Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/183

Rh up; and having- notice of his approach, about fifty horsemen, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred foot left the meeting, and met their persecutors at Drumclog, where, being united in heart and mind, and properly conducted, they in a few minutes routed the royal troops. Claverhouse himself narrowly escaped, with the loss of his colours, between thirty and forty of his men, and all his prisoners. Of the country people there were not above three killed and but few wounded. Claverhouse fled with the utmost precipitation to Glasgow, where he had left the lord Ross with a number of troops; and, had the covenanters pursued him, they might have been masters of the city the same day. They waited, however, till next day, before they attacked Glasgow, and the streets having been barricaded, they were repulsed with considerable loss by the troops, who were thus enabled to fight under cover. As the countrymen took up ground at no great distance, and as their numbers were rapidly augmenting, Claverhouse and lord Ross did not think it prudent to attempt keeping possession of Glasgow, but on the 3d of June, retreated towards Stirling, carrying along with them in carts a number of the wounded countrymen that had fallen into their hands, and on Larbert muir, in the neighbourhood of Falkirk, were joined by a body of the king's forces under the earl of Linlithgovv. Still they did not think themselves a match for the covenanters, and wrote to the council that it was the general sense of the officers, that his majesty should be written to for assistance from England without loss of time.

The duke of Monmouth was in consequence appointed to the command of the army; the whole of the militia were called out, and two regiments of dragoons under Oglethorpe and Main, then in summer quarters in the north of England, ordered to join them. On the 17th, Monmouth arrived at Edinburgh. He joined the army, which had been increased to upwards of ten thousand men, on the 19th, and on Sunday the 22d, confronted the poor insurgents in their original encampment upon Hamilton rnuir, and instead of making preparations to receive an enemy, quarrelling about the manner in which their grievances should be stated, or whether they were to supplicate or to fight; yet a part of the countrymen, with some pieces of cannon, stationed to defend the passage of Bothwell bridge, behaved with the coolness of veteran troops. After hav- ing maintained the unequal condict for upwards of an hour, this little band of heroes were obliged to retreat for the want of ammunition. Monmouth's whole force crossed by the bridge, and it was no longer a battle but a disorderly rout, every individual shifting for himself in the way he thought best. Claverhouse requested that he might be allowed to sack and to burn Glasgow, Hamilton, Strathaven, and the adjacent country, for the countenance they had given to the rebels, as he termed them, but in reality for the sake of spoil, and to gratify a spirit of revenge for the affront he sustained at Drumclog. This, however, the duke had too much humanity to permit. But he had abundant room for satiating his revenge afterwards, being sent into the west with the most absolute powers; which he exercised in such a manner as has made his very name an execration to this day.

In 1G82, Claverhouse was appointed sheriff of Wigton, in which office his brother, David Graham was joined with him the year following. To particularize the murders and the robberies committed by the brothers, in the exercise of their civil and military callings, would require a volume. Ensnaring oaths and healths, Claverhouse himself had ever at his finger ends; and if any refused these, they were instantly dragged to prison, provided there was a prospect of making any thing out of them in the way of money; otherwise they had the advantage of being killed on the spot, though sometimes not without being victims of the most refined cruelty. This was particularly the case with regard to John