Page:Gallant exploits of Lord Dundee.pdf/16

16 was marching through Athole, what the castle of Blair, then in the hands of one of James's adherent Dundee foresaw, that the loss of this place would cut off the communication between the two divisions on the highlands, in which his own strength chiefly lay and therefore he resolved to give battle. He marched south towards Athole, with his army considerable diminished because many of his men had retired to their homes to provide their winter's fuel.

At the castle of Blair he learned that M'Kay, who with his foot and a few horse, lay encamped at Dunkeld, was to advance next day through the pass of Killikranky, and that the rest of the horse were to follow in a day or to after. This pass consists of an open road, in a line nearly straight, about two miles in length, where not more than six or eight men could at that time go abreast. On the right are mountains that seem to rise to the skies; on the left, a precipice hanging over a black and deep river, which seems to me to the center; on the opposite side of the river is a prodigious mountain covered to the top with waving woods, across which eagles and other wilds birds are continually flying and screaming. Dundee was pressed by his officers to dispute the passage with M'kay, from the superiority of his situation, but refused it. In public, he took advantage of an opinion prevailing from the most ancient times among the highlanders, that it is dishonourable to attack an enemy at a disadvantage; and cried aloud; " He thought it so nearly of his followers, as to believe they had degenerated from the generous maxims of their ancestors" But in private, he assigned reasons, wise and well weighed, for rejecting the advice. He reasoned, "To defend the pass, thing indeed easily effectuated, was only to