Page:Gallant exploits of Lord Dundee.pdf/18

18 firm in it. The event of the stratagem removed the diffidence of the general, and confirmed the confidence of the soldiers.

M'Kay's army, after marching from Dunkeld in the morning of the sixteenth of July, and resting two hours at the mouth of the pass, began to enter it about mid-day. The soldiers marched through with awe at every step, impressed with the grandeur and novelty of the scene, even with the silence all around them, which seemed the forerunner of danger, and with the consciousness of their own inability to give assistance to each other, in case they were attacked. They advanced into the open field at the end of the pass with slowness and caution; deriving fear from that very security which was offered them; and at last observed Dundees's army resting upon the side of a mountain opposite to them, in one line, but a short one, because his men were fewer in number than M'Kay's, and lay thick upon the ground! But their numbers appeared greater than they were; for, tho' there were vacancies along the line, occasioned by spots of wood spread here and there upon the mountain; yet the imaginations of M'Kay's soldiers filled all these vacancies with armed enemies. Dundee had chosen this station, because, while the bushes concealed him own motions and numbers, it gave him an opportunity of observing those of his enemies, secured him from the attacks of cavalry, would add violence to his charge if he descended upon the enemy, and make retreat, if retreat was needful, easy to men who could fly over mountains with a speed which no regular troops could equal: and he resolved not to fight untill near sunset, with a view, that if he gained the victory, he might give it a dreadful completion during the night, and if he was defeated, that be might