Thus far, therefore, we have done well;
but, in the meanwhile, this doughty general's nerves being braced by the
keen air of Aberdeen, he has taken shipping for Dunbar, and I have just
received certain information that he landed there yesterday. His purpose
must unquestionably be to march towards us to recover possession of the
capital. Now there are two opinions in my council of war: one, that being
inferior probably in numbers, and certainly in discipline and military
appointments, not to mention our total want of artillery and the weakness
of our cavalry, it will be safest to fall back towards the mountains, and
there protract the war until fresh succours arrive from France, and the
whole body of the Highland clans shall have taken arms in our favour. The
opposite opinion maintains, that a retrograde movement, in our
circumstances, is certain to throw utter discredit on our arms and
undertaking; and, far from gaining us new partizans, will be the means of
disheartening those who have joined our standard. The officers who use
these last arguments, among whom is your friend Fergus Mac-Ivor, maintain
that, if the Highlanders are strangers to the usual military discipline
of Europe, the soldiers whom they are to encounter are no less strangers
to their peculiar and formidable mode of attack; that the attachment and
courage of the chiefs and gentlemen are not to be doubted; and that, as
they will be in the midst of the enemy, their clansmen will as surely
follow them; in fine, that having drawn the sword we should throw away
the scabbard, and trust our cause to battle and to the God of battles.
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