Resumo de A Legend Of Montrose

Sir Walter Scott A Legend of Montrose" (1819),

You would think any work by the author of true classics like Ivanhoe, would be a masterpiece, but A Legend Of Montrose is arguably one of the worst novels ever penned. Sadly, historians of the English Civil War and the Montrose campaigns have quoted its premise as if it was fact. Though Scott claims that the main purpose of the novel is to highlight the Lord Kilpont killing, it actually gets scant mention in the book, and only really detailed in the author?s introduction. Scott suggests that the murderer, James Stewart bore a grudge against Alastair MacColla for ravaging his lands. MacColla had certainly attacked properties belonging to many of the Scottish Covenant supporters and those who dared to try to remain neutral from the Civil War. MacColla had led such a drive since his landing on the Scottish Coast. James Stewart had allegedly challenged MacColla to a duel, which Kilpont, with assistance from Montrose, had prevented from going ahead. Kilpont obliged on the combatants to shake hands and forgive one another, but James Stewart allegedly squeezed MacColla?s fingers so tightly that he drew blood and made MacColla wince. James Stewart clearly wanted a rematch at the earliest opportunity. It was as a result of this intervention that Kilpont and James Stewart were to fight later, with tragic consequences. Scott supposedly based this theory on accounts given to the author orally by direct descendents of James Stewart It is not entirely inconceivable that Scott would have researched his premise and spoken to members of the Stewart families. However, their story might be easily seen as biased favorable propaganda for their ancestor at best. That Scott?s ?novel? features a number of quite obviously fictitious characters and situations, it seems surprising that so many later historic studies incorporate its events into actual history. The novel is not really about Montrose at all, as he and the Scots-Irish Brigade make little more than cameo appearances. It is a badly written clichéd boy?s own tale of daring-do featuring a comical, anti-heroic loud brash errant mercenary soldier called Captain Dugald Dalgetty, a veteran of the Thirty-Years war. He is a Falstaffian bore, eager to relate his previous escapades at the drop of a hat and rarely getting to the point of his discussions before trying anyone?s patience. Even Montrose finds him insufferable. Dalgetty is a noble Royalist at heart, with a Roy-Rogers/Trigger patter going on with his horse, Gustavus, named after the 30 Year war tactician Dalgetty admires greatly. Witnessing Montrose?s initial introduction to the Scottish Royalist supporting clans, Dalgetty is then sent by Montrose to act as a herald for a truce mission to Inverary. Dalgetty is escorted by one Duncan Campbell, who believes that his daughter was murdered by disposed Highlanders known as the Children Of The Mist. Once at Argyll?s headquarters, Dalgetty is kidnapped by a group of pantomime villains, with crucified Royalists lining the streets leading to their castle. These are the Covenant, and they quickly put Dalgetty into a dungeon. Here, Dalgetty meets a fellow prisoner, Ranald MacEagh,. Ranald is one of the Children Of The Mist, a who murdered a number of Campbell Clan kinfolk, but not the daughter of Duncan Campbell who Dalgetty realizes is in fact a girl called Annot Lyle, who he met earlier in the novel. Dalgetty takes Lord Argyll himself a prisoner to secure his escape, and that of his horse. He goes with Ranald to rejoin Montrose, arriving just after the Tippermuir battle. If the novel were truly about Montrose, and not Dalgetty, the battle would be more than a mere expositional chapter. Dalgetty now witnesses the march on Inverlochy, and the ravaging of Argyll?s lands. Gustavus dies in the battle, and Dalgetty insists that the horse-skin be taken to make him a pair of trews so he can remember the years of faithful service rendered by his companion. Montrrose knights Dalgetty and then presents him with a new steed called Loyalty?s Reward. The final chapter deals with a duel between Lord Mentieth and Alan M?Auley, the son of Annot, who seeks vengeance on the Children Of The Mist for his family?s misfortunes. In fact M?Auley has been summoned by the treacherous Ranald, in order to cause the Campbell family more distress. The attack which follows echoes the claims Scott made about James Stewart. Mentieth is left wounded on the brink of his wedding, while M?Auley escapes with his kinfolk and kills sentries as he goes, leaping into a river to swim to his freedom, before joining Argyll?s forces. Mentieth survives for the first six months of wedded life before succumbing to his wounds. Scott rounds off the novel with a summary of the battle of Philipaugh which Dalgetty survives because he assures his captors that he has only two weeks left to serve on his oath of commission to the Royalists. He is then allowed to join and serve the Covenant cause. The novel is utter rubbish from start to finish, with scant regard for facts. Why historians take this version of events as anything other than a tired yarn penned by a dying author long past his prime is perhaps the one real mystery of the whole Kilpont business.

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