The firelock of the Highlander was quite distinct from the weapon which he used in close fight.

He discharged his shot, threw away his gun, and fell on with his sword.
This was the work of a moment.

It took the regular musketeer two or three minutes to alter his missile weapon into a weapon with which he could encounter an enemy hand to hand; and during these two or three minutes the event of the battle of Killiecrankie had been decided.
Mackay therefore ordered all his bayonets to be so formed that they might be screwed upon the barrel without stopping it up, and that his men might be able to receive a charge the very instant after firing, [373] As soon as he learned that a detachment of the Gaelic army was advancing towards Perth, he hastened to meet them at the head of a body of dragoons who had not been in the battle, and whose spirit was therefore unbroken.

On Wednesday the thirty-first of July, only four days after his defeat, he fell in with the Robertsons near Saint Johnston's, attacked them, routed them, killed a hundred and twenty of them, and took thirty prisoners, with the loss of only a single soldier, [374] This skirmish produced an effect quite out of proportion to the number of the combatants or of the slain.

The reputation of the Celtic arms went down almost as fast as it had risen.