Some stores of powder
and food had been sent with them; but the vessels containing them had,
through Cannon's negligence, been taken in the Hebrides by English
cruisers. Dundee had neither powder nor food to spare. There had been no
time to collect provisions; and for many days past his officers had
eaten no bread and drunk nothing but water. The great promises of help
on which the Highlanders had so confidently relied, on the assurance of
which they had taken the field, and for which their general had
repeatedly given his own word, had shrunk to this--three hundred empty
mouths to feed, and three hundred useless hands to arm.[94]
And now word came that Mackay was approaching. He had marched by way of
Stirling to Perth, at which place he had appointed his muster. At
Stirling he had found six troops of dragoons, which he had ordered to
follow him to Perth. On July 26th he was at Dunkeld, where he received
word from Murray of Dundee's arrival at Blair, but not the dragoons he
was expecting from Stirling. His own cavalry consisted of but two
troops, chiefly composed of new levies. He dared no longer trust
Livingstone's dragoons in the face of the enemy. Half of the officers he
had been obliged to send under guard to Edinburgh as traitors: the rest
of the regiment was out of harm's way in quarters at Inverness.
Pages:
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247