in war and in politics, and the
superior advantages acquired by the former, had made them the subject
of envy and dislike to the neighbouring family, who, conscious of equal
desert, had not been so richly rewarded. This was not all. The existing
heads of these rival families had stood in the most marked opposition to
each other since the commencement of the present troubles.

Montrose, conscious of the superiority of his talents, and of having
rendered great service to the Covenanters at the beginning of the war,
had expected from that party the supereminence of council and command,
which they judged it safer to intrust to the more limited faculties,
and more extensive power, of his rival Argyle. The having awarded this
preference, was an injury which Montrose never forgave the Covenanters;
and he was still less likely to extend his pardon to Argyle, to whom
he had been postponed. He was therefore stimulated by every feeling of
hatred which could animate a fiery temper in a fierce age, to seek for
revenge upon the enemy of his house and person; and it is probable that
these private motives operated not a little upon his mind, when he found
the principal part of his followers determined rather to undertake an
expedition against the territories of Argyle, than to take the far more
decisive step of descending at once into the Lowlands.

Yet whatever temptation Montrose found to carry into effect his attack
upon Argyleshire, he could not easily bring himself to renounce the
splendid achievement of a descent upon the Lowlands. He held more than
one council with the principal Chiefs, combating, perhaps, his own
secret inclination as well as theirs. He laid before them the extreme
difficulty of marching even a Highland army from the eastward into
Argyleshire, through passes scarcely practicable for shepherds and
deer-stalkers, and over mountains, with which even the clans lying
nearest to them did not pretend to be thoroughly acquainted. These
difficulties were greatly enhanced by the season of the year, which was
now advancing towards December, when the mountain-passes, in themselves
so difficult, might be expected to be rendered utterly impassable by
snowstorms. These objections neither satisfied nor silenced the Chiefs,
who insisted upon their ancient mode of making war, by driving the
cattle, which, according to the Gaelic phrase, "fed upon the grass
of their enemy." The council was dismissed late at night, and without
c