1689.] THE HIGHLANDERS. 91 "he expressed himself much after this manner: That he wished some had been cut off that he and I spoke about, and then things had never come to the pass they were at; but when we get the power again, such should be hewers of wood, and drawers of water." Balcarres adds, addressing the king, that although he had never made any such proposition as that at which Melfort hinted, "nothing could have been more to the prejudice of your affairs, nor for my ruin, than this, which did show that nothing but cruelty would be used, if ever your majesty returned." When the order was given to arrest Dundee, he quitted his house with a few retainers; and was soon at the head of a body of Highlanders. In the most picturesque history in our language there are no passages more picturesque than those in which the eloquent writer describes the Highlanders of this period. He has produced his likeness of the Gael "by the help of two portraits, of which one is a coarse caricature, and the other a masterpiece of flattery." The caricature was produced out of the prejudices which existed up to the middle of the last century; the flattery has been created by poetry and romance in our own time. "While the old Gaelic institutions were in full vigour, no account of them was given by any observer, qualified to judge of them fairly." + We venture to think that there is one account, not indeed very full or very striking, which contains many traits which appear to be the result of observation, and which are not distorted by any violent prejudice. Alexander Cunningham, who left a manuscript history of Great Britain from the Revolution to the accession of George I., written in Latin,‡ was a native of Scotland, who is supposed to have been in Holland in 1688, and is held by his biographer to have been chosen by Archibald, earl of Argyle, to be travelling tutor to his son, lord Lorne. His position would naturally give him an interest in the state of the Highlands, and would probably enable him to describe the people from personal observation. “The Scotch Highlanders," he says, a race of warriors who fight by instinct, are a different people from the Lowlanders, of different manners, and a different language." This may appear a trite observation to set out with; but it was the case then, as it was much more recently with many, that "by most Englishmen, Scotchman and Highlander were regarded as synonymous words."§ Cunningham goes on to say, "Though of a very ready wit, they are utterly unacquainted with arts and discipline; for which reason they are less addicted to husbandry than to arms, in which they are exercised by daily quarrels with one another." || The hostilities of clans was the great moving principle in every Highland adoption of a public quarrel, as we have seen in the career of Montrose and of Argyle. It was the principle upon which Dundee relied when he hurried to the clans who were in arms for a private quarrel at Inverness. But the cause of king James had a hold upon their affections, beyond their desire to encounter the hostile chiefs who were the supporters of king William. They knew nothing of the political and religious grounds of difference. The causes of the great Revolution of England were to them unknown and uncared for. It was enough that "their minds, roused Macaulay's History, vol. iii. c. xiii. + Ibid. p. 304. § Macaulay, vol. iii. P. 312. 36 92 THE HIGHLANDERS.-DUNDEE. [1689. by the remembrance of former times, were easily drawn over by the viscount of Dundee, who was of the family of Montrose, to the interest of king James. They firmly believe that the ancient kings of Scotland were descended from them, and wore the very same dress which they now wear; and therefore they were easily persuaded that king James was of their own blood, and, by a kind of divine right, entitled to the crown.' Their hardihood, under exposure to cold and wet; their habitual exercise; their predatory excursions, are noticed by this historian. "Being in general poorly provided for, they are apt to covet other men's goods; nor are they taught by any laws to distinguish with great accuracy their own property from that of other people. They are not ashamed of the gallows; nay, they pay a religious respect to a fortunate plunderer."+ Scott says that a foray was so far from being held disgraceful, that a young chief was expected to show his talents for command, by heading a plundering expedition. To their chief "the common people adhere with the utmost fidelity, by whose right hand they are wont to swear."