While the Kirk was vainly striving to assuage the tempers of Mr Erskine
and his friends, the Jacobites were preparing to fish in troubled waters.
In 1739 Walpole was forced to declare war against Spain, and Walpole had
previously sounded James as to his own chances of being trusted by that
exiled prince. James thought that Walpole was merely angling for
information. Meanwhile Jacobite affairs were managed by two rivals,
Macgregor (calling himself Drummond) of Balhaldy and Murray of Broughton.
The sanguine Balhaldy induced France to suppose that the Jacobites in
England and Scotland were much more united, powerful, and ready for
action than they really were, when Argyll left office in 1742, while
Walpole fell from power, Carteret and the Duke of Newcastle succeeding.
In 1743 Murray found that France, though now at war with England over the
Spanish Succession, was holding aloof from the Jacobite cause, though
plied with flourishing and fabulous reports from Balhaldy and the
Jacobite Lord Sempill. But, in December 1743, on the strength of alleged
Jacobite energy in England, Balhaldy obtained leave from France to visit
Rome and bring Prince Charles. The Prince had kept himself in training
for war and was eager. Taking leave of his father for the last time,
Charles drove out of Rome on January 9, 1744; evaded, in disguise, every
trap that was set for him, and landed at Antibes, reaching Paris on
February 10. Louis did not receive him openly, if he received him at
all; the Prince lurked at Gravelines in disguise, with the Earl
Marischal, while winds and waves half ruined, and the approach of a
British fleet drove into port, a French fleet of invasion under
Roqueville (March 6, 7, 1744).
The Prince wrote to Sempill that he was ready and willing to sail for
Scotland in an open boat. In July 1744 he told Murray that he would come
next summer "if he had no other companion than his valet." He nearly
kept his word; nor did Murray resolutely oppose his will. At the end of
May 1745 Murray's servant brought a letter from the Prince; "fall back,
fall edge," he would land in the Highlands in July. Lochiel regretted
the decision, but said that, as a man of honour, he would join his Prince
if he arrived.
On July 2 the Prince left Nantes in the _Dutillet_ (usually styled _La
Doutelle_). He brought some money (he had pawned the Sobieski rubies),
some arms, Tullibardine, his Governor Sheridan, Parson Kelly, the titular
Duke of Atholl, Sir John Macdonald, a banker, Sullivan, and one
Buchanan--the Seven Men of Moidart.
On July 20 his consort, _The Elizabeth_, fought _The Lion_ (Captain
Brett) off the Lizard; both antagonists were crippled. On [July
22/August 2] Charles passed the night on the little isle of Eriskay;
appealed vainly to Macleod and Macdonald of Sleat; was urged, at
Kinlochmoidart, by the Macdonalds, to return to France, but swept them
off their feet by his resolution; and with Lochiel and the Macdonalds
raised the standard at the head of Glenfinnan on August [19/30].
The English Government had already offered 30,000 pounds for the Prince's
head. The clans had nothing to gain; they held that they had honour to
preserve; they remembered Montrose; they put it to the touch, and
followed Prince Charlie.
The strength of the Prince's force was, first, the Macdonalds. On August
16 Keppoch had cut off two companies of the Royal Scots near Loch Lochy.
But the chief of Glengarry was old and wavering; young Glengarry,
captured on his way from France, could not be with his clan; his young
brother AEneas led till his accidental death after the battle of Falkirk.
Of the Camerons it is enough to say that their leader was the gentle
Lochiel, and that they were worthy of their chief. The Macphersons came
in rather late, under Cluny. The Frazers were held back by the crafty
Lovat, whose double-dealing, with the abstention of Macleod (who was
sworn to the cause) and of Macdonald of Sleat, ruined the enterprise.
Clan Chattan was headed by the beautiful Lady Mackintosh, whose husband
adhered to King George. Of the dispossessed Macleans, some 250 were
gathered (under Maclean of Drimnin), and of that resolute band some fifty
survived Culloden. These western clans (including 220 Stewarts of Appin
under Ardshiel) were the steel point of Charles's weapon; to them should
be added the Macgregors under James Mor, son of Rob Roy, a shifty
character but a hero in fight.
To resist these clans, the earliest to join, Sir John Cope, commanding in
Scotland, had about an equal force of all arms, say 2500 to 3000 men,
scattered in all quarters, and with very few field-pieces. Tweeddale,
holding the revived office of Secretary for Scotland, was on the worst
terms, as leader of the _Squadrone_, with his Argathelian rival, Islay,
now (through the recent death of his brother, Red Ian of the Battles)
Duke of Argyll. Scottish Whigs were not encouraged to arm.
The Prince marched south, while Cope, who had concentrated at Stirling,
marched north to intercept him. At Dalnacardoch he learned that Charles
was advancing to meet him in Corryarrick Pass (here came in Ardshiel,
Glencoe, and a Glengarry reinforcement). At Dalwhinnie, Cope found that
the clans held the pass, which is very defensible. He dared not face
them, and moved by Ruthven in Badenoch to Inverness, where he vainly
expected to be met by the great Whig clans of the north.
