Mons est occiduus, surgit qui celsus in oris, (Nomine Loudunum) fossis puteisque profundis Quot scatet hic tellus, et aprico gramine tectus: Huc collecta (ait), numeroso milite cincta, Turba ferox, matres, pueri, innuptæque puellæ, Quam parat egregia Græmus dispersere turma. Venit et primo campo discedere cogit; Post hos et alios, cœno provolvit inerti; At numerosa cohors, campum dispersa per omnem, Circumfusa, ruit; turmasque, indagine captas, Aggreditur; virtus non hic, nec profuit ensis; Corripuere fugam, viridi sed gramine tectis, Precipitata perit, fossis, pars ultima, quorum Cornipedes hæsere luto, sessore rejecto: Tum rabiosa cohors, misereri nescia, stratos Invadit laceratque viros: hic signifer, eheu! Trajectus globulo, Græmus, quo fortior alter, Inter Scotigenas fuerat, nece justior ullus: Hunc manibus rapuere feris, faciemque virilem Fœdarunt, lingua, auriculis, manibusque resectis, Aspera diffuso spargentes saxa cerebro: Vix dux ipse fuga salvo, namque exta trahebat Vulnere tardatus sonipes generosus hiante: Insequitur clamore cohors fanatica, namque Crudelis semper timidus, si vicerit unquam. M.S. Bellum Bothuellianum.] A few officers and soldiers followed him, but in a very irregular and tumultuary manner. The flight of Claverhouse was the signal for all the stragglers, who yet offered desultory resistance, to fly as fast as they could, and yield up the field of battle to the victorious insurgents. CHAPTER XVII. But see! through the fast-flashing lightnings of war, What steed to the desert flies frantic and far? Campbell. During the severe skirmish of which we have given the details, Morton, together with Cuddie and his mother, and the Reverend Gabriel Kettledrummle, remained on the brow of the hill, near to the small cairn, or barrow, beside which Claverhouse had held his preliminary council of war, so that they had a commanding view of the action which took place in the bottom. They were guarded by Corporal Inglis and four soldiers, who, as may readily be supposed, were much more intent on watching the fluctuating fortunes of the battle, than in attending to what passed among their prisoners. “If you lads stand to their tackle,” said Cuddie, “we’ll hae some chance o’ getting our necks out o’ the brecham again; but I misdoubt them--they hae little skeel o’ arms.” “Much is not necessary, Cuddie,” answered Morton; “they have a strong position, and weapons in their hands, and are more than three times the number of their assailants. If they cannot fight for their freedom now, they and theirs deserve to lose it for ever.”