WXLLIAM AND MADT.

43

The Cameronians had good reason to be joyful and thank- chap.ful; for they had finished the war. In the rebel camp all was —discord and dejection. The Highlanders blamed Cannon: mssoiu-Cannon blamed the Highlanders; and the host which had been l' h °the terror of Scotland melted fast away. The confederatechiefs signed an association by which they declared themselvesfaithful subjects of King James, and bound themselves to meetagain at a future time. Having gone through this form, — forit was no more, —■ they departed, each to his home. Cannonand his Irishmen retired to the Isle of Mull. The Lowlanderswho had followed Dundee to the mountains shifted for them-selves as they best could. On the twenty fourth of August,exactly four weeks after the Gaelic army had won the battle ofIvilliecrankie, that army ceased to exist. It ceased to exist,as the army of Montrose had, more than forty years earlier,ceased to exist, not in consequence of any great blow fromwithout, but by a natural dissolution, the effect of internalmalformation. All the fruits of victory were gathered by thevanquished. The Castle of Blair, which had been the im-mediate object of the contest, opened its gates to Mackay; anda chain of military posts, extending northward as far as Inver-ness, protected the cultivators of the plains against the pre-datory inroads of the mountaineers.

During the autumn the government was much more annoyed intriguesby the Whigs of the low country, than by the Jacobites of the ciub?hills. The Club, which had, in the late session of Parliament, thWow.-attempted to turn the kingdom into an oligarchical republic, Ia “ ds- 'and which had induced the Estates to refuse supplies and tostop the administration of justice, continued to sit during therecess, and harassed the ministers of the Crown by systematicagitation. The organization of this body, contemptible as it

dated Dunkeld, Aug. 21. 1689; Faithful Contendings Displayed; Minute ofthe Scutch Privy Council of Aug. 28., quoted by Mr. Burton.