fore the battle, he changed the former for a sadcoloured garment, to conceal his rank from the enemy. This precaution was necessary and justifiable, because he had determined to gratify the prejudices of his men by making the charge at their head. Dundee was personally brave to the last degree, and rather perhaps loved than feared the dangers of battle. But he knew that, on the present occasion, his life was not valuable to himself alone.

The charge was made with all the impetuosity proper to a Highland onset. Stripped, for the sake of lightness, almost to their shirts, stooping as low as possible, and holding their targets before their heads, they rushed swiftly down the slope which intervened betwixt their position and that of Mackay. A few leather cannon which Mackay had placed at the extremities of his line, (each carried betwixt two horses), sent forth their thunders against them, and they were saluted with a simultaneous volley from the whole extended front of their opponents. These, however, they regarded very little. It is told of Grant of Sheuglie, a gentleman of Glenurquhart, that, having been knocked down by a ball which came against his target, he immediately rose again, with the light remark, "Och, sure the Boddachs 13 are in earnest now! and continued his advance with the rest, only the more determined in his course from the momentary interruption he had met with. But, indeed, the clans never looked upon the battle they were about to be engaged in, as any thing else than a mere frolic, or an attack upon the baggage.

When they got within a proper distance of the enemy, they all paused a moment, in order to give

their fire. Having done so, and thrown away their firelocks as usual, they took to their broadswords, Lochaber axes, and two-handed swords, and flew headlong upon the foe, uttering a loud shout at the same moment. Notwithstanding all their speed, Mackay's lines had time to fire three vollies at them, as they were advancing.

Mackay, who had exerted himself for some hours to arrange his men properly, at the risk of being brought down by the enemy, (for their stragglers fired repeatedly at him as he rode about), had just concluded a speech to some of the battalions nearest him, when the attack was made. He called them to remember the justice of their cause; to remember that the Protestant interest, not only in Scotland but in Britain, and all the world over, depended upon their firmness and exertions. He reminded them of the obligations under which they lay as soldiers, to do the work of their master and entertainer with good will. He pointed out to them that their own personal safety, not to speak of higher matters, depended on their standing firm in combat this day. Should they keep their ranks, he said, they would in three minutes see the naked savages arrayed against them fly back to the hills at a quicker pace than they came from them. Should they, by a criminal and unmanly faintheartedness, give way, then should none escape the fate they desired to avoid. The enemy, unencumbered by clothes and arms, and naturally swifter of foot, would cut them unresistingly down as they ran, or huddle them for a deliberate massacre into the bottom of the vale. Whoever might have the good fortune in the meantime to escape the enemy, the river or the precipices, should be sure to fall, be

fore getting out of the country, the common people being every where in arms, for the express purpose of way-laying runaways. In every view of the case, it was their only true interest to stand to it boldly as became men fighting for their religion and liberty, against the invaders of both these noble possessions. Let them but stand for a minute, and they would find themselves almost involuntarily or passively victorious.

This reasoning was precisely of that sort which leaves no doubt in the mind of a man who hears it in a state of tranquillity, and when not particularly interested, but which produces no effect upon the faculties of one who has a serious personal reason for rejecting it. The circumstances of Mackay's soldiers were unfortunately such as to make it of little avail. They were almost all raw young men, who had never before been upon a field of battle. They were disposed to regard the enemy with fear. They were agitated by the distressing novelty of their situation. Such fortitude as they had was rather relaxed as braced by the hints of the General regarding the difficulty of escape; while scarcely any one could be altogether convinced by it; for, although it could not be hoped that all would elude the dangers of the retreat, each man was at liberty to flatter himself with the idea that he, by making off very early, and with peculiar speed, would be among the happy number of the saved. What was perhaps worse than any of these considerations, the army was left in a great measure weaponless at the moment it received the charge; few having time, after their last fire, to screw their bayonets into the muzzles of their pieces; an awkward necessity in the military tac

tics of that age, which was only remedied in the succeeding year, by General Mackay, who, in consequence of suffering so much from it at Killiecranky, invented the present well-known plan for fixing that weapon.

For these reasons, as might be expected, the resistance which the regular troops presented to the Highlanders was neither of long duration nor of a very determined character. The heavy masses into which the clans were collected, came with prodigious force against their thin line. When once penetrated, or even shaken in any one place, the remainder, though uninjured, could not long bear up. Every mode of defence which the poor Lowlanders could attempt, was obviated by the savage strength of their assailants. If a military rapier was presented, it was beat down by the long battle-axes and broadswords carried by the Highlanders: if a musket with a bayonet was projected against the body of the foe, it was cut in two, or received on the target. The happy mixture of nimbleness and strength which the Highlanders display, above all other soldiers, on the field of battle, was far too much for the timid and inexperienced battalions of Mackay. In a few minutes, with the exception of Colonel Hastings' and the Earl of Leven's regiments on the right wing, the whole line had given way, and descended the hill mingled with the pursuers.

In the first confusion of the battle, General Mackay had pushed boldly through the advancing torrent of foes, thinking that his doing so would cause his men to meet the Highlanders with a sort of counter-charge. What was his surprise and mortification, when, on reaching clear ground

beyond, and looking back, he could see none of his men whatever, except the wounded and dying: all the living had gone down over the brink of the hill with the Highlanders, and were now engaged in a flying fight in the vale below, or were hurrying on for the Pass. The singular spectacle was presented, of a retreating army exposed to the swords of the enemy, while the Generalissimo, the only man who had made a vigorous attempt to fight, was left behind unharmed. To his own senses, the conduct of his men was like magic: they ap peared, he says in his own Memoirs, to have va nished almost in the twinkling of an eye. While he records their pusillanimous behaviour with pain, he could not help remarking, as a matter of additional regret, that, from the little resistance he found in passing by himself through the Highland troops, he was sure that the least firmness on the part of his men would have secured them a victory.

When he had a little recovered from his surprise, and the smoke was somewhat cleared away, he perceived the small remaining portion of his right wing standing at a little distance; and, like a good general, he immediately galloped towards

it. On coming up, he found it to consist chiefly of a part of the Earl of Leven's regiment, including the Earl himself, most of his officers, and a considerable number of men from other battalions. This parcel of his army had been entirely unopposed by the enemy, whose line was not long enough to reach it; and when all the other regiments went off, it had stood stock still, simply because it had nothing to do, and did not exactly see any thing to fear. By and by it was reinforced by a battalion of Hastings' regiment, which, strange to say, had