quis might reflect with satisfaction that Montrose, who had not dared to meet him in fight, must winter in the hungry wilds of Athol. What could even a puissant Argyle make of an enemy, if he would not turn and fight him? The mood of the great Maccallumore would be one of mild self-adulation, spiced with pleasant contempt for his enemy.

shore of Loch Eil, and the frowning towers of Inverlochy. At five o'clock in the winter evening the van of Montrose appeared; at eight the rear had closed up. Next morning the Campbells stood gallantly to their arms, their chief having betaken himself to his barge in order to behold the battle from a place of safety. 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 permanently impaired.

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 huntsman," the Highlanders made their way It was natural that Montrose should 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. He 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 betuin, 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 placed 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 obcountry 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 his own detachment the Covenantwith the utmost skill and presence of ers of Moray and those serving under mind he succeeded in drawing off the the Earls of Seaforth and Sutherland. plunderers. The intoxicated men were Penetrating the intention of the Covdriven along in front; at the head of his enanters, Montrose executed one of his few horse he cut in between the enemy meteor-like marches, joined Lord Gordon, and the rear; a safe retreat was effected, and, though still outnumbered by Urry, and at midnight he halted his column prepared to give battle. The scene of near Arbroath. 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 Covenanting General followed hard as soon as he learned that Montrose had given him the slip, and it was not until after a march (including the storm of Dundee) of three days and two nights that Montrose permitted his men to rest. "I have often," writes Dr. Wishart, Montrose's chaplain and biographer, "heard those who were esteemed the most experienced officers, not in Britain only, but in France and Germany, prefer this march to his most celebrated victories." Justice, however, requires the admission that, if Montrose could, by vehement personal exertion, draw off his men from the sack of Dundee, he cannot be held

It would be fatal to his plan if Colkitto were driven from the field and the force engaged against him released; therefore he was posted in enclosures which Montrose well knew he could hold, but was strictly enjoined not to leave them. Montrose himself took up his position on the left of the village. Between his post and that of Colkitto were the houses of the hamlet. Hs ostentatiously placed his guns in front of the houses, and Urry naturally thought that a body of infantry lay behind. Montrose had in fact only a sham centre. His real fighting power, horse and foot, was concentrated on the left under his own eye. His design was 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.

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 no 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

ble commander contributed by Scotland to the civil war, having by a swift march from Newcastle along the East Coast and then southward from Edinburgh, reached the vicinity, placed his men, principally horse, and numbering five or six thousand, in and about Melrose. The Royalists were but four miles away, and we realize the intense hatred with which they were regarded in the district when we learn that not a whisper of the presence of Leslie's army reached the Royal camp. Mr. Napier tells us that more than once in the night the scouts came in and reported all safe. Commanding only a few hundred cavalry, and a mere skeleton of his Highland host, Montrose, had he been apprised of Leslie's approach, would doubtless have attempted to escape by one of his extraordinary marches. Had his army been as large as before the battle of Kilsyth, he might, in spite of his surprise, have defeated Leslie; for the Highlanders, nimble as leopards, were formidable to cavalry, and his own inventiveness and dexterity in battle might have wrought one of the miracles which are possible to genius. But with his diminished force he had no chance. Leslie's horsemen, emerging from the white mist of a September morning, crashed in upon both his wings at once. Montrose was immediately in the field and disputed the matter for some time, but his little army was cut to pieces. At the head of about thirty troopers, he made good his retreat to the Highlands.

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. While King Charles was hoping that his irresistible Lieutenant would lead an army across the border to his deliverance, and sending Sir Robert Spottiswood with a new commission and new orders, the Royal army dwindled away, and Montrose found himself at the head of no larger a body of troops than had at first gathered round him in the wilds of Athol. It may, as was formerly said, have been impossible for him to change the habits of the Highlanders, but he ought to have been alive to the extreme peril to which those habits exposed him in the low country. He knew that the Scottish army in England was well supplied with cavalry. A perfectly organized system of intelligence, keeping him informed as to the state of the country within twenty miles of his camp, especially in the direction of England, was to him an absolute condition of existence. He had a sufficient force of cavalry to enable him to organize such a system, and this essential part of the duty of a commander was well understood in that age. Oliver Cromwell, had he been in the place of Montrose, would have known within a few hours everything that took place in the Scottish camp in England. Montrose's first thought, after the battle of Kilsyth, ought to have been, "Argyle and his friends are beaten in Scotland, and infuriated beyond all bounds; their next thought will be to strike a blow from England." How often have great men fallen by oversights which 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.

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 succeeded, 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 Parliamentary interest numbering at least fifty thousand men. After uselessly protracting 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.

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 Philiphaugh, on the north. Between Philiphaugh 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