n one single dwelling sixteen of the enemy were burnt alive.
Those who were in the fight described it as a terrible initiation for
recruits. Half the town was blazing; and with the incessant roar of
the guns were mingled the piercing shrieks of wretches perishing in the
flames. The struggle lasted four hours. By that time the Cameronians
were reduced nearly to their last flask of powder; but their spirit
never flagged. "The enemy will soon carry the wall. Be it so. We will
retreat into the house: we will defend it to the last; and, if they
force their way into it, we will burn it over their heads and our own."
But, while they were revolving these desperate projects, they observed
that the fury of the assault slackened. Soon the highlanders began to
fall back: disorder visibly spread among them; and whole bands began to
march off to the hills. It was in vain that their general ordered them
to return to the attack. Perseverance was not one of their military
virtues. The Cameronians meanwhile, with shouts of defiance, invited
Amalek and Moab to come back and to try another chance with the chosen
people. But these exhortations had as little effect as those of Cannon.
In a short time the whole Gaelic army was in full retreat towards Blair.
Then the drums struck up: the victorious Puritans threw their caps into
the air, raised, with one voice, a psalm of triumph and thanksgiving,
and waved their colours, colours which were on that day unfurled for the
first time in the face of an enemy, but which have since been proudly
borne in every quarter of the world, and which are now embellished with
the Sphinx and the Dragon, emblems of brave actions achieved in Egypt
and in China, [379]

The Cameronians had good reason to be joyful and thankful; for they had
finished the rear. In the rebel camp all was discord and dejection. The
Highlanders blamed Cannon: Cannon blamed the Highlanders; and the host
which had been the terror of Scotland melted fast away. The confederate
chiefs signed an association by which they declared themselves faithful
subjects of King James, and bound themselves to meet again at a
future time. Having gone through this form,--for it was no more,--they
departed, each to his home. Cannon and his Irishmen retired to the Isle
of Mull. The Lowlanders who had followed Dundee to the mountains shifted
for themselves as they best could. On the twenty-fourth of August,
exactly four weeks after the Gaelic army had won the ba