MASTER OF THE HIGHLANDS...second excerpt continued

It was but a slight rustling of bushes that announced the approaching Highlanders, then a sudden wave of tartan-clad Camerons burst from the woods surrounding Monk’s encampment.  A young towheaded officer spied them first, and his tin mug hit the dirt, splattering silty coffee all over the white breeches of his redcoat uniform.  

The comrades by his side were not so stunned.  A few of the British soldiers managed to fire off a round at close range, felling a Cameron clansman as he emerged from the trees.  The crofter’s body jerked backward, and the man fell, his body hitting the ground with a final bucking spasm.

So it begins, Ewen thought grimly.  He shook his head and with a roar raised his claymore high.

The initial surprise spent, it was time to charge, voices howling, swords brandished wildly.  Their berserk ferocity belied the expert precision of what was a typical Highland attack: startling, loud, violently short.

Terrified by such an assault on what had promised to be a serene blue-sky morning, many of the Englishmen made the single most critical–and fatal–error that a soldier can make when wielding a firearm against sword and targe.  A knot of young redcoats fired their muskets far too soon to find vulnerable flesh amongst the Highland warriors.  Before they could reload, the Camerons were upon them.

“Cameron men!  Aonaibh ri cheille!”  Ewen’s call to unite thundered over the din.  Swords cleaved through guns made pathetically useless by their empty barrels; metal clattered as shaking hands attempted in vain to reload; and one sound endured like a sickening drone in the ears, the suck and dull thud of flesh as it hit the ground lifeless.

“Lochiel!”  Ewen turned at the sound of his uncle’s voice.  “To Malcolm!”  Donald shouted.  “Away to Malcolm, lad!”

The laird quickly scanned the field and spotted the red-headed clansman.  Cornered by two redcoats, Malcolm had sustained a belly wound and a deep gash to his sword arm, and the man’s strength was flagging...

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