[83] It is doubtful who this officer was.  Mackay, in his memoirs, says it was William Livingstone, calling him either a coward or a traitor for not showing fight.  If Livingstone it was, he may not have felt sure enough of the men who were left with him to join Dundee in so open a manner, and to fight was not his cue.  But another account puts one Captain Balfour in command.  The whole account of the affair is even more confused than are most of Dundee’s exploits.  But that he did make a demonstration of some sort against the town is proved by the Minutes of the Estates.

[84] None of his previous despatches from the Highlands are in existence.

[85] Robert Young of Auldbar had married Dundee’s youngest sister, Anne.

[86] The Duke of Gordon surrendered the Castle of Edinburgh on June 13th, after a resistance which towards the end assumed the character almost of a burlesque.

[87] Sir George Mackenzie.

[88] Gilbert Burnet, the bishop.  His wife was a sister of Lord Cassilis.

[89] On Dundee’s retreat from Badenoch, some of his men who had straggled for plunder had been caught and hung by Gordon of Edenglassie, Sheriff of Banff.

CHAPTER XI.

Mackay had now decided on a new plan of campaign.  He would apply to the service of war a device employed by the Highlanders in the chase, and put in practice against them their own tactics of the tinchel.[90] A chain of fortified posts was to be established among the Grampians, and at various commanding points in Invernessshire.  On the west a strong garrison was to be placed in the castle of Inverlochy, the northernmost point of Argyle’s country overlooking the stronghold of the Camerons.  A small fleet of armed frigates drawing a light draft was to cruise off the western coasts, and to watch those dangerous islands whence issued the long war-galleys of the Macdonalds and the Macleans.  Stores and transport enough to keep a considerable force in the field for one month was to be collected; and a skilled body of pioneers, equipped with all the tools necessary for road-making, was to accompany the column.

Having already sketched out this plan in a letter to Hamilton, Mackay was in hopes to find on his arrival in Edinburgh that measures had been begun to put it into operation.  He was grievously disappointed.  He found nothing but quarrels and intrigues in the Parliament House and out of it.  Each man was too intent on out-manoeuvring his neighbour in the great struggle for place, to spare a thought for a foe who was happily separated from them by a vast barrier of mountains and many hundreds of miles of barren moorland, deep waters, and dense forests.  He saw that his plan for subduing the warriors of the Highlands must wait till the Lowland politicians were at leisure to listen to him; yet he determined to return to his duty, and to do his best with such means as he could find or make for himself.  It was possible that Argyle might now have sufficiently repaired his affairs to be able to render some assistance from the West; and there was an ally in Perthshire who might, if he would, prove of even more value than Argyle.[91]