ed,
been recklessly, if not perfidiously, sent to certain destruction.
They were protected by no ramparts: they had a very scanty stock of
ammunition: they were hemmed in by enemies. An officer might mount and
gallop beyond reach of danger in an hour; but the private soldier
must stay and be butchered. "Neither I," said Cleland, "nor any of my
officers will, in any extremity, abandon you. Bring out my horse, all
our horses; they shall be shot dead." These words produced a complete
change of feeling. The men answered that the horses should not be shot,
that they wanted no pledge from their brave Colonel except his word, and
that they would run the last hazard with him. They kept their promise
well. The Puritan blood was now thoroughly up; and what that blood was
when it was up had been proved on many fields of battle.

That night the regiment passed under arms. On the morning of the
following day, the twenty-first of August, all the hills round Dunkeld
were alive with bonnets and plaids. Cannon's army was much larger than
that which Dundee had commanded. More than a thousand horses laden with
baggage accompanied his march. Both the horses and baggage were probably
part of the booty of Killiecrankie. The whole number of Highlanders was
estimated by those who saw them at from four to five thousand men. They
came furiously on. The outposts of the Cameronians were speedily driven
in. The assailants came pouring on every side into the streets. The
church, however, held out obstinately. But the greater part of the
regiment made its stand behind a wall which surrounded a house belonging
to the Marquess of Athol. This wall, which had two or three days
before been hastily repaired with timber and loose stones, the soldiers
defended desperately with musket, pike, and halbert. Their bullets were
soon spent; but some of the men were employed in cutting lead from the
roof of the Marquess's house and shaping it into slugs. Meanwhile
all the neighbouring houses were crowded from top to bottom with
Highlanders, who kept up a galling fire from the windows. Cleland,
while encouraging his men, was shot dead. The command devolved on Major
Henderson.

In another minute Henderson fell pierced with three mortal wounds.
His place was supplied by Captain Munro, and the contest went on with
undiminished fury. A party of the Cameronians sallied forth, set fire to
the houses from which the fatal shots had come, and turned the keys in
the doors. I