Loading...
The Seaforth News, 1939-06-29, Page 6PAGE SIX Legend But just as the pursuer had at- tained a projecting :piece of rook about 'half -way up the ascent, and pausing, made a signal for those who were still at the bottom to follow him, an arrow whistled from the bow of one of the Children of the Mist, and transfixed 'himwith so fatal a wound, that. without a single effort to save himself, .he lost his 'balance, and fell headlong from the cliff on which he stood, into ,the darkness 'below. The crash of the boughs which received him, and the heavy SOMA of his fall from thence to the ground, was followed by a cry of horror and surprise, which 'burst from his followers, The Children of the Mist, encouraged in proportion to the alarm this first success 'had caused among the pursuers, echoed 'back the •clamor with a loud and shrill yell of exultation, and, showing themselves on the 'brow of the precipice, with wild cries and vindictive gestures, en- eleavored to impress on their enemies a sense at once of their courage, 'their nuenlbers, and their state of defence. Even Captain ?Dalgetty's military pru- dence did not prevent his rising up, and calling out to Ranald, more loud than prudence warranted, "Carocco, comrade, as the Spaniard says! The long -bow forever! In my poor appre- hension now, were you to order a file to advance and take position" -- "The Sassenachl" cried a voice from beneath, "mark the Sassenaoh sillier! I see the glitter of his breast- plate." At the same time three muskets were discharged; and while one 'ball rattled against the corselet of proof, .to the strength of which our 'valiant Captain had been more than once indebted for his life, another penetrated the armor which covered the front of his left thigh, and stretch- ed him on the ground. Ranald in- stantly seized him in his arms, and bore him hack from the edge of the precipice, while he dolefully ejaculated 9 always told the immortal Gustavus, Wallenstein, Tilly, and other men of the sword, that, in my poor mind, taslets aught to be made musket - proof." With two or three earnest words in Gaelic, MacEagh commended the •wounded man to the charge of the females, who were in the rear of his little party, and was then about to return to the contest. But Dalgetty detained him grasping a firm hold of his plaid.—"I know not how this matter may end—but 'I trust you will inform Montrose, that • I died like a follower of the immortal Gustavus— and I pray you, take heed how you quit your present strength, even for the purpose of pursuing the .enemy, if you gain any advantage—and—and"-- Here dvantage—and—and"—Here Dalgetty's breath and eye- sight !began to fail him through lose of 'blood, and MacEagh, availing 'him- self of this circumstance, extricated from his grasp the end of his own mantle, and substituted that of a female, by which the Captain held stoutly, thereby securing, as he con •ceived, the outlaw's attention to the military instructions which he contin- ued to pour forth while he 'had any breath to utter them, though they (became gradually more and •more in- coherent—'And, comrade, you will be sure to keep your musketeers in advance of your stand of pikes, Loch- aber -axes, and 'two-handed swords— Stand 'fast, dragoons, on the left !lank! where was Id Ay, and Ranald, if ye he minded to retreat, leave some lighted matches 'burning on the 'branches of the trees—it shows as if they werelined with shot—But I for- got—ye have no matchlocks nor 'hab- .ergeons-'only bows and arrows— 'bows and arrowsl hal ha! hal" Here the Captain sunk .back in an ex'haust'ed condition, •altogether en- able to resist the sense of the ludic- .rous which, as a modern man-at-arms, lte connected with the idea of these ancient weapons cf war. It was a. long time ere he reoovered his senses,' and, in the meantime; we leave him in the are of the Daughters of the :Mist; names as kind and attentive, in reality, as they were wild and un- couthin outward appearance, CHAPTER ),V But if no faithless action stain Thy true and oonstant word, I'll make thee ,famous 'by my pen, And glorious by my sword. I'll serve thee in such noble ways Ae ne'er were known before; 1'11 deok and crown thy head with bays, And love thee more and more. Montrose's Lines. We must now leave, with whatever