st 24, calling on all Scotsmen
to arm in support of the new league and covenant.--See p. 36.]

Both Antrim and Montrose professed themselves the personal enemies of
the earl of Argyle, appointed by the Scottish estates lieutenant of the
kingdom; and they speedily arranged a plan, which possessed the double
merit of combining the interest of the king with the gratification of
private revenge. Having obtained the royal commission,[1] Antrim proceeded
to Ulster, raised eleven or fifteen hundred men among his dependants, and
despatched them to the opposite coast of Scotland under the command of his
kinsman Alaster Macdonald, surnamed Colkitto.[2] They landed at Knoydart:
the destruction of their ships in Loch Eishord, by a hostile fleet,
deprived them of the means of returning to Ireland; and Argyle with a
superior force cautiously watched their motions.[a] From the Scottish
royalists they received no aid; yet Macdonald marched as far as Badenoch,
inflicting severe injuries on the Covenanters, but exposed to destruction
from the increasing multitude of his foes. In the mean time, Montrose,
with the rank of lieutenant-general, had unfurled the royal standard at
Dumfries;[b] but with so little success, that he hastily retraced his steps
to Carlisle, where by several daring actions he rendered such services to
the royal cause, that he received the title of marquess from the gratitude
of the king. But the fatal battle of Marston Moor induced him to turn his
thoughts once more towards Scotland;[c] and having ordered his followers to
proceed to Oxford, on

[Footnote 1: He was authorized to treat with the confederate Catholics for
ten thousand men; if their demands were too high, to raise as many men as
he could and send them to the king; to procure the loan of two thousand men
to be landed in Scotland; and to offer Monroe, the Scottish commander, the
rank of earl and a pension of two thousand pounds per annum, if with his
army he would join the royalists. Jan. 20, 1644.--Clarendon Papers, ii.
165.]

[Footnote 2: MacColl Keitache, son of Coll, the left-handed.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. July 8.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. April 13.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. May 6.]

the third day he silently withdrew with only two companions, and soon
afterwards reached in the disguise of a groom the foot of the Grampian
Hills. There he received intelligence of the proceedings of Macdonald,
and appointed to join him in Athole.[a] At the castle o