X. 1689. BOOK liament, and that the choice of a president belonged to the judges themselves. An act was introduced, as in the reign of Charles I. declaring that the judges named by the crown should be examined, approved or rejected by the estates; but as the demand exceeded the commissioner's instructions, the parliament was adjourned amidst such a general ferment, that the judges assumed their seats under the protection of the troops5. Aug. 2. and exploits of Dundee. While the parliament was thus agitated by the presbyterians, a civil war was excited, and in the moment of victory, was almost extinguished in Character the north. With a new name it is not unfrequent to acquire a new and more honourable character in society; and the cruelties of Graham of Claverhouse are forgotten in the last splendid exploits of the viscount Dundee. The same ardent and inflexible spirit that rendered him barbarous and inexorable towards the covenanters, was adapted to the most daring and extensive designs. As an officer, he was able, intrepid, and experienced; of a sound and cultivated understanding; endued with many personal virtues; parsimonious and severe by nature; generous and indulgent from policy; well acquainted with the dispositions and temper of others, and possessed 5 Hist. Revol. 168-86. Address and Vindication of the Scottish Parliament. State Tracts, Temp. Gul. vol. iii. Lord Stair's Vindication. Burnet, iv. 105. Ralph, ii. 105. of an entire command over his own". Ambitious BOOK X. to equal the renown as well as the cruelty of Montrose, to whom he was related, he delighted 1689. in those vigorous and enterprizing councils, in the execution of which he was best qualified to excel. When James had withdrawn to Rochester, he concurred with a few friends to dissuade his departure; undertook to collect ten thousand of his disbanded soldiers; and offered to march through England with his standard at their head, and to drive the Dutch forces with their prince before him. Had he been entrusted, instead of Feversham, with the command of the army, little doubt can be entertained that, though he might have failed to fulfil those magnificent promises, the revolution at least would never have been accomplished without immense bloodshed. When he retired from the convention, the fears and the expectations of each party were fixed on his designs. His intentions were discovered by intercepted letters from Melfort, who promised speedy assistance from Ireland; proposed to support the war from the forfeiture of those lords whom they had marked for destruction, and threatened literally to reduce their enemies to hewers of wood and drawers of water. The letters, published in both kingdoms, announced the cruelties to be expected Balcarras' Mem. ? Macpherson's Orig. Papers, i. 299. BOOK X. 1689. Begins a civil war. on the return of James. Balcarras and his friends were secured; but Dundee retired into the highlands from Mackay's pursuit, with an intention to summon the clans to arms. At Inverness he found the Macdonalds of Keppoch, who had availed themselves of the disorders of the times to invest the town. On his obligation for its ransom, they engaged in his service; but they returned to secure their plunder in Lochaber, where he summoned a general rendezyous of the clans. Descending in the mean while, with his horse, to Perth, he surprised some troops, and levied. contributions to the very gates of Dundee. It was not difficult, on his return, to excite the highlanders to arms, whose warlike genius was stimulated by the memory of their atchievements under Montrose; and by the apprehension that Argyle would soon be restored to his jurisdictions and estate. The Macleans and Macdonalds had suffered as the vassals or the enemies of that powerful family; the Camerons had obtained large grants of its possessions; and as the highlanders were peculiarly favoured by James, a general confederacy was formed among the clans?. Seventeen hundred men were assembled by Dundee; they were armed with their paternal swords, but The authenticity of these letters, though denied by the .X. 1689. were unprovided with artillery, ammunition, pro- BOOK visions, or pay. By interposing between Mackay and a reinforcement which Ramsay conducted through Badenoch, he obliged the latter to retreat to Perth, and on the surrender of Ruthven castle, pursued the former along the course of the Spey. The fidelity of the Scottish dragoons was seduced; a regiment originally raised for the service of James. Their treachery was timely discovered; and Mackay, returning with reinforcements, endeavoured in vain to outstrip the speed of the highlanders on their native hills. But the highlanders, loaded with plunder, deserted in such numbers, that Dundee retired into the wilds of Lochaber, and dismissed his army till the succours which he expected from Ireland should arrive; and in this situation, the mortifying intelligence June 13. of the surrender of Edinburgh castle, would have overwhelmed a mind less vigorous than his own with despair 10. Mackay. On the arrival of three hundred recruits from Encounters Ireland, he summoned the highlanders again to arms. The castle of Blair was defended against lord Murray, son of the marquis of Athol, by one of his father's vassals, whom Dundee hastened to relieve, and Mackay to reduce. The place was equally important, whether to restrain Dundee to the remote highlands, or to secure his access to 10 Dundee's Mem. Macpherson's Orig. Papers, i. 355-66 Balcarras, 60. 1689. BOOK. Athol, Perth, and Angus, where his party were X. numerous; but on his approach to Blair, the Atholmen, with a loyalty unexampled among the highlanders, deserted their chieftain, and filling their bonnets with water, drank to the health of king James, and abandoned the pass of Killycranky, which they were employed to guard". When importuned by his officers to pre-occupy and to defend the pass, he convinced them that if Mackay were permitted to enter, and were attacked before the arrival of his cavalry, a fairer opportunity for victory would never be obtained. Mackay, an officer equally brave and pious, but diffident, averse from bloodshed, and better fitted to execute than command, had advanced with three thousand foot and two troops of horse, from Dunkeld. On emerging from the defile, he discovered the enemy advancing from Blair; and he arranged his troops as they arrived, along a narrow field, where there was not room sufficient to form a reserve. Dundee, whose forces exceeded two thousand five hundred men, arranged them on an opposite eminence, according to their clans, with the hills behind to secure a retreat. For some hours they continued to regard each other, exchanging some distant shots, while the "Dalrymple ascribes this revolt to lord Lovat's management, on the authority of his manuscript Memoirs. His Memoirs have been since published, but they contain no allusion whatever to the fact. |