LORD GEORGE MURRAY.

This celebrated adherent of the Chevalier was born in the year 1705. He

was the fifth son of John Duke of Atholl, and the younger brother of

that Marquis of Tullibardine, whose biography has been already given.

The family of Atholl had attained a degree of power and influence in

Scotland, which almost raised them out of the character of subjects. It

was by consummate prudence, not unattended with a certain portion of

time-serving, that, until the period 1715, the high position which these

great nobles held had been in seasons of political difficulty preserved.

Their political principles were those of indefeasible right and

hereditary monarchy. John, first Marquis of Atholl, the father of Lord

George Murray, married Amelia Stanley, daughter of Charlotte De la

Tremouille, Countess of Derby, whose princely extraction, to borrow a

phrase of high value in genealogical histories, was the least of her

merits. This celebrated woman was remarkable for the virtue and piety of

her ordinary life; and, when the season of trial and adversity called

it forth, she displayed the heroism which becomes the hour of adversity.

Her well-known defence of Latham House in 1644 from the assaults of the

Parliamentarian forces, and her protracted maintenance of the Isle of

Man, the last place in the English dominions that submitted to the

Parliament, were followed by a long and patient endurance of penury and

imprisonment.

The Marquis of Atholl was consistent in that adherence to the Stuarts

which the family of his wife had professed. He advocated the succession

of James the Second, and was rewarded with the royal confidence. Indeed,

such was the partiality of the King towards him, that had the Marquis

"in this sale of favour," as an old writer expresses it, "not been firm

and inflexible in the point of his religion, which he could not

sacrifice to the pleasure of any mortal, he might have been the first

minister for Scotland."[1] After the Revolution, the Marquis retired

into the country, and relinquished all public business; thus signifying

his opinion of that event.

He bequeathed to his son, John second Marquis of Atholl, and the father

of Lord George Murray, as great a share of prosperity and as many

sources of self-exultation as ordinarily fall to the lot of one man. To

the blood of the Murrays, the marriage with Lady Amelia Stanley had

added a connection in kindred with the Houses of Bourbon and Austria,

with the Kings of Spain and Duke of Savoy, the Prince of Orange, and

most of the crowned heads in Europe. Upon the extinction of the

descendants of John the seventh Earl of Derby, commonly called the

loyal Earl of Derby, and of his wife Charlotte De La Tremouille, "all

that great and uncommon race of royal and illustrious blood," as it has

been entitled, centred in the descendants of the Marquis of Atholl. In

1726, the barony of Strange devolved upon the Duke of Atholl; and the

principality of the Isle of Man was also bequeathed to the same House by

William ninth Earl of Derby. This was the accession of a later period,

but was the consequence of that great and honourable alliance of which

the family of Atholl might justly boast.

The father of Lord George Murray adopted every precaution, as we have

seen,[2] to preserve the acquisitions of dignity and fortune which the

lapse of years had added to his patrimonial possessions. Sixteen coats

of arms, eight on the paternal side, and eight on the maternal side, had

composed the escutcheon of his father, John Marquis of Atholl. Among

those great names on the maternal side, which graced a funeral

escutcheon, which has been deemed the pattern and model of perfect

dignity, and the perfection of ducal grandeur, was the name of the

Prince of Orange.[3] This plea of kindred was not thrown away upon the

Marquis of Atholl; he declared himself for King William, and entered

early into the Revolution. For this service he was rewarded with the

office of High Commissioner to represent his Majesty in the Scottish

parliament. But subsequent events broke up this compact, and destroyed

all the cordiality which subsisted between William and the head of the

House of Atholl. The refusal of the King to own the African Company was,

it is said, the reason why the Marquis withdrew himself from Court, and

remained at a distance from it during the lifetime of William.

The accession of Anne brought, at first, fresh honours to this powerful

Scottish nobleman. He was created in 1704 a Duke, and was made Privy

Seal: but the politics of the Court party changed; the Duke of Atholl

was dismissed from the Ministry, and he became henceforth a warm

opponent of all the Government measures. He spoke with boldness, yet

discretion, against the Union; and protested against a measure which, as

he conceived, gave up all the dignity and antiquity of the kingdom.

During his proud career, a marriage with Katherine, the daughter of

William Duke of Hamilton, a lady of great prudence, and of eminent piety

and virtue, added to the high consideration of the Duke of Atholl. Of

this nobleman, certain historians have left the highest character. "He

was," says Nisbet, "of great parts, but far greater virtues; of a lively

apprehension, a clear and ready judgment, a copious eloquence, and of a

very considerable degree of good understanding."[4] It is difficult to

reconcile this description with the intrigues and bitterness which

characterise the Duke of Atholl, in Lovat's narrative of their rivalry;

nor would it be easy to reconcile the public report of many men with the

details of their private failings. That, however, which has impugned the

consistency and sincerity of the Duke of Atholl far more than the

representations of Lovat, is the belief that, whilst his feelings were

engaged in one cause, his professions were loud in upholding the other;

that he was double and self-interested; and that he saved his vast

estates from forfeiture by an act of policy which might, in some

bearings, be regarded as duplicity, in proof of which it is asserted,

that, whilst he pretended to condemn the conduct of his eldest son in

joining the Rebellion of 1715, he was the chief instigator of that

step.[5] Such was the father to whom Lord George Murray owed his birth.

During the unbroken prosperity of his House, the future General of the

Jacobite army was born. He was the fifth son of eight children, borne by

the first Duchess of Atholl, and was born in the year 1705. Of these,

John the eldest, and presumptive heir to the dukedom, had been killed at

the battle of Mons, or Malplaquet, in 1709. He was a youth of great

promise, and his death was a source of deep lamentation to his father; a

sorrow which subsequent events did not, perhaps, tend to alleviate.

William, Marquis of Tullibardine, was therefore regarded as the next

heir to all the vast possessions and ancestral dignities of his House.

His faithful adherence to the Chevalier St. George, and the part which

he adopted in the Rebellion of 1715, produced a revolution in the

affairs of his family, which, one may suppose, could not be effected

without some delicacy, and considerable distress.

In 1716 the Marquis of Tullibardine was attainted by an act passed in

the first year of George the First; and by a bill, which was passed in

the House of Commons relating to the forfeited estates, all these

estates were vested in his Majesty from and after the twenty-fourth of

January 1715.[6] Upon this bill being passed, the Duke of Atholl, who

had been residing for many years with the splendour and state of a

prince at his Castle at Blair Atholl, journeyed to London, and, being

graciously received by George the First, he laid his case before that

monarch, representing the unhappy circumstances of his son, and pointing

out what effect and influence this might have, in the event of his own

death, on the succession of his family, if his estate and honour were

not vested in law upon his second son, Lord James Murray, who had

performed very signal service to his Majesty in the late rebellion. This

petition was received, and a bill was brought into parliament for

vesting the honours of John Duke of Atholl in James Murray, Esq.,

commonly called Lord James Murray; and, as a reward of his steady

loyalty, a law was passed, enacting that the act of attainder against

William Marquis of Tullibardine should not be construed to extend to

Lord James Murray or his issue. In consequence of this bill, on the

death of the Duke of Atholl, in 1724, Lord James Murray succeeded to all

those honours and estates, which had thus been preserved through the

prudence of his father, and the clemency or policy of the King.

In this divided House was Lord George Murray reared. It soon appeared

that he possessed the decision and lofty courage of his ancestry; and

that his early predilections, in which probably his father secretly

coincided, were all in favour of the Stuarts, and that no considerations

of self-interest could draw him from that adherence.

The events of 1715 occurring when Lord George Murray was only ten years

of age, his first active exertions in the cause of the Stuarts did not

take place until a later period. In the interim, the youth, who

afterwards distinguished himself so greatly, served his first

apprenticeship to arms in the British forces in Flanders. In 1719, when

only fourteen years of age, a fresh plan of invasion being formed by

Spain, and the Marquis of Tullibardine having again ventured to join in

the enterprise, Lord George showed plainly his attachment to the

Jacobite cause. He came over with the Marquis, with a small handful of

Spaniards, and was wounded at the battle of Glenshiels on the tenth of

June. Of his fate after that event, the following account has been given

by Wodrow,[7] who prefaces his statement with a congratulatory remark

that several of the Jacobites were by their sufferings converted from

their error. "At Glenshiels," he writes, referring to Lord George

Murray, "he escaped, and with a servant got away among the Highland

mountains, and lurked in a hut made for themselves for some months, and

saw nobody. It was a happy Providence that either he or his servant had

a Bible, and no other books. For want of other business, he carefully

read that neglected book, and the Lord blessed it with his present hard

circumstances to him. Now he begins to appear abroad, and it is said is

soon to be pardoned; and he is highly commended not only for a serious

convert from Jacobitism, but for a good Christian, and a youth of

excellent parts, hopes, and expectations."

It appears, however, that Lord George, however he might be changed in

his opinions, did not consider himself safe in Scotland. He fled to the

Continent, and entered the service of Sardinia, then, in consequence of

the quadruple alliance, allotted to the possessions of the Duke of

Savoy.

Meantime, through the influence of his family, and, perhaps, on the plea

of his extreme youth when he had engaged in the battle of Glenshiels, a

pardon was obtained for the young soldier. His father, as is related in

the manuscript account of the Highlands before quoted, "had found it his

interest to change sides at the accession of George the First." His

second brother, as he was now called, James Murray, or Marquis of

Tullibardine, was a zealous supporter of the Hanoverian Government,

although it proved no easy matter to engage his Clan in the same cause.

During many succeeding years, while Lord George Murray was serving

abroad, cultivating those military acquirements which afterwards, whilst

they failed to redeem his party from ruin, extorted the admiration of

every competent judge, the progress of events was gradually working its

way towards a second great attempt to restore the Stuarts.

Notwithstanding the apparent tranquillity of the Chevalier St. George,

he had been continually though cautiously maintaining, during his

residence at Albano, as friendly an intercourse with the English

visitors to Rome as circumstances would permit. Most young men of

family and condition travelled, during the time of peace, in Italy; many

were thus the opportunities which occurred of conciliating these

youthful scions of great and influential families. As one instance of

this fact, the account given by Joseph Spence, the author of the

"Anecdotes" and of "Polymetis," affords a curious picture of the

eagerness evinced by James and his wife, during the infancy of their

son, to ingraft his infant image on the memory, and affections of the

English. Mr. Spence visited Rome while Charles Edward was yet in his

cradle. He was expressly enjoined by his father, before his departure

from England, on no account to be introduced to the Chevalier. Yet such

were the advances made to him, as his own letter[8] will show, that it

was almost impossible for him to resist the overture: and similar

overtures were made to almost every Englishman of family or note who

visited Rome at that period.

In addition to these efforts, a continual correspondence was maintained

between James and his Scottish adherents. The Chevalier's greatest

accomplishment was his art of writing letters; and he appears eminently

to have excelled in that power of conciliation which was so essential in

his circumstance.

Meantime Charles grew up, justifying, as he increased in stature, and as

his disposition revealed itself, the most ardent expectations of those

who wished well to his cause. One failing he very early evinced; that

remarkable devotion to certain favourites which marked the conduct of

his ancestors; and the partiality was more commonly built upon the

adulation bestowed by those favourites than founded in reason.

It was in the year 1741 that the royal youth, then scarcely nineteen

years of age, became acquainted with a man whose qualities of mind, and

attractions of manner, exercised a very considerable influence over his

destiny; and whose character, pliant, yet bitter, intriguing and

perfidious, came afterwards into a painful collision with the haughty

overbearing temper, and manly sincerity, of Lord George Murray.

