rded little advantage to either party, except that it allowed
the horse of the Covenanters to act with effect.

A battle upon which so much depended, was never more easily decided.
The Lowland cavalry made a show of charging; but, whether thrown into
disorder by the fire of musketry, or deterred by a disaffection to
the service said to have prevailed among the gentlemen, they made no
impression on the Highlanders whatever, and recoiled in disorder from
ranks which had neither bayonets nor pikes to protect them. Montrose
saw, and instantly availed himself of this advantage. He ordered his
whole army to charge, which they performed with the wild and desperate
valour peculiar to mountaineers. One officer of the Covenanters alone,
trained in the Italian wars, made a desperate defence upon the right
wing. In every other point their line was penetrated at the first onset;
and this advantage once obtained, the Lowlanders were utterly unable to
contend at close quarters with their more agile and athletic enemies.
Many were slain on the held, and such a number in the pursuit, that
above one-third of the Covenanters were reported to have fallen; in
which number, however, must be computed a great many fat burgesses who
broke their wind in the flight, and thus died without stroke of sword.
[We choose to quote our authority for a fact so singular:--"A great many
burgesses were killed--twenty-five householders in St. Andrews--many
were bursten in the flight, and died without stroke."--See Baillie's
Letters, vol. ii. page 92.]

The victors obtained possession of Perth, and obtained considerable sums
of money, as well as ample supplies of arms and ammunition. But
those advantages were to be balanced against an almost insurmountable
inconvenience that uniformly attended a Highland army. The clans could
be in no respect induced to consider themselves as regular soldiers,
or to act as such. Even so late as the year 1745-6, when the Chevalier
Charles Edward, by way of making an example, caused a soldier to be shot
for desertion, the Highlanders, who composed his army, were affected as
much by indignation as by fear. They could not conceive any principle
of justice upon which a man's life could be taken, for merely going home
when it did not suit him to remain longer with the army. Such had been
the uniform practice of their fathers. When a battle was over, the
campaign was, in their opinion, ended; if it was lost, they sought
safety in th