Page:Battle of Drumclog.pdf/17

 his buff coat, skin, and flesh; swept through his jaw and laid open his threat from ear to ear. The fire of his ferocious eye was quenched in a moment. He reeled, and falling with a terrible crash, he poured out his soul, with a torrent of blood, on the heath. I sunk down insensible for a moment. My faithful men, whenever lost sight of me, raised me up.—In the fierce combat the soldier suffers most from thirst. I stooped down, to fill my helmet with the water which oozed through the morass. It was deeply tinged with human blood, which flowed in the conflict above me. I started back with horror: and Gawn Witherspoon bringing up my steed, we set forward in the tumult of battle.

All this while, the storm of war had raged on our left, Cleland and the fierce Burley had charged the strong company sent to flank them. These officers permuted them to cross the swamp, then charged them with a terrible shout 'No quarter' cried the dragaons. 'Be no quarter, to you then, ye murderous loons,' cried Burley; and at one blow he cut the leader through the steel-cap, and scattered his brains on his followers. His every blow overthrew a foeman. Their whole forces were now brought up, and they drove the dragoons of Clavers into the swamp. They rolled over each other. All stuck fast. The Cove-