de, as
those regiments were called which upwards of a century before the new
Protestant enthusiasm of England had raised to support Holland against
the tyranny of Spain. He was a good man, a brave if not a dashing
soldier, a prudent tactician, and well skilled in all the machinery of
war.

Mackay at first contented himself with sending Livingstone and his
dragoons after Dundee, while he turned his attention to Gordon, who was
still maintaining some show of resistance in the castle. But Livingstone
was too late. He found the nest warm, but the bird had flown. Dundee had
gone northwards over the Grampians into the Gordons' country, where the
Earl of Dunfermline, the Duke's brother-in-law, at once joined him with
a most welcome addition to his little band of troopers. Mackay foresaw
that the Highlands were to be the real scene of operations, and that no
danger need be apprehended from the vapouring Gordon. He sent word,
therefore, to Livingstone to await him in Dundee, and marched himself
for that place with some two hundred of his own brigade and one hundred
and twenty of Lord Colchester's dragoons.[79]

It is as difficult for the reader to follow Dundee through these April
days as Mackay found it. In the sounding hexameters of the "Grameis,"
his movements are indeed described with more labour than lucidity; but
at this early stage of the campaign it is not necessary to track him
over every mountain and river, and by every town and castle.[80] It will
be enough to say that in an incredibly short space of time he beat up
for recruits the greater part of the counties of Aberdeen, Inverness,
and Perth, while the bewildered Mackay, whose training and troops were
alike unfitted to this sort of campaigning, toiled after him in vain. He
also found time for a flying visit to Dudhope, where his wife had been
safely delivered of a son. He can have stayed with her but a day at
most; and when he left her, he was to see her face no more.

From Dudhope Dundee crossed the Grampians again for Inverness. Here it
had been arranged for him to meet Keppoch and the promised escort of
Highlanders. And here, accordingly, he found them; but he also found a
state of things which gave him a lively foretaste of the character and
conduct of his new allies.

Between the clan of Macdonald and the clan of Mackintosh there had
existed for many centuries a deadly feud, the exact origin of which had
long been lost in the mists of fable. On the other h