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498 consequence of this notice, Mar had made a feint to cross the Forth, merely to allow him to escape, and now he had an answer at Seaton house, with express orders to proceed south, and to put himself under the orders of Kenmure or Foster, without a moment's delay. He accordingly proceeded next day towards Kelso, where he met with Foster and Kenmure on the 22d of October, when, after all the desertion they had experienced by the way, which was very considerable, the whole formed an army of fourteen hundred foot, and six hundred horse. Here they were threatened with an attack from general Carpenter, who was within a days march of them, and became violently divided in opinion respecting the course they ought to pursue. Foster and his Northumbrian friends were anxious to transfer the scene of their operations to England, where they promised themselves a prodigious increase of numbers. The Highlanders, on the contrary, were anxious to return and join the clans, taking the towns of Dumfries and Glasgow in their way. The contention was so hot that it had almost come to blows, and it ended in five hundred Highlanders adopting the latter plan, who, separating from their companions, and taking their route for the heads of the Forth, were either famished, killed, or taken prisoners by the way. The remainder followed the former, and proceeded as far as Preston, where on the 13th of November, the very day on which the main armies met on the Sheriff-muir, they were all made prisoners and delivered over, some to the executioner, and the remainder to be slaves in the plantations.

Argyle all this while continued at Stirling, and Mar at Perth, carrying on an insignificant war of manifestoes, equally unprofitable to both parties; and perhaps equally harassing to the country. On the 23d of October, however, the duke, having learned that a detachment of rebels was passing by castle Campbell, towards Dunfermline, sent out a body of cavalry, which came up with the party, and defeated it, taking a number of gentlemen prisoners, with the trifling damage of one dragoon wounded in the cheek, and one horse slightly hurt. Nothing further occurred between the armies till Mar, finding that without action it would be impossible to keep his army together, called a council of all the chiefs on the 9th of November, in which it was resolved to cross the Forth without loss of time. Nor could this be, one would have supposed, to them any thing like a difficult undertaking. After having disposed of three thousand men in the different garrisons along the coast of Fife, they had still twelve thousand effective troops for the attack, which they proposed should be made in the following manner.—First, with one division of one thousand men to attempt the bridge of Stirling with a second of an equal number the Abbey Ford,—a mile below the bridge with a third of an equal number, the ford called the Drip Coble, a mile and a half above the bridge. These three attacks, they supposed, would amply occupy the duke's whole army, which did not exceed three thousand men, and, in the meantime, with their main body, consisting of nine thousand men, they intended to cross the river still higher up, and push directly for England, leaving the other three divisions after having disposed of the duke, to follow at their leisure. Argyle, however, having acquainted himself, by means of his spies, with the plan, took his measures accordingly. Aware that if he waited for the attack on the Forth, he would, from the nature of the ground, be deprived of the use of his cavalry, upon which he placed his principal dependence, he determined to take up a position in advance of that river, and for this purpose, having appointed the earl of Buchan with the Stirlingshire militia, and the Glasgow regiment to guard the town of Stirling, commenced his march to the north on the morning of Saturday the 12th of November, and