Ayrsmoss lies in the heart of a wide solitude.  The eye takes in a wild, broken surface in all directions.  Loneliness broods in the very air.  The heart grows heavy and the eyes dreamy, while we sit on a tuft of rushes and gaze at the monument that bears the names of the worthy dead.  Reverie readily rehabilitates the landscape, and, in vision, the field is covered again with the horrors of the engagement.  The horsemen are dashing upon each other, the air is shattered with the discharge of guns, swords are flashing in the evening sunlight, men are falling, blood is flowing, the Covenanters are fleeing, and—­Cameron lies on the field dead.

Richard Cameron had sounded the keynote of freedom, that reverberated all over Scotland, and down into England, and over into Holland, and at length struck the ears of William, Prince of Orange.  Cameron and his Covenanted associates, having disowned the authority of King Charles, disputed by force of arms his right to reign.  They had preferred three charges against him.  These were: 

(1) Perjury; (2) Usurpation; (3) Tyranny.

The king had grossly violated the Covenant to which he had given his oath.  The Covenant was the Scottish Constitution of government, and the wilful subversion of it was treason.

He had usurped authority over the Church, posing in the prerogatives of the Lord Jesus Christ and trampling on the people’s rights in the worship of God.

He had impoverished, imprisoned, exiled, and even slaughtered his subjects in great numbers, without other fault than their refusal to submit conscience to his tyrannic will.

Therefore, as perjurer, usurper, and tyrant, he must face the arbitrament of war.  The proclamation has been published; the dauntless sons of the Covenant have forced the issue.  In the name of the Lord of hosts they have unfurled the Banner for Christ’s Crown and Covenant.  It may often be torn with bullets and stained with blood, but it will never be folded till the cause of Christ and freedom prevail.  These Covenanters have resolved “to continue the struggle till they overcome, or hand it down to posterity, that each generation may begin where the last ended.”  Such was the solemn bond that bound these Covenanters by their own voluntary action one to another, and all to God and freedom in the worship of God through Jesus Christ.  It also joined all coming generations into an indivisible and invincible solidarity for the defence of liberty, the triumph of righteousness, and the glory of Christ in His Church.

The Declaration of war had been proclaimed in Sanquhar.  There Cameron with his band of twenty-one men appealed to the God of battles and grasped the sword.  They stood a few moments gazing solemnly at their Declaration, now nailed to a post and speaking to the nation.  Holding their horses by the bridle, they tarried long enough to sing a Psalm to the God of nations, then mounted.  Ere the tramp of their steeds had died away on the streets of Sanquhar, the news of the daring deed was spreading over the hills.  The royal army, more than 10,000 strong, was quickly on the track of these daring revolutionists.