"Give me," he concluded, "one _Shear-Darg_ (harvest-day's work)
for the King, my master, that I may show the brave clans that I can
hazard my life in that service as freely as the meanest of them."[98]
Mackay had reached the mouth of the pass at ten in the morning. Here he
found Murray and his little band, who had not judged it prudent to
remain longer in the neighbourhood of Blair. Two hundred picked men were
accordingly sent forward to reconnoitre under Colonel Lauder; and at
noon, the ground having been reported clear in front, the whole column
advanced.
The pass of Killiecrankie is now almost as familiar to the Southron as
to the Highlander. It forms the highest and narrowest part of a
magnificent wooded defile in which the waters of the Tummel flowing
eastward from Loch Rannoch meet the waters of the Garry as it plunges
down from the Grampians. Along one of the best roads in the kingdom, or
by the swift and comfortable service of the Highland railway, the
traveller ascends by easy gradations from Pitlochrie, through the
beautiful grounds of Faskally to the little village and station of
Killiecrankie, where a guide earns an unlaborious livelihood by
conducting the panting Saxon over the famous battle-field and to various
commanding points of the defile. How the scene must have looked in those
days, and what thoughts it must have suggested to men either ignorant of
war or accustomed to pursue it in civilised countries, has been
described by Macaulay in a passage which it were superfluous to quote
and impertinent to paraphrase.
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