wniilAM AND MANY.

41

answered that the horses should not be shot, that they wanted chap.no pledge from their brave Colonel except his word, and that —they w'ould run the last hazard with him. They kept theirpromise well. The Puritan blood was now thoroughly up; andwhat that blood was when it was up had been proved on manyfields of battle.

That night the regiment passed under arms. On the morn- Theiiieii-ing of the following day, the twenty first of August, all the hills ^uckuieround Dunkeld were alive with bonnets and plaids. Cannon’sarmy was much larger than that whichDundee had commanded. “™ a ™ d 'More than a thousand horses laden with baggage accompaniedhis march. Both the horses and baggage were probably partof the booty of Killiecrankie. The whole number of High-landers was estimated by those who saw them at from four tofive thousand men. They came furiously on. The outposts ofthe Cameronians were speedily driven in. The assailants camepouring on every side into the streets. The church, however,held out obstinately. But the greater part of the regimentmade its stand behind a w’all which surrounded a house belong-ing to the Marquess of Athol. This wall, which had two orthree days before been hastily repaired with timber and loosestones, the soldiers defended desperately with musket, pike,and halbert. Their bullets w'ere soon spent; but some of themen were employed in cutting lead from the roof of theMarquess’s house and shaping it into slugs. Meanwhile all theneighbouring houses were crowded from top to bottom withHighlanders, who kept up a galling fire from the windows.Cleland, while encouraging his men, was shot dead. Thecommand devolved on Major Henderson. In another minuteHenderson fell pierced with three mortal wounds. His placewas supplied by Captain Munro, and the contest w'ent on withundiminished fury. A party of the Cameronians sallied forth,set fire to the houses from which the fatal shots had come, and