Joined now by Cluny, Charles moved on that old base of Montrose, the
Castle of Blair of Atholl, where the exiled duke (commonly called Marquis
of Tullibardine) was received with enthusiasm. In the mid-region between
Highland and Lowland, the ladies, Lady Lude and the rest, simply forced
their sons, brothers, and lovers into arms. While Charles danced and
made friends, and tasted his first pine-apple at Blair, James Mor took
the fort of Inversnaid. At Perth (September 4-10) Charles was joined by
the Duke of Perth, the Ogilvys under Lord Ogilvy, some Drummonds under
Lord Strathallan, the Oliphants of Gask, and 200 Robertsons of Struan.
Lord George Murray, brother of the Duke of Atholl, who had been out in
1715, out in 1719, and later was _un reconcilie_, came in, and with him
came Discord. He had dealt as a friend and ally with Cope at Crieff; his
loyalty to either side was thus not unnaturally dubious; he was suspected
by Murray of Broughton; envied by Sullivan, a soldier of some experience;
and though he was loyal to the last,--the best organiser, and the most
daring leader,--Charles never trusted him, and his temper was always
crossing that of the Prince.
The race for Edinburgh now began, Cope bringing his troops by sea from
Aberdeen, and Charles doing what Mar, in 1715, had never ventured. He
crossed the Forth by the fords of Frew, six miles above Stirling, passed
within gunshot of the castle, and now there was no force between him and
Edinburgh save the demoralised dragoons of Colonel Gardiner. The sole
use of the dragoons was, wherever they came, to let the world know that
the clans were at their heels. On September 16 Charles reached
Corstorphine, and Gardiner's dragoons fell back on Coltbridge.
On the previous day the town had been terribly perturbed. The old walls,
never sound, were dilapidated, and commanded by houses on the outside.
Volunteers were scarce, and knew not how to load a musket. On Sunday,
September 15, during sermon-time, "The bells were rung backwards, the
drums they were beat," the volunteers, being told to march against the
clans, listened to the voices of mothers and aunts and of their own
hearts, and melted like a mist. Hamilton's dragoons and ninety of the
late Porteous's Town Guard sallied forth, joining Gardiner's men at
Coltbridge. A few of the mounted Jacobite gentry, such as Lord Elcho,
eldest son of the Earl of Wemyss, trotted up to inspect the dragoons, who
fled and drew bridle only at Musselburgh, six miles east of Edinburgh.
The magistrates treated through a caddie or street-messenger with the
Prince. He demanded surrender, the bailies went and came, in a hackney
coach, between Charles's quarters, Gray's Mill, and Edinburgh, but on
their return about 3 A.M. Lochiel with the Camerons rushed in when the
Nether Bow gate was opened to admit the cab of the magistrates. Murray
had guided the clan round by Merchiston. At noon Charles entered "that
unhappy palace of his race," Holyrood; and King James was proclaimed at
Edinburgh Cross, while the beautiful Mrs Murray, mounted, distributed
white cockades. Edinburgh provided but few volunteers, though the ladies
tried to "force them out."
Meanwhile Cope was landing his men at Dunbar; from Mr John Home (author
of 'Douglas, a Tragedy') he learnt that Charles's force was under 2000
strong. He himself had, counting the dragoons, an almost equal strength,
with six field-pieces manned by sailors.
On September 20 Cope advanced from Haddington, while Charles, with all
the carriages he could collect for ambulance duty, set forth from his
camp at Duddingston Loch, under Arthur's Seat. Cope took the low road
near the sea, while Charles took the high road, holding the ridge, till
from Birsley brae he beheld Cope on the low level plain, between Seaton
and Prestonpans. The manoeuvres of the clans forced Cope to change his
front, but wherever he went, his men were more or less cooped up and
confined to the defensive, with the park wall on their rear.
Meanwhile Mr Anderson of Whitburgh, a local sportsman who had shot ducks
in the morass on Cope's left, brought to Charles news of a practicable
path through that marsh. Even so, the path was wet as high as the knee,
says Ker of Graden, who had reconnoitred the British under fire. He was
a Roxburghshire laird, and there was with the Prince no better officer.
In the grey dawn the clans waded through the marsh and leaped the ditch;
Charles was forced to come with the second line fifty yards behind the
first. The Macdonalds held the right, as they said they had done at
Bannockburn; the Camerons and Macgregors were on the left they "cast
their plaids, drew their blades," and, after enduring an irregular fire,
swept the red-coat ranks away; "they ran like rabets," wrote Charles in a
genuine letter to James. Gardiner was cut down, his entire troop having
fled, while he was directing a small force of foot which stood its
ground. Charles stated his losses at a hundred killed and wounded, all
by gunshot. Only two of the six field-pieces were discharged, by Colonel
Whitefoord, who was captured. Friends and foes agree in saying that the
Prince devoted himself to the care of the wounded of both sides. Lord
George Murray states Cope's losses, killed, wounded, and taken, at 3000,
Murray, at under 1000.
