THE ISLES AND THE COVENANT. 337 



Captain of Clan Ranald ; and Macneill of Barra. Charles 1 1. 

 was crowned at Scone on 1st January, 1651, and took 

 command of the army of 20,000 men which was raised 

 to dispute the pretensions of Cromwell. The successful 

 tactics of Lambert, and the fight won by him near Inver- 

 keithing at which the Highlanders particularly distin- 

 guished themselves opened a free passage for Cromwell to 

 the North of Scotland. The difficult position in which the 

 Scots found themselves was relieved by the bold resolution 

 which, on the King's initiative, was taken, to carry the 

 war into the enemy's country, and to raise the English 

 Royalists. Cromwell himself, bold strategist though he 

 was, never anticipated such a daring and skilful move, and 

 was compelled to follow his opponents with all possible 

 despatch. The two armies met at Worcester, the Royalist 

 forces having been reduced by desertions to 14,000 men, 

 of whom 2,000 were Englishmen ; while Cromwell found 

 himself at the head of 30,000 troops, two-thirds of whom 

 had concentrated at Worcester to oppose the advance of 

 the King. The battle of Worcester, which was fought on 

 3rd September, 1651 the anniversary of Dunbar was as 

 stiff a fight as even Cromwell had ever seen. The High- 

 landers fought with great bravery ; but the odds were 

 too great, the generalship of Cromwell too skilful, and 

 (according to Clarendon), the influence of the Kirk again 

 too powerful, to leave the final issue in doubt. The King 

 was completely defeated and had to seek safety in flight. 

 The defeat was disastrous to the Highlanders, and more 

 particularly to the Macleods. Under the leadership of 

 the Tutor of Macleod and his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Norman Macleod of Bernera (Harris), a regiment of no 

 fewer than 1,000 Macleods marched to the fatal field. The 

 carnage among them was so great most of them were 

 killed, while others were sold as slaves that by general 

 agreement of the Highland chiefs, the Macleods were 

 relieved from further participation in all future risings of 

 the clans, until they had had time to recuperate from their 

 terrible losses. And it may here be remarked that the 



