quis might reflect with satisfaction that | shore of Loch Eil, and the frowning towMontrose, who had not dared to meet him ers of Inverlochy. At five o'clock in the in fight, must winter in the hungry wilds | winter evening the van of Montrose apof Athol. What could even a puissant peared; at eight the rear had closed up. Argyle make of an enemy, if he would not Next morning the Campbells stood galturn and fight him? The mood of the lantly to their arms, their chief having great Maccallumore would be one of mild betaken himself to his barge in order to self-adulation, spiced with pleasant con- behold the battle from a place of safety. tempt for his enemy. In spite of the admitted valour of his clan, he was signally defeated. The spell by which he had imposed upon the imagination of the Highlanders was effectually broken, and his power as the head of a formidable body of Highland warriors It was natural that Montrose should He Suddenly, before December's moon had Elled her horn, he was startled to learn that Montrose was upon him. "Wading through drifts of snow, scaling precipices, and traversing mountain-paths known to none save the solitary shepherd or hunts-permanently impaired. man," the Highlanders made their way into Argyleshire and began laying it now experience a sense of almost intoxiwaste with fire and sword. Argyle cating elation. He had rendered brilstepped into a fishing-boat and escaped. liant service to the master whom he Montrose, dividing his army into three ardently loved, and he had eclipsed and bodies, ravaged the country. Every discredited a rival with whom he had for man capable of bearing arms against long years been engaged in internecine king Charles who fell into their hands conflict, and who had at one time been so was put to the sword; the cattle were much in the ascendant as to be able to driven off, the houses burned. Most of exercise towards him a contemptuous the men, it is probable, imitated their leniency. The importance of his vicChief, and took to flight as soon as the tories to the cause of Charles he overfires on the horizon announced the ad-rated. Mr. Napier prints a letter adVance of Montrose. The work of de- dressed by him to the king after the vastation was continued into the first battle of Inverlochy, in which he urges month of the new year. As January his Majesty to come to no terms with the drew to a close, the royal army marched Parliament, and speaks confidently of his in the direction of Inverness, where Sea-own ability to do great things, in the enforth was gathering force in the inter-suing summer, for the royal cause. est of the Covenanters. Montrose en- had manifestly no accurate knowledge of Camped at Kilcummin at the head of the posture of affairs in England, and Loch Ness. Meanwhile Argyle has been was unable to gauge the importance of making preparations. He has drawn a those military changes in the Parliabody of troops from the Lowlands, mus- ment's army which were being introtered his clansmen, and taken up his duced under the influence of Cromwell. quarters in the castle of Inverlochy. He can hardly be blamed for supposing Once more he breathes freely, for the that English Royalism could still do Lochaber range is between him and his something considerable for the king. indefatigable foe. The dream of his ambition was to lead an With the glance of genius Montrose army into England, form a junction with perceives his opportunity, and acts upon the royal forces, and re-establish the it with the audacity of a commander who monarchy. Had he been at Charles's had inspired his men with his own daunt-right hand, absolutely commanding his less and resolute spirit. Starting at sun- troops in England as well as in Scotland, rise, he enters the rugged ravine of the the current of our history might have Tarf. "Through gorge and over moun- flowed in a different channel; but bein, now crossing the awful ridges of tween him and the Royal camp lay the Corry-arrick, now plunging into the valley Scottish army under Alexander Leslie, of the rising Spey, now climbing the and he had no force adequate to enwild mountains of Glenroy to the Spean," counter it. Among Charles's many weakwading through snow-drifts, fording riv-nesses was that of facile hope, and the ers and hill Burns up to their girdle, the tone of exultation and promise in which Highlanders press on until," having Montrose now wrote may have been one pliced the Lochaber mountains behind among the fatal influences which induced them, they beheld from the skirts of Ben him to refuse an arrangement either with Nevis, reposing under the bright moon the Parliament, or with the Scots, or with of a clear frosty night, the yet bloodless both, and so lured him to his doom. Meanwhile Montrose, who could gain free from responsibility for the atrocities nothing by lingering in Argyleshire, they committed in Aberdeen. struck away again for the north-east, at- Since the day when he had raised the tempting to raise the Gordons and the Royal standard, it had been one main ob country generally for the king, and lay-ject with Montrose to prevail upon the ing waste the Covenanting districts in his loyal gentlemen of the name of Gordon path. The town of Dundee was noted to join him. The Marquis of Huntley, for its zeal for the Covenant, and he re- their feudal chief, had abandoned hope, solved to chastise it. The Committee of and would not order them to rise. MontEstates, however, had not