And I hope we shall soon see the certainty of what the accounts
makes us expect of these folks' arivall. I sent of a pacquet
yesterday with an answer to Margaret Miller's of the second, and in
it I sent a copie of my last to Mr. H----n, which was dated the
second and third, of which I sent him copies two different wayes, so
I hope he'll get one of them at least. They were pressing them to go
into England; and now that they are actually gone their, and in so
good a way, I am easie as to that. I hope God will direct and assist
them.
"I thought to have marcht from this to-day. The foot are mostly
gone, and I march with the horse to-morrow morning. Our generall
revew is to be at Auchterardor on Thursday morning, and then to
march forward immediately. It is of great use to hear often from
you, and to have accounts of our friends in the north of England,
and what is doing in England beside; so I know you'll write as often
as you can find occasions. I fancie I may hear to-day from our
friends in the north of England, for I hope they had some days ago a
way of sending directly. It seems the Duke of Argyll's absence from
London is not like to do his own court of interest there much good.
I hope our manifesto's being disperced at London, will have good
effect; and I long to see what the prints call the Pretender's
declaration, and the declaration of the people of England. The run
upon the bank, I hope, will not lessen. The public credit must not
be once ruined to make it raise again, and I hope that time may be
sooner than we think of. We have rainy weather, but that is an
inconveniencie to the enimie as well as to us. My humble service to
Margaret Miller: I thank her for the information she gives me, of
one about me giving intelligence; but other friends may be easie
about it, for I am sure there is nothing in it; and I know what made
them belive, which I confess had colour enough. I wish she would get
the Doctrix to send a new dose to the patient she knows of, for
there was a little too much of one of the ingredients in the last,
which toke away the effect of the whole. It is the ingredient that
has the postponeing quality in it; and the patient's greatest
distemper is the apprehentions he has of a perfect cure being long
of comeing, and that it is not to be til he get the air of another
country. The dose must be carefully made up, and no appearance of
its comeing from any other hand but the Doctrix' own. Ther's some
copies herewith sent of a paper printed on this side the water, of
which I hear severall are at Stirling. The other two papers I got
to-day are given to revise, and are to be printed soon. I send you a
copie of a letter was wrote t'other day, and sent to the
Cameronians in the west. I wish you could send this one to some of
them in the south. This is all I will trouble you with; but I hope
both to get from you and give you good news soon, and I ever am,
with all sincerity and truth, yrs. &c.
"Perhaps Capt. R----n will not be found to have done so much hurt as
was thought he designed; but this is not to bid trust him yet."
By two manuscript letters among the Mar papers, it appears, however,
that the account soon afterwards published by Lord Mar was not so full
of artifice and untruths as his enemies represented. "He kept the field
of battle until it was dark," says one writer, in a letter dated from
Perth (November the 19th, 1715); "and nothing but want of provisions
prevented us from going forward the next day. We hear the Whigs give
various accounts of the battle, to cover the victory; but the numbers of
the slain on their part being eleven or twelve hundred, and ours not
above fifty or sixty, and our keeping the field when they left it, makes
the victory incontestable. Your friends that I know here mind you often,
and they and I would be glad to have the opportunity to drink a bottle
with you beyond the Forth."
Another eye-witness gives a still more detailed account.[114] "I have
yours of the seventeenth, with the paper inclosed, wherein that
gentleman has taken the liberty to insert many falsehoods relative to
the late action, a true and impartial account of which I here send you,
which is but too modest on our side, and many things omitted that will
be afterwards made publick, particularly their murdering Strathmoir,
after he had asked quarters, and the treatment they gave to Panmuir and
several others, who, I hope, will be living witnesses against them. The
enclosed is so full that I have little to say, only that we have not
lost a hundred men in the action, and none of note, except Strathmoir,
and the Captain of Clan Ronald."
The cruel spirit of party destroyed the generous characteristics of the
soldier, during the excitement of the combat: but how can we palliate
the conduct of one of the King's generals, Lord Isla, after the
fierceness of the encounter was over? The letter referred to discloses
particulars which were hushed up, or merely glanced at, in the partial
annals of the time.
