[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

'''
THE BATTLE OF PENTLAND HILLS.
only ill armed and undisciplined, but ill officered—there not being above
five officers amongst them who had been in the army.
"Wallace, hovi^ever,
was himself a soldier of indomitable resolution, and no small capacity as a
commander. Learning that Dalziel, with his troops, was immediately in
the rear, he diverged from the main road to Edinburgh towards the Pentland
Hills, where he drew up his
ill-conditioned army in order of battle,
and awaited the approach of the king's forces.
The cavalry were divided
into two sections—the one on the right,
and the other on the left of the
infantry, which was a heterogenous, half-armed mass. The whole did
not amount to more than 900 men; while the well-equipped force
under
Dalziel is said to have numbered about 3000. Dalziel attempted to turn
the left wing of the Covenanters, but he was gallantly repulsed ; and had
Wallace at that moment possessed forces sufficient to have taken advantage
of the confusion which ensued, the battle might have been his own. A
similar attempt on the right wing was repiilsed with equal bravery ;
but a
third onset, directed against the body of foot in the centre, proved decisive
of the day. They were thrown into irretrievable confusion, and the battle
became a rout. Colonel Wallace escaped unpursued from the field, and
afterwards found his way to the Continent. He died at Rotterdam, in
1678, one of the most esteemed, perhaps, of all the Scottish exiles of that
time. Colonel Wallace had adopted the military profession at an early
period of his life. He distinguished himself in the parliamentary army
during the civil war, in which he rose to the rank of Lieut. -Colonel.
served in the Marquis of Argyle's regiment in L'eland from 1642 till 1645,
when he was recalled to aid in opposing Montrose, by whom he was taken
prisoner at the battle of Kilsyth. In 1650, when Charles II. came from
the Continent at the entreaty of the Scottish parliament, two regiments
being ordered to be embodied of " the choicest of the army, and fitted for
that trust," one of horse and another of foot, as his body guards, Wallace
was appointed Lieut. -Colonel of the foot regiment, under Lord Lorn, who
was Colonel. Sir James Balfour, Lord Lyon King at Arms, by his Majesty's
command, set down the devices upon the ensigns and colours of these
regiments. Those of the Lieut. -Colonel [Wallace] were azure, a unicorn
argent, and on the otherside, in " grate gold letters," these words, " Covenant
for religion, King and Kingdoms." At the battle of Dunbar, Wal-
He
46