been idle. rose now determined upon an effort to Summoning General Baillie and Colonel secure once for all the service of the Urry from the army in England, and put- Gordon riders. For this purpose he disting under their command 3000 well-patched Lord Gordon, a zealous and indrilled foot and nearly 1000 good horse, trepid loyalist, to call the gentlemen of they had sent them in pursuit of the roy- his family to arms. They obeyed the al army. Montrose had actually stormed call with unwonted alacrity, and a conDundee, and the Irish and the Highland- siderable body of horse came together. ers had commenced the work of pillage. Hearing of this movement, Baillie deMany of them were already drunk. The tached Colonel Urry, with such force as alarm was suddenly raised that Baillie might crush Lord Gordon before he and Urry were at hand. Montrose per- effected a junction with Montrose. Urry ceived that the sole chance of safety was increased his numbers by associating in immediate retreat. Exerting himself with the utmost skill and presence of mind he succeeded in drawing off the plunderers. The intoxicated men were driven along in front; at the head of his few horse he cut in between the enemy and the rear; a safe retreat was effected, and at midnight he halted his column near Arbroath. with his own detachment the Covenanters of Moray and those serving under the Earls of Seaforth and Sutherland. Penetrating the intention of the Cov enanters, Montrose executed one of his meteor-like marches, joined Lord Gordon, and, though still outnumbered by Urry, prepared to give battle. The scene of the conflict was the village of Auldearn, situated a few miles from the town of Nairn. Baillie jogged steadily on behind, and Montrose learned that he had occupied the road to the Grampians. The Cove- Montrose's plan of battle revealed the nanting General, knowing that Montrose strategist. He posted Colkitto with a could not march into the sea, and believ- small body of Irishmen and Highlanders ing him to have no line of retreat, al- on the right of the village. His object lowed his men to snatch a few hours was to attract to this point a large proof repose. But Montrose was vividly portion of Urry's army, and engage it in awake. The Highlanders had now got a vain attack, while he was winning the the drink out of their heads, and under- battle in another part of the field. He stood that they must shake themselves therefore displayed the Royal standard up and march for life. Silent, like a long where Colkitto fought. His practice had black snake winding through the dark been to rear the flag in the key of the ness, the column stole past the camp of position where he commanded in person. Baillie and made for the hills. The Cov- It would be fatal to his plan if Colkitto enanting General followed hard as soon were driven from the field and the force as he learned that Montrose had given engaged against him released; therefore him the slip, and it was not until after a he was posted in enclosures which Montmarch (including the storm of Dundee) rose well knew he could hold, but was of three days and two nights that Mont- strictly enjoined not to leave them. rose permitted his men to rest. "I have Montrose himself took up his position on often," writes Dr. Wishart, Montrose's the left of the village. Between his post chaplain and biographer, "heard those and that of Colkitto were the houses of who were esteemed the most experi- the hamlet. Hs ostentatiously placed his enced officers, not in Britain only, but in guns in front of the houses, and Urry France and Germany, prefer this march naturally thought that a body of infantry to his most celebrated victories." Jus- lay behind. Montrose had in fact only a tice, however, requires the admission sham centre. His real fighting power, that, if Montrose could, by vehement horse and foot, was concentrated on the personal exertion, draw off his men from left under his own eye. His design was the sack of Dundee, he cannot be held to break Urry's right with an overpower ing force, and then to charge his left, while Colkitto should at length sally from his enclosures and assist in the decisive grapple. genius of the highest order, to wit, the inventive order, are apt to coincide. no This battle was fought in May, 1645. After much marching and counter-marchUrry ordered his battle exactly as ing, Baillie ventured to engage Montrose Montrose intended. His veteran troops at Alford, on the river Don in Aberdeenhe sent to charge on his left, where the shire. He was defeated, and his army Royal standard floating over Montrose's broken to pieces. There was now right, marked, as he believed, the station force in the north of Scotland that could of the general and the key of the position. look Montrose in the face. Argyle, howColkitto, safe in his enclosures, defied ever, and the Edinburgh Convention of the attack. But the enemy galled him Estates, resolved upon a last great effort. with their reproaches, and the headstrong They raised a larger army than any of chief led out his men to fight in the open. those they had lost, and placed it under Here they soon had the worst of it. Baillie; but Argyle, Lanark, and CrawMontrose learned that the great strength ford-Lindsay were appointed to exercise massed by Urry on the Covenanting left over him a joint superintendence. They had broken Colkitto, and that the Irish forced him to bring Montrose, who had were recoiling in partial