h of the
same month, he arrived in Evandale, in Lanarkshire, along with Hackston,
and a fellow, called Dingwall, or Daniel, one of the same bloody band.
Here he joined his old friend Hamilton, already mentioned; and, as they
resolved to take up arms, they were soon at the head of such a body of
the "chased and tossed western men," as they thought equal to keep the
field. They resolved to commence their exploits upon the 29th of May,
1679, being the anniversary of the Restoration, appointed to be kept as
a holiday, by act of parliament; an institution which they esteemed a
presumptuous and unholy solemnity. Accordingly, at the head of eighty
horse, tolerably appointed, Hamilton, Burly, and Hackston, entered the
royal burgh of Rutherglen, extinguished the bonfires, made in honour
of the day; burned at the cross the acts of parliament in favour of
prelacy, and for suppression of conventicles, as well as those acts
of council, which regulated the indulgence granted to presbyterians.
Against all these acts they entered their solemn protest, or testimony,
as they called it; and, having affixed it to the cross, concluded with
prayer and psalms. Being now joined by a large body of foot, so that
their strength seems to have amounted to five or six hundred men, though
very indifferently armed, they encamped upon Loudoun Hill. Claverhouse,
who was in garrison at Glasgow, instantly marched against the
insurgents, at the head of his own troop of cavalry and others,
amounting to about one hundred and fifty men. He arrived at Hamilton,
on the 1st of June, so unexpectedly, as to make prisoner John King, a
famous preacher among the wanderers; and rapidly continued his march,
carrying his captive along with him, till he came to the village of
Drumclog, about a mile east of Loudoun Hill, and twelve miles south-west
of Hamilton. At some distance from this place, the insurgents were
skilfully posted in a boggy strait, almost inaccessible to cavalry,
having a broad ditch in their front. Claverhouse's dragoons discharged
their carabines, and made an attempt to charge; but the nature of the
ground threw them into total disorder. Burly, who commanded the handful
of horse belonging to the whigs, instantly led them down on the
disordered squadrons of Claverhouse, who were, at the same time,
vigorously assaulted by the foot, headed by the gallant Cleland,[A] and
the enthusiastic Hackston. Claverhouse himself was forced to fly, and
was in the utmost