following the course of Gala water, arrived at Melrose, the evening
before the engagement How it is possible that Montrose should have
received no notice whatever of the march of so considerable an army,
seems almost inconceivable, and proves, that the country was strongly
disaffected to his cause, or person. Still more extraordinary does it
appear, that, even with the advantage of a thick mist, Lesly should
have, the next morning, advanced towards Montrose's encampment without
being descried by a single scout. Such, however, was the case, and it
was attended with all the consequences of the most complete surprisal.
The first intimation that Montrose received of the march of Lesly,
was the noise of the conflict, or, rather, that which attended the
unresisted slaughter of his infantry, who never formed a line of battle:
the right wing alone, supported by the thickets of Harehead-wood, and
by the entrenchments which are there still visible, stood firm for some
time. But Lesly had detached two thousand men, who, crossing the Ettrick
still higher up than his main body, assaulted the rear of Montrose's
right wing. At this moment, the marquis himself arrived, and beheld
his army dispersed, for the first time, in irretrievable route. He
had thrown himself upon a horse the instant he heard the firing, and,
followed by such of his disorderly cavalry as had gathered upon the
alarm, he galloped from Selkirk, crossed the Ettrick, and made a bold
and desperate attempt to retrieve the fortune of the day. But all was
in vain; and, after cutting his way, almost singly, through a body of
Lesly's troopers, the gallant Montrose graced by his example the
retreat of the fugitives. That retreat he continued up Yarrow, and over
Minch-moor; nor did he stop till he arrived at Traquair, sixteen miles
from the field of battle. Upon Philiphaugh he lost, in one defeat, the
fruit of six splendid victories: nor was he again able effectually to
make head, in Scotland, against the covenanted cause. The number slain
in the field did not exceed three or four hundred; for the fugitives