"So soon as they saw us coming down upon them, they marched off in
great haste towards Dumblain, and left several of our people they
had taken, among which was Lord Panmuir, who offered to give his
parole, not knowing what had passed upon the eighth; but he was told
by the person he sent to Lord Isla, that he could not take a parole
from a rebel, and they were in such haste that they lost him in a
little house, with several others near the field, where we found
them when we advanced and brought him along with us to Ardoch, two
miles furder, where we stayed all night and next day, until that we
heard the enemy were marched off to Stirling. He is now pretty well
and in no danger. Earl Loudoun passed him as he lay in the field,
without taking any notice of him, and he was wounded there by the
dragoons after he had surrendered to them; but I hope there will be
one other day of reckoning for these things. My Lord Mar sent off
two or three people to take care of Lord Forfar when he heard he was
wounded, and one of them waited of him to Stirling. He expressed a
good dale of consern that he should have been ingadged against his
countrymen, and sent a breslet off his arm to Lord Mar, so that we
all wish he may live. A good pairt of our baggage and the provisions
we had, were distroyed by our own people who went of from our left.
We are now getting provisions and every thing ready as soon as
possible; and I am hopefull we will be in a condition in a very few
days to pass forth without oposition.
"We have got accounts this day of a victorie obtained by our friends
in the south, the particulars of which we long for. I have sent you
some copies of the printed account of the action to give our
friends.
"So adieu."
Notwithstanding the humane attentions shewn by the Earl to Lord Forfar,
that brave and generous nobleman died of his wounds. After lingering
more than three weeks, he expired at Stirling on the eighth of
December. He was wounded in sixteen different places, but a shot which
he received in his knee seems to have been the most fatal injury. The
conduct of the Earl appears in strong contrast with that of the Earl of
Isla; but we must remember that each party had its own chroniclers. It
is, nevertheless, a result of observation, more easily stated than
explained, that through the whole of the two contests, both in 1715 and
1745, the generous and somewhat chivalric bearing of the Jacobites was
acknowledged; whilst a spirit of cruel persecution marked the conduct of
some of the chief officers on the opposite side. The Duke of Argyle
indeed, in his own person, presented an exception to this remark, which
chiefly applies to those secondary to him in command and influence.
The conduct of Lord Mar, in retreating to Perth after the affair of
Sherriff Muir, has been severely censured. But, as Sir Walter Scott has
observed, he met with that obloquy which generally follows the leader of
an unsuccessful enterprise. According to Lord Mar's own account (and it
has been corroborated by others), his retiring to Perth was unavoidable.
The Highlanders, brave as they were, had a custom of returning home
after a battle; and many of them went off when the engagement was ended.
The Earl of Mar was not, therefore, in a condition to pursue the
advantage which he had gained, but was forced to await at Perth the
arrival of the Chevalier, or of the Duke of Berwick; on the notification
of which, the Highlanders would have rallied to his standard. No
supplies had been sent; the gentlemen of the army, as well as the men,
had been long absent from their homes, and were living at their own
expense; and therefore were impatient for leave of absence. To add to
the general discouraging aspect of affairs, the fatal result of the
English insurrection, under the command of Mr. Forster, was communicated
at this time.
At first the result of the battle of Preston was represented to the
Jacobites at Perth in a very different light to that in which the defeat
of the English Jacobites afterwards appeared. The following is an
extract of a letter from Lord Mar, dated the twentieth of November.
"This day we hear from good hands that they (the English Jacobites) have
had a victory, for which we have had rejoicings, and I hope in God they
are in a good way by this time. Let me hear from you often, I beg it of
you, and I'll long for the particulars of that affair.
"I am doing all I can to get us again in a condition to march from home.
It will not be so soon as I wish, which is no small mortification to me,
but our friends; you may depend on it, that it shall be as soon as I
can, and no time shall be lost. It is wonderfull that neither the King
nor the Duke of Ormond comes, nor that I have not accounts from them.
