•WILLIAM AND MALT.

21

exertion. On the fate of Blair Castle probably depended thefate of all Athol. On the fate of Athol might depend the fateof Scotland. Mackay hastened northward, and ordered histroops to assemble in the low country of Perthshire. Some ofthem were quartered at such a distance that they did not arrivein time. He soon, however, had with him the three Scotchregiments which had served in Holland, and which bore thenames of their Colonels, Mackay himself, Balfour, and Ramsay.There was also a gallant regiment of infantry from England,then called Hastings’s, but now known as the thirteenth of theline. With these old troops were joined two regiments newlylevied in the Lowlands. One of them was commanded by LordKenmore; the other, which had been raised on the Border,and which is still styled the King’s own Borderers, by LordLeven. Two troops of horse, Lord Annandale’s and LordBelhaven’s, probably made up the army to the number of abovethree thousand men. Belhaven rode at the head of his troop:but Annandale, the most factious of all Montgomery’s followers,preferred the Club and the Parliament House to the field.*Dundee, meanwhile, had summoned all the clans whichacknowledged his commission to assemble for an expeditioninto Athol. His exertions were strenuously seconded byLochiel. The fiery crosses were sent again in all haste throughAppin and Ardnamurchan, up Glenmore, and along LochLeven. But the call was so unexpected, and the time allowedwas so short, that the muster was not a very full one. Thewhole number of broadswords seems to have been under threethousand. With this force, such as it was, Dundee set forth.On his march he was joined by succours which had just arrivedfrom Ulster. They consisted of little more than three hundredIrish foot, ill armed, ill clothed, and ill disciplined. Theircommander was an officer named Cannon, who had seen service* Maokay’a Memoirs.

CHAP

XIII.

1689 .