would
be lost. The claymores would not have room for their work, and half the
column would escape. They must fight on open ground and on fair terms,
as Montrose would have fought.[97]

There was no more opposition. The word for battle went through the
clans, and was hailed with universal delight. Then Lochiel spoke again.
He had always, he said, promised implicit obedience to Dundee, and he
had kept his promise; but for once he should command. "It is the voice
of your Council," he went on, "and their orders are that you do not
engage personally. Your Lordship's business is to have an eye on all
parts, and to issue out your commands as you shall think proper. It is
ours to execute them with promptitude and courage. On you depends the
fate not only of this little brave army, but also of our King and
country." He finished by threatening that neither he nor any of his clan
should draw sword that day unless his request were granted. Dundee
answered that he knew his life to be at that moment of some importance,
but he could not on that day of all days refuse to hazard it. The
Highlanders would never again obey in council a general whom they
thought afraid to lead them in war. Hereafter he would do as Lochiel
advised, but he must charge at the head of his men in their first
battle. "Give me," he concluded, "one _Shear-Darg_ (harvest-day's work)
for the King, my master, that I may show the brave clans that I can
hazard my life in that service as freely as the meanest of them."[98]

Mackay had reached the mouth of the pass at ten in the morning. Here he
found Murray and his little band, who had not judged it prudent to
remain longer in the neighbourhood of Blair. Two hundred picked men were
accordingly sent forward to reconnoitre under Colonel Lauder; and at
noon, the ground having been reported clear in front, the whole column
advanced.

The pass of Killiecrankie is now almost as familiar to the Southron as
to the Highlander. It forms the highest and narrowest part of a
magnificent wooded defile in which the waters of the Tummel flowing
eastward from Loch Rannoch meet the waters of the Garry as it plunges
down from the Grampians. Along one of the best roads in the kingdom, or
by the swift and comfortable service of the Highland railway, the
traveller ascends by easy gradations from Pitlochrie, through the
beautiful grounds of Faskally to the little village and station of
Killiecrankie, where a guide earns an unlaborious liv