Page:Alasdair Mac Colla - Laoide.djvu/21

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xv.

whom Alastair had left behind him, and bade him drive the enemy from the slope. The gallant Irish charged with pike and broadsword, drove back the Covenanters, and obtained a supply of powder for their famished muskets. It is recorded that one of them, looking at the booty, said, 'We must at them again; the stingy rogues have left us no bullets.' Meanwhile Lothian's horse had assaulted Montrose's position on the flank. But the powder-flasks were now replenished, and the fire of the musketeers, whom Montrose led round the brow of the hill, was too much for the lowland cavalry. Argyll drew off his men, and put the Ythan between himself and the enemy," l. 102.

(i gcaṫ Ailt Éirinn) "The Covenanting army became a mob, and the mob a shambles. The blood of Ulster and the Isles that day had recovered its ancient berserk fury, and the Gordons were in no mood to spare their foes," l. 144.

(i mbriseaḋ Filipfáċ) "The 500 Ulstermen, however, were fighting a desperate fight, having found or thrown up some shallow defences. Montrose collected his hundred troopers and charged Leslie so madly that for the moment he drove back the whole Covenant horse. But 600 men taken by surprise, and with no advantages of position, cannot for long do battle with 6,000. Leslie's other division harassed the Royalist right flank with musketry fire from beyond the stream, and presently had forded Ettrick and were attacking them from behind. Again and again the Covenant troopers charged, only to be driven back by the heroic Irish; again and again Montrose's hundred cut their way deep into the enemy's ranks. Philiphaugh was not a battle; it was a surprise and a massacre," l. 191.

Ba ḃuiḋeaċ Muntrós de Alasdair. D’éis céime d’ḟaġáil dó féin ón ríġ, .i. liftenant goiḃearnóra agus caiptín sinireil do ḋéanaṁ de, do rinne sé mar leanas, fá mar innseann Buchan dúinn:

"Montrose's first act under his new authority was to confer the honour of knighthood on Alastair. He had nobly earned it," l. 178.

Ag so an ḃreiṫ ṫug Buchan ar Alasdair féin agus ní féidir le héinne a ráḋ naċ fuil lán an ċirt aige:

"Sir Alastair alone deserves censure. He was an experienced soldier, and knew something of the difficulties that were before his chief. But his knighthood and his new post of captain-general of the clans had turned his head. He proposed to himself a campaign in Argyll which should root the Campbells out of the peninsula. He promised to return, and no doubt honestly meant it, but from the hour when he marched off with half his