Excerpt from The History of Scotland, Its Highlands, Regiments and Clans, Vol. 4 of 8<br><br>On arriving at Stirling Mackay met Sir John Lanier, who communicated to him the orders that had been issued by the government on receiving the news of his defeat. So decisive had the battle of Killiecrankie appeared to them that they had given up all idea of maintaining a position on the north of the Forth, all the country beyond which they meant to abandon to the victorious arms of Dundee, and to confine their operations to a defence of the fords of the Forth, and the pass and bridge of Stirling. In pursuance of this design orders had been sent to Berkeley's regiment, which was quartered in the county of Aberdeen, to retire upon Dundee, and Lanier had despatched an express to his own regiment, which lay partly at Alnwick and partly at Morpeth, to hasten down to Scotland. This plan, however, was disapproved of by Mackay, and he therefore, as he says, resolved to alter these measures (knowing how hard a pull we would have) of the Scots war, if he left the north, which are absolutely the best men of that kingdom for the war, to the discretion of the enemy, where he would not only get great numbers to join him, but also take possession of towns and seize upon the public revenues, whereby they could form a fashion of government, and so have more plausible ways, not only to maintain but also to engross their party, than ever they have had.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.