The Prince would fain have marched on England, but his force was thinned
by desertions, and English reinforcements would have been landed in his
rear. For a month he had to hold court in Edinburgh, adored by the
ladies to whom he behaved with a coldness of which Charles II. would not
have approved. "These are my beauties," he said, pointing to a burly-
bearded Highland sentry. He "requisitioned" public money, and such
horses and fodder as he could procure; but to spare the townsfolk from
the guns of the castle he was obliged to withdraw his blockade. He sent
messengers to France, asking for aid, but received little, though the
Marquis Boyer d'Eguilles was granted as a kind of representative of Louis
XV. His envoys to Sleat and Macleod sped ill, and Lovat only dallied,
France only hesitated, while Dutch and English regiments landed in the
Thames and marched to join General Wade at Newcastle. Charles himself
received reinforcements amounting to some 1500 men, under Lord Ogilvy,
old Lord Pitsligo, the Master of Strathallan (Drummond), the brave Lord
Balmerino, and the Viscount Dundee. A treaty of alliance with France,
made at Fontainebleau, neutralised, under the Treaty of Tournay, 6000
Dutch who might not, by that treaty, fight against the ally of France.
The Prince entertained no illusions. Without French forces, he told
D'Eguilles, "I cannot resist English, Dutch, Hessians, and Swiss." On
October [15/26] he wrote his last extant letter from Scotland to King
James. He puts his force at 8000 (more truly 6000), with 300 horse.
"With these, as matters stand, I shal have one decisive stroke for't, but
iff the French" (do not?) "land, perhaps none. . . . As matters stand I
must either conquer or perish in a little while."
Defeated in the heart of England, and with a prize of 30,000 pounds
offered for his head, he could not hope to escape. A victory for him
would mean a landing of French troops, and his invasion of England had
for its aim to force the hand of France. Her troops, with Prince Henry
among them, dallied at Dunkirk till Christmas, and were then dispersed,
while the Duke of Cumberland arrived in England from Flanders on October
19.
On October 30 the Prince held a council of war. French supplies and guns
had been landed at Stonehaven, and news came that 6000 French were ready
at Dunkirk: at Dunkirk they were, but they never were ready. The news
probably decided Charles to cross the Border; while it appears that his
men preferred to be content with simply making Scotland again an
independent kingdom, with a Catholic king. But to do this, with French
aid, was to return to the state of things under Mary of Guise!
The Prince, judging correctly, wished to deal his "decisive stroke" near
home, at the old and now futile Wade in Northumberland. A victory would
have disheartened England, and left Newcastle open to France. If Charles
were defeated, his own escape by sea, in a country where he had many well-
wishers, was possible, and the clans would have retreated through the
Cheviots. Lord George Murray insisted on a march by the western road,
Lancashire being expected to rise and join the Prince. But this plan
left Wade, with a superior force, on Charles's flank! The one
difficulty, that of holding a bridge, say Kelso Bridge, over Tweed, was
not insuperable. Rivers could not stop the Highlanders. Macdonald of
Morar thought Charles the best general in the army, and to the layman,
considering the necessity for an _instant_ stroke, and the advantages of
the east, as regards France, the Prince's strategy appears better than
Lord George's. But Lord George had his way.
On October 31, Charles, reinforced by Cluny with 400 Macphersons,
concentrated at Dalkeith. On November 1, the less trusted part of his
force, under Tullibardine, with the Atholl men, moved south by Peebles
and Moffat to Lockerbie, menacing Carlisle; while the Prince, Lord
George, and the fighting clans marched to Kelso--a feint to deceive Wade.
The main body then moved by Jedburgh, up Rule Water and down through
Liddesdale, joining hands with Tullibardine on November 9, and
bivouacking within two miles of Carlisle. On the 10th the Atholl men
went to work at the trenches; on the 11th the army moved seven miles
towards Newcastle, hoping to discuss Wade at Brampton on hilly ground.
But Wade did not gratify them by arriving.
On the 13th the Atholl men were kept at their spade-work, and Lord George
in dudgeon resigned his command (November 14), but at night Carlisle
surrendered, Murray and Perth negotiating. Lord George expressed his
anger and jealousy to his brother, Tullibardine, but Perth resigned his
command to pacify his rival. Wade feebly tried to cross country, failed,
and went back to Newcastle. On November 10, with some 4500 men (there
had been many desertions), the march through Lancashire was decreed. Save
for Mr Townley and two Vaughans, the Catholics did not stir. Charles
marched on foot in the van; he was a trained pedestrian; the townspeople
stared at him and his Highlanders, but only at Manchester (November 29-
30) had he a welcome, enlisting about 150 doomed men. On November 27
Cumberland took over command at Lichfield; his foot were distributed
between Tamworth and Stafford; his cavalry was at Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Lord George was moving on Derby, but learning Cumberland's dispositions
he led a column to Congleton, inducing Cumberland to concentrate at
Lichfield, while he himself, by way of Leek and Ashburn, joined the
Prince at Derby.
The army was in the highest spirits. The Duke of Richmond on the other
side wrote from Lichfield (December 5), "If the enemy please to cut us
off from the main army, they may; and also, if they please to give us the
slip and march to London, I fear they may, before even this _avant garde_
can come up with them; . . . there is no pass to defend, . . . the camp
at Finchley is confined to paper plans"--and Wales was ready to join the
Prince! Lord George did not know what Richmond knew. Despite the
entreaties of the Prince, his Council decided to retreat. On December 6
the clans, uttering cries of rage, were set with their faces to the
north.
