nt of the town of Dumblane, they discovered the enemy on the
height of the west end of the Sherriff Muir. A council of war was then
held, and it was resolved, _nemine contradicente_, to fight.

The Earl of Mar's forces had also been ready for combat during the whole
of the night. To the Highlanders the want of shelter was of little
consequence. It was usual to them, before they lay down on the moor to
dip their plaids in water, by which the cloth was made impervious to the
wind; and to choose, as a favourite and luxurious resting-place, some
spot underneath a cover of overhanging heath. So late as the year 1745,
they could not be prevailed on to use seats.[109] It was therefore with
unimpaired vigour that they rushed on to the combat.

The Earl of Mar placed himself at the head of the clans: perhaps a
finer, a more singular, a more painful sight can rarely have been
witnessed than the rush of this great body of Highlanders to the
encounter. It was delayed by the Earl of Mar's despatching his
aide-de-camp, Colonel Clephan, to Lord Drummond, and to General Gordon,
with orders to march and attack immediately. On their return, pulling
off his hat, he waved it with an huzza, and advanced in front of the
enemy's formed battalions. Then was heard the _slogan_ or war-cry, each
clan having its own distinctive watch-word, to which every clansman
responded, whether his ear caught the sound in the dead of night, or in
the confusion of the combat. Distinguished by particular badges, and by
the peculiar arrangement and colours of the tartans, these devoted men
followed the Earl of Mar towards the foe.

But the action cannot be described in a manner better adapted to this
narrative, than in the words of Lord Mar himself, in his letter on the
very day of the engagement, to Colonel Balfour, whom he had left in
command of the garrison at Perth. It is dated Ardoch, November 13th,
1715.

"Ardoch, Nov. 13th, 1715."

"I thought you would be anxious to know the fate of this day. We
attacked the enemy on the end of the Sherriff Muir, at twelve of the
clock this day, on our right and centre; carried the day entirely;
pursued them down to a little hill on the south of Dumblane; and
there I got most of our horse and a pretty good number of our foot,
and brought them again into some order. We knew not then what was
become of our left, so we returned to the field of battl