Both armies remained in their positions for several days without attempting any thing, each waiting for reinforcements. During all this time, the enemy had been deceived respecting the strength of Montrose’s horse, but having learned his weakness in that respect, and the deception which he had practised so successfully upon them, and being joined by three regiments from Fife, they resolved to offer him battle. Montrose, however, from his great inferiority of numbers, particularly in horse, was not in a condition to accept the challenge, and wisely declined it. Accordingly, when he saw the enemy advancing towards him, he prepared to retreat among the neighbouring mountains; but to deceive the enemy, and to enable him to carry off his baggage, he drew out his army as if he intended to fight, placing his horse in front, and securing the passes into the mountains with guards. While making these dispositions, he sent off his baggage towards the hills under an escort; and when he thought the baggage out of danger, gave orders to his army to march off in close rank; and to cover its retreat and protect it from the cavalry of the enemy, he placed his horse, lined as usual with the best musketeers, in the rear.
As soon as Baillie, the covenanting general, perceived that Montrose was in full retreat, he despatched General Hurry with the cavalry in pursuit of him; but from a most unaccountable delay on Hurry’s part in crossing the Pow—so slow, indeed, had his movements been, that Baillie’s foot overtook him at the fords of the Almond—Montrose had almost reached the passes of the mountains before he was overtaken. Chagrined at his easy escape, and determined to perform some striking exploit before Montrose should retire into his fastnesses, a body of 300 of the best mounted covenanting cavalry set off at full gallop after him, and attacked him with great fury, using at the same time the most insulting and abusive language. To put an end to this annoyance, Montrose selected twenty expert Highlanders, and requested them to bring down some of the assailants. Accordingly these marksmen advanced in a crouching attitude, concealing their guns, and having approached within musket-shot, took deliberate aim, and soon brought down the more advanced of the party. This unexpected disaster made the assailants more cautious in their advances, and caused them to resolve upon an immediate retreat; but the marksmen were so elated with their success that they actually pursued them down into the plain, “and resolutely attacked the whole party, who, putting spurs to their horses, fled with the utmost precipitation, like so many deer before the hunters.”[314] In this retreat Montrose did not lose a single man.
After giving over this fruitless pursuit, the enemy returned to Montrose’s camp at Methven, where, according to Wishart, they committed a most barbarous act in revenge of their late affront, by butchering some of the wives of the Highlanders and Irish who had been left behind. Montrose took up his quarters at Little Dunkeld, both because he was there perfectly secure from the attacks of the enemy’s cavalry, and because it was a convenient station to wait for the reinforcements of horse which he daily expected from the north under the Earls of Airly and Aboyne. Although both armies lay close together for several days, nothing was attempted on either side. The covenanting general had become quite disgusted with the service in consequence of the jealousies and suspicions which it was too evident the committee entertained of him. His disgust was increased by the sudden return to their country of the Fife men, who preferred their domestic comforts to the vicissitudes of war, but who unfortunately were, as we shall soon see, to be sacrificed at its shrine.
At length the Earl of Aboyne, accompanied by Sir Nathaniel Gordon, arrived at Little Dunkeld, but with a force much inferior in numbers to what was expected. They only brought 200 horse and 120 musketeers, which last were mounted upon carriage horses. The smallness of their number was compensated, however, in a great measure by their steadiness and bravery. The Earl of Airly and his son, Sir David Ogilvie, joined Montrose at the same time, along with a troop of 80 horse, consisting chiefly of gentlemen of the name of Ogilvie, among whom was Alexander Ogilvie, son of Sir John Ogilvie of Innerquharity, a young man who had already distinguished himself in the field.
Perth in the 17th century.—From Slezer’s Theatrum Scotiæ (1693).
Never, at any former period of his eventful career, did the probabilities of ultimate success on the side of Montrose appear greater than now. His army, ardent and devoted to the royal cause, now amounted to nearly 5,000 foot and about 500 horse, the greater part of which consisted of brave and experienced warriors whom he had often led to victory. A considerable portion of his army was composed of some of the most valiant of the Highland clans, led by their respective chiefs, among whom stood conspicuous the renowned captain of clan Ranald, in himself a host. The clans were animated by a feeling of the most unbounded attachment to what they considered the cause of their chiefs, and by a deadly spirit of revenge for the cruelties which the Covenanters under Argyle had exercised in the Highlands. The Macleans and the Athole Highlanders in particular, longed for an opportunity of retaliating upon the covenanting partisans of Argyle the injuries which they had repeatedly received at his hands, and thereby wiping out the stain which, as they conceived, had been cast upon them. But fortunate as Montrose now was in having such an army at his disposal, the chances in his favour were greatly enhanced by the circumstance, that whereas in his former campaigns he had to watch the movements of different armies, and to fight them in detail, he was now enabled, from having annihilated or dispersed the whole armies formerly opposed to him, to concentrate his strength and to direct all his energies to one point. The only bar which now stood in the way of the entire subjugation of Scotland to the authority of the king, was the army of Baillie, and the defeat or destruction of this body now became the immediate object of Montrose. His resolution to attack the enemy was hastened by the receipt of information that the Fife regiments had left Baillie’s camp and returned home, and that the general himself was so dissatisfied with the conduct of the covenanting committee, who thwarted all his plans and usurped his authority, that he was about to resign the command of the army.
Montrose, therefore, without loss of time, raised his camp, and descending into the Lowlands, arrived at Logie Almond, where he halted his foot. Thence he went out with his cavalry to reconnoitre the enemy, and came in full view of them before sunset. They made no attempt to molest him, and testified their dread of this unexpected visit by retiring within their lines. Early next morning Montrose again rode out to make his observations, but was surprised to learn that the enemy had abandoned their camp at Methven during the night, and had retired across the Earn, and taken up a position at Kilgraston, near Bridge-of-Earn. Montrose immediately put his army in motion towards the Earn, which he crossed by the bridge of Nether Gask, about eight miles above Kilgraston. He then proceeded forward as far as the Kirk of Dron, by which movement he for the first time succeeded in throwing open to the operations of his army the whole of the country south of the Tay, from which the enemy had hitherto carefully excluded him. The enemy, alarmed at Montrose’s approach, made every preparation for defending themselves by strengthening the position in which they were intrenched, and which, from the narrowness of the passes and the nature of the ground, was well adapted for sustaining an attack.