It was in consequence of the practice adopted by some of the hangers-on

of the Chevalier's court, of luring young English or Scottish strangers

to its circles, that John Murray of Broughton, afterwards Secretary to

Prince Charles, was first introduced to the young Chevalier. Murray was

the son of Sir David Murray, Bart., by his second wife, a daughter of

Sir David Scott of Ancrum: he was at this time only twenty-three years

of age, and he had lately completed his studies at Edinburgh, where he

had gone through a course of philosophy, and studied the civil and

municipal laws. The report which prevailed that Mr. Murray had been

educated with the young Chevalier was untrue; it was by the desire of

his mother, Lady Murray, that he first, in 1741, visited both France and

Italy, and perfected himself in the language of those countries, then by

no means generally attained by Scotchmen.

Mr. Murray had been brought up in the principles of the Episcopal

Church, and therefore there was less reason, than there would have been

in the case of a Roman Catholic, to apprehend his being beguiled into an

intimate connection with the exiled Stuarts. He had not, however, been

long in Rome before he was asked by an acquaintance whether he had seen

the Santi Apostoli, as the palace of the Chevalier was called. On

answering in the negative, he was assured that, through a knowledge of

some of the servants, a sight might be obtained of the palace; and also

of the Protestant chapel, in which, as Mr. Murray heard with great

surprise, the Chevalier allowed service to be performed for such of the

retinue of the young Prince as were of the Protestant persuasion. It was

also alleged that this indulgence was with the cognizance of the Pope,

who, in order to remove the barrier which prevented the Stuarts from

enjoying the crown of England, was willing to allow Charles Edward to be

brought up as a Protestant. This assertion was further confirmed by the

fact, that the noblemen, Lord Inverness and Lord Dunbar, who had the

charge of Charles Edward, were both Protestants; a choice on the part of

James which had produced all that contention between himself and the

Princess Clementina, with the details of which the Courts of Europe were

entertained.

The family and retinue of the Chevalier St. George being then at Albano,

Mr. Murray was able to gratify his curiosity, and to inspect the chapel,

which had neither crucifix, confessional, nor picture in it,--only an

altar,--and was not to be distinguished from an English chapel; and here

English divines officiated. Here, it is said, whilst at his devotions, a

slight accident occurred, which nourished a belief in presages in the

mind of Charles Edward. A small piece of the ceiling, ornamented with

flowers in fretwork, fell into his lap; it was discovered to be a

thistle: soon afterwards, another of these ornaments became detached,

and fell also into his lap; this proved to be a rose. Such omens,

coupled with the star of great magnitude which astronomers asserted to

have appeared at his nativity, were, it was thought, not without their

effect on the hopes and conduct of the young Prince. One can hardly,

however, do him so much injustice as to suppose that such could be the

case.

Mr. Murray expressed, it is affirmed, a considerable degree of curiosity

to see the Chevalier and his two sons, who were both highly extolled for

their natural gifts and graces; the wish was communicated, and, acting

upon the principle of attracting all comers to the Court, was soon

realised: a page was sent, intimating that Mr. Murray's attendance would

be well received, and he was, by an order from the Chevalier, graciously

admitted to kiss hands. Such was the commencement of that acquaintance

which afterwards proved so fatal to the interests of Prince Charles, and

so disgraceful to the cause of the Jacobites. Such was the introduction

of the young Prince to the man who subsequently betrayed his companions

in misfortune. This step was shortly followed by an intimacy which,

probably in the commencement, was grounded upon mutual good-will. Men

become perfidious by slow degrees; and perform actions, as they advance

in life, which they would blush to reflect on in the day-dawn of their

honest youth.

This account is, however, derived from the statements of an anonymous

writer, evidently an apologist for the errors of Mr. Murray,[9] and is

contradicted so far as the sudden conversion of the young Scotchman to

the cause of the Stuarts, by the fact that he had all his life been a

violent Jacobite.[10] On the other hand, it is alleged by Mr. Murray's

champion, that his feelings and affections, rather than his reason, were

quickly engaged in the cause of the Chevalier, from his opportunities of

knowing intimately the personal qualities of the two royal brothers,

Charles Edward and Henry Benedict. He was, moreover, independent of

circumstances; being in the enjoyment of a fortune of three or four

hundred a year, which was considered a sufficient independence for a

younger brother, and therefore interest, it is alleged, could not have

been an inducement to his actions.

Whether from real admiration, or from a wish to disseminate in Scotland

a favourable impression of the Stuart Princes, it is difficult to

decide; but Mr. Murray, in 1742, dispatched to a lady in Scotland, who

had requested him to describe personages of so great interest to the

Jacobites, the following, perhaps, not exaggerated portrait of what

Charles Edward was in the days of his youth, and before he had left the

mild influence of his father's house.

"Charles Edward, the eldest son of the Chevalier de St. George is tall,

above the common stature; his limbs are cast in the exact mould, his

complexion has in it somewhat of an uncommon delicacy; all his features

are perfectly regular, well turned, and his eyes the finest I ever saw;

but that which shines most in him, and renders him without exception the

most surprisingly handsome person of the age, is the dignity that

accompanies his every gesture; there is, indeed, such an unspeakable

majesty diffused throughout his whole mien and air, as it is impossible

to have any idea of without seeing, and strikes those that do with such

an awe, as will not suffer them to look upon him for any time, unless he

emboldens them to it by his excessive affability.

"Thus much, madam, as to the person of this Prince. His mind, by all I

can judge of it, is no less worthy of admiration; he seems to me, and I

find to all who know him, to have all the good nature of the Stuart

family blended with the spirit of the Sobieskys. He is, at least as far

as I am capable of seeing into men, equally qualified to preside in

peace and war. As for his learning, it is extensive beyond what could be

expected from double the number of his years. He speaks most of the

European languages with the same ease and fluency as if each of them

were the only one he knew; is a perfect master of all the different

kinds of Latin, understands Greek very well, and is not altogether

ignorant of Hebrew; history and philosophy are his darling

entertainments, in both which he is well versed; the _one_ he says will

instruct him how to govern _others_, and the _other_ how to govern

_himself_, whether in _prosperous_ or _adverse_ fortune. Then for his

courage, that was sufficiently proved at the siege of Gaità, where

though scarcely arrived at the age of fifteen, he performed such things

as in attempting made his friends and his enemies alike tremble, though

for different motives. What he is ordained for, we must leave to the

Almighty, who alone disposes all; but he appears to be born and endowed

for something very extraordinary."[11]

It was not long before Mr. Murray perceived that, although James Stuart

had given up all hopes of the English crown for himself, he still

cherished a desire of regaining it for his son. Scotland was of course

the object of all future attempts, according to the old proverb:

"He that would England win,

Must with Scotland first begin."

The project of an invasion, if not suggested by Murray, as has been

stated, was soon communicated to him; and his credit attained to such an

extent, that he was appointed by the Chevalier, at the request of Prince

Charles, to be secretary for Scottish affairs. At the latter end of the

year 1742 he was sent to Paris, where he found an emissary of the

Stuarts, Mr. Kelly, who was negotiating in their behalf at the Court of

France. Here Murray communicated with Cardinal Tencin, the successor of

Cardinal Fleury, in the management of the affairs of the Chevalier, and

here he met the exiled Marquis of Tullibardine, who, notwithstanding his

losses and misfortunes in the year 1715, was still sanguine of ultimate

success. Here, too, was the unfortunate Charles Radcliffe, who, with

others once opulent, once independent, were now forced to submit to

receive, with many indignities in the payment, pensions from the French

Government. It was easy to inflame the minds of persons so situated with

false hopes; and Murray is said to have been indefatigable in the

prosecution of his scheme. After a delay of three weeks in Paris, he set

off on that memorable undertaking to engage the Clans, which ultimately

ended in the insurrection of 1745.

Lord George Murray, meantime, had returned to his native country, where

he was presented to George the Second, and solicited, but ineffectually,

a commission in the British army. This was refused, and the ardour in

the Stuart cause, which we may presume to have wavered, again revived in

its original vigour.

Previous to the Insurrection of 1745, Lord George Murray married Amelia,

the only surviving child and heiress of James Murray of Glencarse and

Strowan, a lady who appears, both from the terms of affection and

respect expressed towards her by the Marquis of Tullibardine, and from

the tenour of her own letters, to have coincided warmly in the efforts

of her husband for the restoration of the Stuarts.[12] Five children

were the issue of this marriage.

The course which public affairs were now taking checked, however,

completely all hopes of domestic felicity. After several unsuccessful

negotiations in Paris attempted by the agents of James Stuart, and in

London by Lord Elcho, the scheme of invasion languished for some time.

Whilst all was apparently secure, however, the metropolis was the scene

of secret cabals and meetings of the Jacobites, sometimes at one place,

sometimes at another; but unhappily for their cause, the party generally

wanted compactness and discretion. "The little Jacobites," as those who

were not in the secret of these manoeuvres were called, began to

flatter themselves that a large army would land in England from France

that summer. Nor was it the policy of Government to check these reports,

which strengthened the hands of the ministry, and procured a grant of

the supplies with alacrity. The Jacobites, meantime, ran from house to

house, intoxicated with their anticipated triumphs; and such chance of

success as there might be was thus rendered abortive.

The year 1743 ended, however; and the visions of the Jacobites vanished

into air. Donald Cameron of Lochiel, the elder, who visited Paris for

the purpose of ascertaining what were the real intentions of the French

cabinet, found that even the Cardinal Tencin did not think it yet time

for the attempt, and he returned to Scotland disheartened. The death of

the Cardinal Fleury in 1743 added to the discomfiture of his hopes.[13]

Above all, the reluctance of the English Jacobites to pledge themselves

to the same assurances that had been given by the Scotch, and their

shyness in conversing with the people who were sent from France or

Scotland on the subject, perplexed the emissaries who arrived in this

country, and offered but a faint hope of their assistance from England.

But, in the ensuing year, the affairs of the Jacobites brightened;

France, which had suspended her favours, once more encouraged and

flattered the party. A messenger was dispatched to the palace of Albano,

to acquaint the Chevalier that the day was now arrived when his views

might be expected to prosper; whilst at the same time the utmost pains

were taken by the French Government to appear to the English averse to

the pretensions of James Stuart. It affords, indeed, another trait of

the unfortunate tendency of the Stuart family to repose a misplaced

confidence, that they should have relied on professions so hollow and so

vague as those of France. But the dependent and desolate situation of

that Prince may well be supposed to have blinded a judgment not ripened

by any active participation in the general business of life, and

narrowed within his little Court. Besides, there remained some who,

after the conflict at Culloden was over, could even view the enterprise

as having been by no means unauspicious. "Upon the whole," writes

Maxwell of Kirkconnel, "the conjuncture seemed favourable; and it is not

to be wondered that a young Prince, naturally brave, should readily lay

hold of it. There was a prospect of recalling his father from an exile

nearly as long as his life, saving his country from impending ruin, and

restoring both to the enjoyment of their rights."[14]

Great preparations were in fact actually made by the French Government

for the invasion of Great Britain. The young Prince, who was forthwith

summoned from Rome, was to land in the Highlands and head the Clans;

Lord John Drummond, it was arranged, should make a descent on the

southern part of the island, and endeavour to join the young Chevalier,

and march towards Edinburgh. Twelve thousand French were to pour into

Wales at the same time, under the command of a general who was never

named, and to join such English insurgents as should rally to their

assistance.

This scheme, had it been executed with promptness, might perhaps have

prospered better than, in these later times, in the security of an

undisturbed succession, we are inclined to allow. General discontents

prevailed in England. The partiality which had been shown to the

Hanoverian troops in preference to the English at the battle of

Dettingen had irritated, if not alienated, the affections of the army.

The King and the Duke of Cumberland were abroad, and a small number of

ships only guarded the coast. Parliament was not sitting; and most of

the members both of the Lords and Commons, and of the Privy Council,

were at their country-seats. But the proper moment for the enterprise

was lost by delays, and the same opportunity never again occurred.

Meantime, the young Prince who was to influence the destiny of so many

brave men, accompanied by his brother, left Rome furtively, under

pretext of going to hunt at Cisterna. A tender affection, cemented by

their adversities, existed between James Stuart and his sons. As they

parted from each other with tears and embracings, the gallant Charles

Edward exclaimed, "I go to claim your right to three crowns: If I fail,"

he added earnestly, "your next sight of me, sir, shall be in my coffin!"