The Prince was now an altered man. Full of distrust, he marched not with
Lord George in the rear, he rode in the van.
Meanwhile Lord John Drummond, who, on November 22, had landed at Montrose
with 800 French soldiers, was ordered by Charles to advance with large
Highland levies now collected and meet him as he moved north. Lord John
disobeyed orders (received about December 18). Expecting his advance,
Charles most unhappily left the Manchester men and others to hold
Carlisle, to which he would return. Cumberland took them all,--many were
hanged.
In the north, Lord Lewis Gordon routed Macleod at Inverurie (December
23), and defeated his effort to secure Aberdeen. Admirably commanded by
Lord George, and behaving admirably for an irregular retreating force,
the army reached Penrith on December 18, and at Clifton, Lord George and
Cluny defeated Cumberland's dragoons in a rearguard action.
On December 19 Carlisle was reached, and, as we saw, a force was left to
guard the castle; all were taken. On December 20 the army forded the
flooded Esk; the ladies, of whom several had been with them, rode it on
their horses: the men waded breast-high, as, had there been need, they
would have forded Tweed if the eastern route had been chosen, and if
retreat had been necessary. Cumberland returned to London on January 5,
and Horace Walpole no longer dreaded "a rebellion that runs away." By
different routes Charles and Lord George met (December 26) at Hamilton
Palace. Charles stayed a night at Dumfries. Dumfries was hostile, and
was fined; Glasgow was also disaffected, the ladies were unfriendly. At
Glasgow, Charles heard that Seaforth, chief of the Mackenzies, was aiding
the Hanoverians in the north, combining with the great Whig clans, with
Macleod, the Munroes, Lord Loudoun commanding some 2000 men, and the
Mackays of Sutherland and Caithness.
Meanwhile Lord John Drummond, Strathallan, and Lord Lewis Gordon, with
Lord Macleod, were concentrating to meet the Prince at Stirling, the
purpose being the hopeless one of capturing the castle, the key of the
north. With weak artillery, and a futile and foolish French engineer
officer to direct the siege, they had no chance of success. The Prince,
in bad health, stayed (January 4-10) at Sir Hugh Paterson's place,
Bannockburn House.
At Stirling, with his northern reinforcements, Charles may have had some
seven or eight thousand men wherewith to meet General Hawley (a veteran
of Sheriffmuir) advancing from Edinburgh. Hawley encamped at Falkirk,
and while the Atholl men were deserting by scores, Lord George skilfully
deceived him, arrived on the Falkirk moor unobserved, and held the ridge
above Hawley's position, while the General was lunching with Lady
Kilmarnock. In the first line of the Prince's force the Macdonalds held
the right wing, the Camerons (whom the great Wolfe describes as the
bravest of the brave) held the left; with Stewarts of Appin, Frazers, and
Macphersons in the centre. In the second line were the Atholl men, Lord
Lewis Gordon's levies, and Lord Ogilvy's. The Lowland horse and
Drummond's French details were in the rear. The ground was made up of
eminences and ravines, so that in the second line the various bodies were
invisible to each other, as at Sheriffmuir--with similar results. When
Hawley found that he had been surprised he arrayed his thirteen
battalions of regulars and 1000 men of Argyll on the plain, with three
regiments of dragoons, by whose charge he expected to sweep away
Charles's right wing; behind his cavalry were the luckless militia of
Glasgow and the Lothians. In all, he had from 10,000 to 12,000 men
against, perhaps, 7000 at most, for 1200 of Charles's force were left to
contain Blakeney in Stirling Castle. Both sides, on account of the heavy
roads, failed to bring forward their guns.
Hawley then advanced his cavalry up hill: their left faced Keppoch's
Macdonalds; their right faced the Frazers, under the Master of Lovat, in
Charles's centre. Hawley then launched his cavalry, which were met at
close range by the reserved fire of the Macdonalds and Frazers. Through
the mist and rain the townsfolk, looking on, saw in five minutes "the
break in the battle." Hamilton's and Ligonier's cavalry turned and fled,
Cobham's wheeled and rode across the Highland left under fire, while the
Macdonalds and Frazers pursuing the cavalry found themselves among the
Glasgow militia, whom they followed, slaying. Lord George had no pipers
to sound the recall; they had flung their pipes to their gillies and gone
in with the claymore.
Thus the Prince's right, far beyond his front, were lost in the tempest;
while his left had discharged their muskets at Cobham's Horse, and could
not load again, their powder being drenched with rain. They received the
fire of Hawley's right, and charged with the claymore, but were
outflanked and enfiladed by some battalions drawn up _en potence_. Many
of the second line had blindly followed the first: the rest shunned the
action; Hawley's officers led away some regiments in an orderly retreat;
night fell; no man knew what had really occurred till young Gask and
young Strathallan, with the French and Atholl men, ventured into Falkirk,
and found Hawley's camp deserted. The darkness, the rain, the nature of
the ground, and the clans' want of discipline, prevented the annihilation
of Hawley's army; while the behaviour of his cavalry showed that the
Prince might have defeated Cumberland's advanced force beyond Derby with
the greatest ease, as the Duke of Richmond had anticipated.
