Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

attack was followed by the rout of the Government
troops. There came still a third, which also ended
in victory for the Presbyterians, and had their
cavalry been able to pursue, the day would have
been won. Dalziel now saw that he had not silly
and fanatical countrymen to deal with, but resolute
fighters, ill-armed, way-worn, and faint through
sleeplessness and hunger, but withal of a tougher
spirit than his own well-drilled and well-fed
dragoons; and he waited till the main body should
arrive, which it now did through a defile in the hills
close by the scene of the action.
The odds were now very unequal. The
Presbyterian host did not exceed 900, the
Government army was not less than 3,000. Dalziel
now moved his masses to the assault. The sun had
gone down, and the somber shadows of a winter
twilight were being projected from the summits
above them as the two armies closed in conflict.
The insurgents, under their courageous and skillful
leader, Captain Wallace, fought gallantly, but they
were finally borne down by numbers.
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