Now that there is so considerable a party appearing in England, I hope
they will put it off no longer. I hope all your friends in England are
well in particular, but pray let me have an account of it.
"Lord Tullibardin and Lord George are well; they are gone again to
Atholl to bring back their men, who went off that they might retrieve
their honour, as I doubt not but they will. It is a great pity if poor
Strathmore and Clanronald, and I'm afraid honest Auchterhouse, is
killed, for we can get no account of him.
"I wish our prisoners may be as civilly treated as theirs are with us.
They are all sent to Dundee (the officers I mean), where they have the
liberty of the town, and wear their swords. My compliments to our sick
friend, who I am sorry is still so; but he has had a good second and
secretary.
"Pray let us have some good news now, and I am with all truth and
esteem,
Yours, &c."
"Perth, November 20, 1715."
"Lord Panmure recovers pritty well. The enimie give out that he gave his
parole when he was prisoner, but it was not so, he off'red it them but
they wou'd not take it from a rebel as they call'd him, and neither did
Strewan; so they were both resqued."
* * * * *
These letters place Lord Mar in a somewhat more estimable light than the
usual statements have done. The truth is, that we ought never to judge
of a man's actions before we have had an insight into his real motives
and circumstances at the time. Few individuals had greater difficulties
to contend with than Lord Mar.
Harassed by cabals among the adherents of the Chevalier; unable to
account for the continued reserve and absence of that Prince; and
weakened greatly both by the secession of the clan of Fraser, who had
joined the Insurgents with Mackenzie of Fraserdale, but who now went
away, and joined him whom they considered as their real chieftain, the
infamous Simon Fraser, of Beaufort, Lord Lovat; the Earl began to listen
to those who talked of capitulating with the enemy. He found, indeed,
that he was forced to comply with the wishes of the chieftains, some of
whom were making private treaties for themselves. It must have been a
bitter humiliation to Lord Mar to have sent a message to his former
rival in politics, the Duke of Argyle, "to know if he had power to treat
with him;" but the measure appears from the following letter to have
been unavoidable. It was written after the news of the defeat at Preston
had reached Perth. It bespeaks some degree of compassion and
consideration for a man whose councils were distracted by dissensions,
and who was embarrassed beyond measure by the absence of the Chevalier,
to whose arrival he looked anxiously to give some hopes of revival to a
sinking cause. The Master of Sinclair, to whom Lord Mar refers as a
"devil," and who, since the disaster at Preston was known, "appeared in
his own colours," was the eldest son of Henry, eighth Baron Sinclair, a
devoted adherent of the House of Stuart, and one of those who had
withdrawn from the Convention of 1689 when the resolution to expel James
the Second was adopted. John, Master of Sinclair, was afterwards
attainted, and never assumed the title of his father, although pardoned
in 1726.
"November 27th, 1715.
"Sir,
"I had yours of the twenty-second, the twenty-fifth, and also spoke
with the person you mention in it; I suppose he wou'd see you, as he
returned. The disaster of our friends in England is very unlucky,
both to affairs there and here. Since we knew of it here a _devil_,
who I suspected for some time to be lurking amongst us, has appeared
openly in his own colours. I forsaw this a-comeing some days ago. I
have endeavoured to keep people from breaking amongst themselves,
and was forced to go into the first step of it; but I hope we shall
be able to have the manadgement of it, and prevent its doing any
hurt, but to confounde in time comeing the designs of those who were
the promoters of it. It was by the advise of all your friends what I
have done, so let not our folks be alarmed when they hear of it from
I----g. It is odd where the K----[115] can be all this time, since,
by all appearance and all the accounts we have, he has left France
long ago; but that must quickly appear, and I hope to get things
staved off til it does. But without his comeing what can be done?
