At Strowan, Dundee was made acquainted by Stewart of Ballochin, with Lord Murray’s proceedings, and with a demand made by his lordship for possession of Blair castle, a demand to which Ballochin had given the most decided refusal. The possession of this place was of vast importance to Dundee, as it commanded the entrance into the southern Highlands, and lay in the line of Mackay’s intended route to Inverlochy. To reward his fidelity, and to counteract Lord Murray’s influence in Athole, Dundee sent a commission to Ballochin, appointing him colonel of the Athole-men. The appointment, however, would probably have been conferred on Lord Murray, to whom Dundee had, on the 19th of July, two days before the date of Ballochin’s commission, despatched a letter, stating the happiness which he felt on hearing that his lordship had appointed a rendezvous of the Athole-men at Blair, and expressing a hope that he would join the viscount with his men; but, instead of answering this letter, his lordship sent it to Lord Melville, the secretary of state for Scotland. Such also was the fate of other letters, which Dundee sent to Lord Murray. Along with the last, which was written on the 25th of July, Dundee despatched Major Graham and Captain Ramsay for the purpose of obtaining a personal interview with Lord Murray; but he declined to see them, or to give any answer to Dundee’s communication. It appears that up to this time the Athole-men, who had, at the call of the son of their chief, assembled to the number of about 1,200, were ignorant of Lord Murray’s intentions; but when he refused to receive Dundee’s officers, they at once began to suspect his designs, and demanded with one voice an immediate explanation, intimating at the same time, that if he would join Dundee they would follow him to a man; but if on the contrary he refused, they would all leave him. His lordship remonstrated with them, and even threatened them with his vengeance if they abandoned him; but regardless of his threats, they left him to join Dundee, having previously filled their bonnets with water from the rivulet of Banovy, in the neighbourhood of Blair castle, and pledged themselves to King James by drinking his health.[586]
In the meantime the government general was busily engaged at Edinburgh, making the necessary preparations for his march. He appointed his troops to rendezvous at Perth, and after completing his arrangements at Edinburgh, he went to Stirling to inspect the castle, so as to make himself acquainted with its means of defence. In a letter[587] dated 24th July, written to Lord Melville on his arrival at Stirling, Mackay alludes to the distracted state of the government in Scotland, and the difficulty he would experience in executing the commission which the king had given him, to keep the kingdom peaceable, in consequence of the divisions which existed even between the adherents of the government. The removal from office of Stair the president of the court of session, and his son, who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the ultra whig party, by their attempts to stretch the royal prerogative too far, appears to have been considered by that party of more importance than keeping Dundee in check. So high did the spirit of party run, that the Earl of Annandale and Lord Ross, who had just been appointed colonels of two newly raised regiments of horse, refused to accompany their regiments, and offered to resign their commissions rather than quit the parliament. This state of matters was highly favourable to James’s interests in Scotland, and if Melfort had followed Dundee’s advice, by sending over a large force from Ireland, the cause of his royal master might have triumphed, but with that fatality which attended the unfortunate monarch in all his undertakings, he allowed to slip away the golden opportunity which was here offered him, of recovering his crown.
From Stirling Mackay proceeded to Perth, after ordering the troops of horse and dragoons of the expedition to follow him. On arriving at Perth, a letter was shown him from Lord Murray, from which he learned, that Dundee, who had been solicited by Stewart of Ballochin to hasten into Athole, was already marching through Badenoch, and so anxious was he to anticipate Mackay’s arrival in Athole, that he had left behind him several chiefs and their men, whose junction he daily expected. Lord Murray added, that if Mackay did not hasten his march so as to reach Athole before Dundee, he would not undertake to prevent his men from joining the viscount. As Mackay informs us, that before leaving Edinburgh he had begun “already to have very ill thoughts of the expedition in gross,” and as on reaching Stirling, the idea that he would be straitened for provisions haunted his mind, this information was assuredly by no means calculated to relieve these fearful apprehensions. He had gone too far, however, to retrace his steps with honour, and although four troops of dragoons and two of horse had not yet joined him, he resolved, for reasons that to him, in the position in which he was then placed, seemed most forcible, to proceed immediately on his march to Athole.
The last and perhaps most important reason given by himself for this step, is that, as the possession, by Mackay, of the castle of Blair, was in his opinion the only means of keeping in awe the Athole-men, (who, from their numbers and strict attachment to the house of Stewart, were more to be dreaded than any other body of Highlanders,) and preventing them from joining Dundee, he had no alternative but to allow Dundee to roam uncontrolled through the disaffected district of Athole, gathering strength at every step, or to attempt to gain the important fortress of Blair.
