despatched against him, and coming up with him near Montrose, which he had plundered and burned, compelled him to retreat to Aberdeenshire. On 12 July news reached the Scottish parliament of the landing at Ardnamurchan, in the north of Argyllshire, of two thousand Irish and Scoto-Irish, and on the 16th Argyll received a commission to advance against the invaders. It was the territory of Argyll alone which was threatened, and no doubt was entertained that he would easily cope with the danger; but it suddenly became apparent that the incursion only formed part of a much more comprehensive scheme.
According to Clarendon, Argyll was the person whom Montrose ‘most hated and contemned.’ It was on Montrose's recommendation that the expedition from Ireland had been undertaken, and to act in concert with it he, on 1 Feb. 1643–4, received a commission appointing him lieutenant-general of all his majesty's forces in Scotland. While the question at issue between Argyll and Montrose was less that of king and covenant than personal rivalry, the highlanders who flocked to Montrose's banner were actuated more by hatred of Argyll than by loyal or religious motives; in the words of Macaulay, ‘a powerful coalition of clans waged war nominally for King Charles, but really against MacCallum More.’ To avoid Argyll, who was approaching from the west, Montrose, with a force of 2,500 Irishmen and highlanders, marched southwards across the Tay, and, after defeating a covenanting force of six thousand men under Elcho at Tippermuir on 1 Sept. 1644, entered Perth. Argyll hung on his skirts as he retreated northwards by Dundee and Aberdeen, but never could come within striking distance, and as Argyll approached Aberdeen he withdrew westwards towards the Spey, and descending through the wilds of Badenoch again entered Atholl. Disconcerted by the rapidity of his movements, Argyll induced the estates to proclaim him a traitor, and offered a reward of 20,000l. for his head. Only once, at Fyvie Castle, which he had taken on 14 Oct., was Montrose almost caught in a trap; but making a feint of ostentatious preparation for a desperate resistance, he drew off his forces while Argyll was making his depositions. Passing northwards he went to Strathbogie with the hope of rousing the Gordons, but being unable to win them over he retired again into the wilds of Badenoch. Here he learned that Argyll, having sent his horse into winter quarters, was at Dunkeld with a number of his followers, tampering with the Atholl men. By a night march over the mountainous region that lay between him and Atholl, he endeavoured to pounce on Argyll unawares, but the latter, learning his approach while he was yet sixteen miles off, broke up his camp and retreated to Perth, where there was a strong garrison (Rushworth, Historical Collections, ed. 1692, pt. iii. vol. ii. 985). On his return to Edinburgh, Argyll, giving as his reason that he had been insufficiently supported with money and troops, resigned his commission, which was given to Baillie [see Baillie, William, fl. 1648]. Argyll then proceeded to his castle at Inverary, securely relying on the almost inaccessible mountain passes, when suddenly one morning in the middle of December ‘the trembling cowherds came down from the hills and told him that the enemy was within two miles of him’ (ib.) Barely making his escape in a fishing boat, he fled to his castle at Roseneath, on the Clyde, and from 13 Dec. to the end of January Montrose burned and devastated Argyll and Lorn at his pleasure. Towards the end of January news reached the committee of estates, in consultation with Argyll at Roseneath, that Montrose was marching northwards by Lochaber, as if to challenge the covenanters in the north under Seaforth. It was therefore determined that while Baillie should hold the central districts round Perth, Argyll, with a thousand lowland infantry lent him by Baillie, and as many of his own broken followers as he could hurriedly muster, should follow on the track of Montrose and fall on him when engaged with Seaforth, or cut off his retreat if he were defeated. On news reaching Montrose that Argyll was thirty miles behind him at Inverlochy, Montrose resolved to attempt the extraordinary feat of leading his hardy followers over the Lochaber mountains, so as to take the camp of Argyll on its flank and rear. On the evening of Saturday, 1 Feb., sounds were heard by the troops of Argyll as if a storm were gathering in the direction of Ben Nevis, and soon in the frosty moonlight the forces of Montrose were seen by the outposts descending from the skirts of the mountain. Having sent out skirmishers to feel the position of Argyll, Montrose delayed his attack till the morning, and Argyll took advantage of the respite to embark with other members of the committee of estates on board his galley in Loch Eil, the command of his troops being entrusted to an experienced officer, his kinsman Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck. It was stated that Argyll had been compelled by his friends to embark, because owing to a fall from his horse some days previously he was ‘disabled to use either sword or pistol.’ On the morrow Argyll witnessed from his galley the greatest disaster that had ever befallen his house, fifteen