regret, the valiant Captain Dalgetty, to recover of his wounds or otherwise as fate shall determine, in order brief- ly to trace the military operations of Montrose, 'worthy as they are of a more important page, and a better historian; By the assistance of the chieftains whom we have commem- orated, and snore especially by the junction of the Murrays, Stewarts, and ,other clans of Athole, which were peculiarly zealous in the royal cause, he soon assembled an army of two or three thousand Highlanders, to whom he successfully •united the Irish under Coi'kitto. This last leader, who, to the great em'barrassm'ent of Milton's comment- ators, is commemorated in one of that great poet's sonnets, was properly named Alister, or Alexander .M'Don- nell, by 'birth a Scottish islesman, and related to the Earl of Antrim to whose patronage he owed the com- mand assigned to him in ;the Irish troops, I'n many respects he merited this distinction. He was brave to in- trepidity, and almost to insensibility; very strong and active in person, completely master of his weapons, and always ready to show the exam- ple in the extremity of danger. To counterbalance these good qualities, it must be recorded that 'he was in- experienced in military tactics, and of a jealous and presumptuous dis- position, which often lost to Mont- rose the fruits of Colkitto's gallantry. Yet such is the predominance of out- ward personal qualities in the eyes of a wild people, that the feats of strength and courage shown by this champion, seem to have made a stronger impression ntpon the minds of the Highlanders than the military skill and chivalrous spirit of the great Marquis of Montrose. Numerous tra- ditions are still preserved in the Highland glens concerning Alister M'Donnell, though the name of Montrose is rarely mentioned among them. The point upon which l'bontrose finally assembled his little army was In Strathearn, on the verge of rhe Highlands of Perthshire, so as to menace the principal town of that county. His enemies were not unprepared for his reception. Argyle at the ''head of his Highlanders, was dogging the steps o:f the Irish from the west to the east, and 'by force, fear, or influ- ence, had collected an army nearly sufficient to have given battle to Montrose. The Lowlands were also prepared, for reasons which we as- signed at the beginning of this tale, e4 body of six thousand infantry, and six or seven thousand cavalry, which profanely assumed the title of God's army, had been hastily assemlbled from the ,shires of Fife, Angus, Penth, Stirling, and the neighboring counties. A much less 'farce in former times, nay, even in the preceding reign, would have been sufficient to have secured the Lowlands against a more formidable descent of Highlanders than those united under Montrose; but 'times had changed strangely within the last 'half -century. Before that period, the Lowlanders were as constantly engaged in war as the mountaineers, and were incompar- ably better 'disciplined and armed. The favorite Scottish order of 'battle somewhat resembled the Macedonian phalanx. The infantry formed a cosi- pact body, armed with long spears, impenetrable even to the men-at-arms of the age, though well mounted, and THE SEAFORTH NEWS arrayed .in complete proof, It may easily be conceived, 'therefore, that their ranks could not be 'broken by the •disorderly charge of Highland in- fantry armed for close combat :only', with swords, and 111 furnished ' with missile weapons; and 'having no artil- lery whatever. This habit of fight was in great measure eh'anged by the introduction of muskets into Elie Scottish Lowland service, which, not being as yet com- bined with the' bayonet, was a formid- able weapon at a distance, but gave no assurance against the enenny 'who rushed an•to close quarters, The pike indeed, was not wholly disused in the Scottish army; but it was ne longer the favorite weapon, nor was it relied upon as 'formerly by .those in whose hands it was placed; iiso- nieoh that Daniel Lupton, a tactician of the day, has written a book ex- pressly upon the stnperiority of the musket. This 'change commenced as early as the wars of Gustavus Adol- phus, Whose marches were made with such rapidity that the pike was very soon thrown aside in his army, and