and blowing their matches, the cuirassiers were firing their pistols and handling their long rapiers. Every successive volley and thrust lessened the number of the Covenanters, who began to waver, and then retreat; this retreat became a flight, and though the gentlemen fought bravely with their pistols, says the old Laird of Ruthven, "discharging in rankes and retyreing in carracoll," they were driven ingloriously back upon their line of infantry.

On seeing this, Burleigh, who should have charged at once with all his cavalry, now rallied the fugitives, and with the horse of his right wing, assailed Montrose on the left; but was there met by the Marquis, with the same horsemen and musketeers mingled; again the same strife was renewed with bullet and blade, and again they fired their pieces right into the openings of each other's helmets. Buff coats were shred, corslets pierced, and morions cloven; many Covenanters were slain; the Tutor of Fitsligo, and the Forbeses of Boyndlie and Craigievar were taken prisoners; a few Highlanders then fell on with their claymores, and the right wing of the Covenanters was swept away.

Meanwhile, the Islesmen and Irish of Alaster MacColl, though the cannon-shot made more than one deep gap in their ranks, were pouring in their fire upon the regiments of Elcho and Aberdeen; and now, the gaiety of a brave Irish soldier, whose leg was broken by a shot, gave new spirit to all around him.

"Go on, my comrades!" cried he; "this bodes me promotion, though I now can march no more, sure it's a trooper my Lord Marquis will make me !” He then with a skene-dhu cut off his shattered limb, which hung by a piece of skin, and threw it to a comrade, saying, "Bury that, lest some hungry Scot should eat it !"1

Montrose now saw the necessity of making a furious and simultaneous rush upon the foe.

"We do no good by fighting at a distance!" he exclaimed; "close up, my fellow-soldiers-then we shall know the strong men from the weak, and the brave from the cowardly! To handyblows with these brawnless shrimps! fall on with sword and butt of musket-forward ! "2

Fired by his precept and example, they rushed right into "the teeth of the enemy;" the pike was charged, the musket clubbed, the claymore swung; and again the vaunted "army of God" gave way like mist before the wind. Horse and foot fled en masse. towards Aberdeen, encumbering, and running over each other, in their confusion and dismay; on every hand the fugitives wore (1) Sanderson, 1658. (2) Wishart.

run through, or shot down, and the murder of the little drummer was amply avenged.

Leaving his men to shift for themselves, Lord Burleigh, with all his officers, crossed the Brig of Don, fled to Buchan, and repaired to the camp of Argyle.

The remains of the Fifeshire regiment were almost annihilated. Baillie Lumsden, Robert Leslie, Master of the Hospital, and 160 burgesses of the city, perished. Their ancient banner of Bon Accord, which had been displayed two hundred years before at the battle of Harlaw, was taken; but the staff is still preserved in the City Armoury.1 One of the Baillies, Jaffray of Kingswells, captured a king's colour, which was the only trophy of the routed Covenanters. The slaughter in the streets was great; "the cruel Irish, on seeing a man well clad, would strip him first, to save his clothes unspoiled, and then killed him. The plundering of town-house and merchants' booths was pitiful to see." The last piper of Aberdeen was among the slain, who were suffered to remain unburied for some days; thus the streets were encumbered with naked and mutilated bodies, while "the wife dared not weep or cry at her husband's slaughter before her eyes, nor the mother for the son, nor the daughter for the father, for they were presently slain also."2

The contest lasted four hours, yet Montrose had only five (Gordon says seven) men killed, and twelve wounded, while of the Covenanters there fell 1000.3

Shocked at this slaughter, the humane Marquis did all in his power to arrest the fury of his soldiery, and to save the city he had protected twice before, but in vain. At the Burgh-cross he proclaimed his commission as Lieutenant-General of the kingdom under Prince Maurice (Spalding has it, Rupert) and the King; he forced the gates of the Tolbooth, to release Gordon of Invermarkie and Irvine of Lenturk, two Cavaliers, who, with thirty others, were imprisoned there; but no less than ninety-eight loyal citizens perished in the confusion.

On the day after the battle, Montrose retired to his former quarters at Crathes, and then it became indeed a time of horror in Aberdeen. The streets were still strewed with dead; the voice of prayer was unheard in any of the churches, and the "pitifull hovlling, crying, weeping and mvrning," continued to resound through the sacked city. On Saturday, Montrose returned and took up his residence at the house of Anderson, a merchant-skipper. All his soldiers wore, as a badge, a bunch of ripe oats in their helmets or bonnets; the poor citizens, to win (1) Book of Bon Accord. (2) Spalding. (3) Menteth.

their favour, assumed the same distinction, and tied it to the risps and handles of their doors. Exasperated by the continued scene of disorder, Montrose ordered all his soldiers to repair to their colours at the camp, under pain of instant death. (Book of Bon Accord).

On the 16th September, hearing that Argyle was approaching at the head of an overwhelming force, he drew off all his men from Crathes and the city, and marched towards Kintore; by an unfortunate mistake leaving Lord Spynie in the hands of the irritated citizens, who threw him into the Mids'-o-Mar, their prison. Gordon of Abergeldie, and Donald Farquharson of Tulligarmont, two loyal barons, now joined the Marquis. The latter sought out the Irish soldier who had lost his leg, and had him cured, that he might, as he wished, fight in the cavalry; and as a trooper he served him long and faithfully.'1

Like the victory at Tippermuir, this well-fought little action, near the Dee, was solely attributable to the energy and heroic courage of Montrose, a reckless display of which, in his situation and with such forces, was the best and truest policy.

(1) Menteth.

(FIELD-MARSHAL PATRICK RUTHVEN, EARL OF FORTH.-OB. 1651.)

CHAPTER XXV.

MONTROSE had now but one army instead of two to oppose him; but as he marched through the country of the Gordons, he was mortified to find that none of them repaired to the standard. It was not the recollection of his having been a Covenanter five years before that influenced the gentlemen of the clan, or their followers; but the envy and orders of their chief, the powerful Marquis of Huntly, who conceived that his commission, as commander-in-chief of the territory northward of the Cairn-o'-mount, was interfered with by that of Montrose as Lieutenant of the kingdom. Jealous of the rising glory of the latter, Huntly was also averse to join an army where he would only hold a secondary rank, and-with all his valour-was certain to be eclipsed by superior merit; and thus he had per mitted his unruly son, Lord Lewis, to serve under the Lord