"My son," exclaimed the Chevalier, "Heaven forbid that all the crowns in

the world should rob me of my child!"[15] Mr. Murray of Broughton was

present at this interview; the prelude to disasters and dangers to the

ardent young man, and of anxieties and disappointments to his father,

feelingly depicted in the Chevalier's touching letters to his

children.[16]

By a stratagem the young Prince effected his journey from Rome without

its becoming known, and eleven days after his departure from that city

elapsed before it was made public. He was accompanied by Henry Benedict,

who was at this time a youth of great promise. He is described as having

had, as well as his brother, a very fine person, though somewhat shorter

in stature than that ill-fated young man, and of a less delicate

complexion. He seems to have been, perhaps, better constituted for the

career of difficulty which Charles Edward encountered. He was of a

robust form, with an unusual fire in his eyes. Whilst his brother united

the different qualities of the Stuart and the Sobieski, Henry Benedict

is said to have been more entirely actuated by the spirit of his great

ancestor, King John of Poland; by whom, and the handful of Christians

whom he headed, a hundred and fifty thousand Turks were defeated. Even

when only nine years of age, the high-spirited boy, whose martial

qualities were afterwards subdued beneath the taming influence of a

Cardinal's hat, resented the refusal of his father to allow him to

accompany his brother to assist the young King of Naples in the recovery

of his dominions; and could only be pacified by the threat of having his

garter, the beloved insignia of English knighthood, taken from him as

well as his sword.[17][18]

It soon became evident that the designs of France were not unknown at

St. James's. The celebrated Chauvelin, Secretary of State to Louis the

Fifteenth, had long been employing his influence over the Cardinal

Fleury to counteract the wishes of the English. By a slight accident his

designs were disclosed to Queen Caroline. Chauvelin had,

unintentionally, among other papers, put into the hands of the Earl of

Waldegrave, then ambassador in France, a letter from the Chevalier. Lord

Waldegrave immediately sent it to Queen Caroline. This involved a long

correspondence between Sir Robert Walpole and Waldegrave on the subject.

"Jacobitism," to borrow the language of Dr. Cox, "at this time produced

a tremor through every nerve of Government; and the slightest incident

that discovered any intercourse between the Pretender and France

occasioned the most serious apprehensions."[19] The spirit of

insurrection and discontent had long pervaded not only the capital,

which was disturbed by frequent tumults, but the country; and the murder

of Porteous in Edinburgh, in 1736, was proved only to be the result of a

regular systematic plan of resistance to the Government.[20]

The death of Queen Caroline deprived the oppressed Jacobites in both

kingdoms of their only friend at Court. The unfortunate of all modes of

faith met, indeed, with protection and beneficence from that excellent

Princess. Those Roman Catholics, whose zeal for the Stuart cause had

exposed them to the rigour of the law, were succoured by her bounty;

large sums were sent by her to the indigent and ruined Jacobite

families; and Sir Robert Walpole, who was greatly disturbed at this show

of mercy to the delinquent party, truly exclaimed, "that the Jacobites

had a ready access to the Queen by the backstairs, and that all attempts

to suppress them would be ineffectual."[21]

The last efforts of Walpole, then Lord Orford, were exerted to warn the

country of the danger to be feared in that second invasion, for

prognosticating which he had so often been severely ridiculed. He

alluded to "the greatest power in Europe, which was setting up a

Pretender to the throne; the winds alone having hindered an invasion and

protected Britain." He warned the Lords, that the rebellion which he

anticipated would be "fought on British ground." The memorable oration

in which he unfolded these sentiments, which were delivered with great

emotion, touched the heart of Frederic Prince of Wales; who arose,

quitted his seat, and, taking Lord Orford by the hand, expressed his

acknowledgments.[22] That warning was the last effort of one sinking

under an excruciating disease, and to whose memory the tragedy of 1715

must still have been present.

Charles Edward, to whose ill-omened attempts to sail from Dunkirk,

Walpole had thus alluded, had borne that disastrous endeavour with a

fortitude which augured well for his future powers of endurance. Mr.

Maxwell[23] thus describes his commencement of the voyage. "Most of the

troops," he says, "were already embarked, when a furious storm dispersed

the ships of war, and drove the transports on the coast: the troops

already embarked were glad to gain the shore, having lost some of their

number. It is hardly possible to conceive a greater disappointment than

that which the Prince met with on this occasion. How severely soever he

might feel it, he did not seem dejected; on the contrary, he was in

appearance cheerful and easy; encouraged such of his friends as seemed

most deeply affected, telling them Providence would furnish him with

other occasions of delivering his father's subjects, and making them

happy. Immediately after this disaster the expedition was given up, and

the Prince returned to Paris, where he lived incognito till he set out

for Scotland. Not long after his return to Paris, war was declared

betwixt France and England, which gave him fresh hopes that something

would be undertaken. But after several months, seeing no appearance, he

grew very impatient, and began to think of trying his fortune with such

friends as would follow him: he was sick of the obscure way he was in;

he thought himself neglected by the court of France, but could not bear

the thoughts of returning to Rome. He had heard much of the loyalty and

bravery of the Scotch Highlanders; but the number of those Clans he

could depend upon was too inconsiderable to do anything effectual. While

he was thus perplexed and fluctuating, John Murray of Broughton arrived

from Scotland."

In this emergency, the flattering representations of Murray of

Broughton found a ready response in the young Prince's heart.

Notwithstanding the assertions of that individual in his evidence at

Lovat's trial, that he had used every means to dissuade the Prince from

going to Scotland,[24] it is expressly stated by Mr. Maxwell,[25] that

he "advised the Prince, in his own name, to come to Scotland at any

rate; it was his opinion that the Prince should come as well provided

and attended as possible, but rather come alone than delay coming; that

those who had invited the Prince, and promised to join him if he came at

the head of four or five thousand regular troops, would do the same if

he came without any troops at all; in fine, that he had a very strong

party in Scotland, and would have a very good chance of succeeding. This

was more than enough to determine the Prince. The expedition was

resolved upon, and Murray despatched to Scotland with such orders and

instructions as were thought proper at that juncture."

Mr. Murray may therefore be considered as in a great measure responsible

for the event of that proceeding, which he afterwards denounced as a

"desperate undertaking." He found, unhappily, ready instruments in the

unfortunate Marquis of Tullibardine, in Mr. Radcliffe, and others, whose

fate he may thus be considered to have hastened by his alluring

representations of the prospects of success.

When it was decided that Charles Edward should throw himself on the

loyalty of the Clans, and intimation was given of the whole scheme, Lord

George Murray prepared for action. The landing of the Prince, the

erection of a standard at Glenfinnin, the march through Lochiel, and the

encampment between Glengarry and Fort Augustus, were events which he did

not personally aid by his presence. He was, indeed, busily employed in

assembling his father's tenantry; and it was not until the Prince

arrived at Perth that Lord George Murray was presented to him; he was

almost immediately created a Lieutenant-General in the Prince's service.

His power in the Highlands was, indeed, of a far greater extent than

that military rank would seem to imply; for, although the Marquis of

Tullibardine was the nominal commander in the North, to Lord George

Murray was entrusted the actual management of affairs; an arrangement

with which the modest and conscientious Tullibardine willingly complied.

The character of Lord George might be considered as partly sobered by

time; since, at the commencement of the Rebellion of 1745, he was forty

years of age. He was in the full vigour, therefore, of his great natural

and intellectual powers, which, when at that period of life they have

been ripened by exercise and experience, are perhaps at their zenith.

The person of Lord George was tall and robust; he had the self-denial

and energy of his countrymen. He slept little, and entered into every

description of detail; he was persevering in everything which he

undertook; he was vigilant, active, and diligent. To these qualities he

united a natural genius for military operations; and his powers were

such, that it was justly thought, that, had he been well instructed in

military tactics, he would have formed one of the ablest generals of

the day. As it was, the retreat from Derby, ill-advised as it may be

deemed, is said to have sufficiently manifested his skill as a

commander.

In addition to these attributes, Lord George was brave to the highest

degree; and, in all engagements, was always the first to rush sword in

hand into danger. As he advanced to the charge, and looked round upon

the Highlanders, whose character he well understood, it was his practice

to say, "I do not ask you, my lads, to go before; but only to follow

me."[26] It cannot be a matter of surprise, that, with this bold and

resolute spirit, Lord George was the darling of the Highland soldiers;

and that his strong influence over their minds should have enabled him

to obviate, in some measure, the deficiencies of discipline. "Taking

them," as a contemporary writer asserts, "merely as they came from the

plough, he made them perform prodigies of valour against English armies,

always greatly superior in number to that of the Prince Charles Edward,

although the English troops are allowed to be the best in Europe." Thus

endowed, Lord George Murray showed how feeble are the advantages of

birth, compared with those of nature's gift. In rank, if not in family

connections, and in an hereditary hold upon the affections of his

countrymen, the Duke of Perth might be esteemed superior; but, brave and

honourable as he was, that amiable nobleman could never obtain the

confidence of the army as a general. It is not, however, to be supposed

that any commander would ever have obtained an influence over a

Highland army, if he had not added high birth to his other requisites.

The Clansmen were especially aristocratic in their notions; and the

names which they had honoured and loved from their birth, were alone

those to which they would eagerly respond.

To counterbalance the fine, soldierly characteristics which graced the

lofty and heroic Lord George Murray, some defects, of too stern a nature

to be called weaknesses, but yet indicative of narrowness of mind,

clouded his excellent qualities. Unlike most great men, he was not open

to conviction. That noble candour, which can bear counsels, or receive

even admonition with gratitude, was not a part of his haughty nature. A

sense of superiority over every human being rendered him impatient of

the slightest controul, and greedy of exclusive power. He was imperious

and determined; and was deficient in the courtesy which forms, combined

with honesty, so fine an attribute in a soldier's bearing. "He wanted,"

says one who knew him well, "the sole ordering of everything."[27]

At Perth, Lord George Murray met with the famous Chevalier Johnstone,

whom he soon adopted into his service. This young soldier, whose pen has

supplied memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745, and upon whose statements

much of the reported merits of Lord George Murray rests, was the only

son of a merchant in Edinburgh, and the descendant of an ancient and

well-connected family. By the marriage of his sister he was nearly

related to the House of Rollo; and, from these and other circumstances,

he mingled with the best society in his native city.

Having been educated in Jacobite and Episcopalian principles, young

Johnstone hailed with delight the arrival of Prince Charles: he resolved

instantly to join his standard. Escaping from Edinburgh, he hastened to

Duncrub, the seat of Lord Rollo, near Perth. Here he awaited the arrival

of the young Chevalier; and here he was introduced by his cousins, the

daughters of Lord Rollo, to the Duke of Perth and to Lord George Murray.

The Chevalier Johnstone was one of the first Low-countrymen that joined

the standard of Charles Edward.

Lord George Murray very soon discovered that the requisites for forming

a good soldier and an active partizan were centred in young Johnstone.

For the former he was qualified by an open and impetuous character,

generally combined with a desperate courage. The jollity and licence of

the Cavalier school, which characterized Johnstone, did not materially

detract from, but added rather to the popularity of his character. As a

partizan, he has proved his zeal by his Memoirs, which afford a sample

of much heat and prejudice, and which have, in upholding Lord George

Murray, done an injury to the memory of Charles Edward, of which the

adversaries of his cause have not failed to take advantage. To many

errors of character, and to some egotism, the Chevalier Johnstone, as he

came to be called in after-life, united a kind heart and an enthusiastic

disposition. He acted for a considerable time as aide-de-camp to Lord

George Murray, and afterwards in the same capacity with the Prince. But

his liveliest admiration appears to have been directed towards the

general who has been classed with Montrose and Dundee,[28] and no

subsequent service under other masters ever effaced his impression of

respect and confidence to Lord George Murray. After the battle of

Preston-Pans Johnstone received a captain's commission from the Prince:

and, exhausted with his duties as aide-de-camp, he formed a company,

with which he joined the Duke of Perth's regiment. His history, mingled

up as it is with that of the General under whom he first served, must

necessarily be incorporated with the following narrative.

