The news was so important that Munro at once went to the king.
Gustavus ordered three hundred Swedes and a hundred Scots of each
of the regiments of Ramsay, Munro, and the Laird of Wormiston, the
whole under the command of Count Brahe, to form up after dark on
the river bank and prepare to cross, and he himself came down to
superintend the passage. By six it was perfectly dark. During the
day Malcolm had placed two stones on the edge of the water, one
exactly opposite the boat, the other twenty feet behind it in an
exact line. When Gustavus arrived at the spot where the troops were
drawn up, Malcolm was taken up to him by his colonel.
"Well, my brave young Graheme," the king said, "so you are going
to do us another service; but how will you find the boat in this
darkness? Even were there no stream you would find it very difficult
to strike the exact spot on a dark night like this."
"I have provided against that, sir, by placing two marks on the
bank. When we start lanterns will be placed on these. We shall
cross higher up so as to strike the bank a little above where I
believe the boat to be, then we shall float along under the bushes
until the lanterns are in a line one with another, and we shall
know then that we are exactly opposite the boat."
"Well thought of!" the king exclaimed. "Munro, this lieutenant of
yours is a treasure.
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