"How goes the day, Johnstone ?" he asked, of Sir Donald Macdonald of the Isles, fell in the faintly. ranks of King James. "Well for King James," replied Johnstone; "but I am sorry for your lordship." The Macdonalds are alleged to have suffered most severely, sixteen landed gentlemen of their "If it is well for him," replied the dying Cavalier, tribe alone were killed; but in the charge and purit matters the less for me." He never spoke again; and half an hour after, James Seton, Earl of Dunfermline, had his body wrapped in two tartan plaids, and it was borne sorrowfully to the castle of Blair. A rude obelisk still marks the spot where the death-shot struck him, and it is regarded by the mountaineers with regret and respect as the Tombh Claverse. His remains were hurriedly interred in the rural kirk of Blair Athol; and the cause of King James, in Scotland at least, was buried with him. His brother assumed his title, but died in penury in France, in 1700. His buff coat, showing the orifice made by the fatal ball, and stained with his blood, his helmet, and other relics, are still preserved in the ducal castle of Blair. He fell in the very flower of manhood. Mackay lost his tents, baggage, artillery, provisions, and standards; and he had 2,000 men slain and 500 taken prisoners. Of the Highland loss we have no computation. In the "Memoirs of Lochiel," we learn that 120 Cameronians were slain, and it is probable the other clans suffered in proportion. Dundee's friend, Haliburton of Pitcur, who, it is said, "like a moving castle, threw fire and sword on all sides" about him, Colonel Gilbert Ramsay, Macdonald of Largo, his tutor and all his sons, with five cousins suit, Donald the Blue-eyed (Glengarry's son) killed no less than eighteen Lowlanders with his sword. On the following morning the field of battle, and the Garry as far as the pass, and the pass itself, presented the dreadful spectacle of hundreds of dead bodies fearfully mutilated by sword wounds; while interspersed among them, lay plumed hats, grenadier caps, drums, broken pikes, and swords which had been snapped asunder by the axe and sharp claymore. axe and sharp claymore. Swaying the latter with both hands clenched in the basket-hilt, the clansmen "cut down," says an old author, "many of Mackay's officers and soldiers through skull and neck to the very breast; some had their bodies and cross-belts cut through at one blow; pikes and swords were cut like willows; and whoever doubts this may consult the witnesses of the tragedy." As if they had been torn off by cannon-shot, heads, hands, legs, and arms lay everywhere about, lopped from the bodies. A curious story was related about this time concerning the appearance of the spectre of Claverhouse, bloody and pale, with buff coat, cuirass, and Cavalier wig, to his friend Colin, Earl of Balcarris, then a prisoner in the castle of Edinburgh, informing him that he had been shot by a silver bullet in the pass of Killycrankie, after which the appearance melted away. CHAPTER LXIX. DUNKELD AND CROMDALE, 1689. IT has been related in its place that two of our each-that of the latter consisted of Strathspey present Scottish infantry regiments were formed Highlanders-and the Lord Polworth a troop of out of the Cameronians who came from the West horse. Glencairn's lieutenant-colonel was John to besiege the castle of Edinburgh. Various other Houston, of that ilk; Angus's was Captain William corps were raised for the service of the Three Clelland, an officer well-known in the wars of the Estates about the same time. The Earls of Argyle, Covenant. "Ilk one of the said regiments to be Mar, and Glencairn levied each a battalion of 600 divided into ten companies, of sixty men ilk commen; that of the Earl of Angus, to be company," except that of Angus, which was to consist manded by Lord Cardross, consisted of 1,200 men, and is now the 26th Regiment. Argyle's regiment, which perpetrated the Glencoe massacre, was disbanded at the Peace of Ryswick. The Lords Strathnairn, Blantyre, Barganie, and the Laird of Grant, levied four corps of 600 men of twenty. Several other troops were embodied in Scotland, but some of these were broken up before the Union. Cunningham's Light Dragoons, raised in 1690, were disbanded in 1713, but re-formed two years after, their nucleus being two troops of the Dunkeld.] CAMERONIAN REGIMENT. 