CHAPTER XIV.

Mar issues an order of assessment-Detachment of his army surprised at castle Campboil -Preparations for opening the campaign-Departure from Perth-Junction of the western clans-Advance of Argyle from Stirling-Enters Dunblane--Preparations for battle-Battle of Sheriffmuir-Return of Mar to Perth, and of Argyle to Stirling -Capture of Inverness-Arrival of the Chevalier-Met by Mar at Fetteresso-His reception by the non-jurant clergy-Issues a variety of proclamations-Preparations of the duke of Argyle-Retreat of the Jacobite army from Perth-Departure of the Chevalier for France-Conclusion of the Insurrection.

HAVING, for the sake of continuity, brought the narrative of the English branch of the insurrection to a close, in the preceding chapter, we now proceed to detail the operations of the royalist and Jacobite armies under Argyle and Mar respectively, and the other transactions in the north which preceded its total suppression.

When the Jacobite general took the field he was so unprovided with money, that after Colonel Hay entered Perth he could spare him only fifty guineas for the use of his detachment, and so exhausted had his little treasury become shortly after he took up his quarters there, that he was reduced to the necessity of laying the surrounding country, and the shires of Fife, Kinross, and Clackmannan under contribution. By an order dated from the camp at Perth, on the fourth of October, he com manded and required every landed proprietor, feuar, landed mortgagee, and all life-renters attending the standard of the Chevalier, to proportion and raise amongst their tenants and possessors, the sum of twenty shillings sterling on every hundred pounds scots of valued rent, and he ordered such landed proprietors as did not immediately or before the twelfth of October, attend his standard, to proportion and raise an assessment of double that amount. This order appears to have had little effect, as it was renewed on the twenty-first of October, when it was rigorously enforced, and the penalty of military execution threatened against those who should refuse to implement it.

To compel compliance, parties of horse and foot were despatched through the adjoining country. One of these, consisting of two hundred foot and one hundred horse, being sent towards the town of Dunfermline,