Such were the grounds, as stated by Mackay in his own exculpation, which made him resolve upon marching into Athole, and which, he observes, “more capable commanders might readily be deceived in.” Those who make the unfortunate result of this movement the rule of their judgment, will be apt to condemn Mackay’s conduct on this occasion as rash and injudicious, but when his own reasons are duly weighed, it is difficult to see how he could have acted otherwise than he did. There can be no doubt, that had he been as successful at Killiecrankie as he was unfortunate, he would have been applauded for the exercise of a sound discretion, and regarded as a tactician of the highest order.
On the 26th of July, Mackay left Perth at the head of an army of 4,500 men. Of this force, notwithstanding that the four troops of dragoons and two of horse already alluded to, had not yet arrived, a fair proportion consisted of cavalry. At night Mackay encamped opposite to Dunkeld, and here, at midnight, he received an express from Lord Murray announcing the alarming intelligence, that Dundee had entered Athole, in consequence of which event he informed him that he had retreated from before the castle of Blair, which he had for some time partially blockaded; and that although he had left the narrow and difficult pass of Killiecrankie between him and Dundee, he had posted a guard at the further extremity to secure a free passage to Mackay’s troops through the pass which he supposed Dundee had already reached. Mackay seems to have doubted the latter part of this statement, and his suspicions were in some degree confirmed by the fact, that Lieutenant-colonel Lauder, whom he despatched with a party immediately on receipt of Murray’s letter, to secure the entrance into the pass from the vale of Blair, did not see a single man on his arrival there.
Discouraging as this intelligence was, Mackay still determined to persevere in his march, and having despatched orders to Perth to hasten the arrival of the six troops of cavalry he had left behind, he put his army in motion next morning, July 27th, at day-break, and proceeded in the direction of the pass, the entrance to which he reached at ten o’clock in the morning. Here he halted, and allowed his men two hours to rest and refresh themselves before they entered upon the bold and hazardous enterprise of plunging themselves into a frightful chasm, out of which they might possibly never return. To support Lauder in case of attack, the general, on halting, despatched through the pass a body of 200 men under the command of the Lieutenant-colonel of the Earl of Leven’s regiment, whom he instructed to send him any intelligence he could obtain of Dundee’s motions. A short way below the pass Mackay fell in with Lord Murray, who informed him, that with the exception of 200 or 300 men, who still remained with him, the whole had gone to the hills to secure their cattle, an answer which Mackay, with the open and unsuspecting generosity of a soldier, considered satisfactory, and made him, as he observes, “not so apt to judge so ill of Murray as others did.”
Having received a notice from Lauder that the pass was clear, and that there was no appearance of Dundee, Mackay put his army again in motion, and entered the fatal pass. Hastings’s regiment (now the 13th), and Annandale’s horse were placed behind to protect the baggage, from an apprehension that Dundee’s Highlanders might make a detour round the hill to attack it, or that the country people might attempt to plunder it if not so guarded. The idea that no opposition would be offered to their passage through this terrific defile, which seemed to forbid approach, and to warn the unhappy soldier of the dangers which awaited him should he precipitate himself into its recesses, may have afforded some consolation to the feelings of Mackay’s troops as they entered this den of desolation; but when they found themselves fairly within its gorge, their imaginations must have been appalled as they gazed, at every successive step, on the wild and terrific objects which encompassed them on every side. They however proceeded, at the command of their general, on their devious course, and finally cleared it, with the loss of only a single horseman, who, according to an Athole tradition, was shot by an intrepid adventurer, named Ian Ban Beg MacRan, who had posted himself on a hill, from which he fired across the rivulet of the Garry and brought down his victim. A well, called in Gaelic, Fuaran u trupar,—Anglicé, the “Horseman’s well,”—is shown as the place where the horseman fell.
As soon as the five battalions and the troop of horse which preceded the baggage had debouched from the further extremity of the pass, they halted, by command of the general, upon a corn field, along the side of the river to await the arrival of the baggage, and of Hastings’s regiment and the other troop of horse. Mackay then ordered Lieutenant-colonel Lauder to advance with his 200 fusileers and a troop of horse in the direction he supposed Dundee might be expected to appear. Lauder had not advanced far when he discovered some parties of Dundee’s forces between him and Blair. Being immediately apprised of this by Lauder, Mackay, after giving orders to Colonel Balfour to supply the troops with ammunition, and to put them under arms without delay, galloped off to the ground, from which Lauder had espied the enemy, to observe their motions before making choice of the field of battle. On arriving at the advanced post, Mackay observed several small parties of troops, scarcely a mile distant, marching slowly along the foot of a hill in the direction of Blair, and advancing towards him. Mackay, thereupon, sent orders to Balfour to advance immediately up to him with the foot. But these orders were no sooner despatched than he observed some bodies of Dundee’s forces marching down a high hill within a quarter of a mile from the place where he stood, in consequence of which movement, he immediately galloped back to his men to countermand the order he had just issued, and to put his army in order of battle.[588]