confusion. A now descended into the low countries and less resolute commander, or one whose crossed the Forth, to action. The battle self-possession was less calm, would have of Kilsyth was fought on the morning of sent help to Colkitto, and thus deprived the 15th of August. Seldom or never had himself of that superiority of force in the disproportion of strength been greater charging Urry's right, on which he had against Montrose, but none of his victocalculated for victory. Montrose was ries had been easier, and Baillie's army not disconcerted. He saw that the mo- was utterly destroyed. In the warm summent had come for putting his scheme mer morning, Montrose ordered his men into execution. He called out to Lord to strip to their shirts that the broadsword Gordon that Colkitto was conquering on might have unencumbered play, and that the right, and that, unless they made they might not fail in the expected purhaste, he would carry off the honours of suit. Accustomed to conquer, and placthe day. The Gordon gentlemen charged ing absolute confidence in their leader, and broke the Covenanting horse. The the clans vied with each other in the infantry of Urry's right fought bravely, headlong impetuosity of their charge, and but the main force of Montrose was op drove the Covenanters, horse and foot, posed to them, and they gave way. He before them, in tumultuous flight. Baillie, then led his troops, flushed with vic- though smarting with defeat, seems as a tory, to support Colkitto. Mac Donald, a soldier to have been struck with the splenman of colossal proportions and gigantic did courage and picturesque fierceness of strength, had defended his followers as the Highlanders. They came on, full they made good their retreat into the en- speed, targets aloft, heads and shoulders closures, engaging the pikemen hand to bent low, in the literal attitude of the hand, fixing their pike-heads, three or tiger when he springs. Montrose lost four at a time, in the tough bull-hide of scarce a dozen men; the Covenanters, his target, and cutting them short off at whom the swift-footed mountaineers purthe iron by the whistling sweep of his sued for ten miles, had four or five thoubroadsword. The combined force of sand slain. Montrose and Colkitto proved irresistible. All Scotland, except the national forUrry was defeated with great slaughter. tresses, was now in the hands of MontThe loss of the Royal army was almost rose. Neither Edinburgh nor Glasgow incredibly small. No battle won by Han-made any resistance, and having levied a nibal was more expressly the result of the contribution on Glasgow, he called a Pargenius of the commander. The idea of liament to meet in that town in the name throwing the enemy a bone to worry in of the King. But his dazzling success one part of the field, while the rest of his rendered only more conspicuous the fatal force is being annihilated and victory defects in the system of warfare he was made sure elsewhere, was applied by pursuing. He had formed no body of Marlborough at Blenheim and was the spearmen on whom he could depend to efficient cause of that splendid victory. stand the charge of effective horse, and There is little probability that Marl-victory was, as at first, the signal for the borough had studied the battle of Auld- Highlanders to quit the ranks and return earn, but the expedients of military to their hills. The victory of Kilsyth had been fertile in plunder, and the season of | tember, 1645, General David Leslie, next harvest was now near; both circumstances to Montrose the most energetic and capatended to thin the following of Montrose. ble commander contributed by Scotland While King Charles was hoping that his to the civil war, having by a swift march irresistible Lieutenant would lead an from Newcastle along the East Coast and army across the border to his deliverance, then southward from Edinburgh, reached and sending Sir Robert Spottiswood with the vicinity, placed his men, principally a new commission and new orders, the horse, and numbering five or six thouRoyal army dwindled away, and Montrose sand, in and about Melrose. The Royfound himself at the head of no larger a alists were but four miles away, and body of troops than had at first gathered we realize the intense hatred with which round him in the wilds of Athol. It may, they were regarded in the district when as was formerly said, have been impossi- we learn that not a whisper of the presble for him to change the habits of the ence of Leslie's army reached the Royal Highlanders, but he ought to have been camp. Mr. Napier tells us that more than alive to the extreme peril to which those once in the night the scouts came in and habits exposed him in the low country. reported all safe. Commanding only a He knew that the Scottish army in Eng- few hundred cavalry, and a mere skeleton land was well supplied with cavalry. A of his Highland host, Montrose, had he perfectly organized system of intelligence, been apprised of Leslie's approach, would keeping him informed as to the state of doubtless have attempted to escape by the country within twenty miles of his one of his extraordinary marches. Had camp, especially in the direction of Eng- his army been as large as before the bat land, was to him an absolute condition of tle of Kilsyth, he might, in spite of his existence. He had a sufficient force of surprise, have defeated Leslie; for the cavalry to enable him to organize such