Dundee had commanded a body of Scottish troops which had marched into England to oppose the Dutch: but he had found, in the inglorious campaign which had been fatal to the dynasty of Stuart, no opportunity of displaying the courage and military skill which those who most detest his merciless nature allow him to have possessed.

He lay with his forces not far from Watford, when he was informed that James had fled from Whitehall, and that Feversham had ordered all the royal army to disband.

The Scottish regiments were thus left, without pay or provisions, in the midst of a foreign and indeed a hostile nation.

Dundee, it is said, wept with grief and rage.

Soon, however, more cheering intelligence arrived from various quarters.