A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans

404 HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS.
not have been disconcerted or embarrassed by an e\ent so sudden and
unexpected, and fewer still who could have, almost in an instant of
time, by the mere dint of genius alone, revived the drooping spirits of
their men ; but Montrose is one of those very rare instances in which,
by a singular combination of genius and presence of mind, under instant
difficulties, those very difficulties themselves are made subservient to
their own removal. When the terror of a foe has once taken hold of
the mind, it can only be sufficiently eradicated by supplanting it with a
feeling of contempt for the object of its dread, and no man was better
fitted by nature than Montrose for inspiring such a feeling into the minds
of his troops. Accordingly, scarcely had the murmurings of his horse
broken upon his ears, when he rode up to the head of his cavalry, and
(pointing to the cuirassiers) thus addressed his men:— "Gentlemen,
these are the same men you beat at Alford, that ran away from you at
Auldearn, Tippermuir, &c. ; they are such cowardly rascals that their
officers could not bring them to look you in the face till they had clad
them in armour ; to she^v our contempt of them we'll fight them in our
shirts."f No sooner had these words been uttered, when, to add to
the impression they could not fail to produce, Montrose threw off his
coat and waistcoat with great vigour, and, drawing his sword with the
mien of a hero, stood before his men, at once an object of their wonder
and a model for their imitation. The effect was instantaneous. The
example thus set by Montrose was immediately followed by the whole
army, every man stripping himself to his shirt, and the cavalry, par-
taking in the general enthusiasm, assured themselves of victory. As the
day was uncommonly hot and oppressive, the troops found great relief
by disburdening themselves of their clothes, and the infantry were, in
consequence, enabled to display greater agility in combat. The ex-
traordinary appearance of Montrose's men after they had parted with
their clothes, excited the astonishment of the covenanters, and as they
could only attribute such a singular preparation for battle to a fixed
determination on the part of the royalists to conquer or to die, fearful
doubts arose in their minds as to the probable result of the contest in
which they were just about to engage.
In moving to take up the new position which had been assigned to
Baillie's army by the committee, the utmost disorder prevailed among
the covenanting army, which the general was unable to correct. In-
deed, so unruly had the troops become, that some regiments, instead of
taking the stations assigned to them by the commander, took up, at the
suggestion of Argyle, quite different ground, while others, in utter dis-
regard of Baillie's instructions, actually selected positions for themselves.
Thus, at the moment the battle was about to begin, Baillie found all his
plans completely over-ruled, and as he now saw how utterly impossible
it tiien was for him to carry any of his contemplated arrangements into
t Carte, iv. 338.