states, indeed, that after that imprudent division of the army of the Covenant which opened the way to the disaster at Auldern, Hurry surprised and routed at Cromdale a body of Highlanders under the lion-hearted Allaster Macdonald. But this check appears, by his own language, to have been too slight an affair to call forth such verses as those with which the ballad begins. See Hogg's Jacobite Relics, ii. 157, Johnson's Museum (1853), iv. 428.
As I came in by Achendown,
A little wee bit frae the town,
When to the highlands I was bown,
To view the haws of Cromdale,
I met a man in tartan trews,5
I spier'd at him what was the news:
Quoth he, "The highland army rues
That e'er we came to Cromdale."
"We were in bed, sir, every man,
When the English host upon us came;10
A bloody battle then began
Upon the haws of Cromdale.
"The English horse they were so rude,
They bath'd their hoofs in highland blood,
But our brave clans they boldly stood,15
Upon the haws of Cromdale.
"But alas! we could no longer stay,
For o'er the hills we came away,
And sore we do lament the day
That e'er we came to Cromdale."20
Thus the great Montrose did say,
"Can you direct the nearest way?
For I will o'er the hills this day,
And view the haws of Cromdale."
"Alas, my lord, you're not so strong;25
You scarcely have two thousand men,
And there's twenty thousand on the plain,
Stand rank and file on Cromdale."