Tho' I hope that will not be the case. It is odd that others write
of Col. H----y and Doctor Abor--y, both at Parise, and that they do
not write themselves, tho' I'm told to-day that there's a letter
from them to me at Edinburgh, which I long for. We are told of
troops comeing from Englande, both English and Dutch. I doubt if
they'll ventur to quitt with both, and I would fain hope that none
of them will come soon. God grant that the K---- be safe. If he go
to England, as we are told he designed, I doubt not but he knows of
support there. I confess there's a great deal lost by his long
delay, but that certainly was not in his power to help, else it
wou'd not have been so. If he still come here, I hope we will yet be
able to make a stand for him this winter, but I thought I was
obledged to let him know the true situation before he land, which I
have done to the best of my pow'r, and lodged letters for him in the
places where I thought it most likely he wou'd come, so that he may
not be dissapointed by expecting to find things better than they
are. He has been so long by the way that it wou'd seme he is not
comeing to England, but that he is comeing round about Ireland to
Scotland; and neither he nor D---- O----d[116] be in England. It
wou'd seem that they will not stir there, which would make it a very
hard task here; but I hope Providence will protect him, and yet
settle him on his throne.
"I find it will be sometime before I can stirr from hence, and if
the enemy get not reinforcments, I judge they will not stirr either;
but as soon as they get them they certainly will, and I'm afraid we
shall be oblidged to take the hills, which is a could quarter now.
I wish you knew a great many particulars I have to tell you, but it
is not safe writing them; there are some people with us who it had
been good for the King they had stay'd at home, where they want not
a little to be, and will leave us at last, but we must make the best
of them, tho' there be but ill stuff to make it of as the saying is.
Never had man so plaguie a life as I have had o' late; but I'll do
the best I can to go threw it, and not be unworthy of the trust
reposed in me. My service to Mr. Hall, and I hope he'll make my
compliments to his correspondent at P----se,[117] who he mentions in
his to me; but its odd that I have heard from none there myself ever
sine B----n came, especially since other letters come through. I
must own I have not had many encouragements, but that should be
nothing if I had encouragements for others. Should it please God
that the King's affairs should not succeed, but that people
capitulated, I do not purpose to be a Scots or Englishman if they
would let me, and all that I wou'd ask for myself is liberty to go
abroad, for in that case I wou'd rather live in Siberia than
Britain. If the King does not come soon, I find people will not hold
out long; but if he does, there are honest men enough to stand by
him and not see him perish. Pray let me hear from you as often as
you can, and when you write to Mrs. Miller[118] make my compliments
to her. I wish some of our men here had her spirit. I hope you are
now perfectly recover'd, but pray take care that you fall not ill
again. Adieu.
"Pray cause give the enclosed to my brother as soon as it comes to
your handes. I beg you may apprise our friends at London and Parise
of what has been done hear to-day; the sending to Argle at Stirling
a message about articles of treaty, as appears from other papers,
which I tel you I was forced to go into;--that they may not be
surprised at it and think we have given all over, which might have
very bad consequences in both places. Do this by the first post. All
will come right again if the King come soon to Britain."
The answer returned by the Duke of Argyle to Lord Mar's overture was
this: that "he had no sufficient powers to treat with the Earl of Mar
and his Council as a body, but that he would write to Court about it."
To this reply, which was sent with much courtesy by the Duke, a
rejoinder was made, "That when the Duke should let the Earl of Mar and
his Council know that he had sufficient power, then they would make
their proposition." The proposal was sent up to St. James's, but no
further notice was taken of it, nor were the powers of the Duke of
Argyle extended to enable him to come to any terms with Lord Mar. But
although the negotiation thus died away, the weakness it betrayed among
the Jacobite party was highly prejudicial to their cause.
James, during all the recent events, had been engaged in making several
attempts to leave St. Maloes. He had gone openly on board ships which
were laden with arms and ammunition for his use, but had withdrawn when
he found that his embarkation was known. He therefore changed his plans,
and crossing to Normandy, resolved to embark at Dunkirk. Having lurked
for several days, disguised as a mariner, on the coast of Brittany, he
went privately to Dunkirk, where he embarked, attended by the Marquis of
Tynemouth, the eldest son of the Duke of Berwick, Lieutenant Cameron,
and several other persons, on board a French ship, which, according to
some accounts, "was laden with brandy, and furnished with a good
pass-port." Thus at length having ventured on the ocean, the Prince set
sail towards Norway; but changed his direction, and steered towards
Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire. During all this time, the Earl of Mar
suffered from the utmost anxiety and perplexity for one who was unworthy
of the exertions made for his restoration. This is evident from the
following letter, dated November the thirtieth, to Captain Straiton:
"The accounts of that person's[119] way of going on, and the danger
he is in, confound me; but I hope Providence has not preserved him
all this while to destroy him at last. I am doing all I can to make
it safe; and perhaps what we thought our misfortune, (the men going
home after Sheriff Muir,) may prove our happiness, they being where
that person is to come, and I send troops there immediately."
