Page:Gallant exploits of Lord Dundee.pdf/5

Rh the first intelligence of his retreat brought accounts, that he was already cut of his enemy's reach. In some of those marches, his men wanted bread, salt, and all liquors, except water, during several weeks; yet were ashamed to complain, when they observed, that their commander lived not more delicately than themselves. If any thing good was brought him to eat, he sent it to a faint or sick soldier: if a soldier was weary, he offered to carry his arms. He kept those who were with him from sinking under their fatigues, not so much by exhortation, as by preventing them from attending to their sufferings. For his reason he walked on foot with the men; now by the side of one clan, and anon' by that of another: he amused them with jokes: he flattered them with his knowledge of their genealogies: he animated hem by a recital of the deeds of their ancestors, and of the verses of their bards. It was one of his maxims, that no general should fight with an irregular army, unless he was acquainted with every man he commanded. Yet, with those habits of familiarity, he severity of his discipline was dreadful: the only punishment he inflicted was death: "all other punishments," he said, “disgraced a gentleman, and all who were with him were of that rank; but that death was a relief from the consciousness of crime." is reported of him, that having seen a youth fly in his first action, he pretended he had sent him to the car on a message: the youth fled a second time: he brought him to the front of the array, and saying, "That a gentleman's son ought not to, fall by the hands of the common executioner," shot him with is own pistol.

The army he commanded was mostly composed of highlanders from the interior parts of the highlands,