were concerned, their Chief was looking after them.

And I am just a little amused that this good Professor is all flabberghasted that Rob Roy was a "confidence man". Con man? Hah! He stole cattle and committed murder. And his sons stole women (or a woman, a very famous case), and forced her to marry. Con man is the least of it.

This is a whole lot of newspaper article about nothing.