Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/169

Rh clothes, arms, food, money, or ammunition. The stoutest young men were also impressed into the ranks, and all the horses seized without exception.

On the 4th of September, Montrose crossed the Tay, and proceeded through Angus for Aberdeenshire. The first night of his march he halted at Collace, where lord Kilpont was murdered by Stuart of Ardvorlich, who struck down a sentinel with the same weapon, with which he had stabbed his lordship, and made his escape. Proceeding to Dundee, Montrose summoned the town; but it was occupied by a number of the Fife troops, and refused to surrender. The approach of the earl of Argyle, with a body of troops, prevented Montrose from venturing upon a siege. Proceeding towards Aberdeen, the Aberdonians, alarmed at his approach, sent oft' the public money, and their most valuable effects to Dun- notter, and having a force of upwards of two thousand men, they threw up some fortifications at the bridge of Dee, for the defence of the city. Montrose however, remembered the bridge of Dee, and, avoiding it, crossed the water by a ford at the mills of Drum, which rendered all their preparations vain. A summons was sent into the town to surrender, and the cove- nanters' army being on the march, the messengers who brought the summons were hospitably entertained and dismissed. By some accident the drummer on his return was killed; on which Montrose ordered preparations for an immediate attack, and issued the inhuman orders to give no quarter. Lord Burleigh and Lewis Gordon, a son of Huntly's, led the right and left wings of the covenanters, which consisted of horse, and the levies of Aberdeenshire, a majority of whom were indifferent in the cause. The centre was composed of the Fife soldiers, and those who had joined them from principle. Montrose, still deficient in cavalry, had mixed his musketeers with his horse, and waited for the covenanters. Lord Lewis Gordon, who had forced a number of the Gordons to engage in opposition to the inclination and orders of his father, rushed precipitately forward with the left wing, which by a steady fire of musketry was suddenly checked, and before it could be rallied totally routed. The right wing experienced a similar fate, but the centre stood firm and maintained its post against the whole force of the enemy for two hours. It too at length gave way, and, fleeing into the town, was hotly pursued by the victors, who killed without exception every man they met ; and for four days the town was given up to indiscriminate plunder. Montrose, lodging with his old acquaintance, skipper Anderson, allowed his Irishmen to take their full freedom of riot and debauchery. "Seeing a man well cled," says Spalding, "they would tirr him to save his clothes unspoiled, and syne kill him. Some women they pressed to deflour, and some they took perforce to serve them in the camp. The wife durst not cry nor weep at her husband's slaughter before her eyes, nor the daughter for the father, which if they did, and were heard, they were presently slain also." The approach of Argyle put an end to these horrors. Expecting to be joined by the marquis of Huntly's retainers, Montrose hasted to Inverury, but the breach of faith in carrying the marquis forcibly to Edinburgh after a safe conduct being granted was not forgotten; and Argyle too being at hand, his ranks were but little augmented in this quarter. When he approached the Spey, he found the boats removed to the northern side, and the whole force of Moray assembled to dispute his passage. Without a moment's hesitation he dashed into the wilds of Badenoch, where with diminished numbers, for the highlanders had gone home to store their plunder, he could defy the approach of any enemy. Here he was confined for some days by sickness from over fatigue, but a few days restored him to wonted vigour, when he descended again into Athol to recruit, MacDonald having gone on the same errand into the Highlands. From Athol, Montrose passed into Angus, where he wasted the estates of lord Cowper,