387 Greys and two of the Royal Dragoons, and are now the Highland forces devolved upon Colonel Canthe 7th Hussars. In 1696, when Sir Thomas Livingstone was at the head of the Scottish army, we read of the famous Lord Lovat being captain of grenadiers in the regiment of Macgill, and that "these grenadiers were superior to any others in Scotland, being wholly composed of young gentlemen, uniformly tall and well-shaped." After the abduction of the Dowager Lady Lovat, when troops were dispatched against the Fraser clan, the regiments of Macgill and Lord Tullybardine, with the Lord Forbes's Dragoons, were disbanded "for lukewarmness." non, who began his march towards Athole, encouraged by the injudicious measures of the Scottish Privy Council, which always interfered with and thwarted Mackay, the leader of the new king's troops. Thus, for some reason that is not apparent now, they directed the Cameronian Regiment to garrison Dunkeld, on the north bank of the Tay, in a beautiful and finely-wooded valley, through which the river flows, deep, broad, and silent, towards the plain of Perth. This order was given in opposition to the remonstrances of Mackay, who in vain indicated the risk run by a small force in an open town, commanded on all sides by ranges of hills, in the midst of numerous warlike and hostile clans, such as the Murrays, the Drummonds, and the Robertsons, and at a distance from all support-especially a regiment so hated by the Jacobites as the Cameronians were known to be. When the 26th Regiment was embodied, on the 19th of April, 1689, the men stipulated "that their officers should exclusively be men such as in conscience they could submit to." A chaplain, the well-known Alexander Sheills, was appointed to the corps, with one elder to each of the twenty companies; a Bible to be in every man's knapsack, And now, as the wary old veteran of many wars whether on the march or in the field. Their first had foreseen-for Mackay had served with the colonel, James, Earl of Angus, was son of the Royals under Turenne, and against the Turks in Marquis of Douglas, and came of that long and the service of Venice--the moment the Camelordly line, so many of whom have freely shed their ronians entered Dunkeld, a plan was formed by blood for their country. He must have been quite Colonel Cannon to cut them off. He sent notice a youth at the time of the Revolution, as he was to the Atholemen to lose no time in doing so. killed at the head of the regiment in the battle of These Highlanders were then encamped at StrathSteenkirke, yet to be related, when in his twenty-logie, and at once began their march southward for first year; but the five-pointed star, one of the three mullets of the paternal coat of Douglas, is borne at this hour on the appointments of the Cameronian regiment. Their first lieutenant-colonel was an accomplished soldier and poet, and, though young in years, had been a captain of Covenanting infantry at the battles of Drumclog and Bothwell. He was author of several bitter Hudibrastic works, and shortly before his appointment to the corps, had been lurking as an outlaw among the hills of Lanarkshire. "It is impossible," says Robert Chambers, " to read the accounts that are given of this Cameronian regiment without sympathising with the earnestness of purpose, the conscientious scruples, and heroic feeling of self-devotion under which it was established, and seeing in them demonstrations of what is highest and best in the Scottish character." After the Duke of Gordon's surrender, the next service of the regiment was the severe defence of Dunkeld, where, as the Jacobite song had it "For murders too, as soldiers true, You were advanced well, boys; For you fought like devils, your only rivals, When you were at Dunkeld, boys." this purpose. It was on the 18th of August, 1689, that the regiment entered Dunkeld, 1,200 strong, and began to intrench itself in rear of the enclosure of the Marquis of Athole's house. A detachment was placed in the square tower of the old cathedral, and ere noon was past parties of armed Highlanders were seen to hover on the adjacent hills. The ancient episcopal city, whose name is derived from Duncalden, or "The Hill of Hazel Trees," had then dwindled down to a village, the scared inhabitants of which sought shelter in the ruins of the church, which is situated close to the river. The tower referred to is at the west end of the north aisle. It is a structure of great elegance, and though begun in the reign of James III., was not completed till 1501. "The Exact Narrative of the Conflict at Dunkeld betwixt the Earl of Angus's Regiment and the Rebels," published by order of the Council at Edinburgh, in 1689, is most minute in its details. Colonel Clelland directed his soldiers to repair several breaches in the garden walls, to make loopholes and other impromptu means of defence, and scaffolded many places for musketry to sweep and enfilade the approaches. In the afternoon, 300 After the fall of Lord Dundee, the command of armed Highlanders appeared northward of the ་ town with a white handkerchief displayed at the head of a halberd. The bearer of this boldly approached the intrenchments, and gave Clelland the following missive, which was unsigned :— "We, the gentlemen assembled, being informed that ye intend to burn the town, desire to know whether ye come for peace or war; and do certifie that if ye burn one house, we shall destroy you." "We are faithful subjects to King William and Queen Mary, and enemies to their enemies," wrote Clelland in reply; "and if you who send these threats make any hostile appearance, we shall burn all that belongs to you, and otherwise chastise you as you deserve." Five troops of horse