Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/172

513 quarter to go back for the protection of their own estates, Montrose taking their parole to continue faithful to the king or at least never to join the covenanters, This the most part of them kept as religiously as he had done the oath of the covenant. At the bog of Gight he lost his eldest son, a youth of sixteen, who had accompanied him through all this desultory campaign ; and dying here, was buried in the church of Bellie.

Having received a reinforcement of five hundred foot and one hundred and sixty horse, which was all that lord Gordon was able to raise among his father's vassals, Montrose moved from the bog of Gight, intending to fall down upon the Lowlands through Banffshire and Angus. In passing the house of Cullen, he plundered it of every article of plate and furniture, and would have set it on fire, but that the countess (the earl of Findlater being in Edinburgh) redeemed it for fifteen days, by paying five thousand marks in hand and promising fifteen thousand more. From Cullen he proceeded to Boyne, which he plundered of every article, spoiling even the minister's books and setting every 'biggin' on fire. The laird himself kept safe in the craig of Boyne; but his whole lands were destroyed. In Banff he left neither goods nor arms, and every man whom they met in the streets they stripped to the skin. In the neighbourhood of Turreff he destroyed sixty ploughs belonging to the viscount Frenddraught, with.all the movable property of the three parishes of Inverkeithny, Forgue, and Drumlade. He was met by a deputation from Aberdeen, who "declared the hail people, man and woman through plain fear of the Irishes, was fleeing away if his honour did not give them assurance of safety and protection. He forbade them to be feared, for this foot army wherein the Irishes were, should not come near Aberdeen by eight miles." And "this," Spalding exultingly exclaims, "along with some other friendly promises, truly and nobly he kept!" Though he had promised to keep the Irishes at due distance, he sent one of his most trusty chieftains, Nathaniel Gordon, along with Donald Farquharson and about eighty well-horsed gentlemen, into Aberdeen, to seize some stores belonging to the estates, and to look out for Baillie, whom he expected by that route. These having partly executed their commission, sat down to enjoy themselves, and were surprised by general Hurry, who, with one hundred and sixty horse and foot, secured the gates and avenues of the town, and falling upon the unsuspecting cavaliers, killed many of them as they sat at their wine, and seized all their horses. Among those that were slain was Donald Farquharson, "one of the noblest captains," according to Spalding "amongst all the Highlanders of Scotland." Hurry retired at his leisure, unmolested, carrying with him a number of prisoners, who, as traitors to the covenant, were sent to Edinburgh. Among these prisoners was the second son of Montrose, now lord Graham, a young boy attending the schools, who along with his pedagogue was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh. The corpse of Donald Farquharson "was found next day in the streets stripped naked, for they tirred from off his body a rich suit which he had put on only the samen day. Major-general McDonald was sent in on the Saturday afternoon with one thousand Irishes, horse and foot, to bury Donald, which they did on Sabbath, in the laird of Drum's Isle." During these two days, though the Aberdonians were in great terror, M'Donald seems to have kept his Irishes in tolerably good order, "not doing wrong, or suffering much wrong to be done, except to one or two covenanters that were plundered;" but on Monday, when he had left Aberdeen to meet Montrose at Duriss, "a number of the Irish rogues lay lurking behind him, abusing and fearing the town's people, taking their cloaks, plaids, and purses from them on the streets. No merchant's booth durst be opened ; the stable doors were broken up in the night, and the horses taken out ; but the