a Highlanders, nimble as leopards, were system, and this essential part of the duty formidable to cavalry, and his own inven of a commander was well understood in tiveness and dexterity in battle might that age. Oliver Cromwell, had he been have wrought one of the miracles which in the place of Montrose, would have are possible to genius. But with his diknown within a few hours everything that minished force he had no chance. Lestook place in the Scottish camp in Eng-lie's horsemen, emerging from the white land. Montrose's first thought, after the mist of a September morning, crashed in battle of Kilsyth, ought to have been, upon both his wings at once. "Argyle and his friends are beaten was immediately in the field and disputed in Scotland, and infuriated beyond all the matter for some time, but his little bounds; their next thought will be to army was cut to pieces. At the head of strike a blow from England." How often about thirty troopers, he made good his have great men fallen by oversights which retreat to the Highlands. small men would not have committed! "O negligence, fit for a fool to fall by! says Shakespeare's Wolsey; and even Shakespeare may have known by experience the bitterness of Wolsey's pang. Montrose Before the battle of Kilsyth the Royal cause in England had been hopelessly lost. Royalism, pure and simple, as professed by the English Cavaliers, perished on the field of Naseby. Had Montrose suc ceeded, after Kilsyth, in penetrating into England, he would have found the fragments of Charles's army too shattered to reunite, and would have encountered a force of English and Scots in the Parlia Montrose crept gradually southward with his diminished army, and in the second week of September was stationed at Selkirk, his cavalry being quartered with himself in the town, while the infantry occupied an elevated plateau called Phili-mentary interest numbering at least fifty phaugh, on the north. Between Phili- thousand men. After uselessly protractphaugh and Selkirk flows the Ettrick; the infantry were on the left bank, the cavalry on the right. This disposition of the Royal forces has been pronounced faulty, but we must recollect that in the first half of September Scottish rivers are generally low, and that, if the Ettrick could be easily forded, a few minutes' Until the death of the King, Argyle trot would bring cavalry lying in Selkirk and his party in Scotland maintained upon the plain of Philiphaugh. On the their alliance with the English Puritan night between the 12th and 13th of Sep-leaders. Shortly before that event, Crom ing hostilities for some time in the Highlands, he was commanded by the King to lay down his arms. He retired in disguise to Norway, and thence proceeded to join Prince Charles who, from various stations on the Continent, was watching the course of events in England. well, having destroyed Hamilton's army, | a prisoner, even in retaliation of the cold- mond upon the window of his prison Soon after the battle, he was taken and led in triumph to Edinburgh. The Estates of Scotland, avoiding question as to the legality of the expedition in which, under commission of that Charles II. whose title they were then undertaking to vindicate, he had been last engaged, treated him as already condemned to die under sentence of attainder passed against him whilst ravaging the territory of Argyle in 1644. atoms are, I'm hopeful thou'lt recover once my dust, The majesty of his demeanour, both while being drawn into Edinburgh on a cart, and as he walked in scarlet cloak trimmed with gold lace to the place of execution, so impressed the multitude, that not a taunt was uttered, and many an eye was wet. All that is told of him when in prison tends to exalt our conception of his character. When the clergy remind him that he has been excommunicated, and urge him to repent in order that the Church may remove her censures, he answers that the thought of his excommunication causes him pain, and that he would gladly have it removed by confessing his sins as a man, but that he has nothing to repent of in his conduct to his king and his country. He can more sharply check the officiousness of His bearing in presence of the Parlia- the non-professional zealot. Johnston of ment was as calmly dauntless as on the Warriston finds him, the day before his battlefield in the moment of victory. He death, combing out his beautiful locks of exulted in his loyalty. It had indeed hair, and murmurs some suggestion that been with him a pure and lofty feeling, the hour is too solemn for such work. and by rare good fortune he never knew "I will arrange my head as I please toCharles I. well enough to be disen- day while it is still my own," answers "I never had passion on Montrose; "to-morrow it will be yours, earth," he wrote to Charles II., "so great and you may deal with it as you list." as that to do the king your father ser- He is not a Pagan, proud and self-cenvice." He asserted the faithfulness of tred; but neither is he quite a Puritan. his adherence to the National Covenant, He rises into a more genial atmosphere, and avowed that he had neither taken he approaches a higher Christian type, nor approved of the Solemn League and than those of his age. He does not Covenant. He indignantly denied that crouch before his Maker; he stands he had countenanced acts of military violence. "He had never spilt the blood of 126 chanted. LIVING AGE. VOL. III. *Point of the compass. |