Perhaps the right course now was to advance on Edinburgh, but the
hopeless siege of Stirling Castle was continued--Charles perhaps hoping
much from Hawley's captured guns.
The accidental shooting of young AEneas Macdonnell, second son of
Glengarry, by a Clanranald man, begat a kind of blood feud between the
clans, and the unhappy cause of the accident had to be shot. Lochgarry,
writing to young Glengarry after Culloden, says that "there was a general
desertion in the whole army," and this was the view of the chiefs, who,
on news of Cumberland's approach, told Charles (January 29) that the army
was depleted and resistance impossible.
The chiefs were mistaken in point of fact: a review at Crieff later
showed that even then only 1000 men were missing. As at Derby, and with
right on his side, Charles insisted on meeting Cumberland. He did well,
his men were flushed with victory, had sufficient supplies, were to
encounter an army not yet encouraged by a refusal to face it, and, if
defeated had the gates of the hills open behind them. In a very
temperately written memorial Charles placed these ideas before the
chiefs. "Having told you my thoughts, I am too sensible of what you have
already ventured and done for me, not to yield to your unanimous
resolution if you persist."
Lord George, Lovat, Lochgarry, Keppoch, Ardshiel, and Cluny did persist;
the fatal die was cast; and the men who--well fed and confident--might
have routed Cumberland, fled in confusion rather than retreated,--to be
ruined later, when, starving, out-wearied, and with many of their best
forces absent, they staggered his army at Culloden. Charles had told the
chiefs, "I can see nothing but ruin and destruction to us in case we
should retreat." {287}
This retreat embittered Charles's feelings against Lord George, who may
have been mistaken--who, indeed, at Crieff, seems to have recognised his
error (February 5); but he had taken his part, and during the campaign,
henceforth, as at Culloden, distinguished himself by every virtue of a
soldier.
After the retreat Lord George moved on Aberdeen; Charles to Blair in
Atholl; thence to Moy, the house of Lady Mackintosh, where a blacksmith
and four or five men ingeniously scattered Loudoun and the Macleods,
advancing to take him by a night surprise. This was the famous Rout of
Moy.
Charles next (February 20) took Inverness Castle, and Loudoun was driven
into Sutherland, and cut off by Lord George's dispositions from any
chance of joining hands with Cumberland. The Duke had now 5000 Hessian
soldiers at his disposal: these he would not have commanded had the
Prince's army met him near Stirling.
Charles was now at or near Inverness: he lost, through illness, the
services of Murray, whose successor, Hay, was impotent as an officer of
Commissariat. A gallant movement of Lord George into Atholl, where he
surprised all Cumberland's posts, but was foiled by the resistance of his
brother's castle, was interrupted by a recall to the north, and, on April
2, he retreated to the line of the Spey. Forbes of Culloden and Macleod
had been driven to take refuge in Skye; but 1500 men of the Prince's best
had been sent into Sutherland, when Cumberland arrived at Nairn (April
14), and Charles concentrated his starving forces on Culloden Moor. The
Macphersons, the Frazers, the 1500 Macdonalds, and others in Sutherland
were absent on various duties when "the wicked day of destiny"
approached.
The men on Culloden Moor, a flat waste unsuited to the tactics of the
clans, had but one biscuit apiece on the eve of the battle. Lord George
"did not like the ground," and proposed to surprise by a night attack
Cumberland's force at Nairn. The Prince eagerly agreed, and, according
to him, Clanranald's advanced men were in touch with Cumberland's
outposts before Lord George convinced the Prince that retreat was
necessary. The advance was lagging; the way had been missed in the dark;
dawn was at hand. There are other versions: in any case the hungry men
were so outworn that many are said to have slept through next day's
battle.
A great mistake was made next day, if Lochgarry, who commanded the
Macdonalds of Glengarry, and Maxwell of Kirkconnel are correct in saying
that Lord George insisted on placing his Atholl men on the right wing.
The Macdonalds had an old claim to the right wing, but as far as research
enlightens us, their failure on this fatal day was not due to jealous
anger. The battle might have been avoided, but to retreat was to lose
Inverness and all chance of supplies. On the Highland right was the
water of Nairn, and they were guarded by a wall which the Campbells
pulled down, enabling Cumberland's cavalry to take them in flank.
Cumberland had about 9000 men, including the Campbells. Charles,
according to his muster-master, had 5000; of horse he had but a handful.
The battle began with an artillery duel, during which the clans lost
heavily, while their few guns were useless, and their right flank was
exposed by the breaking down of the protecting wall. After some
unexplained and dangerous delay, Lord George gave the word to charge, in
face of a blinding tempest of sleet, and himself went in, as did Lochiel,
claymore in hand. But though the order was conveyed by Ker of Graden
first to the Macdonalds on the left, as they had to charge over a wider
space of ground, the Camerons, Clan Chattan, and Macleans came first to
the shock. "Nothing could be more desperate than their attack, or more
properly received," says Whitefoord. The assailants were enfiladed by
Wolfe's regiment, which moved up and took position at right angles, like
the fifty-second on the flank of the last charge of the French Guard at
Waterloo. The Highland right broke through Barrel's regiment, swept over
the guns, and died on the bayonets of the second line. They had thrown
down their muskets after one fire, and, says Cumberland, stood "and threw
stones for at least a minute or two before their total rout began."
