The delight which I had in Sergeant M’Alpin’s
conversation, related not only to his own adventures,
of which he had encountered many in the course of
a wandering life, but also to his recollection of numerous
Highland traditions, in which his youth had been instructed
by his parents, and of which he would in after life
have deemed it a kind of heresy to question the authenticity.
Many of these belonged to the wars of Montrose, in
which some of the Sergeant’s ancestry had, it
seems, taken a distinguished part. It has happened,
that, although these civil commotions reflect the
highest honour upon the Highlanders, being indeed
the first occasion upon which they showed themselves
superior, or even equal to their Low-country neighbours
in military encounters, they have been less commemorated
among them than any one would have expected, judging
from the abundance of traditions which they have preserved
upon less interesting subjects. It was, therefore,
with great pleasure, that I extracted from my military
friend some curious particulars respecting that time;
they are mixed with that measure of the wild and wonderful
which belongs to the period and the narrator, but which
I do not in the least object to the reader’s
treating with disbelief, providing he will be so good
as to give implicit credit to the natural events of
the story, which, like all those which I have had
the honour to put under his notice, actually rest
upon a basis of truth.
III. A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.
CHAPTER I.
Such as do build their
faith upon
The holy text of pike
and gun,
Decide all controversies
by
Infallible artillery,
And prove their doctrine
orthodox,
By apostolic blows and
knocks.—Butler.
It was during the period of that great and bloody
Civil War which agitated Britain during the seventeenth
century, that our tale has its commencement.
Scotland had as yet remained free from the ravages
of intestine war, although its inhabitants were much
divided in political opinions; and many of them, tired
of the control of the Estates of Parliament, and disapproving
of the bold measure which they had adopted, by sending
into England a large army to the assistance of the
Parliament, were determined on their part to embrace
the earliest opportunity of declaring for the King,
and making such a diversion as should at least compel
the recall of General Leslie’s army out of England,
if it did not recover a great part of Scotland to the
King’s allegiance. This plan was chiefly
adopted by the northern nobility, who had resisted
with great obstinacy the adoption of the Solemn League
and Covenant, and by many of the chiefs of the Highland
clans, who conceived their interest and authority
to be connected with royalty, who had, besides, a
decided aversion to the Presbyterian form of religion,
and who, finally, were in that half savage state of
society, in which war is always more welcome than
peace.