exchanged for firearms. A .circum- stance which necessarily accoanpanie•d this change, as well as the estalblish- ment of standing armies, wh'ere'by war 'because a trade, was the 'intro- duction of a laborious and .complicat- ed system ofdiscipline, combining a variety of words of .command with corresponding operations and man- oeuvres, the neglect of any one of which was sure to throw the whole into confusion. War, therefore, as practised among most nations 'of Eur- ope, had assuna•ecl much more .than formerly the character of a profession or mystery, to which previous practise and experience were indispensable re- quisites. Such was the natural eon - sequence of standing armies, which 'had :almost everywhere, and particul- arly in the long German wars, super - ceded what may be called the natural discipline of the feudal militia. The Scottish Lowland militia, therefore, labored under a double dis- -advantage When opposed to High- landers. They were div'es'ted of the spear, or 'weapon which, in the !hands of :their ancestors, had so.often re- pelled the impetuous assaults of the mountaineer; and they were subject- ed to a new and 'complicated species 'of discipline, well adapted, perhaps, to the use of regular 'troops, who could be rendered completely masters of it, but tending only to confuse the ranks of citizen soldiers, by 'whom it was rarely practised, and imperfectly 'understood, So much has been done- in onein our own time in bringing hack tactics to their first ,principles, and in getting rid of the pedantry of war, that it is easy dor as to estimate the disadvantages 'under 'which a hall trained militia labored, who were taught to consider success as depend- ing upon their exercising with pre- cision a system of tactics which they probably only so far .comprehended as to ,find out when they were wrong, but without the power of getting right again. Neither can it be denied that in the material points of military habits and warlike spirit, the Low- landers of the seventeenth century had sunk far 'beneath their Highland countrymen. From the 'earliest ,period down to the union of the crowns, the whole .kingdom of S•eotland, Lowlands as well as Highlands, had been the .con - stain scene of war, foreign and dom- estic; and there was probably •scaree one of its hardy inhabitants, !b'etw'een the age of sixteen and sixty, who was not as willing in point of fact, as he was literaily hound in law, to assume arms at the first call of his •liege lord, or of a royal proolamation. The law remained the same in 418415 as a hund- red years before, but the race of those subjected to it had been 'bred u.p under very different feelings. They had sat in quiet under their vine and under their fig -tree, and a call to bat- tle involved a .change of life as new as it was 'disagreeable. Such of them, also, who lived near 'unto the High- lands were in a continual and disad- vantageous contact with the restless inhabitants of those mountains, by whom 'their cattle were driven off, their dwellings plundered, and their persons insulted, and who had ac- quired over them that sort of sup- eriority arising from a constant sys- tem of aggression. The Lowlanders who lay more remote, .and out of reach of these depredations, were in- 'fluenced by the exaggerated reports circulated concerning the Highland- ers, wham as totally differing 'ha laws, language, and dress, they were induced to regard as a elation of sav- ages, equally void ,of fear and of hu- manity. These various prepossessions, joined to the less warlike habits' of t'he Lowlanders, and their imperfect 'knowledge of the new and .compli- cated system of discipline for which they had exchanged their natural mode of fighting, placed them at a great disadvantage when apposed to the Highlander in the field of 'battle. The mountaineers, on the contrary, with the arms and ,courage of their fat'he'rs, possessed also.' their simple anti natural system of tactics, and bore down with the 'fullest confidence upon an enemy, to whom anything they' 'lead 'Been tatight ,of discipline Gas, dike Seal's armor yupon ;D'av'id, a hindrance rather than a 'help, `.1 e- cau'se they had not .proved' it,", It was with such diaadvantages' on the one ,side, and such advantages on the .other, to oounterbalance the