Lord George Murray continued, for some time, busily engaged in rallying

around him his brother's vassals. The Duke of Atholl is partly

proprietor, partly superior, of the country which bears his name. That

region is inhabited by Stuarts and Robinsons, none of the Duke's name

living upon his estates. Of these, several have fiefs or mortgages of

the Atholl family, and command the common people of their respective

Clans; but, like other Highlanders, they believe that they are bound to

rise in arms when the chief of their whole Clan requires it. The vassals

on the Atholl territory were well-affected to the Stuarts, great pains

having been taken by the father of Lord George Murray, notwithstanding

his efforts to appear loyal to the Government, to infuse the spirit of

Jacobitism among them.[29]

Of the events which succeeded his joining the Prince's standard at

Perth, until the commencement of the retreat from Derby, Lord George

Murray has left a succinct relation. It is written, as are his letters,

in a plain, free, manly style, which dispels all doubt as to the

sincerity of the narrator.

"I joined the standard at Perth,"[30] he begins, "the day his Royal

Highness arrived there. As I had formerly known something of a Highland

army, the first thing I did was to advise the Prince to endeavour to get

proper people for provisors and commissaries, for otherwise there would

be no keeping the men together, and they would straggle through the

whole country upon their marches if it was left to themselves to find

provisions; which, beside the inconveniency of irregular marches, and

much time lost, great abuses would be committed, which, above all

things, we were to avoid. I got many of the men to make small knapsacks

of sacking before we left Perth, to carry a peck of meal each upon

occasion; and I caused take as many threepenny loaves there as would be

three days' bread to our small army, which was carried in carts. I sent

about a thousand of these knapsacks to Crieff, to meet the men who were

coming from Atholl."

The difficulties which Lord George encountered were, it is evident,

considerable. Upon the arrival of Charles Edward at Perth, his army

amounted only to two thousand men,[31] until he was joined by Lord

George Murray, by the Duke of Perth, and by Lord Nairn, and other

persons of distinction.[32] There were few persons in that army who were

capable, by being versed in military affairs, of giving Lord George

Murray any advice or assistance. The Highland chiefs possessed the most

heroic courage; but they knew no other manoeuvre but that of rushing,

sword in hand, upon an enemy. The Irish officers were equally deficient

in experience and knowledge; and, with the exception of Mr. Sullivan,

are stated "to have had no more knowledge than the whole stock of

subalterns, namely, the knowing how to mount and quit guard." Such is

the description given of the collected forces by Johnstone. But,

although not trained as regular soldiers, and accustomed chiefly to the

care of herds of black cattle, whom they wandered after in the

mountains, the Highlanders had a discipline of their own. Their chiefs

usually kept about them several retainers experienced in the use of

arms; and a meeting of two or three gentlemen was sure to bring together

a little army, for the habits of the clansmen were essentially military.

It was, some considered, a circumstance favourable to Lord George

Murray, that, being unprepared by an early military education, he was

unfettered by its formal rules, and therefore was more calculated to

lead an undisciplined army of Highlanders, whose native energies he knew

how to direct better than a skilful tactician would have ventured to

do.[33] During his stay at Perth, the Highlanders, so prone to

irregularities when not in active service, were tranquil under the

strictest military rule.[34]

It was here, however, that the first seeds of dissension were sown

between Charles Edward and Lord George. Sir Thomas Sheridan, the tutor

of the Prince, who was allowed to "have lived and died a man of honour,"

but who was manifestly incapable of the great charge intrusted to him,

both in the education of the young Princes and as their adviser in

after-life, added to his other deficiencies a total ignorance of the

British constitution and habits of thinking. The Prince, of course, was

equally ill-informed. They were therefore in the practice, in

conversation, of espousing sentiments of arbitrary power, which were

equally impolitic and unbecoming. Sincere and shrewd, Lord George Murray

lost no time in expressing to Charles Edward his decided disapproval of

this tone of discourse. His motives in these expostulations were

excellent, but his overbearing manner nullified all the good that might

have been effected. He offended the Prince, who repressed indeed his

secret indignation, but whose pride, fostered by circumstances, could

ill brook the assumption of his General.[35]

It was not until the Prince reached Edinburgh that a regular Council was

formed; consisting of the Duke of Perth, Lord George Murray, Lord Elcho,

Secretary Murray, Sir Thomas Sheridan, and Mr. Sullivan, the Highland

chiefs, and afterwards of all the colonels in the army. But, among the

advisers of the Prince, an "ill-timed emulation," as Mr. Maxwell calls

it, now crept in, and bred great dissension and animosities. "The

dissensions," he states, "began at Edinburgh:" according to Sir Walter

Scott, they had an earlier origin, and originated at Perth.

They were aggravated, as in the Council at Perth in the time of Lord

Mar, by the base passions of an individual. Detesting the weak and

crooked policy of Mar and viewing from his calm position as an inferior

actor, with a fiendish pleasure, the embarrassments and mistakes of him

whom he hated, stood the Master of Sinclair. Blinded by a selfish

jealousy of power over the mind of him whom he afterwards betrayed to

the ruin which he was working, and "aiming at nothing less than the sole

direction and management of everything, the Secretary Murray sacrificed

to this evil passion, this thirst for ascendancy, all the hopes of

prosperity to Charles Edward--all present peace to the harassed and

perplexed young man whom his counsels had brought to Scotland. It was

he," strongly, and perhaps bitterly, writes Mr. Maxwell, "that had

engaged the Prince to make this attempt upon so slight a foundation, and

the wonderful success that had hitherto attended it was placed to his

account."

By some the sincerity of Murray's loyalty and good-faith were even

credited. The Duke of Perth, among a few others, judged of Murray's

heart by his own, went readily into all his schemes, and confirmed the

Prince in the opinion which he had imbibed of his favourite. After Kelly

had left the Prince, Murray contrived to gain over Sullivan and Sir

Thomas Sheridan, and by that means effectually governed Charles Edward.

The fearless, lofty, honest character of Lord George Murray alone

offered an obstacle to the efforts of the Secretary to obtain, for his

own purposes, an entire controul; he cherished towards the General that

aversion which a mean and servile nature ever feels to one whose

dealings are free from fraud or deceit. He also feared him as a rival,

and it became his aim to undermine him, and to lay a plot for the chief

stay and prop of the undertaking. It was naturally to be supposed that

Lord George Murray's age, his high birth, his experience and influence,

and his great capacity, would have given him an advantage over his

dastardly rival, and have gained the first consideration with the

Prince. But Murray of Broughton, unhappily, had acquired an early

influence over the credulous mind of the young adventurer. His

acquaintance beneath the roof of the Santi Apostoli had secured an

unhappy confidence in his fidelity and worth. He shortly took advantage

of the sentiments which ought to have ensured the nicest honour, the

most scrupulous truth, in return, to deceive and to mislead his young

master.[36]

Unfortunately there was one point upon which the honour of Lord George

Murray was to be suspected. He "_was said_" to have solicited a

commission in the English army.[37] Upon this supposed early defection

of Lord George to the Hanoverian party, Murray grounded his accusations.

"He began by representing Lord George as a traitor to the Prince; he

assured him that he had joined on purpose to have an opportunity of

delivering him up to Government. It was hardly possible to guard against

this imposture. The Prince had the highest opinion of his Secretary's

integrity, and knew little of Lord George Murray. So the calumny had its

full effect. Lord George soon came to know the suspicion the Prince had

of him, and was affected, as one may easily imagine; to be sure, nothing

could be more shocking to a man of honour, and one that was now for the

third time venturing his life and fortune for the royal cause. The

Prince was partly undeceived by Lord George's gallant behaviour at the

battle; and, had Lord George improved that opportunity, he might perhaps

have gained the Prince's favour, and get the better of the Secretary:

but his haughty and overbearing manner prevented a thorough

reconciliation, and seconded the malicious insinuations of his rival."

Another anecdote is related, on the authority of Murray of Broughton: On

the tenth of October the Chevalier issued a manifesto, dated from

Holyrood House. This document is acknowledged, even by the opposite

party, to have been remarkably well written:[38] but it was not

completed without some heart-burnings, arising from the distrust of many

members of the Kirk, who conceived that it did not contain assurances

for the security of their manner of Divine worship. A grand council was

therefore held, concerning the alterations which were necessary to

conciliate the good opinion of the Presbyterians. Mr. Kelly, who had

drawn up the manifesto, was very tenacious of his performance; but the

majority of those who were present were of opinion that the manifesto

would prosper better if a promise of putting the penal laws against

Papists into effect were added to it. Upon this proposition the young

Chevalier was observed to change countenance, doubtless reflecting that

it would be ungrateful to depress those who had been such real friends

to his father. He had, however, the prudence to say but little, and to

maintain a neutral position during the debate, which was carried on with

much bitterness on both sides of the question. It is remarkable that the

Duke of Perth, Sullivan, and O'Neil, who were all Papists, voted for the

addition; whilst many who were of the Reformed Church opposed it.

Amongst these was Lord George Murray, who, starting up and turning to

Charles Edward, exclaimed, with an oath, "Sir, if you permit this

article to be inserted, you will lose five hundred thousand friends;"

meaning that there were that number of Papists in England. On this, the

Prince arose from his chair and withdrew, offended, as it was thought,

by the vehemence and overbearing advice of Lord George. As he left the

room, he said, "I will have it decided by a majority." But the freedom

with which he had been treated appears to have rankled in his mind. The

additional clause was negatived, and the manifesto remained in the same

state as when it came from Mr. Kelly's hands.[39]

There were, indeed, times when Lord George endeavoured to retrieve

mistakes of which he was conscious, and upon some occasions he subdued

his lofty temper so far as to be "very obsequious and respectful, but

had not temper to go through with it." "He now and then broke into such

violent sallies as the Prince could not digest, though the situation of

his affairs forced him to bear with them.[40] The Secretary's station

and favour had attached to him such as were confident of success, and

had nothing in view but making their fortunes. Nevertheless, Lord George

had greater weight and influence in the Council, and generally brought

the majority over to his opinion; which so irritated the ambitious

Secretary, that he endeavoured to give the Prince a bad impression of

the Council itself, and engaged to lay it entirely aside."

It was not only in regard to Lord George Murray that the influence of

the Secretary was prejudicial to the Prince's interests; neither was

Lord George the only person whom he dreaded as a rival. Having access to

the most intimate communication with Charles Edward, he abused the youth

and inexperience of the ill-fated man to inspire him with a distrust of

many gentlemen of good family and of integrity, whose fidelity he

contrived to whisper away. All employments were filled up at the

Secretary's nomination; and he contrived to bestow them upon his own

creatures, who would never thwart his measures. Hence it followed that

places of trust were bestowed on "insignificant little fellows," while

there were abundance of gentlemen of merit who might have been of great

use, had they met with the confidence of their Prince. "Those that

Murray had thus placed," continues Mr. Maxwell, "seconded his dirty

little views; and it was their interest, too, to keep their betters at a

distance from the Prince's person and acquaintance."

Until a very short time before Charles Edward left Perth, he appears to

have felt the most unqualified admiration for the Highland character,

which he had carefully studied.[41] He thus expressed himself to his

father: "I have occasion every day to reflect on your Majesty's last

words to me,--that I should find power, if tempered with justice and

clemency, an easy thing to myself, and not grievous to those under me.

'Tis owing to the observance of this rule, and to my conformity to the

customs of these people, that I have got their hearts, to a degree not

easy to be conceived by those who do not see it. One who observes the

discipline which I have established, would take my little army to be a

body of picked veterans; and, to see the love and harmony that reigns

amongst us, he would be apt to look upon it as a large well-ordered

family, in which every one loves another better than himself."

