his army on a permanent footing, to penetrate as
far as the capital, perhaps from thence to the Border, where he deemed
it possible to communicate with the yet unsubdued forces of King
Charles.

Such was the plan of operations by which the truest glory was to be
acquired, and the most important success insured for the royal cause.
Accordingly it did not escape the ambitious and daring spirit of him
whose services had already acquired him the title of the Great Marquis.
But other motives actuated many of his followers, and perhaps were not
without their secret and unacknowledged influence upon his own feelings.

The Western Chiefs in Montrose's army, almost to a man, regarded the
Marquis of Argyle as the most direct and proper object of hostilities.
Almost all of them had felt his power; almost all, in withdrawing their
fencible men from their own glens, left their families and property
exposed to his vengeance; all, without exception, were desirous
of diminishing his sovereignty; and most of them lay so near his
territories, that they might reasonably hope to be gratified by a share
of his spoil. To these Chiefs the possession of Inverary and its castle
was an event infinitely more important and desirable than the capture
of Edinburgh. The latter event could only afford their clansmen a little
transitory pay or plunder; the former insured to the Chiefs themselves
indemnity for the past, and security for the future. Besides these
personal reasons, the leaders, who favoured this opinion, plausibly
urged, that though, at his first descent into the Lowlands, Montrose
might be superior to the enemy, yet every day's march he made from the
hills must diminish his own forces, and expose him to the accumulated
superiority of any army which the Covenanters could collect from the
Lowland levies and garrisons. On the other hand, by crushing Argyle
effectually, he would not only permit his present western friends to
bring out that proportion of their forces which they must otherwise
leave at home for protection of their families; but farther, he would
draw to his standard several tribes already friendly to his cause, but
who were prevented from joining him by fear of M'Callum More.

These arguments, as we have already hinted, found something responsive
in Montrose's own bosom, not quite consonant with the general heroism
of his character. The houses of Argyle and Montrose had been in former
times, repeatedly opposed to each other