§ Dundee knew the qualities of the race that he was going to lead against the regular troops of the new government. Their peculiar character and organisation were favourable for a dashing enterprise. They were perhaps most to be feared in the hour of success. battle, the point to which they bend their utmost efforts, and which they are most anxious to carry, is their enemy's baggage. If that once falls into their hands, disregarding all discipline and oaths, and leaving their colours, home they run." || "In The clan which Dundee joined at Inverness had for its chief, MacDonald of Keppoch. This pugnacious warrior had recently won a battle against MacIntosh of Moy; and he was now about to harry the Saxon shopkeepers of Inverness for having taken part against his clan. In Inverness there was "sneezing," and sugar, and aqua-vita. He had recently been opposed to the soldiers of king James, who, under the direction of the Privy Council, had gone forth with letters of fire and sword to waste and kill in the country of MacDonald of Keppoch. When Dundee arrived, the chief thought less of the injuries which he had sustained from the government of king James than of the glorious opportunity of plunder in a fight against the government of king William. A goat was slain, a fire was kindled, the points of a small wooden cross were seared in the flame, and then the sparks were extinguished in the blood of the goat. "Their religion is partly taken from the Druids, partly from Papists, and partly from Protestants," says Cunningham. In the ceremony of preparing the Fiery Cross, we may readily trace the Pagan as well as the Popish element. MacDonald of Keppoch sent the Fiery Cross through his district. It was the signal for arming and assembling at a given place of rendezvous. It was handed on by one swift messenger after another through the country of Keppoch's allies and friends. The name of the Graham was sufficient to arm all those who hated the Campbell. The deeds of Montrose were the favourite themes of the bards; and now another Graham was come to lead the clans near Inverary, who had thrown Ibid. p. 121. Cunningham, p. 122. 1689.] BATTLE OF KILLIECRANKIE. 93 off their submission to Argyle, against another Argyle, who might again reduce them to their old condition of dependence. Dundee first surprised the town of Perth, seizing the public treasure; dispersed two troops of horse; and then entered into the Highlands, to wait the arrival of aid from Ireland. The clans gathered around him in Lochaber, all eager to fight for the cause which had the Mac Callum More for its enemy. During the month of June active operations in the Highlands were suspended. But in the meantime Edinburgh Castle was surrendered by the duke of Gordon. General Mackay had taken the command of the army in Scotland. "He was one of the best officers of the age, when he had nothing to do but to obey and execute orders; for he was both diligent, obliging, and brave; but he was not so fitted for command. His piety made him too apt to mistrust his own sense, and to be too tender, or rather fearful, in anything where there might be a needless effusion of blood."* To shed blood needlessly is the greatest opprobrium of a commander. To mistrust himself in the fear of unavoidable slaughter is to produce a more fatal effusion of blood. It is not piety which produces such mistrust. Whether Mackay, the bravest of the brave, was open to this covert reproach, does not appear in the narratives of his conduct of the battle of Killiecrankie. Dundee had learnt that the marquis of Athol, who had decided to take part with the ruling powers, had sent his son, lord Murray, into Athol to raise the clans; but that his own castle of Blair had been held against him; and that a large number of his clan had quitted the standard of the marquis. He had also learnt that Mackay was advancing to reduce Blair Castle, a post most important as the key of the Northern Highlands. Dundee had received three hundred Irish troops from Ulster, and he had collected again about three thousand Highlanders, who had been allowed to leave Lochaber for their own glens. Mackay was approaching Blair Castle, out of Perthshire. Dundee arrived there on the 27th of July. Mackay was advancing up the of Killiecrankie. On one hand of the narrow defile was the river Garry, rushing below the difficult ascent. On the other side were rocks and wooded mountains. One laden horse and two or three men abreast would fill the road-way. In this defile, the passage of Mackay might have been effectually resisted. Dundee chose to wait for his enemy till he had reached the open valley at the extremity of the pass. The troops were resting, when the alarm was given that the Highlanders were at hand. From the hills a cloud of bonnets and plaids swept into the plain, and the regular soldier was face to face with the clansman ;-" Veterans practised in war's game" on one side-"Shepherds and Herdsmen" on the other. There had been firing from each for several hours. It was seven o'clock before Dundee gave the word for action. Unplaided and unsocked the Highlanders rushed upon the red soldier. They threw away their firelocks after a volley or two; raised their war-yell, amidst the shriek of the bagpipes; and darted upon Mackay's line. A few minutes of struggle, and then a headlong flight down the pass. What the poet calls "the precept and the pedantry of cold mechanic battle" could not stand up against the rush of enemies, as strange as the mounted Spaniard was to the Peruvian. The slaughter was terrible, as the Saxons pass - Burnet, vol. iv. p. 47. + Wordsworth. 