In little more
than a month he was at the head of seventeen hundred men. He obtained
reinforcements from Ireland. The Macdonalds, and the Camerons, and the
Gordons, were all his. A vassal of the Marquis of Athol had declared for
him even in the castle of Blair, and defended it against the clan of his
master. An event still more strange was produced by the spell of his
presence,--the clansmen of Athol deserted their chief, and joined his
standard. He kindled the hills in his cause, and all the life of the
North was gathering around him.

Mackay, with the Covenanters, the regiments from Holland, and the
Cameronians, went from Perth to oppose his entrance into the Lowlands.
The minds of men were suspended. Should he defeat Mackay, it was plain
that the crown would soon be restored to James Stuart, and the woes of
Scotland come again.

In that dismal juncture I was alone; for Quintin Fullarton, with all the
Cameronians, was with Mackay.

I was an old man, verging on threescore.

I went to and fro in the streets of Edinburgh all day long, inquiring of
every stranger the news; and every answer that I got was some new
triumph of Dundee.

No sleep came to my burning pillow, or if indeed my eyelids for very
weariness fell down, it was only that I might suffer the stings of
anxiety in some sharper form; for my dreams were of flames kindling
around me, through which I saw behind the proud and exulting visage of
Dundee.

Sometimes in the depths of the night I rushed into the street, and I
listened with greedy ears, thinking I heard the trampling of dragoons
and the heavy wheels of cannon; and often in the day, when I saw three
or four persons speaking together, I ran towards them, and broke in upon
their discourse with some wild interrogation, that made them answer me
with pity.

But the haste and frenzy of this alarm suddenly changed: I felt that I
was a chosen instrument; I thought that the ruin which had fallen on me
and mine was assuredly some great mystery of Providence: I remembered
the prophecy of my grandfather, that a task was in store for me, though
I knew not what it was; I forgot my old age and my infirmities; I
hastened to my chamber; I put money in my purse; I spoke to no one; I
bought a carabine; and I set out alone to reinforce Mackay.

As I passed down the street, and out at the West-port, I saw the people
stop and look at me with silence and wonder. As I went along the road,
several that were passing i