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

398-412] SCOTI GRAMEIDOS LIB. V.
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Totque ut parta manu videre ex hoste trophaea,
Et tot opima virum spolia ornamentaque caesis
Rapta cadaveribus, laetas ad sidera voces
Attollunt, coelum atque solum clamore resultant.1
Jam Titan summos spargebat lampade montes.
It campis chlamydata cohors, et utrinque ruebant
Lata per arva viri, volat bine dux Grampius, illinc
Belgicus instabat ductor, patulaeque tenebant
Aequora convallis Spejae, geminasque sub armis
Ostentant acies, hie cis, trans fluminis undas
Alter Grampiacas raptabat ad ardua turmas.
Scaurius ambustam Ruthveni sistit ad arcem.
Hinc petit australes Forthae ultra flumina tractus
Ut referat summo coram sua facta senatu.
Verum tardigrado procedens agmine Gram us
trophies wrested from the enemy by their hands, and so many rich
spoils and decorations stripped from the dead bodies of the men,
they lift their exulting voices to the stars, and heaven and earth
re-echo the clamour. Already Titan was suffusing the highest
hills with his light. The plaided companies were moving in the
plains, and on either side the men were in motion all over the wide
fields. Here flies forward the Highland leader, there presses on
the Belgic general, and they were holding the level ground of the
wide Strathspey, presenting two armies,2 here one on this side,
there the other on that side the river, hurrying on the Highland
troops towards the mountains. Scourie stopped by the blackened
walls of Ruthven Castle. Then he seeks the southern lands beyond
the Forth, and tells his tale before the Supreme Convention. But
1 The original and copies have ‘resultat.’
5 Dundee was marching towards Ruthven and Mackay was keeping a day
behind him, maintaining a position at Culnakyle. Dundee proceeded onwards
through Badenoch towards Lochaber. He had thought of taking up a strong
position in Rannoch, but ‘ finding the Lochaber men going away every night by
forties and fifties with droves of cattle, and finding all the rest loaden with
plunder of Grant’s land and others, would needs go home, gave way to it and
came into Lochaber with them, dispersed them all to their respective houses with
orders to be ready within a few days, if the enemy pursued, if not, to lay still till
further orders.’—Letters of Dundee, p. 62. Mackay followed as far as Ruthven,
and found that Dundee was passed into Lochaber, where he resolved to leave
him because ‘ there were no good wayes to be foumished over all with provisions,
and without them no regular body of forces can subsist together.’—Mackay’s
Letter from Head of Strathspey, June 13, 1689.