Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/178

Rh iron. To show our contempt of them let us fight them in our shirts." With that he threw off his coat and waistcoat, tucked up the sleeves of his shirt like a butcher going to kill cattle, at the same time drawing his sword with ferocious resolution. The proposal was received with applause, the cavalry threw off their upper garments, and tucked up their sleeves; the foot stripped themselves naked, even to the feet, and in this state were ready to rush upon their opponents before they could take up the places assigned them. The consequence was, the battle was a mere massacre—a race of fourteen miles, in which space six thousand men were cut down and slain.

The victory of Kilsyth gave to Montrose almost the entire power of Scotland; there was not the shadow of an army to oppose him; nor was there in the kingdom any authority that could direct one if there had. What he had formerly boasted, in his letter to Charles, would now most certainly have been realised had he possessed either moral or political influence. He possessed neither. His power lay entirely in the sword, and it was a consequence of the savage warfare which he had waged, that he was most odious to his countrymen in general, few of whom loved him, and still fewer dared to trust him. Notwithstanding the submissions he received from all quarters, there was nothing that with propriety he could have done but to have taken refuge for another quarter of a year in the wilds of Badenoch. He was gratified, however, with submissions from many quarters during the days he remained at Glasgow and Bothwell, at both which places he fancied himself in the exercise of regal authority. He had now his commission as lieutenant-governor of Scotland, and general of all his majesty's forces there. He was impowered to raise and command forces in Scotland, to march, if expedient, into England, and act against such Scottish subjects as were in rebellion there; also to exercise unlimited power over the kingdom of Scotland, to pardon or condemn state prisoners as he pleased, and to confer the honour of knighthood on whom he would. By another commission he was impowered to call a parliament at Glasgow on the 28th of October next, where he, as royal commissioner, might consult with the king's friends regarding the further prosecution of the war, and the settlement of the kingdom. He proceeded to knight his associate Macdonald, and he summoned the parliament which was never to meet. His mountaineers requested liberty, which, if he had refused, they would have taken, to depart with their plunder. The Gordons retired with their chief in disgust, and Alister, now Sir Alister M'Coll, as there was no longer an army in Scotland, seized the opportunity to renew his spoliations and revenge his private feuds in Argyleshire.

To save his army from total annihilation, Montrose turned his views to the south. Hume, Roxburgh, and Traquair, had spoken favourably toward the royal cause, and he expected to have been joined by them with their followers, and a body of horse which the king had despatched to his assistance, under lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale. This party, however, was totally routed in coming through Yorkshire. A party which these two leaders attempted to raise in Lancashire was finally dispersed on Carlisle sands, a short while before Montrose set out to effect a junction with them; and while he waited near the borders for the promised aid of the three neighbouring earls, David Leslie surprised him at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, giving as complete an overthrow as he had ever given to the feeblest of his opponents, on the 13th of September, 1645. One thousand royalists were left dead on the field; and one hundred of the Irish, taken prisoners, according to an ordinance of the parliaments of both kingdoms, were afterwards shot. Montrose made his escape from the field with a few followers, and reached Athol in safety, where he was able still to raise about four hundred men. Huntly had now left his concealment; but he could not be prevailed