e,

Your very obedient servant,

HUGH MACKAY.
Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Forces.

And this was the prayer, surely the most remarkable ever published by
a general of the British army:

O Almighty King of Kings, and Lord of Hosts, which by Thy Angels
thereunto appointed, dost minister both War and Peace; Thou rulest
and commandest all things, and sittest in the throne judging
right; And, therefore, we make our Addresses to Thy Divine Majesty
in this our necessity, that Thou wouldst take us and our Cause
into Thine Own hand and judge between us and our Enemies. Stir up
Thy strength, O Lord, and come and help us, for Thou givest not
always the Battle to the strong, but canst save by Many or Few. O
let not our sins now cry against us for vengeance, but hear us Thy
poor servants, begging mercy, and imploring Thy help, and that
Thou wouldst be a defence for us against the Enemy. Make it
appear, that Thou art our Saviour, and Mighty Deliverer, through
Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Dundee ordered the English officers to be brought before him, and for
thirty seconds he looked at them without speaking, as if he were
searching their thoughts and estimating their character. During this
scrutiny the shorter man looked sullen and defiant, as one prepared
for the worst, but the other was as careless and gay as ever, with the
expression either of one who was sure of a favorable issue, or of one
who took life or death as a part of the game.

"If I tell you, gentlemen, that your general refuses to clear you from
this charge, have ye anything to say before ye die?"

"Nothing," said their spokesman, with a light laugh, "except that we
would take more kindly to a bullet than a rope. 'Tis a soldier's
fancy, my lord, but I fear me ye will not humor it; perhaps ye will
even say we have not deserved it."

When Dundee turned to the other, who had not yet spoken, this was all
he got:

"My lord, that it be quickly, and that no mention be made of our
names. It was an adventure, and it has ended badly."

"Gentlemen, whoever ye may be, and that I do not know, and whatever ye
may be about, and of that also I am not sure, I have watched you
closely, and I freely grant that ye are both brave men. Each in his
own way, and each to be trusted by his own cause, though there be one
of you I would trust rather