reenforced by the earl of
Lothian, was behind him with a great army: the militia of the northern
counties, Murray, Ross, Caithness, to the number of five thousand men,
opposed him in front, and guarded the banks of the Spey, a deep and
rapid river. In order to elude these numerous armies, he turned aside
into the hills, and saved his weak but active troops in Badenoch.
After some marches and countermarches, Argyle came up with him at Faivy
Castle. This nobleman's character, though celebrated for political
courage and conduct, was very low for military prowess, and after some
skirmishes, in which he was worsted, he here allowed Montrose to escape
him. By quick marches through these inaccessible mountains, that general
freed himself from the superior forces of the Covenanters.

Such was the situation of Montrose, that very good or very ill fortune
was equally destructive to him, and diminished his army. After every
victory, his soldiers, greedy of spoil, but deeming the smallest
acquisition to be unexhausted riches, deserted in great numbers, and
went home to secure the treasures which they had acquired. Tired too,
and spent with hasty and long marches in the depth of winter, through
snowy mountains, unprovided with every necessary, they fell off, and
left their general almost alone with the Irish, who, having no place to
which they could retire, still adhered to him in every fortune.

With these, and some reenforcements of the Atholemen and Macdonalds whom
he had recalled, Montrose fell suddenly upon Argyle's country, and let
loose upon it all the rage of war; carrying off the cattle, burning
the houses, and putting the inhabitants to the sword. This severity,
by which Montrose sullied his victories, was the result of private
animosity against the chieftain, as much as of zeal for the public
cause, Argyle, collecting three thousand men, marched in quest of the
enemy, who had retired with their plunder; and he lay at Innerlochy,
supposing himself still at a considerable distance from them. The earl
of Seaforth, at the head of the garrison of Inverness, who were veteran
soldiers, joined to five thousand new levied troops of the northern
counties, pressed the royalists on the other side, and threatened them
with inevitable destruction. By a quick and unexpected march, Montrose
hastened to Innerlochy, and presented himself in order of battle before
the surprised but not affrightened Covenanters. Argyle alone, seized
with a