D. 1644. October.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Jan. 12.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. March.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Feb. 9.]
on Brechin Moor under the command of General Leslie, who was careful to cut
off every source of information from the royalists. Montrose had reached[a]
the borders of Ross-shire, when Colonel Strachan, who had been sent forward
to watch his motions, learned[b] in Corbiesdale that the royalists,
unsuspicious of danger, lay at the short distance of only two miles.
Calling his men around him under the cover of the long broom on the moor,
he prayed, sang a psalm, and declared that he had consulted the Almighty,
and knew as assuredly as there was a God in heaven, that the enemies of
Christ were delivered into their hands. Then dividing his small force of
about four hundred men into several bodies, he showed at first a single
troop of horse, whom the royalists prepared to receive with their cavalry;
but after a short interval, appeared a second, then a third, then a fourth;
and Montrose believing that Leslie's entire army was advancing, ordered
the infantry to take shelter among the brushwood and stunted trees on a
neighbouring eminence. But before this movement could be executed, his
horse were broken, and his whole force lay at the mercy of the enemy.
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