the army from each other.  On the right the Macdonalds and Macleans saw Clanranald fall, and on Glengarry’s cry, “Vengeance to-day!” they charged with the claymore and swept away the regulars of Argyll as at Killiecrankie and Prestonpans.  But, as the clans pursued and slew, their officers whispered that their own centre and left were broken and flying.  Argyll had driven them to Allan Water; his force, returning, came within close range of the victorious right of Mar.  “Oh, for one hour of Dundee!” cried Gordon of Glenbucket, but neither party advanced to the shock.  Argyll retired safely to Dunblane, while Mar deserted his guns and powder-carts, and hurried to Perth.  He had lost the gallant young Earl of Strathmore and the brave Clanranald; on Argyll’s side his brother Islay was wounded, and the Earl of Forfar was slain.  Though it was a drawn battle, it proved that Mar could not move:  his forces began to scatter; Huntly was said to have behaved ill.  It was known that Dutch auxiliaries were to reinforce Argyll, and men began to try to make terms of surrender.  Huntly rode off to his own country, and on December 22 (old style) James landed at Peterhead.

James had no lack of personal courage.  He had charged again and again at Malplaquet with the Household cavalry of Louis XIV., and he had encountered great dangers of assassination on his way to St Malo.  But constant adversity had made him despondent and resigned, while he saw facts as they really were with a sad lucidity.  When he arrived in his kingdom the Whig clans of the north had daunted Seaforth’s Mackenzies, while in the south Argyll, with his Dutch and other fresh reinforcements, had driven Mar’s men out of Fife.  Writing to Bolingbroke, James described the situation.  Mar, with scarcely any ammunition, was facing Argyll with 11,000 men; the north was held in force by the Whig clans, Mackays, Rosses, Munroes, and Frazers; deep snow alone delayed the advance of Argyll, now stimulated by the hostile Cadogan, Marlborough’s favourite, and it was perfectly plain that all was lost.

For the head of James 100,000 pounds was offered by Hanoverian chivalry:  he was suffering from fever and ague; the Spanish gold that had at last been sent to him was lost at sea off Dundee, and it is no wonder that James, never gay, presented to his troops a disconsolate and discouraging aspect.

On January 29 his army evacuated Perth; James wept at the order to burn the villages on Argyll’s line of march, and made a futile effort to compensate the people injured.  From Montrose (February 3-14) he wrote for aid to the French Regent, but next day, urged by Mar, and unknown to his army, he, with Mar, set sail for France.  This evasion was doubtless caused by a circumstance unusual in warfare:  there was a price of 100,000 pounds on James’s head, moreover his force had not one day’s supply of powder.  Marshal Keith (brother of the Earl Marischal who retreated to the isles) says that perhaps one