y
inflaming their valour with many a courageous gesture; and as he turned
and winded his prancing war-horse, his breast-plate blazed to the
setting sun like a beacon on the hill.

When he had seemingly concluded his exhortation, the Highlanders stooped
forward and hurled down the rocks which they had gathered for their
forerunners; and while the stones came leaping and bounding with a noise
like thunder, the men followed in thick and separate bands, and Mackay
gave the signal to commence firing.

We saw from the windows many of the Highlanders, at the first volley,
stagger and fall, but the others came furiously down; and before the
soldiers had time to stick their bayonets into their guns, the broad
swords of the Clansmen hewed hundreds to the ground.

Within a few minutes the battle was general between the two armies; but
the smoke of the firing involved all the field, and we could see nothing
from the windows. The echoes of the mountains raged with the din, and
the sounds were multiplied by them in so many different places, that we
could not tell where the fight was hottest. The whole country around
resounded as with the uproar of a universal battle.

I felt the passion of my spirit return; I could no longer restrain
myself, nor remain where I was. Snatching up my carabine, I left my
actionless post at the window, and hurried down stairs, and out of the
house. I saw by the flashes through the smoke, that the firing was
spreading down into the plain where the baggage was stationed, and by
this I knew that there was some movement in the battle; but whether the
Highlanders or the Covenanters were shifting their ground, I could not
discover, for the valley was filled with smoke, and it was only at times
that a sword, like a glance of lightning, could be seen in the cloud
wherein the thunders and tempest of the conflict were raging.

CHAPTER XCIII

As I stood on the brow of the bank in front of Rinrorie-house, a gentle
breathing of the evening air turned the smoke like the travelling mist
of the hills, and opening it here and there, I had glimpses of the
fighting. Sometimes I saw the Highlanders driving the Covenanters down
the steep, and sometimes I beheld them in their turn on the ground
endeavouring to protect their unbonneted heads with their targets, but
to whom the victory was to be given I could discern no sign; and I said
to myself the prize at hazard is the liberty of the land and the Lord;
surely