Seeing this, and dreading the consequences thereof, I conferred with
some of those whom I had observed the most discreet and considerate in
the course of the raid, and we came to a resolve to constitute and
appoint Captain Learmont our chief commander, he having earned an
experience of the art and stratagems of war under the renowned Lesley.
Had we abided by that determination, some have thought our expedition
might have come to a happier issue; but no human helps and means could
change what was evidently ordained otherwise. It happened, however, that
Colonel Wallace, another officer of some repute, also joined us, and his
name made him bright and resplendent to our enthusiasm. While we were
deliberating whom to choose for our leader, Colonel Wallace was in the
same breath, for his name's sake, proposed, and was united in the
command with Learmont. This was a deadly error, and ought in all time
coming to be a warning and an admonition to people and nations in their
straits and difficulties, never to be guided, in the weighty shocks and
controversies of disordered fortunes, by any prejudice or affection so
unsubstantial as the echo of an honoured name. For this Wallace, though
a man of questionless bravery, and a gentleman of good account among all
who knew him, had not received any gift from Nature of that spirit of
masterdom without which there can be no command; so that he was no
sooner appointed to lead us on, with Learmont as his second, than his
mind fell into a strange confusion, and he heightened disorder into
anarchy by ordering over much. We could not, however, undo the evil,
without violating the discipline that we were all conscious our forces
so grievously lacked; but, from the very moment that I saw in what
manner he took upon him the command, I augured of nothing but disaster.

Learmont was a collected and an urbane character, and did much to temper
and turn aside the thriftless ordinances of his superior. He, seeing how
much our prosperity was dependent on the speed with which we could reach
Edinburgh, hastened forward everything with such alacrity that we were
ready on the morrow by mid-day to set out from Dumfries. But the element
of discord was now in our cause, and I was reproached by many for having
abdicated my natural right to the command. It was in vain that I tried
to redeem the fault by taking part with Learmont, under the
determination, when the black hour of defeat or dismay should come upon