Probably the fall of Lochiel, who was wounded and carried out of action,
determined the flight. Meanwhile the left, the Macdonalds, menaced on
the flank by cavalry, were plied at a hundred yards by grape. They saw
their leaders, the gallant Keppoch and Macdonnell of Scothouse, with many
others, fall under the grape-shot: they saw the right wing broken, and
they did not come to the shock. If we may believe four sworn witnesses
in a court of justice (July 24, 1752), whose testimony was accepted as
the basis of a judicial decreet (January 10, 1756), {290} Keppoch was
wounded while giving his orders to some of his men not to outrun the line
in advancing, and was shot dead as a friend was supporting him. When all
retreated they passed the dead body of Keppoch.
The tradition constantly given in various forms that Keppoch charged
alone, "deserted by the children of his clan," is worthless if sworn
evidence may be trusted.
As for the unhappy Charles, by the evidence of Sir Robert Strange, who
was with him, he had "ridden along the line to the right animating the
soldiers," and "endeavoured to rally the soldiers, who, annoyed by the
enemy's fire, were beginning to quit the field." He "was got off the
field when the men in general were betaking themselves precipitately to
flight; nor was there any possibility of their being rallied." Yorke, an
English officer, says that the Prince did not leave the field till after
the retreat of the second line.
So far the Prince's conduct was honourable and worthy of his name. But
presently, on the advice of his Irish entourage, Sullivan and Sheridan,
who always suggested suspicions, and doubtless not forgetting the great
price on his head, he took his own way towards the west coast in place of
joining Lord George and the remnant with him at Ruthven in Badenoch. On
April 26 he sailed from Borradale in a boat, and began that course of
wanderings and hairbreadth escapes in which only the loyalty of Highland
hearts enabled him at last to escape the ships that watched the isles and
the troops that netted the hills.
Some years later General Wolfe, then residing at Inverness, reviewed the
occurrences, and made up his mind that the battle had been a dangerous
risk for Cumberland, while the pursuit (though ruthlessly cruel) was
inefficient.
Despite Cumberland's insistent orders to give no quarter (orders
justified by the absolutely false pretext that Prince Charles had set the
example), Lochgarry reported that the army had not lost more than a
thousand men. Fire and sword and torture, the destruction of tilled
lands, and even of the shell-fish on the shore, did not break the spirit
of the Highlanders. Many bands held out in arms, and Lochgarry was only
prevented by the Prince's command from laying an ambush for Cumberland.
The Campbells and the Macleods under their recreant chief, the Whig
Macdonalds under Sir Alexander of Sleat, ravaged the lands of the
Jacobite clansmen; but the spies of Albemarle, who now commanded in
Scotland, reported the Macleans, the Grants of Glenmoriston, with the
Macphersons, Glengarry's men, and Lochiel's Camerons, as all eager "to do
it again" if France would only help.
But France was helpless, and when Lochiel sailed for France with the
Prince only Cluny remained, hunted like a partridge in the mountains, to
keep up the spirit of the Cause. Old Lovat met a long-deserved death by
the executioner's axe, though it needed the evidence of Murray of
Broughton, turned informer, to convict that fox. Kilmarnock and
Balmerino also were executed; the good and brave Duke of Perth died on
his way to France; the aged Tullibardine in the Tower; many gallant
gentlemen were hanged; Lord George escaped, and is the ancestor of the
present Duke of Atholl; many gentlemen took French service; others fought
in other alien armies; three or four in the Highlands or abroad took the
wages of spies upon the Prince. The 30,000 pounds of French gold, buried
near Loch Arkaig, caused endless feuds, kinsman denouncing kinsman. The
secrets of the years 1746-1760 are to be sought in the Cumberland and
Stuart MSS. in Windsor Castle and the Record Office.
Legislation, intended to scotch the snake of Jacobitism, began with
religious persecution. The Episcopalian clergy had no reason to love
triumphant Presbyterianism, and actively, or in sympathy, were favourers
of the exiled dynasty. Episcopalian chapels, sometimes mere rooms in
private houses, were burned, or their humble furniture was destroyed. All
Episcopalian ministers were bidden to take the oath and pray for King
George by September 1746, or suffer for the second offence transportation
for life to the American colonies. Later, the orders conferred by
Scottish bishops were made of no avail. Only with great difficulty and
danger could parents obtain the rite of baptism for their children. Very
little is said in our histories about the sufferings of the Episcopalians
when it was their turn to be under the harrow. They were not violent,
they murdered no Moderator of the General Assembly. Other measures were
the Disarming Act, the prohibition to wear the Highland dress, and the
abolition of "hereditable jurisdictions," and the chief's right to call
out his clansmen in arms. Compensation in money was paid, from 21,000
pounds to the Duke of Argyll to 13 pounds, 6s. 8d. to the clerks of the
Registrar of Aberbrothock. The whole sum was 152,237 pounds, 15s. 4d.
