however, considered, and he was certainly the best judge of the case, that it would be better to employ some little time before such a movement, in making the use of his last victory which he had origi nally calculated upon when he determined to ha zard the battle;-namely, to draw together the loyal clans and families who had previously been only prevented from joining him by their terror of Argyle, but who, being now relieved from the domination of that tyrant, would, he felt assured, immediately flock to him, and, by their accession, swell his army to such a respectable amount, as would not only enable him to overwhelm the Scottish parliament, but also prove of most material service to the king in an expedition which he would immediately afterwards undertake against his ene❤ mies in England.

Led by such views, after having spent only two or three days at Inverlochy, for the refreshment of his men, and the securing of the spoil, he raised his army, and, marching towards the north-east, descended along the course of the Spey into the province of Moray. The northern army which had been collected to oppose him at Inverness, he resolved to pass unmolested, partly because he now apprehended little annoyance from it, and partly because he was unwilling to spend his time in beleaguering a well-defended and well-provisioned town, such as Inverness then was, He chose rather to direct his force against a great party of the gentry of Moray and their attendants, which he understood had been collected at Elgin, the capital of the province, by the covenanting parliamentary committee, with the intention of opposing him, or at least of endeavouring to protect the country from his ravages, but which he hoped to be able to draw

over in a great measure to his own side when he should appear before them.

As he advanced upon Elgin, a deputation came to him from these gentlemen, "to deal with him," as it was phrased; in other words, to endeavour to propitiate him towards their persons and estates. But the only answer he could give them was, that "he would accept any who would join with him in his Majesty's service, and obey him as the royal lieutenant." Before the answer could be returned by their commissioners, they had all dispersed, and every one shifted for himself.1

He entered Moray "with displayed banners," sending before him in all directions a proclamation, by which all the men of the province betwixt the ages of sixteen and sixty were commanded to rank under him for the king's service, under pain of being proceeded against with fire and sword, as avowed rebels. Under the terror of this denunciation, or perhaps rather glad of it as a reason for deserting the Covenant, the Laird of Grant, with three hun dred men, the Earl of Seaforth, the Lairds of Pluscardine and Losslyne, and Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstone, almost immediately joined him. These were decidedly the most influential men in the district; yet by far the greater part of the rest still thought it their duty, or their safety, to hold back. He was therefore under the necessity of executing military vengeance upon the houses and estates of Grange-hill, Brodie, Cowbin, and Innes, which respectively belonged to four recusant gentlemen of great influence, as also upon the houses of Ballendalloch, Foyness, and Pitchash, all of which were the property of one gentleman of the same description, the Laird of Ballendalloch. Be sides burning the houses and lands of these gentle

men, and taking away or destroying every thing which they possessed in the shape of cattle or other property, he plundered the village of Garmouth, and the lands of Burgie, Lethen, and Duffus, and de ́stroyed all the boats and nets which he found upon the river Spey.3 He has been much blamed for these devastations; but it ought to be recollected, that he was only practising what was then and long after considered the best method of reducing a rebellious country. It is, however, certain that he was obliged, in many instances, much against his own will, to allow of such proceedings, merely because he could not satisfy the men who required license for them at his hands, by any more regular mode of remuneration for their services. It would be well if the historians who sound the charge against him upon this subject, would look a little more attentively at his circumstances, at the general spirit of the age, and more especially at the previous conduct of his opponents, tyrannical as they had been in imposing obnoxious oaths and duties upon the people, and in levying from them an enormous amount of men and taxes for the prosecution of their own selfish and ill-starred enterprises.

As Montrose advanced to Elgin, the inhabitants, at once indisposed towards his cause and afraid of his troops, almost all fled to the castle of Spynie, the strongest house in the province, carrying their most valuable goods with them; and such was the desolation of the town in consequence, that the Fair of St Fasten's Eve, which then usually gathered upon its streets a great part of the inhabitants of the north of Scotland, was for this year not held. To induce him to save the town from conflagration, the magistrates gave him four thousand merks, (about two hundred pounds,)

but the common soldiers were so indignant at the flight of the inhabitants, and the removal of their effects, that they could not be restrained from plunder.

On the very day he entered Elgin, February 19, he was joined by Lord Gordon, the eldest son of the Marquis of Huntly, who had last year given him so much vexation by remaining with Argyle, but who had now been induced, by the persuasion of Archibald Gordon, by his own disgust at the Covenanters, and by the crush which Argyle had lately received, at length to declare for the cause to which his affections and those of his family had all along directed him. The marquis received this young nobleman with a degree of joy proportioned to his great personal merit, and to the value of his family connexions; and he now made no doubt of being speedily joined by the whole of that powerful and spirited clan, whose services he had been so repeatedly, from untoward circumstances, disappointed in obtaining. Accordingly, he was immediately after joined by Huntly's third son, Lord Lewis Gordon, against whom he had had the honour of fighting, only four months before, at Aberdeen, but who had now, like his brother, fairly resolved to shake off the uneasy bondage of the Covenant; and he was informed that a great part of the clan was in the very act of preparing to follow the example of their brave young lead

ers.

Soon finding, therefore, that he had little to expect in Moray, but a great deal in Banffshire and Aberdeenshire, Montrose thought proper, on the 4th of March, to leave Elgin and cross the Spey. As he went, he sent forward parties to raise the inhabitants, on the usual alternative of destruction to the country; and thus the towns of Cullen and

Banff, refusing to yield obedience, were unrelentingly plundered. Before he had proceeded far, learning that the garrison of Inverness was executing the same species of vengeance upon the estates of the Moray gentlemen that had joined him, he generously permitted them all to go back to defend their own possessions, only taking them bound upon their parole, to continue faithful to the king, or at least not to join the Covenanters. It must be recorded to the discredit of the Earl of Seaforth, that he immediately broke this obligation by reverting to the Covenanters, whom, however, it appeared he had originally left with reluctance.

At Strabogie or Gordon Castle, where Montrose pitched his camp after crossing the Spey, he had the misfortune to lose his eldest son Lord Graham, a youth of sixteen, who had already displayed a promise of greatness almost equal to his own, and who had thus preferred accompanying his father through the perils of his desultory campaigns, to every other and securer mode of life. When he had procured all the levies which Lord Gordon was able to raise amongst his clan, about five hundred foot, and a hundred and sixty horse, he moved forward through Banffshire, with the intention of crossing the Dee and falling down upon the Lowlands by the way of Angus. In passing, he called at the House of Cullen, the lord of which, (the Earl of Finlater,) he found, had left it in the charge of his lady, to seek refuge amongst his fellow patriots at Edinburgh. His men instantly plundered it of all its splendid furniture and plate, and were about to set it on fire, when the countess, for five thousand merks in hand, and the promise of fifteen thousand more, purchased a respite