ency to the Revolution party,
who further proceeded to strengthen their position by inviting to
Edinburgh large bodies of the armed population of the west. After
defending for several days the cause of his master with as much
eloquence as vigour, Dundee, finding that the majority of the Convention
were resolved to offer the crown of Scotland to the Prince, and having
moreover received sure information that some of the wild fanatic Whigs,
with Daniel Ker of Kersland at their head, had formed a plot for his
assassination, quitted Edinburgh with about fifty horsemen, and, after a
short interview--celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in one of his grandest
ballads--with the Duke of Gordon at the Castle Rock, directed his steps
towards the north. After a short stay at his house of Duddope, during
which he received, by order of the Council, who were thoroughly alarmed
at his absence, a summons through a Lyon herald to return to Edinburgh
under pain of high treason, he passed into the Gordon country, where he
was joined by the Earl of Dunfermline with a small party of about sixty
horse. His retreat was timeous, for General Mackay, who commanded for
the Prince of Orange, had despatched a strong force, with instructions
to make him prisoner. From this time, until the day of his death, he
allowed himself no repose. Imitating the example, and inheriting the
enthusiasm of his great predecessor Montrose, he invoked the loyalty of
the clans to assist him in the struggle for legitimacy--and he did not
appeal to them in vain. His name was a spell to rouse the ardent spirits
of the mountaineers; and not the Great Marquis himself, in the height of
his renown, was more sincerely welcomed and more fondly loved than "Ian
dhu nan Cath,"--Dark John of the Battles,--the name by which Lord Dundee
is still remembered in Highland song. In the mean time the Convention,
terrified at their danger, and dreading a Highland inroad, had
despatched Mackay, a military officer of great experience, with a
considerable body of troops, to quell the threatened insurrection. He
was encountered by Dundee, and compelled to evacuate the high country
and fall back upon the Lowlands, where he subsequently received
reinforcements, and again marched northward. The Highland host was
assembled at Blair, though not in great force, when the news of Mackay's
advance arrived; and a council of the chiefs and officers was summoned,
to determine whether it would be most advisable to f