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They
were on the verge of Campbell lands here, filched from the
MacGregors, and Montrose sought no conclusions with such, or any
distractions at this stage. They turned eastwards down Tay - and
soon found themselves in some trouble from Menzies clansmen, who
sniped and skirmished - their chief, Sir Alexander Menzies, having
Campbell connexions. Black Pate and a party were despatched to
deal with these, and a few were slain, some roofs and corn-stacks
burned - the first blood to be shed in this new campaign. Castle
Menzies itself, above the haughs of Tay, was too strong to assail
without cannon, so they attempted nothing. But, since he would
assuredly have messengers off to Perth, to warn Elcho of this new
danger, with the darkening, to keep such couriers delayed for at
least a few hours, Montrose settled his men for a much-needed rest
in a wide circle around the castle, lighting cooking-fires to roast
Menzies beef and poultry. Neither welcome nor recognition came from
the chief. When darkness fell the fires were fed anew, to keep them
blazing for some time - although their lighters thereafter stole
away quietly into the scrub woodland to cross Tay secretly by the
ford west of Aberfeldy. With luck it might be long before Sir
Alexander discovered that those fires were untended, morning even.

With
even Alastair silent now, Montrose led his weary host up the steeply
climbing drove road that lifted southwards out of the vale by
the strung-out Falls of Moness, towards the next pass in that vast
system of serried mountain-range and valley. But they were all now
too tired for much more of this, and in a wide hollow by the shadowy
Loch na Craige they threw themselves down in their plaids, to sleep
in the heather. It was nearly midnight.

Even
so, four hours only Montrose allowed them before they were on the
move again — and men learned anew what sort of general the
King had sent them. Down Glen Cochill and across the head of
Strathbraan they hastened as the light grew on the mist-capped
hills, by Amulree and another, lower, pass, and so down into the
dramatic gut of the Sma' Glen and the rushing Almond. Nearing
more settled lands now, Pate Graham was sent ahead with an
advance-guard - and there was some excitement when he sent back word
that a fairly large body of men was awaiting them at Buchanty, near
the southern jaws of the defile, a strategic spot which the Romans
themselves had recognised and fortified. However, a second
courier came to say that the party was friendly; and on approach it
proved to be
200
more
mixed Menteith Grahams and Drummonds, under the Master of Madderty
and Sir John Drummond, younger son of the Earl of Perth, on their
devious way north to join Montrose at Atholl, in answer to his
summons. All were much heartened by even this modest accession of
strength -Montrose the more so in that he was desperately short of
officers, and here he gained three of some experience. The Master of
Madderty, son of the Drummond Lord thereof, was another of his own
brothers-in-law, having married Jean, the youngest of the five
Graham sisters, an impetuous young man but with the makings of
leadership in him. Sir John Drummond, a kinsman, was actually
brother to Black Pate's wife. And Major James Stewart of Ardvorlich,
whose mother was also a Drummond, though strange, indeed known as
the Mad Major, was a brilliant fighter. Almost forty of this party
were mounted - the beginnings of a cavalry arm.

Thus
reinforced in numbers and morale, they crossed the last of the
intervening ranges, a comparatively small one, into Strathearn, with
the Lowlands before them, by Fowlis Wester. This was all Drummond
and Graham country, so that they could now go openly, and even
gather up the odd extra adherent as they went. Montrose still
marched on foot, dressed as a Highlander. They camped for the night
just east of Fowlis, having covered exactly another twenty-one
miles. For an infantry force to have marched almost forty-five miles
in two days was next to unheard of.

During
the night not much sleep was achieved by Montrose or his
officers. Recruiters were out all around, seeking especially horses
and ammunition; also food and money - partly Montrose's and Black
Pate's rents, with Inchbrakie only two miles off. Scouts came in
with reports - one being that Sir John's elder brother, the Lord
Drummond, had gone to join Elcho at Perth, as had the Lord Murray of
Cask, son to the Earl of Tullibardine, another of Montrose's former
colleagues and kinsman of some of the Murrays in their own force.
This was part of the heartbreak of civil war, with families
shamefully divided. Elcho was also reported to have gained the
support of a very experienced professional soldier of the Swedish
wars, Sir James Scott of Rossie - a serious matter.

They
were marching again by dawn, heading eastwards towards Methven. It
was Montrose's aim to achieve a surprise by cutting off Perth
from the south and east, and so confining Elcho's force in the city,
unready, with only the mainly hostile north to retire on - for the
Graham had many friends in Perth, and might expect considerable
sympathy from the townsfolk. But, unfortunately, before they reached
Mcthven, six miles down the strath, scouts brought word that Elcho,
after early-morning devotions - it was Sunday, the 1st of September
- had left Perth and was marching westwards by the Burgh Muir to
meet them. Clearly, the Mcnzies chief had got his message through,
by swift horsemen presumably, in time to reveal the secret
advance.

It
was a sore blow. The situation was wholly changed. Despite all their
Homeric marching, Montrose's plan was now unworkable. He could not
possibly work round to south of Perth now - Elcho's
700
cavalry
could intercept any such attempt. They must either fight a battle,
or tum back.

It
made a dire choice. Outnumbered three to one, out-armed and
out-classed, lacking cannon - Elcho was reported to have nine
five-pounders - and cavalry, any head-on confrontation looked
suicidal. Yet, to retreat now, at the first threat of action, could
be nothing less than disastrous for the morale of his force, for his
credit as the King's general, and for all royalist hopes in
Scotland. Nothing could be worse than that.

