fight, William with a handful of his men was closely beset by a large
body of French troops. In making his way back to his own lines the
Prince's horse foundered in some marshy ground, and he would inevitably
have been either killed or made prisoner had not Claverhouse, who was of
the party, mounted him on his own charger and brought him safe out of
the press. For this service William gave the young soldier (who was,
however, the Prince's senior by seven years) a captain's commission in
his own regiment of Horse Guards, commanded by the Count de Solmes who
led the English van on the day of the Boyne. This story has been
contemptuously rejected by Macaulay as a Jacobite fable composed many
years after both actors in the scene were dead. The story may not be
true, but Macaulay's reasons for rejecting it are not quite exact.
Reports of Claverhouse's gallantry at Seneff were certainly current
during his lifetime. It is mentioned, for example, in a copy of doggerel
verses addressed to Claverhouse by some nameless admirer on New Year's
Day 1683.[4] And there is yet more particular testimony, though, like
the former, it is of that nature which a historian will always feel
himself at liberty to reject if it does not match with the rest of his
case, and which counsel on the opposite side are accordingly at equal
liberty to make use of. In the memoirs of Lochiel mention is made of a
Latin poem written by a certain Mr. James Philip of Amryclos, in
Forfarshire, who bore Dundee's standard at Killiecrankie. Lochiel's
biographer does not quote the Latin text, but gives translations of
certain passages. The original manuscript, bearing the date 1691, is now
in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. Napier had seen this "Grameis,"
as the work is called, and compared it with the translations, which he
declares to be very imperfect, as, from the specimens he gives, they
undoubtedly are. Macaulay, who never saw the Latin text, owns to have
taken a few touches from the passages quoted in the memoirs for his
inimitable picture of affairs in the Highlands during the days