and dragoons having now appeared, under Henry, Lord Cardross, these men retired into the forest; but that night the fiery cross traversed the whole district, and the dawn saw more than a thousand men in arms at the muster-place named, on the hills above Dunkeld. Under Captain Munro, a detachment of the regiment, consisting of forty fusiliers and fifteen halberdiers, issued from the town, accompanied by thirty dragoons, under Sir James Agnew, of Lochnaw, to reconnoitre, as Cardross's cavalry had ridden to Perth; while Captains John Campbell, Robert Hume, Harris, and William Borthwick (who afterwards fell at Ramillies), with 300 of the Cameronians-musketeers and pikemen-marched to a glen two miles from Dunkeld. There they encountered a body of Highlanders, whom they repulsed, with the loss of only one man killed and three wounded. "William Sandilands, a nephew of the Lord Torphichen, discharged his fusil upon the enemy, no less than eleven times," a feat evidently thought more of in those days of bulletbags and bandoleers than it would be in these days of breech-loaders. By the fire of the 26th thirty Highlanders fell. The departure of the cavalry, and the appearance of the advanced guard of Colonel Cannon's force, fresh from their victory at Killycrankie, and hurrying to avenge the fall of Lord Dundee, caused some murmuring in the ranks of the Cameronians. They exclaimed that they were betrayed, and there were a few who thought of mounting horses and escaping. On this Lieutenant-Colonel Clelland ordered every horse in Dunkeld to be shot, and declared his resolution, and that of his officers, to stand by their post to the last gasp. This announcement caused an immediate reaction in the minds of the soldiers, who begged their leader not to destroy the horses, especially those of the mounted officers, and assured him that "they would defend themselves to the last extremity." At the head of 5,000 Highlanders, Colonel Cannon appeared next morning above Dunkeld; but, according to the Earl of Balcarris's "Account of the Scots Affairs," he was short of artillery ammunition, though so much had been captured with Mackay's train at Killycrankie. Coming on with their usual fury, with sword in hand, and head stooped behind the target, the Highlanders at seven o'clock drove in Clelland's outposts; while at the same time Cannon's guns were in position and unlimbered on a hill commanding the town; and a chosen storming party of 100 men, all accoutred with back and breastplates and helmets, covered by a battalion of infantry, pushed on close to the place on one side, while two bodies of cavalry menaced it on another, between the cathedral and the ford of the Tay. Bravely to his post stood every Cameronian officer, and several are mentioned by name in the detailed account. Captain William Hay and Ensign Lockhart held a stone wall with twenty-eight musketeers, who, after maintaining a brisk fire, were driven from it "by the rebels who were in armour and the foresaid battalion," into a house which they defended for a time, till it was taken; and they retired into the heart of the town, conveying thither their captain, whose leg was broken by a musket-shot. With twenty men, Lieutenant Stuart held a barricade at the market cross, where he was killed, after being joined by another subaltern, who with eighteen men, had defended the eastern end of the town so long as it was tenable. Lieutenant Forrester (afterwards colonel of the 4th troop of Scots Horse Guards) and Ensign Campbell, with twenty-four men, held some walls at the western end, but were driven back by the enemy's cavalry, and forced into the cathedral, which was held by two lieutenants and 100 musketeers, who kept up a heavy fire from the great tower. In the streets of the little town, from every barricaded door and kailyard-dyke, from the roofs and windows, the pikes were bristling and the shot hissing; but the resolute Highlanders, fighting in their own fashion, with sword and shield-the fashion of their fathers before the days of Cæsar-closed in upon them, and hewed at the pikeheads, the halberts, and muskets of the defenders. Colonel Clelland, while in the act of exhorting his officers and men to "do their duty and fear not," fell from his horse, pierced by two mortal wounds-one through the head and the other through the liver. He did not die immediately, but endeavoured to crawl bleeding into a house, "so that his soldiers, by whom he was Cromdale.] DEFENCE OF THE CATHEDRAL. much beloved, might not be discouraged by the sight of his dead body." He failed in the attempt, and expired in the street. 