Series 1 > Grameid: an heroic poem descriptive of the campaign of Viscount Dundee in 1689, and other pieces

212-228] SCOTI GRAMEIDOS LIB. II.
Ante urbem, inque ipso Taoduni vertice mentis,
Instruit audacem juvenum longo ordine turmam,
Signaque Grampiacis attollit regia castris.
Quern circum lecti comites, et laeta juventus
Omnes sublimes in equis fulgentibus armis
Agglomerant, Gramumque sequuntur in arma ruentem.
Jam inter medios per celsa cacumina Sidlae
Ibat ovans. Soles at tres cunctantur in arce
Vallis Ogilvianae, donee speculator in armis
Nuntiat adventum, et numerum exploraverit hostis.
Inferior longe numero, non viribus impar,
Flumina adhuc glacie quanquam concreta rigebant,
Et niveo celsos vestiret vellere montes
Tristis hyems; motis Phryxeo1 sidere signis,
Carpit somniferas obscura nocte sub umbras
Laetus iter, tenditque extremae ad littora Thules.
Hie vero, quanquam M‘Kaius agmine septus
mounted on his charger, brilliant in scarlet, in the face of the town,
drew out in long line his band of brave youths, and on the very
top of the Law of Dundee he unfurled the Eoyal banner for the
Northern war. Around him gather his chosen companions, and
young men, in high spirits. All mounted and in bright armour,
they follow the Graham as he rushes to the field. Then triumph¬
antly he led them over the lofty ridges of the Seidlaws. Three
days they tarry at the Tower of the Glen of Ogilvy,2 that the
scouts may announce the approach and strength of the enemy.
Finding himself greatly inferior in numbers—though not in vigour
—he moves northwards, under the constellation of Aries, mid the
deep shadows of sombre night, undaunted by the ice-covered
rivers and the snowy hills. Mackay,3 although surrounded by
1 Var. led. Phryxaeo. ‘ Vestiret ’ in preceding line, a bad sequence.
2 Dundee had a strong house here. The name of the Ogilvy family is derived
from this district. It was the home of S. Donovald and his nine daughters—the
nine maidens. It was the scene too of the reputed interview between William
the Lion and Gilchrist of Angus, when the King restored him to his estates. It is
now the property of the Earl of Strathmore. The old road, by which Claverhouse
travelled to the Glen, was by Balmuir and Tealing, and still exists. Mackay
(page 6) says, ‘Towards the 20th April, Sir Thomas Livingstone, having formed
a design to surprise Dundee in a country-house of his called Glen Ogilvy, though
very well and secretly led on, was nevertheless disappointed by the retreat of
the said Dundee the day before Sir Thomas came out of his quarters.’
3 Mackay was not on the march at this time. Sir Thomas Livingstone alone
was in motion. Mackay afterwards advanced slowly towards Brechin with Col¬
chester’s dragoons and some Dutch foot—450 in all.
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