He even applauded the rude climate of Scotland. "I keep my health better

in these wild mountains than I used to do in the Campagna Felice; and

sleep sounder, lying on the ground, than I used to do in the palaces at

Rome."

In this happy temper the Prince set out on his march from Perth to

Edinburgh. The march was made in the most perfect good order, and the

strictest discipline prevented any depredations. As the insurgent army

passed by Stirling, the standard of the Chevalier was saluted by some

shot from the castle. Nevertheless, Lord George Murray sent into the

town, and the gates were opened; and bread, cheese, and butter sent out

to sell, near to Bannockburn, where the army halted. On the seventeenth

of September the city of Edinburgh was taken.

In the description of the courtly scenes of Holyrood, it does not appear

that Lord George Murray took any conspicuous part. His sphere was the

council-room, or the camp, or the battle-field; and of his proceedings

in these different occupations he has left a very particular account,

written with the same manly spirit and fearless tone which he displayed

in ordinary life.

When the Prince's Council had received accounts of Sir John Cope's

landing at Dunbar, they left Edinburgh and lay upon their arms at

Duddingstone, and on the twentieth marched to meet the enemy. Lord

George commanded the van, and, whilst passing the south side of Pinkie

Gardens, he heard that Cope was at or near Preston, and that he would

probably gain the high ground at Fawside. There was no time to

deliberate or to wait for orders. Well acquainted with the ground, Lord

George struck off through the fields, without keeping to any road. He

went without being even preceded by the usual escort to choose the

ground where to halt. In less than half an hour, by marching quickly, he

gained the eminence; he slackened his pace and waited for the rear,

still proceeding slowly towards Tranent, always fronting the enemy.

General Cope's army was drawn up on the plain between Preston Grange

and Tranent, with deep broad ditches between them. After much

reconnoitring and some firing, on the part of the enemy, from these

ditches, at the Highlanders, who they thought had never seen cannon, and

would therefore be intimidated, the English army was drawn up on the

east side of the village of Tranent, where, on a dry stubble-field, with

a small rising in front to shelter them, they lay down to repose in rank

and file.

"It was now night," writes Lord George Murray;[42] "and when all the

principal officers were called together, I proposed the attacking the

enemy at break of day. I assured them that it was not only practicable,

but that it would, in all probability, be attended with success. I told

them I knew the ground myself, and had a gentleman or two with me who

knew every part thereabouts: there was indeed a small defile at the east

end of the ditches, but, once that was past, there would be no stop; and

though we should be long on our march, yet, when the whole line was past

the defile, they had nothing to do but to face to the left, and in a

moment the whole was formed, and then to attack. The Prince was highly

pleased with the proposal, as indeed the whole officers were; so, after

placing a few pickets, everybody lay down at their posts; and supped

upon what they had with them. At midnight the principal officers were

called again, and all was ordered as was at first proposed. Word was

sent to the Atholl brigade to come off their post at two in the morning,

and not to make the least noise."

Before four in the morning the army began to march, and an arrangement

of the first line, which had been previously agreed upon, was now put

into execution. Those who had had the right the day before, were to have

the rear and the left; and this alteration was made without the least

noise or confusion. The Duke of Perth therefore went into the front,

Lord George giving up his guides to him. No horse marched at that time,

for fear of being discovered. When the army had advanced within a

hundred paces of the ditches, they marched on to the attack, Lord George

calling on Cameron of Lochiel to incline to the left. As the enemy

discovered their approach, the noise of the cannon announced that the

engagement had begun. Notwithstanding that Lord George Murray's regiment

was the last to pass the defile towards the enemy, it was the first to

fire. "Our whole first line," writes the gallant soldier, "broke through

the enemy. Some of them were rallying behind us; but when they saw our

second line coming up, they then made the best of their way."

Lord George pursued the enemy to the walls of Bankton House, the

residence of Colonel Gardiner; and here a party of the enemy got over

the ditch, and fired at the Highland foe. This little company, brave as

it was, was composed of only fourteen men, headed by a Lieutenant-Colonel.

"I got before a hundred of our men," writes Lord George, "who had their

guns presented to fire upon them, and at my desire they kept up their

fire, so that those officers and soldiers surrendered themselves

prisoners; and nothing gave me more pleasure that day than having it in

my power to save those men, as well as several others." This declaration

was perhaps necessary, to rescue the memory of Lord George from the

opprobrium of cruelty; since it has been asserted, that at the battle of

Culloden he issued orders to give no quarter, and that such a document

to that effect, in the handwriting of Lord George, was in the possession

of the Duke of Cumberland.[43] This stigma on the fame of Lord George

Murray may have originated from the desperate character of that last

effort: his haughty temper may have been exasperated in the course of

the fatal contest. It is a charge which can now only be repelled by the

previous character of the individual against whom it is made, since it

was never fairly made out, nor satisfactorily contradicted.

After the action was partially over, Lord George Murray perceived that a

number of people were gathered together on the height near to Tranent.

Mistaking them for the enemy, the General marched with his regiment,

accompanied by Lochiel, who had kept his men together in good order,

back to the narrow causeway that led up to Tranent. Here he found that

the supposed enemy were only country-people and servants. From them,

however, he learned that the enemy were at Cokenny, only a mile and a

half distant; and he instantly determined on pursuing them. His energy

and valour in thus doing so, after the events of that harassing and

exhausting day, cannot but be admired. He found on arriving at Cokenny,

a force of about three hundred Highlanders, a volunteer company recently

embodied at Inverness by President Forbes. These soon surrendered;

between sixteen and seventeen hundred prisoners were taken that day,

among whom were seventy officers.[44] "His Royal Highness," adds Lord

George Murray in giving this his personal narrative, "took the same care

of their wounded as of his own. I do not mention the behaviour of all

our officers and men that day; their actions shewed it. I only take

notice of those two that were immediately under my eye, which was

Lochiel's regiment and the Stewarts of Appin." As the enemy's

foot-soldiers had made little or no resistance during the battle of

Preston-Pans, they might have been all cut to pieces had it not been for

the interposition of Prince Charles and his officers, who gained that

day as much honour by their humanity as by their bravery. The Prince,

when the rout began, mounted his horse, galloped all over the field, and

his voice was heard amid that scene of horror, calling on his men to

spare the lives of his enemies, "whom he no longer looked upon as such."

Far from being elated with the victory, which was considered as

complete, the care of the kind-hearted and calumniated young man was

directed to assist the wounded. Owing to his exertions, eighty-three of

the officers were saved, besides hundreds of soldiers. "The Prince,"

writes Mr. Maxwell, "had a livelier sense of other people's misfortunes

than of his own good-fortune."

This spirit of humanity was extended to the two Lieutenants-General. The

conduct of the Duke of Perth was ever consistent with his mild

character. On that occasion, at all events, Lord George participated in

the noble clemency which usually characterized the Jacobites.

"In the evening," he writes,[45] "I went with the officer prisoners to a

house in Musselburgh that was allotted for them. Those who were worst

wounded were left at Colonel Gardiner's house, where surgeons attended

them; the others walked, as I did, along with them without a guard (as

they had given me their parole); and to some, who were not able to walk,

I gave my own horses. It was a new-finished house that was got for them,

where there was neither table, bed, chair, nor chimney grate. I caused

buy some new-thrashed straw, and had by good-fortune as much cold

provisions and liquor of my own as made a tolerable meal to them all;

and when I was going to retire, they entreated me not to leave them;

for, as they had no guard, they were afraid that some of the

Highlanders, who had got liquor, might come in upon them and insult or

plunder them."

Beside these suffering men Lord George lay on a floor all night, having

given up the minister's house in Musselburgh, which had been destined as

his quarters, to those who were valetudinary. On the following day those

officers who were tolerably well were removed to Pinkie House, where

Prince Charles was staying. Lord George then returned to the field of

battle, to give directions about the cannon, and to see about the other

wounded prisoners. He afterwards repaired to Pinkie House, the gardens

of which were thronged that night with the prisoners, privates, to whom

provisions were sent; "and the night before," as Lord George relates, "I

got some of their own provisions carried from Cokenny to Colonel

Gardiner's courts and gardens for their use. In these things I ever

laid it down as a maxim, to do by others as I would wish they would do

by me, had I been in their place, and they in mine." Such is the spirit

in which the unfortunate were regarded by the victors of that day; and

these two accounts, that of Lord George Murray and that of Maxwell of

Kirkconnel, written without any mutual compact, and at different times,

and even in different countries, disprove the following gross and

improbable statement of Henderson's of that which occurred after the day

at Preston was fought and won.

According to his account, professedly that of an eye-witness, the

conduct of the young Chevalier (who, he acknowledges, had, by the advice

of the Duke of Perth, sent to Edinburgh for surgeons,) was, in the

highest degree, unfeeling and indecent. He stood by the road-side, his

horse near him, "with his armour of tin, which resembled a woman's

stays, affixed to the saddle; he was on foot, clad as an ordinary

captain, in a coarse plaid, and large blue bonnet, a scarlet waistcoat

with a narrow plain lace about it; his boots and knees were much dirtied

(the effect of his having fallen into a ditch, as I afterwards

understood); he was exceeding merry, and twice said, 'My Highlanders

have lost their plaids,' at which he laughed very heartily, being in no

way affected when speaking of the dead or wounded. Nor would his jollity

have been interrupted, if he had not looked upon seven standards that

had been taken from the dragoons; on which he said, in French, (a

language he frequently spoke in,) 'We have missed some of them.' After

this, he refreshed himself upon the field, and, with the utmost

composure, ate a piece of cold beef and drank a glass of wine, amidst

the deep and piercing groans of the poor men who had fallen victims to

his ambition."[46]

After this flippant and hard-hearted conduct, as it is described, the

Prince is said to have ridden off to Pinkie House, leaving the bulk of

the wounded on the field that day, to be brought in carts to Edinburgh.

"Few," he says, "recovered; and those who did, went begging through the

streets, their heads tied about with bandages, but obtaining no relief

from their conquerors. The property of the prisoners, the fine linen of

the officers, their gold and silver hilted swords, their watches and

rings, were worn by the lowest among the soldiery almost before their

eyes."[47]

The battle of Preston, which was magnified by Lord Lovat as a "glorious

victory not to be paralleled in history," although not meriting such

extravagant remarks, produced the most important consequences to the

Jacobite cause. Among not the least important was the acquisition of all

the arms of the whole body of foot, and even of the volunteers. These

went to supply the recruits whom the Marquis of Tullibardine and others

were sending daily to the camp. No enemy was left in the field to oppose

the progress of Charles Edward's victorious troops.[48] When, having, as

the Chevalier Johnstone asserts, escaped from the field of battle by

placing a white cockade on his head, Cope arrived at Coldstream with

his troops in great disorder, he was greeted by Lord Mark Ker, one of a

family who had long had hereditary claims to wit as well as courage,

with the bitter remark, that "he believed he was the first general in

Europe that had brought tidings of his own defeat."

"The Prince," writes Maxwell of Kirkconnel, "was now, properly speaking,

master of Scotland." The militia, which had been raised in some parts of

Scotland for the service of Government, was dismissed; and the

Chevalier's orders were obeyed in many places far from his army. These

advantages were, however, rather glaring than solid and permanent.

After the battle of Preston, it became a serious and important question

what step was to be taken. It was the Prince's earnest desire to push

the advantages thus gained by an immediate invasion of England, before

the Hanoverians had time to recover from their surprise. But this

spirited and, as the event proved, sagacious opinion was objected to on

the score of the smallness of the forces, and the probability of an

accession of strength before marching southwards. Lastly, the fatal hope

of aid from France, that _ignis fatuus_ which had misled the Jacobite

party before, and on which it was their misfortune to depend, was

adduced as an argument. The Prince yielded to his counsellors, and

consented to remain some time in Edinburgh. Upon this decision Lord

George Murray offers no opinion.

