[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1645.  June 28.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1645.  July 21.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1645.  July 25.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1645.  July 31.]

this persuasion, he pictured to himself the wonderful things to be achieved by the gallantry of Montrose in Scotland, and looked forward with daily impatience to the arrival of an imaginary army of twenty thousand men from Ireland.  But from such dreams he was soon awakened by the rapid increase of disaffection in the population around him, and by the rumoured advance of the Scots to besiege the city of Hereford.  From Cardiff he hastily crossed the kingdom to Newark.  Learning that the Scottish cavalry were in pursuit, he[a] left Newark, burst into the associated counties, ravaged the lands of his enemies, took the town of Huntingdon,[b] and at last reached in safety his court at Oxford.[c] It was not that in this expedition he had in view any particular object.  His utmost ambition was, by wandering from place to place, to preserve himself from falling into the hands of his enemies before the winter.  In that season the severity of the weather would afford him sufficient protection, and he doubted not, that against the spring the victories of Montrose, the pacification of Ireland, and the compassion of his foreign allies, would enable him to resume hostilities with a powerful army, and with more flattering prospects of success.[1]

At Oxford Charles heard of the victory gained at Kilsyth, in the neighbourhood of Stirling, by Montrose, who, if he had been compelled to retreat from Dundee, was still able to maintain the superiority in the Highlands.  The first who ventured to measure[d] swords with the Scottish hero was the veteran general

[Footnote 1:  Clarendon, ii. 677.  Rushw. vi. 131.  Carte’s Ormond, iii. 415, 416, 418, 420, 423, 427.  Baillie, ii, 152.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1645.  August 21.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1645.  August 24.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1645.  August 28.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1645.  May 5.]

Hurry:  but the assailant fled from the conflict at Auldearn, and saved himself, with the small remnant of his force, within the walls of Inverness.  To Hurry[a] succeeded with similar fortune Baillie, the commander-in-chief.  The battle was fought at Alford, in the shire of Aberdeen; and few, besides the principal officers and the cavalry, escaped from the slaughter.  A new army of ten thousand men was collected:  four days were spent in fasting and prayer; and the host of God marched to trample under foot the host of the king.  But the experience of their leader was controlled by the presumption of the committee of estates; and he, in submission to their orders, marshalled his men in a position near Kilsyth:  his cavalry was broken by the[b] royalists at the first charge; the infantry fled without a blow, and about five thousand of the fugitives are said to have perished in the pursuit, which was continued for fourteen or twenty miles.[1] This victory placed