ause, or person. Still more extraordinary does it
appear, that, even with the advantage of a thick mist, Lesly should
have, the next morning, advanced towards Montrose's encampment without
being descried by a single scout. Such, however, was the case, and it
was attended with all the consequences of the most complete surprisal.
The first intimation that Montrose received of the march of Lesly,
was the noise of the conflict, or, rather, that which attended the
unresisted slaughter of his infantry, who never formed a line of battle:
the right wing alone, supported by the thickets of Harehead-wood, and
by the entrenchments which are there still visible, stood firm for some
time. But Lesly had detached two thousand men, who, crossing the Ettrick
still higher up than his main body, assaulted the rear of Montrose's
right wing. At this moment, the marquis himself arrived, and beheld
his army dispersed, for the first time, in irretrievable route. He
had thrown himself upon a horse the instant he heard the firing, and,
followed by such of his disorderly cavalry as had gathered upon the
alarm, he galloped from Selkirk, crossed the Ettrick, and made a bold
and desperate attempt to retrieve the fortune of the day. But all was
in vain; and, after cutting his way, almost singly, through a body of
Lesly's troopers, the gallant Montrose graced by his example the
retreat of the fugitives. That retreat he continued up Yarrow, and over
Minch-moor; nor did he stop till he arrived at Traquair, sixteen miles
from the field of battle. Upon Philiphaugh he lost, in one defeat, the
fruit of six splendid victories: nor was he again able effectually to
make head, in Scotland, against the covenanted cause. The number slain
in the field did not exceed three or four hundred; for the fugitives
found refuge in the mountains, which had often been the retreat of
vanquished armies, and were impervious to the pursuer's cavalry. Lesly
abused his victory, and dishonoured his arms, by slaughtering, in cold
blood, many of the prisoners whom he had taken; and the court-yard of
Newark castle is said to have been the spot, upon which they were
shot by his command. Many others are said, by Wishart, to have been
precipitated from a high bridge over the Tweed. This, as Mr Laing
remarks, is impossible; because there was not a bridge over the Tweed
betwixt Peebles and Berwick. But there is an old bridge, over the
Ettrick, only four miles from Philiphaugh, and another ov