389. The stately cathedral was the only building in Dunkeld which escaped without damage. It stands apart from the town, which consists of little more than a single street, and is surrounded by fine old trees. Though much dilapidated, it is still a magnificent building, the principal aisle being singularly grand. The place where the dead were interred is still pointed out. It is to the south of the old cathedral church, in which there remains a tomb with a doggrel epitaph to the memory of the commander of the Cameronians, who we may mention was the father of William Clelland, said in after years, by some of the annotators on Pope, to have been the original Will Honeycomb of the Spectator. THE HAUGHS OF CROMDale: The command of the defence was now assumed by Major Henderson; but he was almost immediately after disabled by several wounds, of which he died four days after. Captain Caldewell, the next senior officer, was shot in the arm, and Captain Steele in the shoulder; but he had the wound bound up, and rejoined his company. The command now devolved upon Captain Munro, who, on finding that the heaviest fire came from some thatched houses of which the Highlanders had possessed themselves, dispatched a party of the regiment with burning faggots on the points of their pikes. These set fire to the roofs, and all under them were burnt alive, but ere they perished their yells added to the horror of the fray. In one house alone sixteen men were burned; and every edifice in the town now perished by fire in succession, save those which were full of Cameronian musketeers. All the unfortunate inhabitants who had not fled to the woods and hills were received by the soldiers into the great church, and protected there. After the conflict had lasted four hours, ammunition began to fail, and the Cameronians were compelled to strip the lead from the roof of the Marquis of Athole's house, and cut it into slugs. Next the powder ran short, and the regiment was about to adopt the desperate resort of retiring into Dunkeld House, and defending it with sword and pike rather than yield; when at that critical moment the fire and fury of the enemy began to On reaching the castle of Blair, the chiefs signed slacken, and, wearied by the resistance they experi- a bond of association, pledging themselves to supenced, Cannon's Highlanders, thoroughly dis-port the cause of King James, and to meet again heartened, drew off from the smoking ruins of on a future day. Dispersing after this, they reDunkeld, "and declaring that they could fight turned each to his own home, leaving the Lowland men, but not devils," began their retreat to Blair. officers to shift for themselves. Colonel Cannon Thus did 1,200 men make good their post sought safety in the Isle of Mull, with the chief of the against more than 5,000. Macleans; and thus, in spite of the brilliant victory won so recently at Killycrankie, the results were most unfavourable to the cause of the king. Had Dundee not perished, the story of the Revolution might have been very different. Of the Highlanders, 300 lay dead in the streets, with a vast number of wounded; while the entire losses of the Cameronians-so well were they posted-were only forty-five of all ranks. The mortifying repulse which the loyal Highlanders sustained at Dunkeld, filled up the measure of their dissatisfaction with their Irish commander. The latter was not a bad officer, but he was quite unacquainted with the disposition of the Highlanders, and unable to manage troops so various, so capricious, and hot-tempered. He is taxed by the Earl of Balcarris with the ludicrous oversight of having had more cannon than he had balls, in the attack on Dunkeld; but this probably came of the mistakes of his Celtic storekeepers. Victory and defeat were alike fatal to the long continuance in the field of a Highland army, and, according to their usual custom, the clansmen deserted now in hundreds. It was then the general idea that had he survived, and come down on the Lowlands a triumphant and unassailable conqueror, William's cause would have fallen, in Scotland at least. He and King James, from their intimate knowledge of Dundee's character, justified, each in his own way, the popular idea. When the former heard of the battle and the total rout of his army, "Then I am sure Dundee has fallen," said he, "for otherwise I should have heard at the same time of his being in possession of Edinburgh." And in his own able to keep the field. Without a shot being fired, the castle of Blair fell into the hands of the Scottish troops; Finlarig Castle, at the head of Loch Tay, also received a garrison of them; and General Mackay, though himself a Highlander, was at length enabled to attempt his long-cherished scheme of a chain of forts, to keep the turbulent clans in check. After the combat at Dunkeld, the Highland chiefs represented to their exiled monarch the failing state of his cause in Scotland, and earnestly pointed him commander-in-chief of all the Jacobite forces in Scotland, Cannon to be his second in command. The new general, however, proved as incapable of leading Highlanders as his predeces sor. On his arrival, at a time when James in Ireland was making every preparation to meet King William in battle, a gathering was held at Keppoch, to deliberate upon the course to be pursued. To this many were prevented from coming by the garrisons which Mackay had planted among them; others by English ships of war, which hovered in the salt |