The power of man at no time appears more contemptible than when it is placed in contrast with scenes of natural terror and dignity.The victorious army of Montrose,whose exploits had struck terror into all Scotland,when ascending up this terrific pass,seemed a contemptible handful of stragglers,in the act of being devoured by the jaws of the mountain,which appeared ready to close upon them.Even Montrose half repented the boldness of his attempt,as he looked down from the summit of the first eminence which he attained,upon the scattered condition of his small army.The difficulty of getting forward was so great,that considerable gaps began to occur in the line of march,and the distance between the van,centre,and rear,was each moment increased in a degree equally incommodious and dangerous.It was with great apprehension that Montrose looked upon every point of advantage which the hill afforded,in dread it might be found occupied by an enemy prepared for defence;and he often afterwards was heard to express his conviction,that had the passes of Strath-Fillan been defended by two hundred resolute men,not only would his progress have been effectually stopped,but his army must have been in danger of being totally cut off.
Security,however,the bane of many a strong country and many a fortress,betrayed,on this occasion,the district of Argyle to his enemies.The invaders had only to contend with the natural difficulties of the path,and with the snow,which,fortunately,had not fallen in any great quantity.The army no sooner reached the summit of the ridge of hills dividing Argyleshire from the district of Breadalbane,than they rushed down upon the devoted vales beneath them with a fury sufficiently expressive of the motives which had dictated a movement so difficult and hazardous.
Montrose divided his army into three bodies,in order to produce a wider and more extensive terror,one of which was commanded by the Captain of Clan Ranald,one intrusted to the leading of Colkitto,and the third remained under his own direction.He was thus enabled to penetrate the country of Argyle at three different points.Resistance there was none.The flight of the shepherds from the hills had first announced in the peopled districts this formidable irruption,and wherever the clansmen were summoned out,they were killed,disarmed,and dispersed,by an enemy who had anticipated their motions.Major Dalgetty,who had been sent forward against Inverary with the few horse of the army that were fit for service,managed his matters so well,that he had very nearly surprised Argyle,as he expressed it,INTER POCULA;and it was only a rapid flight by water which saved that chief from death or captivity.But the punishment which Argyle himself escaped fell heavily upon his country and clan,and the ravages committed by Montrose on that devoted land,although too consistent with the genius of the country and times,have been repeatedly and justly quoted as a blot on his actions and character.
Argyle in the meantime had fled to Edinburgh,to lay his complaints before the Convention of Estates.To meet the exigence of the moment,a considerable army was raised under General Baillie,a Presbyterian officer of skill and fidelity,with whom was joined in command the celebrated Sir John Urrie,a soldier of fortune like Dalgetty,who had already changed sides twice during the Civil War,and was destined to turn his coat a third time before it was ended.Argyle also,burning with indignation,proceeded to levy his own numerous forces,in order to avenge himself of his feudal enemy.He established his head-quarters at Dunbarton,where he was soon joined by a considerable force,consisting chiefly of his own clansmen and dependants.
Being there joined by Baillie and Urrie,with a very considerable army of regular forces,he prepared to march into Argyleshire,and chastise the invader of his paternal territories.
But Montrose,while these two formidable armies were forming a junction,had been recalled from that ravaged country by the approach of a third,collected in the north under the Earl of Seaforth,who,after some hesitation,having embraced the side of the Covenanters,had now,with the assistance of the veteran garrison of Inverness,formed a considerable army,with which he threatened Montrose from Inverness-shire.Enclosed in a wasted and unfriendly country,and menaced on each side by advancing enemies of superior force,it might have been supposed that Montrose's destruction was certain.But these were precisely the circumstances under which the active and enterprising genius of the Great Marquis was calculated to excite the wonder and admiration of his friends,the astonishment and terror of his enemies.As if by magic,he collected his scattered forces from the wasteful occupation in which they had been engaged;and scarce were they again united,ere Argyle and his associate generals were informed,that the royalists,having suddenly disappeared from Argyleshire,had retreated northwards among the dusky and impenetrable mountains of Lochaber.
The sagacity of the generals opposed to Montrose immediately conjectured,that it was the purpose of their active antagonist to fight with,and,if possible,to destroy Seaforth,ere they could come to his assistance.This occasioned a corresponding change in their operations.Leaving this chieftain to make the best defence he could,Urrie and Baillie again separated their forces from those of Argyle;and,having chiefly horse and Lowland troops under their command,they kept the southern side of the Grampian ridge,moving along eastward into the county of Angus,resolving from thence to proceed into Aberdeenshire,in order to intercept Montrose,if he should attempt to escape in that direction.
