Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/185

Rh ized troops should be raised, had their eye upon him, as one who ought to be called to account for the many slaughters he had committed; and suspecting that he intended by the help of his dragoons, to add that of the lords Crawford and Gardross to the number, they mounted guard upon the lodgings of these two noblemen. This seemed to give great uneasiness to the lord Dundee, who in the convention which he attended only for a few days, was always putting the question, what was meant by bringing in the rabble; which not being answered to his lordship's mind, he thought it prudent to retire from the city. General Mackay with fifteen troops of horse, by orders from the convention, pursued him through the shires of Perth, Angus, Aberdeen, Buclian, Banff, Moray, and Nairn. On the 1st of May, 1689, Dundee, with one hundred and fifty horse, joined Macdonald of Keppoch, who with nine hundred men had invested Inverness, partly because they had proclaimed the prince of Orange king, and partly for assisting the M'Intoshes, with whom he was at odds. The town, however, compromised the matter by a gift to Keppoch of two thousand dollars, Dundee acting the part of a mediator between them. He offered himself in the same character to M'Intosh; but the chieftain refused to submit to his dictation, for which they drove away his cattle, and divided them, part to the use of the army, and part to Keppoch's tenants. After having subsisted upon this booty along with Keppoch for upwards of six weeks, he, with his hundred and fifty horse, came unexpectedly upon the town of Perth, where he made some prisoners, seized upon a number of horses, and appropriated nine thousand marks of the king's cess and excise. From Perth he marched upon Dundee, but the citizens shut their gates against him; and, unable to force an entrance, he turned aside to his own house at Dudhope. After occupying this mansion two nights he returned to Keppoch, whence, after a residence of six weeks, he marched into Badenoch to meet general Mackay and the laird of Grant, who had an army of nearly two thousand foot and upwards of two hundred horse. Mackay and Grant, though superior in numbers, retreated before him till they had passed Strathbogie. Dundee pursued with great ardour till he came to Edinglassy, where he learned that Mackay had received considerable reinforcements: after resting a few days, he returned to Keppoch. Here, besides recruits from Ireland, he was joined by Macdonald of the Isles with five hundred men, by Macdonald of Glengary, the captain of Clanronald, Sir John Maclean, Cameron of Lcchiel, and others, each with a body of retainers eager to be led against the Sassenach, for the sake of their expatriated sovereign. Thus reinforced with an army of two thousand five hundred men, he advanced upon Blair in Athol. General Mackay being at Perth, hasted to meet him with an army of three thousand foot and two troops of horse. Marching through the pass of Killicranky, he found Dundee with his army posted on an eminence, ready to attack him as he emerged from that dangerous defile. Having little choice of position, Mackay drew up his men in line, three deep, as they could clear the defile, having a narrow plain before them, and behind them the craggy eminences they had just passed, and the deep and rapid water of Tummel. Dundee's army was formed in dense masses, according to their clans, on an opposite eminence; whence about an hour before sunset they descended, in their shirts and doublets, with the violence of their own mountain torrents ; and, though they received three fires, which killed a great number of them, before they reached Mackay's lines, their attack was such as in the course of a few minutes threw nearly his whole force into irretrievable confusion. One or two of his regiments happily stood unbroken; and while he hasted with these to secure an orderly retreat, Dundee rode up at full speed to lead on the Macdonalds, to complete the victory: but as he was pointing them on to the attack, a random shot struck him below the armpit, and