Mons est occiduus surgit qui celsus in oris
  (Nomine Loudunum) fossis puteisque profundis
  Quot scatet hic tellus et aprico gramine tectus: 
  Huc collecta (ait) numeroso milite cincta;
  Turba ferox, matres, pueri, innuptaeque puellae;
  Quam parat egregia Graemus dispersere turma. 
  Venit, et primo campo discedere cogit;
  Post hos et alios, caeno provolvit inerti;
  At numerosa cohors, campum dispersa per omnem,
  Circumfusa, ruit; turmasque indagine captas,
  Aggreditur; virtus non hic, nec profuit ensis;
  Corripuere fugam, viridi sed gramine tectis,
  Precipitata perit, fossis, pars plurima, quorum
  Cornipedes haesere luto, sessore rejecto: 
  Tum rabiosa cohors, misereri nescia, stratos
  Invadit laceratque viros:  hic signifer eheu! 
  Trajectus globulo, Graemus quo fortior alter,
  Inter Scotigenas fuerat, nec justior ullus: 
  Hunc manibus rapuere feris, faciemque virilem
  Faedarunt, lingua, auriculus, manibusque resectis,
  Aspera, diffuso, spargentes saxa, cerebro: 
  Vix dux ipse fuga salvus, namque exta trahebat
  Vulnere tardatus, sonipes generosus hiante: 
  Insequitur clamore, cohors fanatica, namque
  Crudelis semper timidus si vicerit unquam.
      MS. Bellum Bothuellianum.

[Footnote A:  William Cleland, a man of considerable genius, was author of several poems, published in 1697.  His Hudibrastic verses are poor scurrilous trash, as the reader may judge from the description of the Highlanders, already quoted.  But, in a wild rhapsody, entitled, “Hollo, my Fancy,” he displays some imagination.  His anti-monarchical principles seem to break out in the following lines:—­

  Fain would I know (if beasts have any reason)
  If falcons killing eagles do commit a treason?

He was a strict non-conformist, and, after the Revolution, became lieutenant colonel of the earl of Angus’s regiment, called the Cameronian regiment.  He was killed 21st August, 1689, in the churchyard of Dunkeld, which his corps manfully and successfully defended against a superior body of Highlanders.  His son was the author of the letter prefixed to the Dunciad, and is said to have been the notorious Cleland, who, in circumstances of pecuniary embarrassment, prostituted his talents to the composition of indecent and infamous works; but this seems inconsistent with dates, and the latter personage was probably the grandson of Colonel Cleland.]

Although Burly was among the most active leaders in the action, he was not the commander in chief, as one would conceive from the ballad.  That honour belonged to Robert Hamilton, brother to Sir William Hamilton of Preston, a gentleman, who, like most of those at Drumclog, had imbibed the very wildest principles of fanaticism.  The Cameronian account of the insurrection states, that “Mr Hamilton discovered a great deal of bravery and valour, both in the conflict