The castle of Edinburgh remained still unsubdued; and the Prince, upon

his return to that city, resolved on blockading the fortress. This was a

very unpopular step, but Charles had no alternative; since it was of

vital importance to reduce a place of so great strength and consequence.

Accordingly a proclamation was issued, forbidding, under pain of death,

that any provisions should be sent up to the castle; and the management

of this blockade was entrusted to Lord George Murray.[49]

This able General now proposed to place guards in such a manner as

should prevent the garrison in the castle marching out to surprise him,

but his exertions were baffled by the want of judgment and incompetency

of those beneath him in command. The guard was placed near the

weigh-house at the foot of the Castle-rock, so that the battery of the

half-moon, as it was termed, near the Castle-gate, bore upon it, and

many of the guard within would have perished upon the first firing. This

was not the only mistake. Mr. O'Sullivan, one of Prince Charles's

officers, one day placed a small guard near the West Kirk, which was not

only exposed to the enemy's fire, but conveniently situated near the

sally-port, whence the besieged might issue and take the party there

prisoners; for no relief could be sent to them in less than two hours'

time, owing to its being necessary to pass round the whole circumference

of the castle to arrive at that point. "I never," says Lord George

Murray, "knew of that guard's being placed there, until they were taken

prisoners." So severe a service was this blockade, that it was found

necessary to relieve the guards, which were thus placed, by different

corps who could not know the risk which they encountered. Desertions

from the Jacobite army were among the most formidable evils with which

Lord George had to contend. It was therefore important not to discourage

the soldiery. In the midst of difficulty the high-minded Cameron of

Lochiel came forward to offer his own person, and to risk his own

regiment in this service. He agreed to take all the guards, and to

relieve them with the soldiers of his own regiment, who were quartered

for that purpose in the outer Parliament House. "I was with him," writes

Lord George,[50] "when the guards were relieved, and the men did their

duty exceedingly, especially when there was danger; and, when the fire

was hottest from the castle, they kept their post with much resolution

and bravery. Lochiel and I being much with them, gave them a heartiness

that hindered them from complaining of a duty which was so hard, and

which the rest of the army had not in their turns. We even placed new

guards to keep the castle from sallying, as they seemed disposed; and

Keppoch's regiment was brought into town to take some of the guards and

support them. I lay in town for some nights, and was constantly visiting

the guards and sentinels."

The castle, nevertheless, seated on the precipitous rocks, which, steep

as they are, have yet been "scaled by love and ambition,"[51] defied the

blockaders. The Highlanders continued to keep guard in the weigh-house,

and, stationing themselves in the Grass-market, the Smithfield as well

as the Hay-market of Edinburgh, lying on the south side of the

Castle-hill, awaited there the proceedings of the enemy.

On the twenty-ninth of September, a letter was sent to the Provost of

Edinburgh by General Guest, intimating, that, unless a communication

were kept up between the city and the castle, he should be under the

necessity of using cannon to dislodge the Highlanders. It was said that

Guest had an order from the Government, signed by the Marquis of

Tweedale, empowering him to lay the city in ashes if the citizens did

not remove the Highlanders from their quarters. A message was dispatched

from the Provost to General Guest obtaining a respite for that night;

but, meantime, the utmost consternation prevailed in the town. Twelve

o'clock at night was the hour fixed upon for the execution of this

threat of the enemy; and, although many who reasoned did not believe in

the existence of the order, the lower classes were seized with a panic,

and the streets were crowded with women and children running towards the

gates, and with people removing their property to more secure quarters.

When the clocks struck twelve, the hour fixed in General Guest's

message, the noise of the cannon was heard firing upon the principal

streets; but the Highlanders were all under shelter, and only a few poor

inhabitants were injured. Nothing was heard except imprecations on that

Government which had issued so cruel an order, since it was quite out of

the power of the citizens to dislodge the Highlanders from their

quarters. But the firing was soon intermitted; and whether the garrison

had private orders only to threaten, or whether they found it

impossible to execute so barbarous an order, is unknown. They spared the

city generally, and only directed their fire to any place where they

fancied that they saw a Highlander.

On the following morning a deputation of citizens waited on the

Chevalier, and showed him General Guest's letter. He immediately

replied, that he was surprised and concerned at the barbarity of the

order, but that if, out of compassion for the city, he were to remove

his guards, the castle might with equal reason summon him to quit the

town, and abandon all the advantages of which he was possessed. A

respite of a day was afterwards obtained; and subsequently for six days,

in case the Highlanders would abstain from firing at the castle; and a

dispatch to London was sent to obtain a mitigation of the order in

council.

Meantime, on the first of October, the Highlanders fired; whether at

some people who were carrying provisions to the castle, or at the castle

itself, is uncertain. Reprisals were instantly made by a heavy

cannonading and small shot. The firing continued for some days, bringing

terror to the hearts of those who lived remote from the scene of danger;

whilst the aged and infirm were carried out of that noble city, thus

threatened with destruction. Sir Walter Scott observes, that the

generation of his own time alone can remember Edinburgh in peace,

undisturbed by civil commotion. The fathers of that generation

remembered the days of 1745--_their_ fathers the disturbances of 1715.

The fathers of those who had witnessed the rebellion of 1715 could

remember the revolution of 1688.

The merciful temper of the young Chevalier saved the city of Edinburgh.

At first he resolved to continue the blockade; and he renewed his former

orders, prohibiting any person from going to the castle without a pass

from his secretary, and threatening any one who was disobedient to this

proclamation with instant death. But, when he beheld the distress to

which the firing had already reduced the city,--then, let it be

remembered, comprised within boundaries of very moderate extent,--he

issued another proclamation, expressing his deep concern for the many

murders which were committed upon the innocent inhabitants of the city,

so contrary to the laws of war, to the truce granted to the city, and

even exceeding the powers given. His humanity had, therefore, yielded to

the barbarity of his enemy; the blockade of the castle was taken off,

and the threatened punishment suspended.[52]

The army of Charles Edward was now increasing daily; and, in consequence

of the reports which were circulated in the metropolis, a panic spread

there, of which no estimate can be made without consulting the

newspapers of that time. Among other writers who employed their talents

in inveighing against the cause of James Stuart, was the celebrated

Henry Fielding, whose papers in the _True Patriot_ upon the subject

present a curious insight into those transient states of public feeling,

which perished almost as soon as expressed. The rapidity of the progress

made by the insurgents is declared by his powerful pen to have been

unprecedented. "Can History," he writes, "produce an instance parallel

to this,--of six or seven men landing in a powerful nation, in

opposition to the inclination of the people, in defiance of a vast and

mighty army? (For, though the greater part of this army was not then in

the kingdom, it was so nearly within call, that every man of them might,

within the compass of a few days, or weeks at farthest, have been

brought home and landed in any part of it.) If we consider, I say, this

handful of men landing in the most desolate corner, among a set of poor,

naked, hungry, disarmed slaves, abiding there with impunity till they

had, as it were, in the face of a large body of his Majesty's troops

collected a kind of army, or rather rabble, together, it will be

extremely difficult to assign any adequate cause whatsoever, for this

unexampled success, without recurring to one, of whose great efficacy we

have frequent instances in sacred history: I mean, the just judgment of

God against an offending people." The state of public morals, Fielding

considers, to have drawn down upon society this signal visitation of

Providence. "Indeed, such monstrous impieties and iniquities have I both

seen and heard of, within these last three years, during my sojourning

in what is called the world, particularly the last winter, while I

tarried in the great city, that, while I verily believe we are the

silliest people under Heaven in every other light, we are wiser than

Sodom in wickedness."[53] The consternation of the sister kingdom had

now, indeed, become general; on the slightest report of foreign ships

being seen in the Downs, the dismay of the London citizens was extreme:

and such was the liberality, or such were the fears of the inhabitants

of the county of York, the capital of which may almost have been deemed,

in those days, a northern metropolis, that forty thousand pounds were

subscribed for its defence, after a grave and mournful address of the

archbishop of that diocese.[54]

When the Prince had determined to take off the blockade, and indeed had

actually resolved to evacuate Edinburgh and to march southwards, he sent

orders to Lord George Murray to nail the cannon upon the city walls, and

to retire to Musselburgh and Dalkeith. But the sagacious Lord George,

apprehending no further cannonading from the castle, begged permission

not to make a precipitate retreat, and obtained leave to continue three

weeks longer in Edinburgh, during which time the town remained in a much

quieter state than it had been heretofore.

Whilst Lord George Murray was quartered in Edinburgh, he communicated

frequently with his wife, the Lady Emilia, who remained with her

children at Tullibardine. That lady seems to have taken a deep interest

in the events which so deeply concerned her family. She was the first to

communicate to the Marquis of Tullibardine the intelligence of the

victory of Preston-Pans. "I pray God," she says in her postscript, "to

prosper his Royal Highness's arms, and congratulate your Grace upon his

happy success." A gentleman, who had seen her husband after the battle,

had brought to the anxious wife the tidings of his success.

Towards the end of October the Prince resolved to march into England,

without waiting any longer for the landing of French auxiliaries, or

even for the arrival of the friendly Clans of Frasers and Mackintoshes,

who were ready to march from the north to join Charles Edward. By some

of the Chevalier's advisers he was recommended to go to Berwick; but

this was a scheme counteracted by the counsels of Lord George Murray,

who, in the presence of the principal officers, represented it as "a

thing at least of great difficulty, and of not so great use as to lose

time, which is precious." Lord George therefore proposed marching into

England by the other road; but, to conceal their design, he advised that

the army should be divided into three columns; one to go by Kelso, the

second by Moffat, and a third by Galashiels, Selkirk, and Hawick; so

that all the columns should join on an appointed day near Carlisle. The

plan was approved; and, the secret being very well kept, on the

thirty-first of October the army prepared to march.[55] It is

remarkable, that, during the whole period of their stay in Edinburgh, no

general review of the Jacobite forces had taken place. The consequent

uncertainty of what was really the amount of those forces, which existed

in England, fostered the general panic. "Abundance of people," writes

Mr. Maxwell, "friends as well as enemies, had made it their business to

find out the number of the Prince's army, but to no purpose. Great pains

had been taken to conceal its weakness."[56]

In order to conceal the design upon England, a scheme was formed,

allowing three days to elapse between the marching of the two great

divisions of the army; and accordingly the Prince, attended by Lord

George Murray, took up his abode at the palace of Dalkeith, and here he

remained until the third of November. In this princely abode the young

representative of the Stuart line may have remembered the adverse

fortunes of Queen Mary, and the bold character of the Regent Morton, to

whom the castle of Dalkeith belonged, when it had acquired from the

character of its owner the name of the "Lion's Den." After the death of

Morton, the barony of Dalkeith was included in the attainder; and the

castle had been considered, during many years, as public property, and

was inhabited by General Monk during the usurpation of Cromwell.

But, long before Charles Edward made it his temporary residence,

Dalkeith had been repaired and beautified by Anne Duchess of Buccleugh

and Monmouth, the widow of the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth. It was, as

it is now, an appropriate residence for royalty. The more ancient part

of the building has, it is true, lost its castellated appearance; but

the beautiful site on the steep banks of the Eske, and the thickness of

the walls, are still proofs of former strength and great importance, to

which the contiguity of Dalkeith to Edinburgh conduce; whilst the

junction of the north and south Esk in the park add to the beauties of

this noble demesne.

The Chevalier Johnstone was still aide-de-camp to Lord George Murray,

and remained to accompany the General on his march. Among those with

whom the exertions of Lord George were frequently united was Mr.

O'Sullivan, an Irish officer, and the object of Charles Edward's

partiality and confidence, and he was a man of considerable abilities.

