ve considerable
gaps in his own line, which gave Mackay a further advantage. The right
of Dundee's army was formed of the M'Lean, Glengarry, and Clanranald
regiments, along with some Irish levies. In the centre was Dundee
himself, at the head of a small and ill-equipped body of cavalry,
composed of Lowland gentlemen and their followers, and about forty of
his old troopers. The Camerons and Skyemen, under the command of
Locheill and Sir Donald Macdonald of Sleat, were stationed on the left.
During the time occupied by these dispositions, a brisk cannonade was
opened by Mackay's artillery, which materially increased the impatience
of the Highlanders to come to close quarters. At last the word was given
to advance, and the whole line rushed forward with the terrific
impetuosity peculiar to a charge of the clans. They received the fire of
the regular troops without flinching, reserved their own until they were
close at hand, poured in a murderous volley, and then, throwing away
their firelocks, attacked the enemy with the broadsword.

The victory was almost instantaneous, but it was bought at a terrible
price. Through some mistake or misunderstanding, a portion of the
cavalry, instead of following their general, who had charged directly
for the guns, executed a manoeuvre which threw them into disorder; and,
when last seen in the battle, Dundee, accompanied only by the Earl of
Dunfermline and about sixteen gentlemen, was entering into the cloud of
smoke, standing up in his stirrups, and waving to the others to come
on. It was in this attitude that he appears to have received his
death-wound. On returning from the pursuit, the Highlanders found him
dying on the field.

It would he difficult to point out another instance in which the
maintenance of a great cause depended solely upon the life of a single
man. Whilst Dundee survived, Scotland at least was not lost to the
Stuarts, for, shortly before the battle, he had received assurance that
the greater part of the organised troops in the north were devoted to
his person, and ready to join him; and the victory of Killiecrankie
would have been followed by a general rising of the loyal gentlemen in
the Lowlands. But with his fall the enterprise was over.

I hope I shall not be accused of exaggerating the importance of this
battle, which, according to the writer I have already quoted, was best
proved by the consternation into which the opposite party were thrown at
the first new