In 1754 an Act "annexed the forfeited estates of the Jacobites who had
been out (or many of them) inalienably to the Crown." The estates were
restored in 1784; meanwhile the profits were to be used for the
improvement of the Highlands. If submissive tenants received better
terms and larger leases than of old, Jacobite tenants were evicted for
not being punctual with rent. Therefore, on May 14, 1752, some person
unknown shot Campbell of Glenure, who was about evicting the tenants on
the lands of Lochiel and Stewart of Ardshiel in Appin. Campbell rode
down from Fort William to Ballachulish ferry, and when he had crossed it
said, "I am safe now I am out of my mother's country." But as he drove
along the old road through the wood of Lettermore, perhaps a mile and a
half south of Ballachulish House, the fatal shot was fired. For this
crime James Stewart of the Glens was tried by a Campbell jury at
Inveraray, with the Duke on the bench, and was, of course, convicted, and
hanged on the top of a knoll above Ballachulish ferry. James was
innocent, but Allan Breck Stewart was certainly an accomplice of the man
with the gun, which, by the way, was the property neither of James
Stewart nor of Stewart of Fasnacloich. The murderer was anxious to save
James by avowing the deed, but his kinsfolk, saying, "They will only hang
both James and you," bound him hand and foot and locked him up in the
kitchen on the day of James's execution. {293} Allan lay for some weeks
at the house of a kinsman in Rannoch, and escaped to France, where he had
a fight with James Mor Macgregor, then a spy in the service of the Duke
of Newcastle.
This murder of "the Red Fox" caused all the more excitement, and is all
the better remembered in Lochaber and Glencoe, because agrarian violence
in revenge for eviction has scarcely another example in the history of
the Highlands.
CONCLUSION.
Space does not permit an account of the assimilation of Scotland to
England in the years between the Forty-five and our own time: moreover,
the history of this age cannot well be written without a dangerously
close approach to many "burning questions" of our day. The History of
the Highlands, from 1752 to the emigrations witnessed by Dr Johnson (1760-
1780), and of the later evictions in the interests of sheep farms and
deer forests, has never been studied as it ought to be in the rich
manuscript materials which are easily accessible. The great literary
Renaissance of Scotland, from 1745 to the death of Sir Walter Scott; the
years of Hume, a pioneer in philosophy and in history, and of the Rev.
Principal Robertson (with him and Hume, Gibbon professed, very modestly,
that he did not rank); the times of Adam Smith, of Burns, and of Sir
Walter, not to speak of the Rev. John Home, that foremost tragic poet,
may be studied in many a history of literature. According to Voltaire,
Scotland led the world in all studies, from metaphysics to gardening. We
think of Watt, and add engineering.
The brief and inglorious administration of the Earl of Bute at once gave
openings in the public service to Scots of ability, and excited that
English hatred of these northern rivals which glows in Churchill's
'Satires,' while this English jealousy aroused that Scottish hatred of
England which is the one passion that disturbs the placid letters of
David Hume.
The later alliance of Pitt with Henry Dundas made Dundas far more
powerful than any Secretary for Scotland had been since Lauderdale, and
confirmed the connection of Scotland with the services in India. But,
politically, Scotland, till the Reform Bill, had scarcely a recognisable
existence. The electorate was tiny, and great landholders controlled the
votes, whether genuine or created by legal fiction--"faggot votes."
Municipal administration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries was terribly corrupt, and reform was demanded, but the French
Revolution, producing associations of Friends of the People, who were
prosecuted and grievously punished in trials for sedition, did not afford
a fortunate moment for peaceful reforms.
But early in the nineteenth century Jeffrey, editor of 'The Edinburgh
Review,' made it the organ of Liberalism, and no less potent in England
than in Scotland; while Scott, on the Tory side, led a following of
Scottish penmen across the Border in the service of 'The Quarterly
Review.' With 'Blackwood's Magazine' and Wilson, Hogg, and Lockhart;
with Jeffrey and 'The Edinburgh,' the Scottish metropolis almost rivalled
London as the literary capital.
About 1818 Lockhart recognised the superiority of the Whig wits in
literature; but against them all Scott is a more than sufficient set-off.
The years of stress between Waterloo (1815) and the Reform Bill (1832)
made Radicalism (fostered by economic causes, the enormous commercial and
industrial growth, and the unequal distribution of its rewards) perhaps
even more pronounced north than south of the Tweed. In 1820 "the Radical
war" led to actual encounters between the yeomanry and the people. The
ruffianism of the Tory paper 'The Beacon' caused one fatal duel, and was
within an inch of leading to another, in which a person of the very
highest consequence would have "gone on the sod." For the Reform Bill
the mass of Scottish opinion, so long not really represented at all, was
as eager as for the Covenant. So triumphant was the first Whig or
Radical majority under the new system, that Jeffrey, the Whig pontiff,
perceived that the real struggle was to be "between property and no
property," between Capital and Socialism. This circumstance had always
been perfectly clear to Scott and the Tories.