"I knew before I got yours that the Dutch troops were coming
here.[120] Those by sea may come soon, but those by land cannot be
here a long time. They will now power in all the troups from England
on us; but I hope we may hold it this winter in spite of them, tho'
we shall have hard quarters in the Highlands. In case of what Mr.
H----ll writes me prove true, and happen, for fear of accidents
after it does, were it not fitt that you should write to France to
send some ships to cruise up and down the north-west coast to save
the person Mr. H----ll writes of, if things should not prove right?
and our friends in France can either send them from thence or Spain,
round Ireland? I hear of but two little ships of warr on that coast;
and the ships I would have sent may pass as marchant ships tradeing
and putting in by accident therabouts, which they often do. Pray
think of this, and write of it soon to France, as I intend to do
to-night by an express I am sending; and were it not fitt you should
write of it too to some trusty friend at London? But it must be done
with the utmost caution, for fear of disheartning the English. Tho'
the safty of that person is of such consequence that all ways is to
be taken for it, and all accidents guarded against.
"I wrote to you the twenty-seventh, and in it I gave you account of
an affair which happened amongst us, which obliged us to send a
message to the Duke of Argyll. I hope this came safe to your hand.
His answer was very civil, and our return was in the words
following, viz: 'We are obliged to the Duke of Argyll for his
civility; that, since he has no powers to treat with us, we can say
no more now; but if at any time he shall have them, and let us know
it, we shall give our answer.'
"I hope this affair has been so manadgd that all the spirit of
division amongst us is crusht; and pray take care to informe our
friends at London and Parise about it, that it may not alarme them.
I am affraid of its alarmeing the Regent, and keeping him from doing
anything for the King; for which reason I send an express to Lord
Bolingbroke to-night. I suppose it will be ten or twelve dayes at
least before the Duke of Argyll will have a return, and we may know
much before that time. If they agree to a treaty, it is still in our
own power; and if not, I hope people will stand together for their
own sake.
"You speak in your two last as if you were opresst about our
divisions. All I shall trouble you further in relation to
this,--there are odd people amongst us, and those of whom it should
not have been expected; they had instild their spirit so farr into
many, that there was no steming the tide but by going into it, or
else breaking amongst ourselves, and, like them, make a seperat
peace; but now those wise folk are ashamed of themselves, and are
disclaimed by those who they said comissioned them. I do all I can
to make others forgett this behaveour of those people, and I hope we
shall be as unite as ever. If the King come, I am sure we shall; and
if God is not pleased to bless us with his presence, whatever we do
shall be in consert.
"I beg to hear often from you, and particularly what you can learn
of the motion of the enimie and their designs.
"I send a reinforcement to-night to Bruntisland of a hundred men,
and there was fifty in it before.
"Lord Seaforth went north some time ago, and severall of Lord
Huntly's people; so I hope they togither will be able to keep Lord
Sutherland from doing much mischife, and e'er long to reduce him and
all the King's enimies there. We are not yet in so much apprehention
of them as Mr. H----ll seems to be. I am mightily pleased you are so
much recovered, which I know by your hand-writeing; but I can scarce
conceave how you get yourself keept free of our enimies,--may you do
long so, and
"I am sincearly yours, &c. Adieu."
On the first of December, the Earl having still heard no tidings of the
Chevalier, and being ignorant of his real movements, again writes in all
the uncertainty, and with the circumspection of one who knows not
whether his letter will be received. He seems always to have sent
duplicates of his letters.