under the horses' bellies, and dealing wounds upon the poor animals, which either brought them down upon their riders, or sent them wildly raging off the field. In the language of the Clanranald bard, "the men were upon one another's tops." In the extremity of the confusion, "Alexander, son of Ronald, son of Allan," says the same writer, (who, with Allan Og, son of MacVich Alaster (Glengarry) commanded the Clanranald,) " as he himself afterwards declared, stood for some time in the midst of the throng, with his drawn sword in his hand, not knowing how to strike a stroke, as he could not distinguish friend from foe." The Covenanting horse then began to recoil from an encounter in which they were so ill-matched. Baillie no sooner perceived them wavering, than he sent his remaining squadron of horse to their support; but that troop chose only to rank up behind their distressed comrades, instead of going forward, as they ought to have done, to relieve them of the press of battle. And the consequence was, that, when the two distressed troops gave way, the third also broke and fled.

The battle was then in a manner decided; for the Gordons were enabled, by the retreat of Baillie's 1 horse, to sweep round upon his main body, and even attack it in rear. Lord Gordon himself was so confident and so forward, that he promised his men to bring them the Presbyterian general by the neck from the midst of his remaining troops; and he had actually seized Baillie by the shoulder-belt to drag him from his horse, when unfortunately a ball hit him in a mortal part, and prostrated him among the horses' feet.18 This circumstance, however, though itself so much to be lamented, was perhaps only productive of a more immediate decision of fortune

in favour of the royal arms; for the Gordons were so much infuriated by it, that they could set no bounds to their vehemence in attacking and cutting down the Covenanting troops; most of whom, then losing all hope of success, followed the example of their horse by running away.

At the very moment when Baillie's lines were wavering under the attack of the Gordons, Montrose decided the day effectually, by bringing up a reserve, which he had established under the charge of his nephew the Master of Napier, behind the hill which formed his original position. At sight of this body, to which the camp-boys united themselves on their sumpter-horses, and which therefore had a formidable appearance as it came down the hill, the Covenanters fled en masse, unable to contend with the troops which were already surrounding them, but much more inadequate to face what seemed to them a new army. A prodigious slaughter then took place upon or near the ground; for many detached bodies of the vanquished army stood and fought till they were to a man cut down; while others could by no means escape the infuriate cavalry of the Gordons, eager as these were to revenge the death of their commander. Even in the flight, which spread far and near, almost all the foot were overtaken and slain; not one of the pursuers turning, if we are to believe the Clanranald chronicle, till there was not a man to be seen anywhere upon his legs. It was with the greatest difficulty that Baillie and other chief officers escaped: the Marquis of Argyle, who had been present at the battle as one of the managing committee, only saved himself from the eager pursuit of the chieftain of Glengarry, by his good fortune in procuring a change of horses at three different places.19

3

20

While Baillie lost by this engagement almost the whole of his infantry and a great portion of even his horse, Montrose suffered, as usual, a very inconsiderable damage; Mowat of Balwholly, Ogilvy of Milton, and an Irish captain of the name of Dickson, with a very small number of private men, forming the whole list of slain which he had to add to the lamented name of Lord Gordon. The death of this last mentioned individual, however, was in itself the severest blow he had received during the whole course of the war. "It seemed," says Bishop Wishart, "to eclipse the whole glory of the present victory. As the report spread among the soldiers, every one seemed to be struck dumb with the melancholy news. But their grief soon burst through all restraint; and, in voices full of lamentation and sorrow, they began to exclaim against heaven and earth, for bereaving their king, the kingdom, and themselves, of so excellent a person. In the extremity of their distress, unmindful of both victory and plunder, they thronged around the body of their dead captain; some weeping over his wounds and kissing his lifeless limbs; whilst others praised his comely appearance even in death, and extolled his noble mind, which was enriched with every noble quality appropriate to his high birth and ample fortune. They even cursed the victory which was bought at so dear a rate.”

CHAPTER IV.

BATTLE OF KILSYTH.

And, as a herd

Of goats, or timorous flock, together throng'd,
Drove them before him, thunder-struck.

MILTON.

A FORTNIGHT before their loss at Alford, the Covenanting government had been cheered by intelligence of the decisive victory obtained by the English parliamentary forces over the king at Naseby. Notwithstanding, therefore, the severity of this their fifth defeat at home, and although the plague was now ravaging their capital with almost unexampled violence, they still resolved to bear up against the recusant who so long and so nearly had threatened to overwhelm them: they resolved to make at least one last effort to rescue the tabernacle which they were so painfully rearing, and which, after having escaped a thousand external and foreign dangers, seemed now about to be destroyed, as it were, by one of its own builders.

When Baillie, Balcarras, Argyle, and other fugitive officers and noblemen, reached the Low Country, to which they fled after the battle of Alford, they found that the Scottish parliament had been

obliged to meet at Stirling, instead of Edinburgh, on account of the pestilence. Repairing to that city, they were all very graciously received by their constituents; who, sitting down for the first time on the 8th of July, immediately voted their thanks to General Baillie, but in a more particular manner to Lord Balcarras, the nobleman who had led on the horse with so much vigour and resolution at the late battle. They continued Baillie in his place; for although General Hurry had endeavoured to prejudice them against him,1 and though they conceived his conduct to have been all along too indecisive and cautious, they were perhaps sensible that they could not at present procure a more experienced commander. Baillie was not unconscious of the equivocal nature of his situation, or of the aspersions which had been thrown upon him, and offered with great frankness to stand an open trial for his conduct; but they professed perfect satisfaction with him, and the very next day, having renewed his commission, sent him off to assume command of the army which they were rendezvousing at Perth.

The nucleus of this army was formed by that which has been already mentioned as lying in Angus under the charge of the Earl of Crawford, together with the few troops of horse which had made good their escape from Alford. In order to increase it to the amount of ten thousand men, which they now calculated as the least that was sufficient to reduce Montrose, they issued edicts to all the Lowland counties, commanding them to raise every fourth fencible man, and to send the result to Perth on or before the 24th of July. The pestilence (which had come from Newcastle to Edinburgh by the way of Kelso) having now also