Having received his education in a Romish college abroad, O'Sullivan had

originally entered into priest's orders. It was his lot to be

recommended as a tutor to the son of Marshal Maillebois, who, perceiving

in the young ecclesiastic proofs of a genius better adapted to the use

of the sword than to the gravity of the gown, encouraged him to apply

himself to the profession of arms. There were not wanting in those days

opportunities of cultivating a military turn, and Corsica was the scene

of Mr. O'Sullivan's first exploits. Here he acted as secretary to

Marshal Villebois; an office of no slight responsibility, for the

Marshal was tainted with the prevalent vice of the day, and scarcely

ever left the dinner-table in a state fit for public business.

O'Sullivan, therefore, in the course of those oppressions which the

French inflicted on the inhabitants of Corsica, acquired not only great

experience in business, but also in military affairs; as well as

knowledge in what is termed the art of making irregular war. To this

acquirement he afterwards added another; for, having served a campaign

on the Rhine, it was said by a French General, under whom he fought,

that his knowledge of the regular art of war was equal to that of any

General in Europe. To his abilities were attributed much of the rapid

success of those whom it was the fashion of the newspapers of the day to

describe as "a handful of savages," but whom the loungers about the

English court soon learned to dread.[57]

It is now necessary, before entering into details of fresh operations,

to review the proceedings of Lord George Murray during the last few

weeks, and to give some notion how he exercised the functions of his

generalship. His chief sources of annoyance, besides the intrigues in

the Prince's council, were the deserters from the Jacobite army. Before

leaving Edinburgh, Lord George Murray had despatched a number of

prisoners to Logierait; and the following letter shows how rigid were

the instructions which he peremptorily sent to his brother, the Marquis

of Tullibardine, at Perth. The correspondence of Lord George Murray

proves him to have been a man of a stern, hard nature; and effaces much

of the impression produced by his united valour and clemency in the

field of battle.

"Dear Brother,

"Things vary so much from time to time that I can say nothing

certain as yet, but refer you to the enclosed letter; but depend

upon having nothing express from me with you before Monday night.

But, in the mean time, you must resolve to be ready to march on

Tuesday morning, by Keinacan and Tay Bridge, so as to be at Crieff

on Wednesday; and even that way, if you do your best, you will be

half a march behind: but you will be able to make up that on

Thursday, when I reckon we may meet at Dunblane or Doun: but of this

more fully in my next. It is believed for certain that Cope will

embark at Aberdeen.

"I hope the meal was with you before this--thirty-five bolls--for

it was at Inuar last night. It shall be my study to have more meal

with you on Monday night, for you must distribute a peck a man; and,

cost what it will, there must be pocks to each man, to contain a

peck or two for the men to have always with them. Buy linen, yarn,

or anything; for these pocks are of absolute necessity--nothing can

be done without them. His Royal Highness desires you to acquaint

Glenmoriston and Glencoe, if they come your way, of this intended

march, so that they may go by Tay Bridge (if you please, with you);

and what meal you can spare, let them have. You may please tell your

own people that there is a project to get arms for them.

"Yours, adieu!

"GEORGE MURRAY."

"Saturday, nine at night."

"For God's sake!" he adds in another part of his letter, "cause some

effectual measures to be taken about the deserters: I would have their

houses and crops destroyed, for an example to others, and themselves

punished in a most rigorous manner."

Another source of anxiety was connected with the prisoners of war. It

was difficult to know how to dispose of them. The island in the Loch of

Clunie, not far from Dunkeld, was afterwards considered by the Marquis

as the most suitable place for the reception of the prisoners; and was

conceded by Lady Ogilvy, the daughter of Lord Airlie, for that purpose,

in her father's absence. In a letter addressed by Tullibardine to the

Earl of Airlie, to whom the Loch of Clunie belonged, a spirit of

kindness and consideration is shown, very different to the stern

mandates of Lord George Murray. "I presume," writes the Marquis, "your

Lor'ship will not only cheerfully make everything be carefully prepared

for their reception, but also contribute what's possible to prevent any

dangerous mutiny or escape among them." Although describing these

prisoners as a "troublesome and dangerous set of people," he recommends

no harsh measures, except precautionary vigilance.[58] Beef, mutton, and

meal were provided and paid for by the Marquis, who, ultimately, was

obliged to quarter a considerable number of the prisoners in barns and

other outhouses near Logierait. This charge appears to have been very

unwelcome to the good old Tullibardine, who talks to his sister in law,

Lady Emilia Murray, of "ane unworthy pack of prisoners that is sent

us."[59]

Meantime, the want of money for the supply of the garrison at Perth was

another source of uneasiness to Lord George Murray. Many

disappointments, on this score, occurred. "I told you," Lord George

writes to his brother, "that some gentlemen had promised to his Royal

Highness some money in loan, more besides what they already gave; but it

is to their ladies you will please to write, as they appear to do the

thing, and not the husbands."[60] "I have been as pressing," he says in

another letter to the Marquis, "about money to be sent to you, both

formerly and now, as if my life depended upon it. There is three hundred

pounds sent at present, mostly in specie. You are desired to write to

people in the country to advance money, particularly to Lady Methven;

which if they do not immediately, their corn and other effects will be

seized."[61]

Previously to his march southwards, Prince Charles appointed Viscount

Strathallan Governor, and Deputy Governor of Perth, and

Commander-in-chief during the absence of the Marquis of Tullibardine,

whom Lord George Murray now summoned to join him, considering that the

addition of the Marquis's tenantry to the army was of the utmost

importance. "I am extremely anxious," he writes, "to have our men here,

at least as many as would make Lord Nairn's battalion, and mine, five

hundred each; for at present I could get them supply'd with guns,

targets, tents, and, those who want them, shoes also: but if they be not

here soon, them that come first, will be first serv'd."

These directions were reiterated, and were also repeated by the pen of

Lady Emilia Murray, to whom her lord sent immediate accounts of all that

occurred. This spirited and indefatigable help-meet resided generally at

Tullibardine. "These," she writes, "were his words, 'I entreat, for

God's sake, that the Duke of Atholl send off the men here immediately,

or they will be too late for arms, targets, tents, &c.; nay, for our

march, which begins on Thursday." All this haste and impetuosity was

meekly but decidedly resisted by the slow Marquis of Tullibardine. He

thus writes in reply to one of his brother's most urgent entreaties:

"About ten o'clock in the afternoon I received your express, dated the

fourth, four o'clock, afternoon, and am very much concerned to find that

it is morally impossible for me, or any of the men in these parts, to be

up with you against Thursday night, the day you say it is resolved, in a

Council of War, to march southward. Did any of us endeavour to make too

much haste to join the Prince, I am afraid we should be like a good milk

cow, that gives a great pail of milk, and after, kicks it down with her

foot. Forgive the comparison."[62]

Other apprehensions also increased the desire of Lord George to begin

his march. "I am desired to let you know," he writes to the Marquis of

Tullibardine, "that there is one Kimber, an anabaptist, who came from

London with a design to assassinate the Prince; he is about twenty-seven

years old, black hair, of a middling stature, and talks fluently and

bluntly about his travels in the West Indies." This man, it was

suspected, afterwards changed his name to Geffreys. He was supposed to

have even been received by the Marquis of Tullibardine at his table, and

to have obtained a pass from him; but nothing more was disclosed, as far

as the correspondence informs us, touching this attempt.

Lord George continued in a fever of vexation and anxiety at the delay of

his brother, upon whose arrival at the camp, the march to England was to

begin. Public affairs in England favoured, as he justly thought, the

most decisive measures. "Everything," he writes to his brother, "is in

great confusion in England, particularly in London, where credite is at

a stand. The greatest banquiers have stopt payment; all would go to our

wish, if we could but march instantly. If you delay longer," Lord George

adds, "it will be the utter ruine of the cause. You should wait for

nobody but your own men." The arrival of supplies from France, of arms

and ammunition, though they were represented as being very inferior in

quantity to what had been expected, gave encouragement to the hopes of

the sanguine; and re-assured in some degree, even the anxious mind of

Lord George Murray.

Before finally quitting Perth, the Marquis of Tullibardine received a

compliment from the gentlemen prisoners of war there, which proved how

soldierlike and courteous his conduct towards them had been. They

inquired whether he would have morning levees, since they wished "to

wait upon him." To this the Marquis replied, with his thanks, that,

although not fond of ceremonious visits, he would always be "glad to

cultivate an acquaintance with gentlemen whose actions show they are

true Britons, by standing up for and supporting the ancient constitution

and liberties of well-born subjects, whose honour is engaged to shake

off the slavery of a foreign yoke."[63]

Notwithstanding all the remonstrances of Lord George, who had reiterated

his entreaties during the whole of the month of October, the winter was

far advanced before the Marquis left his castle of Blair to proceed

southwards.[64]

On the thirty-first of October, a considerable force took the road to

Duddingstone, a small village at the foot of Arthur's Seat; presenting,

before the Highland army poured in upon its serene precincts, a scene of

repose and quiet beauty, finely contrasted with the clamour of the city,

and the grandeur of the rugged hill.

Foremost rode Lord Elcho, commanding the first troop of horse-guards,

consisting of sixty-two gentlemen, and their servants, under five

officers, forming altogether a troop of a hundred and twenty horse. A

smaller troop, not amounting to more than forty horse, followed under

the command of Arthur Elphinstone, afterwards Lord Balmerino. Then came

a little squadron of horse grenadiers, with whom were incorporated the

Perthshire gentlemen, in the absence of their own commander, Lord

Strathallan, who was left Governor of Perth. The whole of this squadron

did not amount to a hundred. It was commanded by William Earl of

Kilmarnock, the representative of an ancient and noble family, which, as

an historian remarks, "sometimes matched with the blood-royal." "He

was," adds the same writer, "in the flower of his age, being about forty

years old. The elegance of his person, and comeliness of his features,

which were every way handsome, bespake internal beauties."[65] It is

remarkable, that, at this very time, the young Lord Boyd, Lord

Kilmarnock's son, held a commission in the British army and fought

against the Jacobites.

The Aberdeen and Bamffshire gentlemen, amounting with their servants to

a hundred and twenty, with seventy or eighty hussars, were commanded by

Lord Pitsligo; but Mr. Murray, "who would have a share at least of

everything," was their colonel.[66]

The infantry consisted of thirteen little battalions, for the

Highlanders would not be commanded by any but their own chiefs; and it

was necessary therefore to have as many regiments as there were Clans.

On the third of November, the Prince marched from Dalkeith on foot, at

the head of the Clans, who were commanded under him by Lord George

Murray. The acclamations of the people of Edinburgh, who flocked in

crowds to witness the departure of the army, were loud and friendly. Yet

it is remarkable, that in spite of his long residence in that city, in

spite of his hereditary claims on its inhabitants, and of the popularity

of his manners, the party of the Prince in that capital never increased

in proportion to his expectations. This indifference to the cause of

Charles Edward has with much reason been attributed to the strong and

unalterable distrust entertained by all zealous Presbyterians of any

approach to Popery: the firmness of the Scottish character to a

principle may be plainly read in the reluctance of the Lowlanders to

hazard, even for a Stuart, the safety of what they esteem to be their

vital interests.[67]

It was, however, a fine, although a mournful sight, when the Clans

taking the road to London left Dalkeith. It was indeed only after long

and anxious deliberation, that these brave men had resolved to risk an

advance to England, without any certain expectation of a rising in that

country; yet there were many among the chiefs who went forth that day,

and among these were some of the bravest and the most determined who

"trusted in themselves alone."[68] Among those who were declared

secretly to have desponded of success, and yet to have gone on in the

career from a sense of honour, was Lord George Murray.