In
this cleft-stick, it was a strange chance which decided James
Graham. Almost as an afterthought, the courier who had brought the
news mentioned to Sir John Drummond that the city was ringing with
the dread word that the ministers attendant on Elcho had decided,
after due prayer and deliberation, that the slogan for the encounter
should be 'Jesus, and no quarter!' Shocked, Drummond came to tell
Montrose.

The
Graham was utterly appalled, scarcely able to believe that any men
calling themselves Christian, quite apart from being ministers of
the gospel, could so blaspheme and traduce the name of their
Saviour, who was Love personified. But when he had questioned the
messenger, and satisfied himself that it was true, Montrose was a
changed man.

'In
the name of Almighty God,' he declared, voice trembling, ‘I
do swear before all that if He will give me strength, aid, this day,
I will bum that infamous cry from the lips of damnable, ranting
bigots who besmirch His Son's holy name! God help me, I will!'

His
friends stared at him. Never had any of them seen the equable, calm
and assured James Graham, the compassionate, the courteous,
like this. None spoke as, white-faced, he turned away.

'Continue
the advance!' he commanded, harshly.

When
David, Master of Madderty, presently sought to ask tactics of his
brother-in-law, Montrose cut him off short in a fashion hitherto
unknown. Men repeated those awful four words to each other,
throughout the host, and considered all that they implied, looking
askance at the stiffly slender, tartan-clad back of their leader, as
they marched, doubtfully now, on to Methven.

But
though Montrose was more furiously angry than ever he had been in
all his life, he was not wholly beside himself with rage and sick
disgust. One part of his mind continued to work coolly, clearly. He
saw in his mind's eye all the layout of the land between
himself and Perth, knew it well, sought its advantages and problems.
Much of it indeed belonged to Lord Madderty, and many a time he had
hunted and hawked over Mcthven Moss and Tippermuir. The other side
would know it equally well, of course, since what did not belong to
Madderty was owned by Murray of Gask - Ruthven land given to the
Murrays of Tullibardine by the late King James after the Gowrie
Conspiracy of ill fame. But, if clash there was to be, the land
itself must be made to fight for its king.

Since
Elcho was coming by the Perth Burgh Muir, he was obviously going to
occupy the long, low ridge of Lamberkine, which lay to the south of
this shallow side-vale of Strathearn, in which lay Madderty, Gask,
Methven and eventually Perth itself. His own force was approaching
along the northern flanks, also rising ground. Between lay the
two-mile-wide soggy bottom-land of the sluggish Cowgask Burn,
Mcthvcn Moss first and then the open levels of Tippermuir to the
east. Neither force was to be expected to leave its secure higher
ground to cross that low open waste; yet the advantage lay all with
Elcho, for he could send his cavalry east-about, round by the lower
Almond valley, to come in behind the royalist force - a manoeuvre
Montrose himself could by no means attempt, first because he had no
cavalry to do it, and secondly because the Almond fords would
inevitably be guarded by the enemy. Any such move on the western
side would be under observation all the way.

Catching
up with Black Pate's scouting party on the Methven slope, Montrose
could see the enemy already drawn up in position on the gentle
north-facing Lamberkine braes opposite, less than two miles away,
arms and armour glinting in the forenoon sun, banners flapping, all
looking highly effective and frighteningly potent. Elcho clearly had
his cavalry fairly equally divided between left and right wings,
with his
great
mass of
7000
foot
in the centre, a row of nine five-pounder cannon grouped ominously
in front of them. That cavalry alone, sent in at once in two
complementary thrusts, could so roll up and disorganise the royalist
infantry as to leave them more or less helpless prey for the
Covenanting foot - if they did not sweep them away entirely,
without the foot's aid. To discourage any such early move, and to
give time for his own dispositions - as well as to establish his
constitutional position in proper fashion - Montrose sent forward
the Master of Madderty under a flag of truce to inform the Lord
Elcho that he was facing, in arms, the Marquis of Montrose, the
King's Lieutenant-General and Viceroy, and that he was therefore in
a posture of rebellion which could amount to treason. He conceived
him, and his colleagues, to be essentially loyal subjects of King
Charles, however; and therefore, looking on them as former comrades,
for the good of all and to avoid shedding the blood of Scots fellow
subjects, he required the Lord Elcho to disperse his forces
forthwith, and come to make his due allegiance to the King's Grace.
Moreover, on the Sabbath Day, any such warlike posture was
singularly unsuitable. If time was required to reconsider their duty
to their undoubted liege lord, let them withdraw to Perth meantime
and make submission on the morrow.

So
soon as young Madderty rode off, his brother-in-law set about
positioning his ragged host. Disaster could most easily and swiftly
come by outflanking; therefore his main preoccupation at this stage
was so to extend his line and make use of the terrain that this was
impossible, or nearly so. His sheer lack of numbers told against him
in this, forcing him to thin out his front in almost crazy fashion,
so that, in the main, his men were ranked no more than three deep.
On the other hand, his knowledge of the ground, plus the eye of a
born tactician, enabled him to base the horns of his great
semicircular front on marshland, the swampy Cowgask Burn where it
emerged from Methven Moss, on the west, and the Tippermallo Myre on
the east. It was a ridiculously long front for less than
3000
men;
but it would be hard to outflank, at close range. Colkitto he
put in command of his Irish, Islesmen and West Highlanders, in the
centre; Kilpont, with the Graham bowmen, he placed on the left,
overlooking the Tippermallo Myre; while he himself took the right
wing, with the Athollmen and more local volunteers.