Before leaving Kintore, the Earl of Airly was attacked by a fever, in consequence of which, Montrose sent him to Lethintie, the residence of the earl’s son-in-law, under a guard of 300 men; but he was afterwards removed to Strathbogie for greater security. On arriving, March 17th, at Durris, in Kincardineshire, where he was joined by Macdonald, Montrose burnt the house and offices to the ground, set fire to the grain, and swept away all the cattle, horses, and sheep. He also wasted such of the lands of Fintry as belonged to Forbes of Craigievar, to punish him for the breach of his parole; treating in the same way the house and grain belonging to Abercrombie, the minister of Fintry, who was “a main Covenanter.” On the 19th, Montrose entered Stonehaven, and took up his residence in the house of James Clerk, the provost of the town. Here learning that the Covenanters in the north were troubling Lord Gordon’s lands, he despatched 500 of Gordon’s foot to defend Strathbogie and his other possessions; but he still retained Lord Gordon himself with his troopers.
On the day after his arrival at Stonehaven, Montrose wrote a letter to the Earl Marshal, who, along with sixteen ministers, and some other persons of distinction, had shut himself up in his castle of Dunottar. The bearer of the letter was not, however, suffered to enter within the gate, and was sent back, at the instigation probably of the earl’s lady and the ministers who were with him, without an answer. Montrose then endeavoured, by means of George Keith, the Earl Marshal’s brother, to persuade the latter to declare for the king, but he refused, in consequence of which Montrose resolved to inflict summary vengeance upon him, by burning and laying waste his lands and those of his retainers in the neighbourhood. Acting upon this determination, he, on the 21st of March, set fire to the houses adjoining the castle of Dunottar, and burnt the grain which was stacked in the barn-yards. Even the house of the minister did not escape. He next set fire to the town of Stonehaven, sparing only the house of the provost, in which he resided; plundered a ship which lay in the harbour, and then set her on fire, along with all the fishing boats. The lands and houses of Cowie shared the same hard fate. Whilst the work of destruction was going on, it is said that the inhabitants appeared before the castle of Dunottar, and, setting up cries of pity, implored the earl to save them from ruin, but they received no answer to their supplications, and the earl witnessed from his stronghold the total destruction of the properties of his tenants and dependents without making any effort to stop it. After he had effected the destruction of the barony of Dunottar, Montrose set fire to the lands of Fetteresso, one-fourth part of which was burnt up, together with the whole corn in the yards. A beautiful deer park was also burnt, and its alarmed inmates were all taken and killed, as well as all the cattle in the barony. Montrose next proceeded to Drumlaithie and Urie, belonging to John Forbes of Leslie, a leading Covenanter, where he committed similar depredations.
Dunottar Castle in the 17th century.—From Slezer’s Theatrum Scotiæ (1693).
Montrose, on the following day, advanced to Fettercairn, where he quartered his foot soldiers, sending out quarter-masters through the country, and about the town of Montrose, to provide quarters for some troopers; but, as these troopers were proceeding on their journey, they were alarmed by the sudden appearance of some of Major-general Hurry’s troops, who had concealed themselves within the plantation of Halkerton. These, suddenly issuing from the wood, set up a loud shout, on hearing which the troopers immediately turned to the right about and went back to the camp. This party turned out to be a body of 600 horse, under the command of Hurry himself, who had left the head-quarters of General Baillie, at Brechin, for the purpose of reconnoitring Montrose’s movements. In order to deceive Hurry, who kept advancing with his 600 horse, Montrose placed his horse, which amounted only to 200, and which he took care to line with some expert musqueteers, in a prominent situation, and concealed his foot in an adjoining valley. This ruse had the desired effect, for Hurry imagining that there were no other forces at hand, immediately attacked the small body of horse opposed to him; but he was soon undeceived by the sudden appearance of the foot, and forced to retreat with precipitation. Though his men were greatly alarmed, Hurry, who was a brave officer, having placed himself in the rear, managed to retreat across the North Esk with very little loss.
