2nd Duke of Gordon and the part he played at the battle of Sheriffmuir

12
If 'hue had, as the .Seaforth letter assures us, any
natural misgivings, he was being urged to press
forward by one of his own bailies, the redoubtable
John Gordon of Glenbucket, whom Mar seems to
have treated with ,as much confidence as he did
Huntly. The Earl writes him on September 4-15,
bidding him see that S'eaforth should "join his
men immediately with .my Lord Huntly, but un-
til he do so, you are to do your beet with my
Lord Huntly'6 own men and those who will join
you" ("Stuart Papers/' i., 418). Huntly was to
march into Athole, where Mar thought the Duke
of Athole might do some tiling "uneasy" to the
Jacobites. On September 9-20, Mar complained
to Glenbucket albout F'arquh arson of Inver-
oauld's "tricks" in making the country people
"belive that non of our neighbours are to stirr,
and particularly my Lord Huntly's men." Mar
says (ibid, i, 420) : —
For oureinig of this, I wou'd have you on Mun-
day nixt, or as soon as possible you can, send some
of my Lord Huntly's men into this country to
join us. I't may be some of them who are nearest
us, and since we are all to .meet in a few dayes,
it will not be very much out of their road. If
you send ibut one hundred men it will do a great
dale of good here and elsewhere too, and it will
not only occation more out of this country than
otherwise I will do, ibut it will make them go
with much better heart and prevent desertion.
Pray do this if i't be possible.
On September 11-22, Mar assured Glengarry that
Huntly "acts the .honourable part I expect of
him, and Glenbucket, his baily, is very diligent. "
Huntly's men of Badenoch, Strathaven, Glenlivet,
Glenfcihn.es, Auehindown, as Glenbuckei jiust now
writes me, were in amies yesterday" (ibid, i,
422). A letter which Mar sent to Huntly by
"Black Jock" got lost, and Mar was in a great
state about it, writing to Glenbucket, September
12-23 (ibid, i., 427): —
I'm in mighty apprehensions that by this mis-
take your men I wrote for come' not here to-mor-
row nor the rest of them to meet me in Athole,
as [ hoped they would, and that indeed may be
fatal, for the whole 'project depends upon it, and
until I know certainly that your men can join
me there, and the precise time they will do it, I
cannot march from thence, which will so discour-
age my people as well as those who expect that
it may give a w'rong turn to all our affairs.
Glenbucket was so eager that he described