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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: without an army adequate to check his career; for Argyle's
followers had left the Covenanters' host when their master threw
up his commission, and many other troops, tired of the war, had
taken the same opportunity to disband themselves. By descending
Strath-Tay, therefore, one of the most convenient passes from the
Highlands, Montrose had only to present himself in the Lowlands,
in order to rouse the slumbering spirit of chivalry and of
loyalty which animated the gentlemen to the north of the Forth.
The possession of these districts, with or without a victory,
would give him the command of a wealthy and fertile part of the
kingdom, and would enable him, by regular pay, to place his army
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