Killiecrankie, and, as soon as the event of the day was decided, had
emerged from those hiding places to strip and butcher the fugitives
who tried to escape by the pass. The Robertsons, a Gaelic race, though
bearing a Saxon name, gave in at this conjuncture their adhesion to
the cause of the exiled king. Their chief Alexander, who took his
appellation from his lordship of Struan, was a very young man and a
student at the University of Saint Andrew's. He had there acquired a
smattering of letters, and had been initiated much more deeply into Tory
politics. He now joined the Highland army, and continued, through a long
life to be constant to the Jacobite cause. His part, however, in public
affairs was so insignificant that his name would not now be remembered,
if he had not left a volume of poems, always very stupid and often very
profligate. Had this book been manufactured in Grub Street, it would
scarcely have been honoured with a quarter of a line in the Dunciad. But
it attracted some notice on account of the situation of the writer. For,
a hundred and twenty years ago, an eclogue or a lampoon written by a
Highland chief was a literary portent, [372]

But, though the numerical strength of Cannon's forces was increasing,
their efficiency was diminishing. Every new tribe which joined the camp
brought with it some new cause of dissension. In the hour of peril, the
most arrogant and mutinous spirits will often submit to the guidance of
superior genius. Yet, even in the hour of peril, and even to the genius
of Dundee, the Celtic chiefs had gelded but a precarious and imperfect
obedience. To restrain them, when intoxicated with success and confident
of their strength, would probably have been too hard a task even for
him, as it had been, in the preceding generation, too hard a task for
Montrose. The new general did nothing but hesitate and blunder. One of
his first acts was to send a large body of men, chiefly Robertsons, down
into the low country for the purpose of collecting provisions. He seems
to have supposed that this detachment would without difficulty occupy
Perth. But Mackay had already restored order among the remains of his
army: he had assembled round him some troops which had not shared in the
disgrace of the late defeat; and he was again ready for action. Cruel as
his sufferings had been, he had wisely and magnanimously resolved not
to punish what was past. To distinguish between degrees of guilt was
not easy. T