g; that in a week he would be at Holyrood. Messengers were
sent to urge a regiment which lay in Northumberland to hasten across
the border. Others carried to London earnest entreaties that His Majesty
would instantly send every soldier that could be spared, nay, that he
would come himself to save his northern kingdom. The factions of the
Parliament House, awestruck by the common danger, forgot to wrangle.
Courtiers and malecontents with one voice implored the Lord High
Commissioner to close the session, and to dismiss them from a place
where their deliberations might soon be interrupted by the mountaineers.
It was seriously considered whether it might not be expedient to abandon
Edinburgh, to send the numerous state prisoners who were in the Castle
and the Tolbooth on board of a man of war which lay off Leith, and to
transfer the seat of government to Glasgow.

The news of Dundee's victory was every where speedily followed by the
news of his death; and it is a strong proof of the extent and vigour of
his faculties, that his death seems every where to have been regarded
as a complete set off against his victory. Hamilton, before he adjourned
the Estates, informed them that he had good tidings for them; that
Dundee was certainly dead; and that therefore the rebels had on the
whole sustained a defeat. In several letters written at that conjuncture
by able and experienced politicians a similar opinion is expressed. The
messenger who rode with the news of the battle to the English Court was
fast followed by another who carried a despatch for the King, and, not
finding His Majesty at Saint James's, galloped to Hampton Court. Nobody
in the capital ventured to break the seal; but fortunately, after the
letter had been closed, some friendly hand had hastily written on the
outside a few words of comfort: "Dundee is killed. Mackay has got to
Stirling:" and these words quieted the minds of the Londoners, [369]

From the pass of Killiecrankie the Highlanders had retired, proud
of their victory, and laden with spoil, to the Castle of Blair. They
boasted that the field of battle was covered with heaps of the Saxon
soldiers, and that the appearance of the corpses bore ample testimony to
the power of a good Gaelic broadsword in a good Gaelic right hand. Heads
were found cloven down to the throat, and sculls struck clean off just
above the ears. The conquerors however had bought their victory dear.
While they were advancing, they had bee