Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/344

 and certainly intends to break out in an open rebellion’ (ib. p. 202). He reminds Linlithgow that the arms of the militia are in the hands of the country people, ‘though very disaffected’ (ib.) On 6 May he reports that Cameron, screened by a fog, had preached the Sunday before, and had actually preached ‘that very day the matter of three miles from the place where we were at’ (ib. p. 206). He seems also to have had some doubts whether, if he chanced on an armed conventicle, his dragoons would fight with their fellow-countrymen ‘in good earnest’ (ib.) In the neighbouring districts the soldiers in several encounters with armed conventiclers had decidedly the worst, and in some cases isolated groups of soldiers were attacked without direct provocation and severely handled. On a sudden the country was stunned by the news of the murder of Archbishop Sharpe, on 3 May 1679, at Magus Moor in Fifeshire. The western covenanters, stirred to emulation, chose 29 May, the king's birthday, as a providentially opportune occasion for lifting up their testimony against their uncovenanted enemies. Their purpose was to assemble on that day at the cross of Glasgow, and, after reading a ‘Declaration and Testimony’ against this and other acts for ‘overturning the whole covenanted reformation,’ to consign them to the flames. The sudden march of Claverhouse from Falkirk to Glasgow prevented them from carrying out their programme in the place originally selected, but they did so at Rutherglen, concluding the proceedings by nailing the declaration to the market cross.

The movement of Claverhouse westwards had been caused by a rumour that had reached him of the purpose of the covenanters of eighteen parishes to hold a meeting on the following Sunday on Kilbride Moor. He scarcely credited the rumour, but resolved to inform Lord Ross in Glasgow that they might attack it with their joint force (Letter in, ii. 218). On learning of the demonstration at Rutherglen, he left Ross at Glasgow, and advanced on Saturday night to the former town to obtain particulars of the ‘insolency’ which had been perpetrated there. He succeeded in apprehending ‘not only one of these rogues, but also an intercommuned minister named King.’ He had almost forgotten the rumour about the intended meeting on Sunday, but before retiring to Glasgow he thought he ‘might make a little tour’ to see if he ‘could fall upon a conventicle … which,’ he candidly adds, ‘we did little to our advantage’ (ib. ii. 222). The battle of Drumclog which followed is described, with the addition of many picturesque details, but with substantial accuracy, as well as vivid delineation, in chap. xvi. of Scott's ‘Old Mortality.’ The covenanters, on learning the approach of Claverhouse, sent away their women and children, and drew up on sloping ground on the farm of Drumclog, ‘to which,’ Claverhouse reported, ‘there was no coming but through mosses and lakes.’ He describes the covenanting forces as consisting of ‘four battalions of foot, and all well armed with fusils and pitchforks, and three squadrons of horse.’ Wodrow gives the number of the covenanters as only ‘50 horse and 150 or 200 foot,’ but this estimate is evidently much too low. They probably outnumbered the forces under Claverhouse by at least four to one. They do not appear to have been under the direction of one leader, for Sir Robert Hamilton [q. v.] had not then been chosen to the supreme command, but their advance was led by several country gentlemen of some military experience, including John Balfour [q. v.] and David Hackston [q. v.], against whom warrants were out for the murder of Sharpe, while young William Cleland (1661?–1689) [q. v.] was also prominent in the fight. When Claverhouse came in sight, they showed no signs of wavering. The spectacle was to him a novel experience, and, rather gratified than otherwise that they had dared at last ‘to look honest men in the face,’ he advanced against them with careless hardihood. In a preliminary skirmish the advanced posts of the covenanters were driven back by a charge of the dragoons, whereupon the whole mass advanced down the slope in regular order. Owing to the bogs Claverhouse could not follow up his advantage by a charge, and was compelled to wait their attack. Their knowledge of the ground enabled them to effect a crossing without difficulty, and the bulk of them ‘made up against’ his own troop. He kept his fire till they were within ten paces, but the volley did not check their onward movement for a moment, and as soon as they came to close quarters his small force was overwhelmed. The horses being unable to act with freedom were attacked by the peasants with pitchforks and scythes, while the troopers, without sufficient opportunities for the use of their swords, sat almost helpless. Two of his principal officers were shot down at the first fire, and almost immediately afterwards a pitchfork, according to his own account, or a scythe, according to another version, made such an opening in his ‘sorrel horse's belly, that its guts hung out half an ell.’ This, he says, so discouraged his men that they ‘sustained not the shock, but fell into disorder.’ As soon as they began to yield, the covenanters charged them with their horse, and pursued them ‘so hotly’ that they got ‘no time to rally.’ Cla-