diff- erence' 'of superior numbers and . the r 'that nutlet and :caval t preserved of artillery y, Montrose encountered the army of THURSDAY, JUINE 29, 19341. den •' marches' :w'hi'ch Montrose 'was .dbliged to .undertake in order .to re orui't his army in the .mountains, and for the rapid , changes of fortune, by which we often (find him obliged to retreat '£rom'+befare" those' enemies. over' whom de had recently been victorious..'If there sh;out'd be any me -ho read these tales for any further purpose 'than that of innnedia'te amu'semen't, they will find these re- marks not unworthy .cif their recol- Lord Elcito.epott the field of Tapper- lection, muir. The Presbyterian clergy • had' It was owing to such causes, :the not been wanting in their efforts to slacknnVss of the Lowlandloyalists ll rouse. the spirits of their faq.wet s , and one of them, who 'harangued the troops on the very day .of battle, hesi- tated ,not to say, that if ever. God spoke by his mouth, he promised them; in His name, that day a great and assured victory. The cavalry and: artillery were also reckoned stere warrants of success, as the povtlty of their attack had upon former occas- ions been very ,discouraging 'to the H'ighlan'ders. The place of t'he meet 'ing was .an 'open heath; :and the ground afforded little advantage to either party, except 'that it allowed the horse of the covenanters to act with 'effect. - A battle, upon which 'so much de= pended, was never more easily decid- ed. The Lowland 'cavalry made a Show of changing, but, whether thrown intodisorder by the fire of, musketry, .or deterred 'by a disaffec- tion to the' service said to have pre- vailed among the gentlemen, they made no impression on the Highland- ers whatever, and recoiled in disorder from ranks which had neither 'bayo- nets nor pikes to protect them. Mon- trose saw, and instantly availed 'him- sel.f of, this advantage. He ordered his whole army to charge, which they performed with the wild and desper- ate valor peculiar to mountaineers. One officer of the 'covenanters alone, trained in the Italian wars, made a desperate 'defence upon the right wing. In every other point their line was penetrated at the first onset; and this, advantage once obtained, ,the Lowlanders were utterly unable to contend at 'close quarters with their more agile and athletic enemies. Many were slain on 'the field, and such a n'um'ber in the pursuit, that above one-thind of the covenanters were reported tohave 'fallen; in which number, however, moist be computed a great many fat'bungesses who broke their wind in the 'Hight, and 'thus died without stroke of sword. (We 'choose to quote oar authority for a fact .so singulars—"A great many !bur- gesses were 'killed—twenty-five house- holders in St. Andrews—many were bursten in 'the flight, and lied without stroke."—Baillie's Letters. The victors obtained possession •of, Perth, and ,abtaiined considerable sums of :money, as well as ample sup- plies of arms and ammunition. But those advantages were to 'be bal- anced against an almost insurmount- able inconvenience that uniformly at- tended a Highland army. The clans could 'be in no respect induced to consider themselves as regular friends or to aot as such. Even so late as the year ll7'45-6, when. the Chevalier Charles Edward, by way of masking an example, caused a soldier to 'be shot for desertion, the Highlanders, who composed his army, were af- fected as' much by indignation as 'by fear. They could not conceive any 'principle of justice upon which a man's life could 'be taken, for merely going home w'hen it did not suit him, to remain longer with the army. Such 'had 'been the uniform practice of their 'fathers. When a battle was over, the 'campaign was, in their op- inion, ended; if it was lost, they sought safety in their mountains—if won, 'they returned there to secure their booty. At other times they had their cattle to look after, and their harvests to sow or reap, without which their families would have per- ished for want.