"What did the colonel mean by saying that our position was well
nigh as bad as that of the Sinclairs?" Malcolm asked Captain Hector
Munro, who with two or three other officers was sheltering under
a thick clump of bushes.
"That was a bad business," Captain Munro replied. "It happened
now nigh twenty years ago. Colonel Monkhoven, a Swedish officer,
had enlisted 2300 men in Scotland for service with Gustavus, and
sailed with them and with a regiment 900 strong raised by Sinclair
entirely of his own clan and name. Sweden was at war with Denmark,
and Stockholm was invested by the Danish fleet when Monkhoven
arrived with his ships. Finding that he was unable to land, he
sailed north, landed at Trondheim, and marching over the Norwegian
Alps reached Stockholm in safety, where the appearance of his
reinforcements discouraged the Danes and enabled Gustavus to raise
the siege.
"Unfortunately Colonel Sinclair's regiment had not kept with Monkhoven,
it being thought better that they should march by different routes
so as to distract the attention of the Norwegians, who were bitterly
hostile. The Sinclairs were attacked several times, but beat off
their assailants; when passing, however, through the tremendous
gorge of Kringellen, the peasantry of the whole surrounding country
gathered in the mountains. The road wound along on one side of the
gorge.
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