A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

BATTLE OF AULUEARN. 385
sixtiien standards from the enemy, Montrose got possession of the
whole of their baggage, provisions, and ammunition, and a consider-
able quantity of money and valuable eflects. The battle of Auldearn
was fought on the fourth of May according to some writers, and on the
ninth according to others, in the year sixteen hundred and forty-five.
The immense disproportion between the numbers of the slain, on the
side of the covenanters, and that of the prisoners, taken by Montrose,
evidently shows that very little quarter had been given, the cause of which
is said to have been the murder of James Gordon, younger of Rhiny, who
was killed by a party from the garrison of Spynie, and by some of the in-
habitants of Elgin at Struders, near Forres, where he had been left in
consequence of a severe wound he had received in a skirmish during
Hurry's first retreat to Inverness.* But Montrose carried his revenge
still farther, for, after burning the lands and houses of Campbell of
Calder, and plundering all his effects, as well as those of the earl of
Moray, who was then in England, he proceeded to Elgin, where, on
the twelfth of May, he burnt the houses of Walter Smith, John Mill,
John Douglas of Morristoun, and Alexander Douglas, some of whom,
with some of their sons, were concerned in James Gordon's murder.
The houses of Robert Gibson, George Donaldson, and George Suther-
land, and other inhabitants of Elgin, from their proximity to those put
on fire, were seized upon by the flames, and consumed. The houses of
Haj', the provost, and Gawin Douglas were also selected for destruction,
but their safety was secured by the payment of a sum of money. The
property, called the Friars of Elgin, was plundered, but, " being church
building," says Spalding, was preserved from fire. Tlie house belonging
to the laird of Pluscarden, in Elgin, was also plundered. From
Elgin, Montrose sent out a party to the town of oarmouth, belonging
to the laird of Innes, which they burnt, and another party burnt the
Bishop's Mill and iMilltoun, life-rented by tlie wife of Major Suther-
land, who had been also concerned in James Gordon's dcath.f
While these proceedings were going on, Montrose sent his whole
baggage, booty, and warlike stores, across the Spey, which he himself
crossed upon the fourteenth of May, after which he proceeded to the Bog
of Gicht, where he did not remain long, but went to Birkenbog, the
seat of " a great covenanter," where he took up his head quarters. He
quartered his men in the neighbourhood, and, during a short stay at
Birkenbog, he sent out different parties of his troops to scour the coun
try, who burnt the town of Cullen, and such of the lands belonging to
Lord Frendraught as had formerly escaped their ravages. A party of
men, under the command of Leith of Harthill, also burnt the town and
lands of Thombeg, belonging to the laird of Monymusk, and occupied
by Wjlliam Forbes, his tenant, because Forbes hatl robbed Leith's ser-
vant of his baggage horse, and some money.J
• Gurdon's CuiiiinHatioii, p. 525. -f Spalding, vol. ii. p 32(1.
t Ibid., vol. ii. p. 321.