Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/345

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
CAPT. JOHN CREICHTON.
337

lairds of Knockgray and Fruah, with many other gentlemen of fortune, whose names I have forgot. Clavers's men, with the addition of some few that came in to him, did not exceed one hundred and eighty; yet, pursuant to his orders, he was forced to fight the enemy; but being so vastly outnumbered, was soon defeated, with the loss of cornet Robert Graham, and about eight or ten private troopers. The rebels finding the cornet's body, and supposing it to be that of Clavers, because the name of Graham was wrought in the shirt neck, treated it with the utmost inhumanity, cutting off the nose, picking out the eyes, and stabbing it through in a hundred places.

Clavers, in his flight toward Hamilton and Glasgow, rode a horse that trailed his guts for two miles, from the place where the engagement happened; but overtaking his groom with some led horses, he mounted one of them, and with the remains of his small army escaped to Glasgow. The rebels, pursuing as far as Hamilton, advanced that evening within a mile of Glasgow, where they encamped all night. As Clavers was marching after his men up the hill, where he had left mas John King under the guard of a dragoon (who ran off with the first that fled) King, in a sneering way, desired him to stay, and take his prisoner with him.

The rebels being thus encamped within a mile of Glasgow, Clavers commanded his men in the town to stand to their arms all night; and having barricadoed the four streets, to prevent the rebels horse from breaking in, ordered me, at sun rise, to march with six dragoons, and discover which way the rebels intended to come into the town. I must here observe, that I, with captain Stuart's troop of dragoons,

Vol. X.
Z
and