- In either case, there was an end of their services 'for the time; and though they were easily enough recalled by the prospect of fresh adventures and more plunder, yet the opportunity of success was, in the meantime, 'lost, and could not aft- erward he recovered. This •circum- stance serves to show, even if history had not made as acquainted with She same fact, 'that the Highlanders 'had never ;been accustomed to make war with the view of permanent conquest, but only with the hope of deriving temporary advantage, or deciding.. some ianmediate quarrel. It also ex - .plains the reason why Montrose, with all his splendid successes, never ob- tained any secure or permanent foot- ing in the Lowlands, and why, even 'those Lowland noblemen and gentle- men, who were inclined to the royal cause, showed diffidence and reluct- ance to join an array of a character so desultory and irregular, as might lead them at all times to apprehend that the Highlanders, securing them- selves by a retreat to their moan - tains, wau:ld leave whatever Lowland- ers, might have joined there to the mercy of an offended and predom- inant enemy. The same consideration will also serve to account for the sad - and the temporary desertion Of his P Y Highland foleowers, 'that Montrose found 'himself, even after the decisive .victory of Tippermuir, in no 'condi- tion to face the, second- army with, which Argyle advanced upon him from the westward. In this emerg- -envy, supplying by velocity the want of strength, 'he 'moved suddenly 'front Perth to Dundee, and being refused admission into that town, fell n'ortit- ward upon Aberdeen, where he ex- pected to be joined Lythe Gordons and other loyalists. But the zeal of these gentlemen was, for the time, ef- fectually !bridled by a large body of covenanters, commanded by, the :Lord Bttrleigh, and 'supposed to amount 'to three thousand men. These Montrose 'boldly attacked with half ,their num- ber. The 'battle was fought under the walls of. the 'city, and the resolute valor of M'ontrose's followers was again :successful against every disad- vantage. But it was the fate of this great .commander always to gain the glory, but seldom to reap the fruits of vic- tory. He had scarcely time to repose 'his small army in Aberdeen, ere he found, on the one 'hand, that the Gor- dons were likely to be deterred from joining hint, by 'the reasons we have mentioned, with some others peculiar to their chief, the Marquis of. Hunt - 1y; on the other 'hand; Argyle, whose forces had been augmented by those of several Lowland noblemen, advanc- ed toward Montrose at the 'head of an army unuch larger than he had yet had to cope with. These troops mov- ed, indeed, with slowness, correspond- ing 'to the 'cau•tious c'haracter of their commander; but even that caution rendered Argyles approach formid- able, 'since iris very advance iniplied that 'he was at the head of an army irresistibly superior. ' There remained ,one mode of re- treat open to Montrose, and he adopted it. He threw 'himself into the Highlands, where he could set pursuit at defiance, and where he was sure, in •every 'glen, to recover those recruits who had left his standard to deposit their booty in their native 'as'tnesses. It was thus that the sing- ular 'character of the army ,'which Montrose commanded, while, on the one hand, it rendered his victory in some degree nugatory, enabled him, on the ,other, under the most disad- vantageous circumstances, to secure his retreat, recruit his forces, and render ]oneself more formidable than ever to the enemy, before whom he had lately been unable to make a stand. On the present ,occasion he threw himself into Badenoch, and rapidly traversing that district, as well as 'the neighboring country of Athole, he alarmed the covenanters 'by successive attacks' . upon :various ;unexpeoted points and spread such general dis- may, that repeated orders were des- patched by the Parliament to Argyle, their commander, to engage and dis- perse Montrose at all rates. These 'commands from his super- iors neither suited the haughty spirit, nor the temporizing and cautions pol- icy, of the nobleman to whom they were addressed. He paid, according- ly, no regard to them,' but limited 'his efforts to intrigues among Mont - rose's few Lowland followers, many of whom had 'become disgusted with the prospect of a Highland campaign, which exposed their persons to intol- erable fatigue, and left their estates at the ,covenanters' mercy. Accordingly, several of them left 'Montrase's camp at this ,period. He was joined, 'how- ever, by