The besieging army therefore melted rapidly away.

Many returned home on the plea that, as their neighbourhood was about to be the seat of war, they must place their families and cattle in security.

Others more ingenuously declared that they would not fight in such a quarrel.

One large body went to a brook, filled their bonnets with water, drank a health to King James, and then dispersed, [360] Their zeal for King James, however, did not induce them to join the standard of his general.

They lurked among the rocks and thickets which overhang the Garry, in the hope that there would soon be a battle, and that, whatever might be the event, there would be fugitives and corpses to plunder.
Murray was in a strait.