VYIIXIAjU AND MART.

9

raged him to hope that a large and wfell appointed force would chap.soon be sent from Ulster to join him. He did not wish to try ^the chance of battle before these succours arrived.* Mackay,on the other hand, was weary of marching to and fro in a desert.

His men were exhausted and out of heart. He thought it de-sirable that they should withdraw from the hill country; andWilliam was of the same opinion.

In June therefore the civil war was, as if by concert between The warthe generals, completely suspended. Dundee remained injjjg'h. 8Lochaber, impatiently awaiting the arrival of troops and sup- p“ n d a s e ™ s "plies from Ireland. It was impossible for him to keep his High-landers together in a state of inactivity. A vast extent of moorand mountain was required to furnish food for so many mouths.

The clans therefore went back to their own glens, having pro-mised to reassemble on the first summons.

Meanwhile Mackay’s soldiers, exhausted by severe exertionsand privations, were taking their ease in quarters scattered overthe low country from Aberdeen to Stirling. Mackay himself wasat Edinburgh, and was urging the ministers there to furnishhim with the means of constructing a chain of fortificationsamong the Grampians. The ministers had, it should seem,miscalculated their military resources. It had been expectedthat the Campbells would take the field in such force as wouldbalance the whole strength of the clans which marched underDundee. It had also been expected that the Covenanters of theWest would hasten to swell the ranks of the army of KingWilliam. Both expectations were disappointed. Argyle hadfound his principality devastated, and his tribe disarmed anddisorganized. A considerable time must elapse before hisstandard would be surrounded by an array such as his fore-fathers had led to battle. The Covenanters of the West were in Scruplesgeneral unwilling to enlist. They were assuredly not wanting "enanters* Dundee to Melfort, Juue 27. 1G89.