The march to England was very judiciously planned and well executed. "It

resembled," observes the Chevalier Johnstone, "on a small scale, that of

Marshal Saxe some years before, when he advanced to lay siege to

Maestricht." The Prince went day after day on foot, contrary to general

expectation; for it was thought that he would only have done so at the

beginning to encourage the soldiers: but in dirty lanes, and in deep

snow, the youth reared in seclusion and luxury took his chance with the

common men, and could scarcely ever be prevailed upon even to get on

horseback to ford a river. "It's not to be imagined," writes his

affectionate partisan and historian Maxwell, "how much this manner of

bringing himself down to a level with the men, and his affable behaviour

to the meanest of them, endeared him to the army."[69] On arriving at

Lauder, hearing that some of the Highlanders had remained behind with a

view, it was thought, of deserting, Charles got on horseback before it

was light, rode back two or three miles, and brought the stragglers with

him.[70] On the fourth instant he reached Kelso. Such was the success of

this well-contrived march, and such the secrecy with which it was made,

that Marshal Wade, who was at Newcastle with eleven thousand men,

continued to cover and protect that place, without an idea of advancing

to intercept the Highland troops. Indeed, the secret was so well kept,

that hardly any subordinate officer in the Prince's service knew where

the junction of the columns was intended to take place.[71]

Arduous as the Prince's march had been to Kelso, it was enlivened by

some incidents in which the stern and haughty Lord George Murray must

have participated, as well as the gallant young Chevalier. On passing

through Preston Hall gate, the first morning of his march, the Prince

found breakfast there prepared for him by order of the Duchess of

Gordon, for which act that lady was deprived of a yearly pension of one

thousand pounds, given to her in consideration of her Grace's having

educated her family in the Protestant religion.[72] As he passed Fala

Danes, the ladies of Whitborough, who were the sisters of a zealous

adherent of the Prince, Robert Anderson, entertained Charles and his

chief officers with a collation in the open air. The royal guest, being

asked to leave some memorial of his visit, cut from the hilt of his

sword a piece of crimson velvet, which is still preserved at

Whitborough. At Lauder, Charles took up his abode in Hurlestane castle,

the seat of the Earl of Lauderdale. From Kelso, Charles dispatched the

guards across the Tweed; not so much to reconnoitre, as to amuse the

enemy: they went some miles into the country, and, when they came to any

English villages, made inquiries as to what reception and accommodation

the army might meet with on arriving there. The object of this

manoeuvre was to keep General Wade in suspense as to the movements of

the army, and to prevent his marching towards Carlisle. Such was the

success of these artifices, that Wade, who had decided on a march to

Berwick, countermanded that order. On the sixth of November the Jacobite

forces crossed the Tweed: that river was scarcely fordable; but the

Highlanders were elated beyond measure, and, even when bathed in the

water, expressed their delight by discharging their pieces and uttering

cries of joy. Such was their humour, that they gave the horses which

were taken from the enemy the name of General Cope, by way of expressing

their contempt for the fugitive Englishman.

Amid indications of homage, especially from the women of the town of

Jedburgh, who ran forth to kiss the young hero's hand, Charles entered

Jedburgh, and took up his residence at an inn in the centre of the town,

called the Nag's Head. On the following day he led his troops over the

Rule water, famous for the warriors of old who dwelt near its banks; and

over the Knot o' Gate into Liddiesdale, "noted in former times for its

predatory hands, as in more recent times for its primitive yeomen and

romantic minstrelsy."[73] After a march of twenty-five miles, the Prince

arrived at Haggiehaugh, upon Liddel water; here he slept, the

Highlanders finding their quarters for the night as well as they could

in barns, or byres, or houses, as their fortune might be. On the eighth

of November Charles Edward, proceeding down the Liddel water, met the

column of horse which had taken the middle road by Selkirk and Hawick.

They joined him at Gritmill Green upon the banks of the Esk, four miles

below Langholm. Shortly afterwards the first division of the Prince's

army crossed the river, which here separates the two kingdoms, as the

Tweed does at Berwick, and trod upon English ground. That event was

signalized by a loud shout, whilst the Highlanders unsheathed their

swords. But soon a general panic was spread among the soldiery, by the

intelligence that Cameron of Lochiel, in drawing his sword, had drawn

blood from his hand.[74] This was regarded as an omen of mournful

import. What was of much more vital consequence was the incessant

desertion of the troops, especially from the column which the Prince

commanded. Arms were afterwards found flung away in the fields, and the

roads to Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire were crowded with these

renegades. This circumstance Lord George Murray accounted for in these

terms, when, upon a subsequent occasion, he wrote to his brother,

complaining of the fact: "We are quite affronted with the scandalous

desertion of our men: it was the taking money instead of the best men,

which is the occasion of all the evil; for good men, once coming out,

would have been piqued in honour, and not deserted us on the point of

fighting the enemy."[75]

Such was the skill and secrecy with which the whole of this march had

been planned, chiefly by the suggestions of Lord George Murray, that the

forces were very much surprised on finding that all the three columns

arrived nearly at the same time, on a heath in England, about two miles

distant from the city of Carlisle. The plan was executed with such

precision, that there was not an interval of two hours between the

junction of the columns.[76]

It was now resolved to invest Carlisle. Few cities in England have been

the scenes of more momentous events than that which was now the object

of the Chevalier's efforts. Long the centre of border hostilities, it

was the fate of Carlisle to be at once the witness of the insurrection

of 1745, and the scene of punishment of those who were concerned in that

movement.

In modern times, the importance of Carlisle as a fortress has inevitably

declined; and it is at present regarded as a venerable relic of former

strength, rather than as a place of defence. But, in ancient days, the

Warden of the Marches, selected from among the nobles of tried fidelity

and courage, attracted to the castle of Carlisle a host of youthful

aspirants for military renown, who there sought to be trained to arms,

amid contests not depending upon a single achievement, but requiring

watchfulness, patient labour, and skill, slowly and painfully to be

acquired.

Founded by William Rufus, who restored the city after it had lain two

hundred years in ruins, owing to the depredations of the Danes; and

improved and enlarged successively by Richard the Third and Henry the

Eighth; the castle had received the unhappy Mary Stuart: and here she

was treated with an insidious respect which soon threw off the mask. In

the time of Queen Elizabeth, the citadel, which was entirely built by

Henry the Eighth, fell into decay; and after the prohibition of all

incursions on England on the part of King James the Sixth, Carlisle

ceased to be of so much importance as a military possession; and its

position, as one of the keys of England, did not avail to secure any

great attention to its dilapidated state. At the time of Charles

Edward's arrival in Cumberland, the fortifications of the City had been

neglected for several centuries; but it still bore the outward aspect of

former strength.

The works, which had thus been left to moulder away, were in the form of

a triangle, and were separated from the town by a deep ditch. Upon the

east angle, which is also cut off from the Parade by a ditch, is seated

the Castle, properly so called, though the whole generally goes by that

name. These works consist of a dungeon, the walls of which are twelve

feet in thickness; a tower, called the Captain's Tower; two gates, one

to each ward; there being an inward and an outward ward. In the castle

there is a great chamber, and a hall, but no storehouse for ammunition.

In the walls of the town, three gateway towers, a semi-circular bastion

called Springeld Tower, and the citadel, complete the fortifications:

unless we comprise several square towers with which the city walls are

furnished; especially one at the west sally-port, and the Tile Tower,

both of considerable strength.[77]

The foreground of the castle is formed of green and level meadows washed

by the river Eden; and, in modern days, two fine stone bridges add to

the beauty of the scene. The hanging banks are crowned with the village

and church of Stanwix, and the mountains of Bewcastle form the distance.

"To the south," to use the words of Hutchinson in his History of

Cumberland, "you command the plains towards Penrith, shut in on either

side with a vast range of mountains, over which Crossfell and Skiddaw

are distinctly seen greatly eminent. To the east a varied tract of

cultivated country, scattered over with villages and hamlets, mingle

beautifully with woodlands on the extensive landscape; the distant

horizon formed by the heights of Northumberland. To the west, the Solway

Frith sparkles out, a shining expanse of waters, flowing along a

cultivated tract of land on the English coast; on the other, the bold

heights of Weffel and a chain of mountains extend towards the sea."[78]

When Charles Edward spread out his forces before Carlisle, the garrison

within its mouldering walls was composed of a company of invalids, under

the command of Colonel Durand; but the Cumberland militia were almost

all collected within the city walls. Colonel Durand, however, as well as

the Mayor of the place, showed a spirit of defence; and the latter

issued a proclamation informing the inhabitants that he was not

Paterson, a Scotchman, but Pattieson, a true-born Englishman, who was

determined to hold out the city to the last. Since Charles had no

battering cannon, it appeared impossible to reduce the castle if it

were well-defended; but it was resolved to make the attempt. Whilst he

was meditating an attack, the news that Wade's army was marching from

Newcastle drew him for some days from continuing these operations. The

report proved, however, to be groundless; and the Duke of Perth was

sent, therefore, with several regiments to begin the siege.

The Jacobite army had all crossed the river Eden at Rowcliff, four miles

below Carlisle; and next day they marched to Harraby, Blackhall, and

Boutcherby, to the southward of Carlisle. At Harraby Lord George Murray

remained, in order to cover the siege; that place being most contiguous

to Carlisle, and on the highway to Penrith: the other troops under his

command lay in the adjoining villages. The Duke of Perth had the

direction of the trenches. It was here that an event occurred, which

shortly afterwards excited the greatest discontent among the followers

of Charles Edward.[79]

The attack upon the city was made from Stanwix Bank; the Marquis of

Tullibardine, who had at length joined the insurgent army, with his

tenantry, assisting the Duke of Perth. As it was market-day on the

ninth, when the Jacobites made their appearance within a quarter of a

mile of Carlisle, the Highland soldiers were mingled with the

market-people returning home, so that the garrison dared not fire upon

them. On the following day, the city was attacked in three places; but

the Marquis of Tullibardine, who commanded a four-gun battery, planted

at the entrance of a lane, was heard to say to his followers,

"Gentlemen, we have not metal for them; retreat." After three days'

attack, however, the courage of Mr. Pattieson, and the strength of the

garrison, gave way. The valiant Mayor forgot his English birth so far as

to hang out a white flag, and to request a capitulation for the town.

The garrison and townsmen of Carlisle, in the opinion of the writers of

the day, merited no more credit than that of Edinburgh, in their defence

and capitulation. In the siege, the Highland army had only one man

killed, and another wounded; and the reduction of Carlisle gave great,

but not lasting, lustre to their arms.

On entering Carlisle, Lord George Murray is said, in the newspapers of

the day, to have encountered an old friend, who asked him how he could

be so rash as to lend himself to the aid of a hopeless and futile

invasion. To this Lord George is declared to have replied, that he was

well aware that the cause was hopeless; but that, having once engaged to

maintain it, honour compelled him to continue his exertions.[80] It was

not, however, long before those fatal dissensions appeared which

effectually defeated all that valour or fidelity could effect to save

Charles Edward from defeat.

It was, perhaps, the well-earned popularity of the Duke of Perth, his

forbearance, and the gratitude evinced towards him by the inhabitants of

Carlisle, as he rode triumphantly through their city, that first roused

the jealousy of Lord George Murray's proud nature. The disinterested

conduct of the Duke of Perth, as soon as he became informed of the

sentiments entertained towards him by Lord George Murray, was worthy of

himself. That brave and excellent young man modestly withdrew from a

rivalry which, he justly concluded, must be injurious to the cause of

that Prince whose interests he had espoused; for few men could cope with

the natural abilities, the force of character, and the experience of

Lord George. He was by far the most able general that appeared in either

of the two insurrections in the cause of the Stuarts. "His personal

hardihood and bravery," remarks Lord Mahon, "might be rivalled by many

others; but none could vie with him in planning a campaign, providing

against disasters, or improving victory."

Whilst the Jacobite forces lay encamped near Carlisle, certain

differences of opinion arose in the Council. There were some who had

even thought that it would be desirable, before investing Carlisle, to

return to Scotland to collect a greater force. Lord George Murray,

seconded by the Duke of Perth, had opposed this cautious proposal; and

recommended that part of the army should stay at Brampton, and the rest

go to blockade Carlisle. The Duke of Perth had seconded this scheme, and

it had accordingly been decided that Lord George should command the

blockade, whilst the Duke conducted the battery. The result has been

seen; and the Prince was now master of Carlisle.