pposed to amount to three thousand
men. These Montrose boldly attacked with half their number. The battle
was fought under the walls Of the city, and the resolute valour of
Montrose's followers was again successful against every disadvantage.

But it was the fate of this great commander, always to gain the glory,
but seldom to reap the fruits of victory. He had scarcely time to repose
his small army in Aberdeen, ere he found, on the one hand, that the
Gordons were likely to be deterred from joining him, by the reasons we
have mentioned, with some others peculiar to their chief, the Marquis
of Huntly; on the other hand, Argyle, whose forces had been augmented by
those of several Lowland noblemen, advanced towards Montrose at the head
of an army much larger than he had yet had to cope with. These troops
moved, indeed, with slowness, corresponding to the cautious character
of their commander; but even that caution rendered Argyle's approach
formidable, since his very advance implied, that he was at the head of
an army irresistibly superior.

There remained one mode of retreat 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 fastnesses. It was thus that the singular 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 disadvantageous circumstances, to secure his retreat, recruit
his forces, and render himself 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 neighbouring country of Athole,
he alarmed the Covenanters by successive attacks upon various unexpected
points, and spread such general dismay, that repeated orders were
dispatched by the Parliament to Argyle, their commander, to engage, and
disperse Montrose at all rates.

These commands from his superiors neither suited the haughty spirit, nor
the temporizing and cautious policy, of the nobleman to whom they were
addressed. He paid, accordingly, no regard to them, but limited his
efforts to intrigues among Montrose's few Lowland followers, many of
whom had become disgusted with the prospect of a Highland campaign,