Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 3).djvu/78

 wasted on him. Ye might as weel shoot at the auld enemy himsel."

But though this was loudly shouted, yet the awe on the insurgents' mind was such, that they gave way before Claverhouse as before a supernatural being, and few men ventured to cross swords with him. Still, however, he was fighting in retreat, and with all the disadvantages attending that movement. The soldiers behind him, as they beheld the increasing number of enemies who poured over the morass, became unsteady; and, at every successive movement, Major Allan and Lord Evandale found it more and more impossible to bring them to halt and form line regularly, while, on the other hand, their motion in the act of retreating became, by degrees, much more rapid than was consistent with good order. As they approached nearer to the top of the ridge, from which in so luckless an hour they had descended, the panic began to increase. Every one became impatient to place the brow of the hill be-