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

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PANURGI PHILOCABALLI [659-676
Jamque Caledonian! litui sonuere per omnem,
Undique et horribilem strepuerunt cornua Martem ;
Bellorum sonitu exciti juvenesque senesque,
Pro se quisque, ruunt, diversaque castra sequuntur.
Belgicus excelsam Nessi M‘Kaius arcem
Deserit, et subito collectis omnibus una
Castra locat rapidi currentis in aequora Spejae,
Ad vada, queis Coilo deducta colonia nomen
Indidit: hie Batavi primum vexilla tyranni
Extulit, et duros in bella vocabat agrestes.
Mox ruit, invisum diis et mortalibus aeque,
Caesaris in jugulum juratum turpiter agmen.
Hunc levis ambitio, lucrique immensa cupido,
Ilium dira Venus, Bacchusque, atque alea pernox,
Hos malesuada fames, durisque in rebus egestas
Impulit anna sequi,'et multis nunc utile bellum.
Jam scelerata manus juvenum ruit omnis ad arma,
Colluviesque hominum rerum spe illecta novarum.
Throughout Scotland the pipe and the trumpet sound forth the
dread notes of war. Young and old, each for his side, follow the
opposing camps. The Dutch leader, Mackay, leaves the castle of
Inverness, and quickly parading his troops, he pitched his camp
by the surging waters of the rushing Spey, at the fords to which
a colony once settled there had added its name to the name
Code.1 Here, first, he raised the pennons of the Dutch tyrant, and
called forth the natives to war. Presently a body of men, justly
hated by gods and men, join him, vowed to the destruction of the
Caesar. Here light ambition and greed of gain move some ;
there lust, wine, gambling move others; while the temptations of
hunger, poverty, misery lead others to follow his standards. Now'
a despicable band of youths rushes to arms, and offscourings of
men, drawn together by revolution, and moved by the desire of a
1 This is Culnakyle. I suppose the author considers Cul or Col short for
Colonia, and adds it to the name Coile. King Coilus was supposed by
Buchanan to have given his name to Kyle in Ayrshire, to the Kyles of Bute,
and all the many Kyles or Coils in Scotland. I believe the word is Gaelic for a
narrow passage or strait, and Cul is the back or sheltered side of it. Mackay,
advancing from Inverness to effect a junction with Ramsay coming from the
south, had moved as far as Carbridge, or thereabout, when he was informed of
Ramsay’s retreat. After some hesitation he decided to pass into Strathspey,
and Culnakyle would seem to have been his first camp. When he was at
Carbridge, Dundee was in Badenoch, twelve miles above Ruthven Barracks.
See notes, Books IV. and V. _