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point of attack, he found himself quite alone. that moment, the Earl of Dunfermline, a zealous cavalier, but who had been disappointed in the promotion of Nairne, rode out of the ranks, and, followed by only sixteen other gentlemen, fulfilled the wish of their commander, by taking possession of the artillery, while the remainder of the corps was still at a considerable distance. The General, then seeing that the right wing of the enemy's foot was still standing, while a corresponding portion of his own army was coming somewhat slowly forward to engage them, rode back to bring up that parcel of his troops; when, unfortunately, a musket-bullet penetrated his right side, immediately below his mail-coat, and he fell mortally wounded from his horse. He was carried to a house in the neighbourhood, where, amidst the bustle consequent upon his victory, and the painful sensations arising from his own personal condition, he commanded his mind sufficiently to write a dignified account of the battle to his royal master. Next morning, when in the last agonies, a friend called to inquire for him, telling him, in the first place, that the victory had been complete and all would be well if he were well. "Then

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I am well," said the dying soldier, and immediately expired.

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Thus perished, in the prime of life and the hour of victory, John Graham, Viscount of Dundee; a man whose fate it has been to be too much railed at by one party, and too much praised by another, but to whom a modern pen may only do justice, when it declares him to have been a great soldier, and a man of the first order of character and intellect. No two persons could well be more different,

in every respect, than Dundee in the Highlands and Dundee in the Lowlands of Scotland. As, in Siberia, the traveller observes heat appreciated as the most excellent of things, while, in Guinea, it is looked upon as the grand enemy of human comfort, so is Dundee in the Highlands held as the greatest of all modern heroes, and in the Lowlands as the most barbarous of all brutes. It may seem strange, that the Bloody Claverse of Ayrshire, should have become the Great Dundee of Athole. But the thing is by no means paradoxical. Dundee did not act upon feelings, or upon the ordinary motives and emotions of men. He acted upon a grand abstract principle, which he had established; like an idol, in the innermost shrine of his mind, and to which he was disposed to sacrifice all the natural sympathies. People are apt to think, that, because he persecuted a pious set of people, whose only error was one of opinion, he must have been himself an impious and profligate man. Quite the reverse. He was inspired with as high a degree of religious fervour in his bloody deeds, as ever possessed the mind of the wildest enthusiast that sat for years amidst the wilds of Tweeddale. He had laid down to himself, that the Episcopalian mode of worship was the only one by which the Deity could properly be honoured. It was his wish, above all things, that the rude and licentious formula of the Presbyterians, should be changed for the decent ritual of the Episcopalians, so that, to use his own words, God might be honoured, in his own house, with some show of ceremony, and not treated like an ordinary acquaintance on the streets. Nor was he an undiscriminating advocate for a ceremonious form of service. He was as adverse to

the Papists on the one hand as to the Presbyterians on the other; insomuch that, when James was tampering with his statesmen and officers to make them become Catholics, he could make nothing of Dundee. It was his frequent declaration, that the more he found his religion opposed, the more he loved it; a complete proof of his being heated by precisely the same unhappy enthusiasm with those whom he persecuted. Thus, it will be seen, he never was the base and ignoble agent of a tyrant, which he is generally supposed to have been. He was the enthusiast who acts exclusively for the gratification of his own lofty will, and for the interest of an object which he has convinced himself is the only one that, in its accomplishment, can render himself or his countrymen entirely happy. Every sacrifice he made, every wound he inflicted, every time he rendered a mother childless, or a family fatherless, every time he caused the cry of blood to arise from the wide-spread moor, or from the cottage green, he would only think that he had proceeded a stage nearer to the period of ultimate and universal happiness. No "cold faint-hearted doubtings" could ever tease Dundee. His mind was made up, his idol established. Like a man who garners up a treasure, and resolves, while he puts it under lock and key, to resign the further pursuit of wealth, he had fairly shut the door against the intrusion of all new ideas. By a system exactly the reverse of that which governed the Temple of Peace at Rome, he had determined that the temple of his mind should be accessible to no other thoughts till the grand object of his life was achieved, by the restoration of peace and pure religion. 3

It is almost vain to argue about the character of a man like Dundee. Such enthusiasts are no more liable to the ordinary rules of judgment than madmen are amenable to the common law. All that can be said of him is simply that, being a man of great native force of mind, and living at a period when his country was distracted by insane religious theories, he entered heart and soul into the views of a certain party, the interests of which he promoted very highly, to the great injury of his repútation among those against whom he acted. What, in the eyes of an unprejudiced modern, is the difference between him and his enemies? Both acted alike in the spirit of the times; both did what seemed good in their own eyes; both sought the interests of a party; both were governed by unnatural principles; both were enemies to the general interests of human nature. It was a period of insanity and struggle; and both had lost, in the heat of contention, all regard to the practical usefulness of their various objects. The words may represent other ideas in the present day; but I am afraid there was little difference in the time of Charles II., between the men who preached a compound of blasphemy and treason at field conventicles, and those who gave themselves up to unlimited rapine and cruelty, in endeavouring to repress them. It was all one grand national sin.

As to the minor departments of Dundee's character, it is almost vain to expatiate upon them, after what has just been written regarding his actions. He was a man of indefatigable industry and perseverance. No toil nor obstacle could conquer the activity of his mind. He possessed a power of forming deep and long-casting projects,

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which he could retain and cherish in the recesses of his mind, like monsters which lurk in the caverns of the sea, till the proper moment arrived for developing them. But by far the most remarkable minor feature of his character was his inflexible resolution. If he once said that he would do any thing, he was as sure to do it as the thunder is sure to follow the lightning. A remarkable testimony to this part of his character is commemorated by his subaltern Crichton. That officer, being seized among the rest of the conspirators, as recorded in a preceding chapter, was sent to Edinburgh, where it was proposed by some members of the government, that he should be hanged as an example to the rest. Dundee heard of the scheme, and immediately sent a message to the Convention of Estates, that, if they should hurt a hair of Crichton's head, he would send them their friends, the Lairds of Blair and Pollock, (whom he had taken prisoners at Perth), chopped into pieces, and packed up in hampers. The Duke of Hamilton, who stood in the relation of brotherin-law to one of these individuals, lost no time in interfering to prevent Crichton's fate, avowing himself so well aware of Dundee's inflexible character, that he was sure he would do as he threatened in case of his officer being injured.

'I am now to present to the reader a few anecdotes of the battle of Killiecranky, which have been preserved by tradition in Athole, from that time down to the present; when they have been at length collected into a written form, for the service of this work, by a peculiarly intelligent native of the district. 4

The clan of the MacDonnells of Glengarry,