All our troops being now assembled, the Earl of Mar resolved to march towards the enemy, and on the eighth of November arrived at Denain,[53] with fourteen battalions of foot and eight squadrons of horse, having left three battalions in Perth for the defence of the place; the ninth the army lay at Auchterarder, where he reviewed the troops, who consisted of about 6000 foot and eight hundred horse. Here we lay two days, waiting for two battalions from Fife; but finding these did not come up so soon as we expected, the twelfth we continued our march, the advanced guard lay near Dumblain, and the rest of the troops were quarter'd about a mile behind them, the want of tents and the coldness of the weather rendering it impossible for us to encamp. We had as yet no perfect account of the motions of the enemy, and concluded from the inferiority of their number (they being not above 3000 foot and twelve hundred horse), that they would fight us at the passage of the river, but we had hardly got the troops marched to their different quarters, when we received orders to join with all haste our advanced guard, the Duke of Argile having passed the Forth, and encamped about the toun of Dumblain, within cannon shot of them. Both armies lay all night on their arms, and next morning by day break we discover'd a body of the enemies on a rising ground near our left. Before eight in the morning, our army was formed in order of battle, in two lines, without any body of reserve. The Earl of Mar call'd all the general officers and heads of clans to a council of war, which was held at the head of the line, and there asked their advice whither we should attack the enemy, or return to Perth and wait the arrival of King James, who was every day expected, as also for accounts what success our friends in England might have; but it was carried almost unanimously to attack, none daring openly to oppose the current; the Marquis of Huntly only made some insinuations that it would not be fit to remain in unaction till the King's arrival.

The resolution being now taken to attack the enemy, the Earl of Mar commanded the Earl Marischal, with Sir Donald M'Donald's regiment of foot, and his own squadron of horse, to take possession of the rising ground on which a body of the enemies horse still remain'd, and to cover the march of the army on the left (our right being cover'd by a river) to the toun of Dumblain, where we imagined the enemy still to be. On our approach, the enemies horse retired; and we had no sooner gained the top of the hill than we discover'd their whole body, marching without beat of drum, about two musket shot from us. It was now too late to retreat; we therfor form'd on the top of the hill, and the Earl Marischal sent an aid-de-camp to advertise the Earl of Mar that he was fallen in with the enemies army, that it was impossible for him to bring off the foot, and therfor desired he would march up to his assistance as quick as possible,—which he did even in too much haste; for the army, which marched in four columns, arrived in such confusion that it was impossible to form them according to the line of battle projected, every one posted himself as he found ground, and one column of foot enclining to the right and another to the left of the Earl Marischal's squadron of horse, that regiment which should have been on the right, found itself in the center, separated from the rest of the horse, and opposed to the enemies foot; our foot formed all in one line, except on the left, where a bog hinder'd them from extending themselves, and encreased the confusion.

The Duke of Argile was no less embarrassed on his side. His army was not yet entirely formed; the rear, which was to have formed his left wing, was yet on their march, and showed us their flanck, which being observed by Lieutenant General Gordon, he order'd our troops immediately to charge, which they did with so much vigour that in less than ten minutes they entirely defeated six regiments of foot and five squadrons of dragoons, which composed more than the half of the Duke's army, while the rest having taken the same advantage of our left, which had neither time nor ground to fire, entirely routed them. Both parties pursued the troops they had broken, not knowing what had happen'd on the other side, till at length the Earl of Mar, having had the fatal news of the loss we had receiv'd, order'd the troops to give over the pursuit, and having rallied them, returned to the field of battle, from whence we discover'd the enemy posted at the foot of the hill amongst mud walls, on the same ground where we had layen the night before.

The Earl of Mar sent immediately an officer to reconnoitre them, and at the same time assembled the General officers and heads of clans, to consult whether he should attack them again; but the officer having reported that their numbers were equal to ours, and the Highlanders, who were extreamly fatigued, and had eat nothing in two days, being averse to it, it was resolved to keep the field of battle, and to let the enemy retire unmolested, which they had already began to do under cover of the earth walls, as well as of the night which was now approaching, leaving us about fifty prisoners of ours, most of them wounded, whom they had not time to carry along with them. We continued on the field of battle till dark night, and then marched back to the same villages which had been marked for our quarters the night before.

The enemy had about seven hundred men killed or wounded, amongst whom was the Earl of Forfar killed, and the Earl of Islay wounded, and two hundred and twenty-three taken prisoners, and we had about 150 killed or wounded, and eighty-two taken; but among those killed we had three persons of note, the Earl of Strathmore, his unkle Auchterhouse, and Clanronald, and the Earl of Panmure very much wounded. The loss of colours was almost equal on both sides; but the enemy got five piece of our cannon, which we could not carry off, those belonging to the train having run away with the horses when they saw our left broke; and thus ended the affair of Dumblain, in which neither side gained much honour, but which was the entire ruin of our party.

Some unlucky mistakes which happened that day, must here take place; first, an order to the whole horse on the left to march to the right, which so discouraged the foot of that wing to see themselves abandoned, that to it may be attributed their shameful behaviour that day; nor were these horse of any advantage to us where they were posted, for the ground was so bad that they could never be brought to engage. Another, of no less consequence, was the mistake of the officer who was sent to reconnoitre the Duke of Argile's army in the afternoon, for he having taken his remarks more by the number of colours than the space of ground they occupied, made his report that the enemy was betwixt two and three thousand foot strong, when in reality there was no more than three battalions, not making in all above one thousand foot, the other colours being what the Duke had just taken on our left, and being almost the same with his own, he now used them to disguise the weakness of his troops by making a show of four battalions more than he had, the ground and mud walls by which he was cover'd not allowing to see that he had formed only two ranks deep; this mistake hinder'd us from attacking him in the evening, which it's probable we might have done with better success than we had in the morning.

Next morning the Duke of Mar, finding most of our left had run quite away and was not yet returned, retired towards Perth, as the enemy had already done into Stirling.