rst proposal."

They then saluted and parted.

"That is a pretty lad, Lumley," said Claverhouse, addressing himself to
the other officer; "but he is a lost man--his blood be upon his head."

So saying, he addressed himself to the task of preparation for instant
battle.

CHAPTER X.

But, hark! the tent has changed its voice,
There's peace and rest nae langer.
Burns.

The Lowdien Mallisha they
Came with their coats of blew;
Five hundred men from London came,
Claid in a reddish hue.
Bothwell Lines.

When Morton had left the well-ordered outposts of the regular army, and
arrived at those which were maintained by his own party, he could not but
be peculiarly sensible of the difference of discipline, and entertain a
proportional degree of fear for the consequences. The same discords which
agitated the counsels of the insurgents, raged even among their meanest
followers; and their picquets and patrols were more interested and
occupied in disputing the true occasion and causes of wrath, and defining
the limits of Erastian heresy, than in looking out for and observing the
motions of their enemies, though within hearing of the royal drums and
trumpets.

There was a guard, however, of the insurgent army, posted at the long and
narrow bridge of Bothwell, over which the enemy must necessarily advance
to the attack; but, like the others, they were divided and disheartened;
and, entertaining the idea that they were posted on a desperate service,
they even meditated withdrawing themselves to the main body. This would
have been utter ruin; for, on the defence or loss of this pass the
fortune of the day was most likely to depend. All beyond the bridge was a
plain open field, excepting a few thickets of no great depth, and,
consequently, was ground on which the undisciplined forces of the
insurgents, deficient as they were in cavalry, and totally unprovided
with artillery, were altogether unlikely to withstand the shock of
regular troops.

Morton, therefore, viewed the pass carefully, and formed the hope, that
by occupying two or three houses on the left bank of the river, with the
copse and thickets of alders and hazels that lined its side, and by
blockading the passage itself, and shutting the gates of a portal, which,
according to the old