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138 THE GALLANT GRAHAMS. |
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ration (negotiations which Montrose regarded with no favor), set out for the Orkneys with a few hundred men, mostly Germans. His coming, even with this feeble band, struck a great terror into the Estates, and Lesly was ordered to march against him with four thousand men. Destitute of horse to bring him intelligence, Montrose was surprised at Corbiesdale, on the confines of Ross-shire, by a body of Covenanting cavalry under Colonel Strachan, which had been sent forward to check his progress. The whole of his little army was destroyed or made prisoners. Montrose escaped from the field after a desperate resistance, and finally gave himself up to Macleod of Assaint, who sold him to his enemies for four hundred bolls of meall
"He w'as tried," says Scott, "for what was termed treason against the Estates of the Kingdom; and, despite the commission of Charles for his proceedings, he was condemned to die by a Parliament who acknowledged Charles to be their king, and whom, on that account only, Montrose acknowledged to be a Parliament
(See Scott's Minstrelsy, Hume, ch. lx., and Napier's Montrose and the Covenanters.)
Now, fare thee well, sweet Ennerdale Baith kith and countrie I bid adieu ;
For I maun away, and I may not stay,
To some uncouth land which I never knew.
1. A corruption of Endriokdale. The principal and most ancient possessions of the Montrose family lie along the water of Endriok, in Dumbartonshire. S. |
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