a body of forces of more congenial spirit, and .faribetter. adapt- ed to the situation in which he found himself. This reinforcement consisted of a large body of Highlanders, ,whom 'Cilkitto, ,despatched for that purpose, had levied in Argyleshire. Among the most distinguished was Jahn of 'Moidart, called •the Captain of Clan Ranald, with the Stewarts of Appin, the Clan Gregor, the Clan NINO, and other tribes of varying distinc- .tion.By these means Mon'trose's army was 'so :formidably increased, that Argyle cared no longer to re- main in 'the command of that opposed to 'him, 'but returned to 'Edin'bungh, and there threw up his commission, under pretence that his army was not supplied with reinforcements and pro- visions in the manner in which they ought to have been. From thence the Marquis returned to I'nverary, there, in full security, to govern his feudal. vassals, and patriarchal followers, and to repose himself in safety an the faith of the Olan proverb already quoted—"It is a far 'cry to Lochow." (Continued) PROFESS'IO'NAL CARDS Medical SEAFORTH CLINIC - Dr. E. A. McMaster, M.B., Gradu- ate of University of Toronto. J. D. 'Colquhoun, M.D., C.M., 'Grad- uate of 'Dalhousie University, Halifax. The Clinic is fully equipped with complete and modern x-ray and other. up-to-date 'diagnostic and ' thereuptic, equipment. Dr. Margaret K. 'Campbell, M.D., L.A B P. Specialist st in 'Diseases in Infants' and Children, will he at the Clinic last Thursday in every month' from 3 to '6 p.m. Dr. F. J. R. Forster, Specialist in Diseases .of the Ear, Eye, Nose and Throat, will be at the Clinic the first Tuesday in every month from .4 to 6 p.m. Free well -baby clinic will he held on the second and last Thursday in every month from 1 to 2 pan. JOHN A. GORWILL, B.A.,NLD, Physician' and Surgeon In Dr. H. H. Ross' office. Phone 5 J W. C. SPROAT,' M.D., F.A.Ci6. Surgery Phone 90-W. Office John St., Seaforth DR. H. HUGH ROSS, Physician and Surgeon Late of London Hos- pital, London, England. Special at. tention to diseases of the eye, ease, nose and throat. Office and residence behind Dominion Rank. Office Phone No. 5; Residence Phone 1014,. DR. F. J. BURROWS, Office Main St, Seaforth, over Dominion Bank. Hours 25 and 7 to 8 p.m. and by ap- pointment. Residence, ,Goderich St., two doors west of United Church. Phone 46. DR, F. J. R. FO'RSTER— Eye Ear, Nose and Throat. Graduate is Medicine, University of Toronto 1897. Late Assistant New York Ophthal- mic and Aural Institute, Moorefield's Eye, and Golden Square throat hospi- tals, London. At Commercial Hotel,, Seaforth, third Wednesday in eaclj month from '1.30 p.m. to '5 p.m,. MARGARET X. CAMPBELL, M.D. London, Ontario Graduate Toronto 'University Licentiate of American Board of Pedi- atrics, Diseases of Children At Seaforth Clinic, last Thursday af- ternoon, each month Auctioneer. GEORGE ELLIOTT, Licensed Auctioneer for the County of Huron. Arrangements eat be made for Sale Date at The .Seaforth News. Charges moderate and satisfaction guaranteed F. W. AH'REIN•S, Licensed Auctiot ser for Perth and Huron Counties. Sales Solicited. Terms on Application. Farm Stook, chattels and real estate property. R. R. No. 4, Mitchell. Phone 614 r 6. Apply at this office. WATSON & REID REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE AGENCY (Successors to James Watson) MAIN ST., SEAFORTH, ONT. All kinds of Insurance risks effect- ed at lowest rates in First -Glass Companies. THE McKILLOP Mutual Fire Iowans HEAD OFFICE--SEAFORTH, Ont. OFFICERS President, Thomas Moylan,' Sea - forth; Vice President, William Knox, Londesboro; Secretary Treasurer, M A. Reid, Seaforth. AGENTS F. MoKercher, R.R.l1, Dublin; John E. Pepper, R.R.1, Brucefield; E. R. G. J'armouth, B'rod'hagen; James Watt, Blyth; C. F. Hewitt, Kincardine Wan. Yeo, Helrnesville. . DIIRIECTORS Alex. Broadfoot, Seaforth No, 3; James Shoidice, Walton; Wm. Knox, ondes'bono; George Leonhardt, 73'onn'holrn No. 1; Frank McGregor, CHAMP No. 5; James Connolly, God.• erich; Alex 'MfEwing, Blyth No. 1; Thomas. Moylan, Seaforth No, 5; Wm. R. Archibald, Seaforth: No. 4. Parties desirous to effect insurance or transact other 'business, will be promptly attended to by applications to any of the above named officers. addressed to their respective Post - offices.