94 DEATH OF DUNDEE. [1689. fled through the gorge, with the Celts hewing and slaying amidst a feeble resistance. But there were no final results of the victory of Killiecrankie. The Highlanders did not follow up their success, for they were busy with the booty of the field; and Dundee had fallen. He was leading a charge of his small band of cavalry; and was waving his arm for his men to come on, when a musket ball struck him in the part thus exposed by the opening of his cuirass. He fell from his horse, and, after a few sentences, "word spake never more." * There was terror in Edinburgh when it was known that Mackay had been defeated. There was hope when the news came that Dundee had fallen. The Highlanders went back to their mountains, laden with plunder. In London there was necessarily alarm. "But when the account of Dundee's death was known, the whole city appeared full of joy; and the king's enemies, who had secretly furnished themselves with arms, now laid aside all thoughts of using them." The over-sanguine hopes of the enterprise of Dundee amongst the followers of king James, are thus expressed in a lament for his death: "Had he lived, there was little doubt but he had soon established the king's authority in Scotland, prevented the prince of Orange going or sending an army into Ireland, and put his majesty in a fair way of regaining England itself." Certainly not; whilst the real intentions of James towards Scotland and England continued to ooze out, as they were sure to do. Balcarres, in his account to king James of the affairs of Scotland, has this anecdote of the characteristic Stuart policy: "Next day after the fight, an officer riding by the place where my lord Dundee fell, found lying there a bundle of papers and commissions, which he had about him. Those who stripped him thought them of but small concern, so they left them there lying. This officer a little after did show them to several of your friends, among which there was one paper did no small prejudice to your affairs, and would have done much more, had it not been carefully suppressed. It was a letter of the earl of Melfort's to my lord Dundee, when he sent him over your majesty's Declaration, in which was contained not only an indemnity, but a toleration for all persuasions. This the earl of Melfort believed would be shocking to Dundee, considering his hatred to fanatics; for he writes, that notwithstanding of what was promised in your declaration, indemnity and indulgence, yet he had couched things so, that you would break them when you pleased; nor would you think yourself obliged to stand to them." The letter that it is pretended he wrote to King James is a transparent forgery. Close of the first Session of the English Parliament-The Irish Parliament-Second Session of the English Parliament-The Bill of Rights-The Princess Anne-Whig and Tory Factions-Parliament dissolved-State of the Army in Ireland-Abuses in Government Departments-Opening of the New Parliament-Corruption -Jealousy in settling the Revenue-Act of Recognition-Act of Grace-William goes to Ireland-Landing and March of William-The Boyne-William slightly wounded-Battle of the Boyne-Flight of James-His Speech at Dublin-Naval defeat at Beachy Head-Energetic Conduct of the Queen. THE proceedings of the English parliament, from the period when the Commons went up to the king with an address, declaring that they would support him in a war with France, to the adjournment in August, are no doubt interesting when presented with characteristic details, but are scarcely important enough to be related with minuteness in a general history. Less important is it to trace the factious disputes in which so many angry passions and so many petty jealousies were called forth, during the three or four latter months of the Session. It is satisfactory to know that the attainders of William lord Russell, of Algernon Sidney, of Alice Lisle, and of alderman Cornish, were reversed. It is not so satisfactory to trace the revival of past animosities in the discussions upon the sentence of Titus Oates, who brought that sentence before the House of Lords by a writ of error. A majority of Peers affirmed the judgment; but in the Lower House a bill annulling the sentence was brought in. The majority of the Lords looked at the infamous character of Oates. In the Commons the supporters of the bill for annulling the sentence looked to the illegality of the judgment. The difference between the two Houses was compromised. Oates was released from confinement, having received a pardon; and the Commons moved an address to the Crown that he should be allowed a small pension for his support. In the case of Samuel Johnson, the Commons voted that his degradation from ecclesiastical functions was illegal, and the king was asked to bestow some preferment on him. William, more wisely, gave him a thousand pounds and a pension. During this Session an Act was passed by which any Protestant clergy |