Edinburgh, and there threw up his commission, under
pretence that his army was not supplied with reinforcements
and provisions in the manner in which they ought to
have been. From thence the Marquis returned to
Inverary, there, in full security, to govern his feudal
vassals, and patriarchal followers, and to repose
himself in safety on the faith of the Clan proverb
already quoted—“It is a far cry to
Lochow.”
Such mountains steep,
such craggy hills,
His army on one side
enclose:
The other side, great
griesly gills
Did fence with fenny
mire and moss.
Which when the Earl
understood,
He council craved of
captains all,
Who bade set forth with
mournful mood,
And take such fortune
as would fall.
—Flodden
field, an ancient poem.
Montrose had now a splendid career in his view, provided
he could obtain the consent of his gallant, but desultory
troops, and their independent chieftains. The
Lowlands lay open before him without an army adequate
to check his career; for Argyle’s followers
had left the Covenanters’ host when their master
threw up his commission, and many other troops, tired
of the war, had taken the same opportunity to disband
themselves. By descending Strath-Tay, therefore,
one of the most convenient passes from the Highlands,
Montrose had only to present himself in the Lowlands,
in order to rouse the slumbering spirit of chivalry
and of loyalty which animated the gentlemen to the
north of the Forth. The possession of these districts,
with or without a victory, would give him the command
of a wealthy and fertile part of the kingdom, and would
enable him, by regular pay, to place his army on a
permanent footing, to penetrate as far as the capital,
perhaps from thence to the Border, where he deemed
it possible to communicate with the yet unsubdued forces
of King Charles.
Such was the plan of operations by which the truest
glory was to be acquired, and the most important success
insured for the royal cause. Accordingly it did
not escape the ambitious and daring spirit of him
whose services had already acquired him the title of
the Great Marquis. But other motives actuated
many of his followers, and perhaps were not without
their secret and unacknowledged influence upon his
own feelings.
The Western Chiefs in Montrose’s army, almost
to a man, regarded the Marquis of Argyle as the most
direct and proper object of hostilities. Almost
all of them had felt his power; almost all, in withdrawing
their fencible men from their own glens, left their
families and property exposed to his vengeance; all,
without exception, were desirous of diminishing his
sovereignty; and most of them lay so near his territories,
that they might reasonably hope to be gratified by
a share of his spoil. To these Chiefs the possession
of Inverary and its castle was an event infinitely
