He

of war, to make a foray upon the Campbells, and surprise Argyle in his stronghold at Inverary. accordingly immediately commenced, in mid-winter, a march of 120 or 150 miles from Blair Athol to Cantyre, over mountains covered with snow, and through gorges where, as he himself says, in a letter to Charles

"I could have no guides but cow-herds, and they scarce acquainted with a place but six miles from their habitations. If I had been attacked with but 100 men in some of these passes, I must have certainly returned back, for it would have been impossible to force my way-most of the passes being so streight that three men could not march abreast."

At Lough Tay, the force divided into two bodies— one marching across the base of Ben Lawers, the other along the south-western bank of the lake; and then, as they swept through Breadalbane and Glenorchy, the country of the Campbells, they separated into three bands, one under Montrose, the second under Alaster McDonnell, and the third under John of Moidart; and each of these, breaking up into smaller bodies, spread over the country in their line of march, burning houses, driving off cattle, and shooting down men, wherever a dozen or score of Campbells gathered together to offer resistance. It is said, probably with much exaggeration, that 895 men of the Campbells were slain, and that John of Moidart and the Clanranald, with some of the men of Keppoch, on one occasion returned to the camp with 1,000 head of

cattle. Argyle had no intimation of his danger till Montrose, leaving Lorne on his right hand, was marching rapidly along Loch Awe, within a few miles of Inverary. With what startled and incredulous eye and ear must the nymphs of the Awe and its Loch have seen and heard the Highland and Irish bands sweeping past, and the shrill pibrochs of the various clans echoing through the woods, having so often heard repeated the proverbial and till now truthful boast of the Campbells, proclaiming the inaccessibility of the stronghold of their chief, "It is a far cry to Loch Awe." Argyle had barely time, before Montrose was upon him, to fly from Inverary Castle, and throw himself into a fishing-boat on Loch Fine in terror, till he had lodged himself safely in the strong castle of Dumbarton.

After having burnt the town of Inverary, and ravaged Knapdale and Cantyre, Montrose turned his face northwards-"wasting Lorn even as Argyle had wasted Athol and the braes of Angus, and burnt 'the bonny house of Airly'"*. '"*—concluding the most terrible foray ever inflicted on the brave and powerful sons of Diarmid-the Clan Campbell.

Towards the middle of January, 1645, Montrose quitted Argyle's territory, and crossing the Glenmore (the great glen which runs north-east from Fort William to Inverness, in which lies the Caledonian

* Napier, p. 291.

Canal), halted, for the purpose of refreshing the remnant of his force, near Glen Urquhart, on the north-west shore of Lough Ness, at its southern extremity. His troops were now reduced to less than 2,000 men,* nearly all his Highlanders having, as usual, gone home to secure their plunder and to prepare their little patches of arable land for the next harvest.

In the meantime, Argyle had concerted a plan for the destruction of Montrose. Argyle was to march upon him from the south with a body of his clansmen and some Lowland battalions, 3,000 strong; General Baillie, with a much greater force, was to attack him from the south-east; and Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth, was to join them from Inverness with 5,000 men, falling upon him from the north-east; and thus, by the concentration of this overwhelming force, Montrose was to be annihilated.

In the last days of January, 1645, Argyle had just harried the Macdonnels of Keppoch, who certainly had earned small favour at his hands, and was now stationed at Inverlochy Castle, near the present Fort William. At this point of time, the bard of Macdonnel of Keppoch (Ian Lom-"Beardless John") presented himself at Montrose's camp to communicate this information.

*Napier, p. 293.

"He could scarcely give credit to this report. 'Argyle,' he exclaimed, ‘dare not pursue me through Lochaber.' After a council of war, however, and finding his followers, especially his principal officer, Alaster MacDonnell, eager for the expedition, he determined to try back' through the mountains to the braes of Keppock and the country of Locheil."*

He resolved not to follow the direct course to Inverlochy, but taking a circuitous route over the Corryarick mountains, the braes of Keppock, and the country of the Camerons of Locheil, to pass through the domains of the Macdonells of Glengarry and Keppock, and of the Camerons, from whom he was sure of receiving numerous recruits; and hoped thus to come upon Argyle by surprise. He took with him the bard Ian Lom bound, and with the assurance that if his intelligence proved false he should be instantly shot. He lived, however, to witness from an elevated spot at the base of Ben Nevis, and to celebrate in Gaelic verse (as is said of no mean merit and poetic fire), the prowess of his clansmen in the battle of February the second. The abridged translation which I give below enables us to form some idea of the original:

"Heard ye not! heard ye not! how that whirlwind the Gael
Through Lochaber swept down from Loch Ness to Loch Eil,
And the Campbells, to meet them in battle-array,
Like the billows came on, and were broke like their spray!
Long, long shall our war song exult in that day.

* Napier, p. 293.

"Twas the Sabbath that rose, 'twas the Feast of St. Bride,
When the rush of the clans shook Ben Nevis's side;
I, the bard of their battles, ascended the height
Where dark Inverlochy o'ershadowed the fight,

And I saw the Clan-Donnell resistless in might.

"Through the land of my fathers the Campbells have come, The flames of their foray enveloped my home,

Broad Keppock in ruin is left to deplore,

And

my country is waste from the hill to the shore,— Be it so! by St. Mary, there's comfort in store.

"Though the braes of Lochaber a desert were made,

And Glen Roy should be lost to the plough and the spade, Though the bones of my kindred, unhonor'd, unurn'd, Marked the desolate path where the Campbells have burn'd, Be it so! from that foray they never return'd.

"Fallen race of Diarmid! disloyal-untrue, No harp in the Highlands will sorrow for you; But the birds of Loch Eil are wheeling on high, And the Badenock wolves hear the Cameron's cry,'Come, feast ye! come feast where the false-hearted lie!'"

A considerable part of Montrose's march lay in the line of the famous road constructed long after by General Wade, and celebrated in lofty verse by a poet, whom the "Scotch Reviewers," and I dare say "English Bards" too, with one voice pronounce to be an Hibernian, though perhaps on no better ground than Goldsmith's Glasgow Newspaper editor decided the nationality of Saunders MacGregor

"We are happy," says the editor, "to inform our readers