ng news from
the ships and factions in the Committee forced him to turn back. The
King's frigates had come nearer to Ealan Ghierig than had been thought
possible. The Lowland gentlemen positively refused to advance further
into the Highlands. Argyle hastened back to Ealan Ghierig. There he
proposed to make an attack on the frigates. His ships, indeed, were ill
fitted for such an encounter. But they would have been supported by
a flotilla of thirty large fishing boats, each well manned with armed
Highlanders. The Committee, however, refused to listen to this plan, and
effectually counteracted it by raising a mutiny among the sailors.

All was now confusion and despondency. The provisions had been so ill
managed by the Committee that there was no longer food for the troops.
The Highlanders consequently deserted by hundreds; and the Earl,
brokenhearted by his misfortunes, yielded to the urgency of those who
still pertinaciously insisted that he should march into the Lowlands.

The little army therefore hastened to the shore of Loch Long, passed
that inlet by night in boats, and landed in Dumbartonshire. Hither, on
the following morning, came news that the frigates had forced a passage,
that all the Earl's ships had been taken, and that Elphinstone had fled
from Ealan Ghierig without a blow, leaving the castle and stores to the
enemy.

All that remained was to invade the Lowlands under every disadvantage.
Argyle resolved to make a bold push for Glasgow. But, as soon as this
resolution was announced, the very men, who had, up to that moment,
been urging him to hasten into the low country, took fright, argued,
remonstrated, and when argument and remonstrance proved vain, laid a
scheme for seizing the boats, making their own escape, and leaving
their General and his clansmen to conquer or perish unaided. This scheme
failed; and the poltroons who had formed it were compelled to share with
braver men the risks of the last venture.

During the march through the country which lies between Loch Long and
Loch Lomond, the insurgents were constantly infested by parties
of militia. Some skirmishes took place, in which the Earl had the
advantage; but the bands which he repelled, falling back before him,
spread the tidings of his approach, and, soon after he had crossed the
river Leven, he found a strong body of regular and irregular troops
prepared to encounter him.

He was for giving battle. Ayloffe was of the same opinion. Hume,