After this affair Montrose allowed his men to refresh themselves for a few days, and, on the 25th of March, put his army in motion in the direction of Brechin. On hearing of his approach, the inhabitants of the town concealed their effects in the castle, and in the steeples of churches, and fled. Montrose’s troops, although they found out the secreted goods, were so enraged at the conduct of the inhabitants that they plundered the town, and burnt about sixty houses.
From Brechin, Montrose proceeded through Angus, with the intention either of fighting Baillie, or of marching onwards to the south. His whole force, at this time, did not exceed 3,000 men, and, on reaching Kirriemuir, his cavalry was greatly diminished by his having been obliged to send away about 160 horsemen to Strathbogie, under Lord Gordon and his brother Lewis, to defend their father’s possessions against the Covenanters. Montrose proceeded with his army along the foot of the Grampians, in the direction of Dunkeld, where he intended to cross the Tay in the sight of General Baillie, who commanded an army greatly superior in numbers; but, although Montrose frequently offered him battle, Baillie, contrary, it is said, to the advice of Hurry, as often declined it. On arriving at the water of Isla, the two armies, separated by that stream, remained motionless for several days, as if undetermined how to act. At length Montrose sent a trumpeter to Baillie offering him battle; and as the water could not be safely passed by his army if opposed, Montrose proposed to allow Baillie to pass it unmolested, on condition that he would give him his word of honour that he would fight without delay; but Baillie answered that he would attend to his own business himself, and that he would fight when he himself thought proper. The conduct of Baillie throughout seems altogether extraordinary, but it is alleged that he had no power to act for himself, being subject to the directions of a council of war, composed of the Earls of Crawford and Cassilis, Lords Balmerino, Kirkcudbright, and others.[289]
As Montrose could not attempt to cross the water of Isla without cavalry, in opposition to a force so greatly superior, he led his army off in the direction of the Grampians, and marched upon Dunkeld, of which he took possession. Baillie being fully aware of his intention to cross the Tay, immediately withdrew to Perth for the purpose of opposing Montrose’s passage; but, if Montrose really entertained such an intention after he had sent away the Gordon troopers, he abandoned it after reaching Dunkeld, and resolved to retrace his steps northwards. Being anxious, however, to signalize himself by some important achievement before he returned to the north, and to give confidence to the royalists, he determined to surprise Dundee, a town which had rendered itself particularly obnoxious to him for the resistance made by the inhabitants after the battle of Tippermuir. Having sent off the weaker part of his troops, and those who were lightly armed, with his heavy baggage, along the bottom of the hills with instructions to meet him at Brechin, Montrose himself, at the head of about 150 horse, and 600 expert musketeers,[290] left Dunkeld on April 3d about mid-night, and marched with such extraordinary expedition that he arrived at Dundee Law at 10 o’clock in the morning, where he encamped. Montrose then sent a trumpeter into the town with a summons requiring a surrender, promising that, in the event of compliance, he would protect the lives and properties of the inhabitants, but threatening, in case of refusal, to set fire to the town and put the inhabitants to the sword. Instead of returning an answer to this demand, the town’s people put the messenger into prison. This insult was keenly felt by Montrose, who immediately gave orders to his troops to storm the town in three different places at once, and to fulfil the threat which he had held out in case of resistance. The inhabitants, in the mean time, made such preparations for defence as the shortness of the time allowed, but, although they fought bravely, they could not resist the impetuosity of Montrose’s troops, who, impelled by a spirit of revenge, and a thirst for plunder, which Dundee, then one of the largest and most opulent towns in Scotland, offered them considerable opportunities of gratifying, forced the inhabitants from the stations they occupied, and turned the cannon which they had planted in the streets against themselves. The contest, however, continued in various quarters of the town for several hours, during which the town was set on fire in different places. The whole of that quarter of the town called the Bonnet Hill fell a prey to the flames, and the entire town would have certainly shared the same fate had not Montrose’s men chiefly occupied themselves in plundering the houses and filling themselves with the contents of the wine cellars. The sack of the town continued till the evening, and the inhabitants were subjected to every excess which an infuriated and victorious soldiery, maddened by intoxication, could inflict.