Accordingly, on the following day, the Athole-men, to the number of about 800, consisting chiefly of the Stewarts and Robertsons, put themselves under arms and flocked to the standard of Montrose. Thus, in little more than twenty-four hours, Montrose saw himself at the head of a force of upwards of 2,000 men, animated by an enthusiastic attachment to his person and to the cause which he had espoused. The extraordinary contrast between his present commanding position, and the situation in which he was placed a few days before, as a forlorn wanderer among the mountains, produced a powerful effect upon the daring and chivalrous spirit of Montrose, who looked forward to the success of his enterprise with the eagerness of a man who considered the destinies of his sovereign as altogether depending upon his individual exertions. Impressed with the necessity of acting with promptitude, he did not hesitate long as to the course he should pursue. He might have immediately gone in quest of Argyle, who had followed the army of Macdonald, with slow and cautious steps, and by one of those sudden movements which no man knew better how to execute with advantage, surprised and defeated his adversary; but such a plan did not accord with the designs of Montrose, who resolved to open the campaign at once in the lowlands, and thus give confidence to the friends and supporters of the king.
The general opinion which the Lowlanders of this period entertained regarding their upland neighbours was not very respectful. A covenanting wit, in a poem which he wrote against the bishops only a few years before, says of one whose extraction was from the other side of the Grampians,
“A bishop and a Highlandman, how can’st thou honest be?”
as if these two qualifications were of themselves sufficient, without any known vice, to put a man completely beyond the pale of virtue. It seems, indeed, to have been a general belief at the time that this primitive and sequestered people, as they were avowedly out of the saving circle of the Covenant, were also out of the limits of both law and religion, and therefore hopelessly and utterly given up to all sorts of wickedness. Not only were murder and robbery among the list of offences which they were accused of daily committing, but there even seems to have been a popular idea that sorcery was a prevailing crime amongst them. They were also charged with a general inclination to popery, an offence which, from the alarms and superstitions of the time, had now come, in general phraseology, to signify a condensation of all others. Along with this horrible notion of the mountaineers, there was not associated the slightest idea of their ardent and chivalrous character; nor was there any general sensation of terror for the power which they undoubtedly possessed of annoying the peaceful inhabitants, and thwarting the policy of the Low country, no considerable body of Highlanders having been there seen in arms for several generations.
In pursuance of his determination, Montrose put his small army in motion the same day towards Strathearn, in passing through which he expected to be joined by some of the inhabitants of that and the adjoining country. At the same time he sent forward a messenger with a friendly notice to the Menzieses of his intention to pass through their country, but instead of taking this in good part they maltreated the messenger and harassed the rear of his army. This unprovoked attack so exasperated Montrose, that he ordered his men, when passing by Weem castle, which belonged to the clan Menzies, to plunder and lay waste their lands, and to burn their houses, an order which was literally obeyed. He expected that this example of summary vengeance would serve as a useful lesson to deter others, who might be disposed to imitate the conduct of the Menzieses, from following a similar course. Notwithstanding the time spent in making these reprisals, Montrose passed the Tay with a part of his forces the same evening, and the remainder followed very early the next morning. He had, at the special request of the Athole-men themselves, placed them under the command of his kinsman, Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie, and he now sent him forward with a select party to reconnoitre. Inchbrakie soon returned with information that he had observed a party of armed men stationed upon the hill of Buchanty. On inquiry, Montrose ascertained that this body was commanded by Lord Kilpont, eldest son of the Earl of Menteith, and by Sir John Drummond, son of the Earl of Perth, both of whom were his relations. The force in question, which consisted of about 500 men, was on its way to Perth to join the other covenanting troops who were stationed there. Montrose immediately marched up to this body, with the intention, if he could not prevail on them to join him, of attacking them, but before he had approached sufficiently near, Lord Kilpont, who had ascertained that Montrose commanded, sent some of his principal officers to him to ascertain what his object was in thus advancing. Montrose having explained his views and stated that he acted by the king’s authority, and having entreated them to return to their allegiance, they and the whole of their party immediately joined him. This new accession augmented Montrose’s army to about 3,000 men.
Montrose now learned from his new allies that the Covenanters had assembled their forces in great numbers at Perth, and that they lay there waiting for his approach. The covenanting army, in fact, was more than double that of Montrose, amounting to about 6,000 foot and 700 horse, to which were attached four pieces of artillery. Montrose, on the other hand, had not a single horseman, and but three horses, two of which were for his own use, and the other for that of Sir William Rollock, and besides he had no artillery. Yet with such a decided disparity, Montrose resolved to march directly to Perth and attack the enemy. He appears to have been influenced in this resolution by the consideration of the proximity of Argyle with his army, and the danger in which he would be placed by being hemmed in by two hostile armies: he could expect to avoid such an embarrassment only by risking an immediate engagement.
As the day was too far advanced to proceed to Perth, Montrose ordered his men to bivouac during the night about three miles from Buchanty, and began his march by dawn of day. As soon as Lord Elcho, the commander of the covenanting army, heard of Montrose’s approach, he left Perth and drew up his army on Tippermuir, a plain of some extent between four and five miles west from the town. Reserving to himself the command of the right wing, he committed the charge of the left to Sir James Scott, an able and skilful officer, who had served with great honour in the Venetian army; and to the Earl of Tullibardine he intrusted the command of the centre. The horse were divided and placed on each wing with the view of surrounding the army of Montrose, should he venture to attack them in their position. As soon as Montrose perceived the enemy thus drawn up in battle array, he made the necessary dispositions for attacking them. To counteract as much as possible the danger arising to such a small body of men, unprotected by cavalry, from the extended line of the Covenanters, Montrose endeavoured to make his line as extensive as possible with safety, by limiting his files to three men deep. As the Irish had neither swords nor pikes to oppose the cavalry, they were stationed in the centre of the line, and the Highlanders, who were provided with swords and Lochaber axes, were placed on the wings, as better fitted to resist the attacks of the cavalry. Some of the Highlanders were, however, quite destitute of arms of every description, and it is related on the authority of an eye-witness that Montrose, seeing their helpless condition, thus quaintly addressed them:—“It is true you have no arms; your enemies, however, have plenty. My advice, therefore, is, that as there happens to be a great abundance of stones upon this moor, every man should provide himself, in the first place, with as stout a stone as he can well manage, rush up to the first Covenanter he meets, beat out his brains, take his sword, and then, I believe, he will be at no loss how to proceed.”[258] This advice, as will be seen, was really acted upon. As Montrose was almost destitute of powder, he ordered the Irish forces to husband their fire till they should come close to the enemy, and after a simultaneous discharge from the three ranks, (the front rank kneeling,) to assail the enemy thereafter as they best could. To oppose the left wing of the Covenanters, commanded by Sir James Scott, Montrose took upon himself the command of his own right, placing Lord Kilpont at the head of the left, and Macdonald, his major-general, over the centre.
During the progress of these arrangements, Montrose despatched an accomplished young nobleman, named Drummond, eldest son of Lord Maderty, with a message to the chiefs of the Covenanters’ army, entreating them to lay down their arms and return to their duty and obedience to their sovereign. Instead, however, of returning any answer to this message, they seized the messenger, and sent him to Perth under an escort, with an intimation that, on obtaining a victory over his master, they would execute him. Indeed, the probability of a defeat seems never for a moment to have entered into the imaginations of the Covenanters, and they had been assured by Frederick Carmichael, a minister who had preached to them the same day, being Sunday, 1st September, “that if ever God spoke truth out of his mouth, he promised them, in the name of God, a certain victory that day.”[259]
There being no hopes, therefore, of an accommodation, both armies, after advancing towards each other, remained motionless for a short time, as if unwilling to begin the attack; but this state of matters was speedily put an end to by the advance of a select skirmishing party under the command of Lord Drummond, sent out from the main body of the covenanting army, for the double purpose of distracting the attention of Montrose, and inducing his troops to leave their ranks, and thus create confusion among them; but Montrose kept his men in check, and contented himself with sending out a few of his men to oppose them. Lord Drummond, whom Baillie appears to have suspected of treachery, and his party were routed at the first onset, and fled back upon the main body in great disorder. This trivial affair decided the fate of the day, for the Covenanters, many of whom were undisciplined, seeing the unexpected defeat of Lord Drummond’s party, became quite dispirited, and began to show symptoms which indicated a disposition for immediate flight. The confusion into which the main body had been thrown by the retreat of the advanced party, and the indecision which seemed now to prevail in the Covenanters’ army in consequence of that reverse, were observed by the watchful eye of Montrose, who saw that the favourable moment for striking a decisive blow had arrived. He therefore gave orders to his men to advance, who, immediately setting up a loud shout, rushed forward at a quick pace towards the enemy. They were met by a random discharge from some cannon which the Covenanters had placed in front of their army, but which did little or no execution. When sufficiently near, Montrose’s musketeers halted, and, as ordered, poured a volley into the main rank of the Covenanters, which immediately gave way. The cavalry of the Covenanters, thereupon, issued from their stations and attacked the royalists, who, in their turn, defended themselves with singular intrepidity. While the armed Highlanders made ample use of their Lochaber axes and swords, the Irish steadily opposed the attacks of the horse with the butt ends of their muskets; but the most effective annoyance which the cavalry met with appears to have proceeded from the unarmed Highlanders, who having supplied themselves with a quantity of stones, as suggested by Montrose, discharged them with well-directed aim at the horses and their riders. The result was, that after a short struggle, the cavalry were obliged to make a precipitate retreat. While this contest was going on, another part of Montrose’s army was engaged with the right wing of the covenanting army, under Sir James Scott, but although this body made a longer and more determined resistance, and galled the party opposed to them by an incessant fire of musketry, they were at last overpowered by the Athole-men, who rushed upon them with their broad-swords, and cut down and wounded a considerable number. The rout of the Covenanters now became general. The horsemen saved themselves by the fleetness of their horses; but during the pursuit, which was kept up to a distance of six or seven miles, many hundreds of foot were killed, and a considerable number made prisoners,[260] some of whom afterwards served in Montrose’s army. The loss on the side of Montrose appears to have been very trifling. By this victory, and the subsequent capture of Perth, which he entered the same day, Montrose was enabled to equip his army with all those warlike necessaries of which it had been so remarkably destitute in the morning, and of which the Covenanters left him an abundant supply.[261]