The watchword of the eighteenth century in literature, religion, and
politics had been "no enthusiasm." But throughout the century, since
1740, "enthusiasm," "the return to nature," had gradually conquered till
the rise of the Romantic school with Coleridge and Scott. In religion
the enthusiastic movement of the Wesleys had altered the face of the
Church in England, while in Scotland the "Moderates" had lost position,
and "zeal" or enthusiasm pervaded the Kirk. The question of lay
patronage of livings had passed through many phases since Knox wrote, "It
pertaineth to the people, and to every several congregation, to elect
their minister." In 1833, immediately after the passing of the Reform
Bill, the return to the primitive Knoxian rule was advocated by the
"Evangelical" or "High Flying" opponents of the Moderates. Dr Chalmers,
a most eloquent person, whom Scott regarded as truly a man of genius, was
the leader of the movement. The Veto Act, by which the votes of a
majority of heads of families were to be fatal to the claims of a
patron's presentee, had been passed by the General Assembly; it was
contrary to Queen Anne's Patronage Act of 1711,--a measure carried,
contrary to Harley's policy, by a coalition of English Churchmen and
Scottish Jacobite members of Parliament. The rejection, under the Veto
Act, of a presentee by the church of Auchterarder, was declared illegal
by the Court of Session and the judges in the House of Lords (May 1839);
the Strathbogie imbroglio, "with two Presbyteries, one taking its orders
from the Court of Session, the other from the General Assembly" (1837-
1841), brought the Assembly into direct conflict with the law of the
land. Dr Chalmers would not allow the spiritual claims of the Kirk to be
suppressed by the State. "King Christ's Crown Honours" were once more in
question. On May 18, 1843, the followers of the principles of Knox and
Andrew Melville marched out of the Assembly into Tanfield Hall, and made
Dr Chalmers Moderator, and themselves "The Free Church of Scotland." In
1847 the hitherto separated synods of various dissenting bodies came
together as United Presbyterians, and in 1902 they united with the Free
Church as "the United Free Church," while a small minority, mainly
Highland, of the former Free Church, now retains that title, and
apparently represents Knoxian ideals. Thus the Knoxian ideals have
modified, even to this day, the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, while
the Church of James I., never by persecution extinguished (_nec tamen
consumebatur_), has continued to exist and develop, perhaps more in
consequence of love of the Liturgy than from any other cause.
Meanwhile, and not least in the United Free Church, extreme tenacity of
dogma has yielded place to very advanced Biblical criticism; and Knox,
could he revisit Scotland with all his old opinions, might not be wholly
satisfied by the changes wrought in the course of more than three
centuries. The Scottish universities, discouraged and almost destitute
of pious benefactors since the end of the sixteenth century, have
profited by the increase of wealth and a comparatively recent outburst of
generosity. They always provided the cheapest, and now they provide the
cheapest and most efficient education that is offered by any homes of
learning of mediaeval foundation.
FOOTNOTES
{2} A good example of these Celtic romances is 'The Tain Bo Cualgne.'
{4} The best account of Roman military life in Scotland, from the time
of Agricola to the invasion by Lollius Urbicus (140-158 A.D.), may be
studied in Mr Curie's 'A Roman Frontier Post and Its People' (Maclehose,
Glasgow, 1911). The relics, weapons, arms, pottery, and armour of Roman
men, and the ornaments of the native women, are here beautifully
reproduced. Dr Macdonald's excellent work, 'The Roman Wall in Scotland'
(Maclehose, 1911), is also most interesting and instructive.
{10} For the Claims of Supremacy see Appendix C. to vol. i. of my
'History of Scotland,' pp. 496-499.
{20} Lord Reay, according to the latest book on Scottish peerages,
represents these MacHeths or Mackays.
{27} 'Iliad,' xviii. 496-500.
{36} As Waleys was then an English as much as a Scottish name, I see no
reason for identifying the William le Waleys, outlawed for bilking a poor
woman who kept a beer house (Perth, June-August, 1296), with the great
historical hero of Scotland.
{38} See Dr Neilson on "Blind Harry's Wallace," in 'Essays and Studies
by Members of the English Association,' p. 85 ff. (Oxford, 1910.)
{52} The precise date is disputed.
{57} By a blunder which Sir James Ramsay corrected, history has accused
James of arresting his "whole House of Lords"!
{61} The ballad fragments on the Knight of Liddesdale's slaying, and on
"the black dinner," are preserved in Hume of Godscroft's 'History of he
House of Douglas,' written early in the seventeenth century.
{67} The works of Messrs Herkless and Hannay on the Bishops of St
Andrews may be consulted.
{71} See p. 38, note 1.
{89} Knox gives another account. Our evidence is from a household book
of expenses, _Liber Emptorum_, in MS.
{91} As to the story of forgery, see a full discussion in the author's
'History of Scotland,' i. 460-467. 1900.
{94} There is no proof that this man was the preacher George Wishart,
later burned.
{96} A curious controversy is constantly revived in this matter. It is
urged that Knox's mobs did not destroy the abbey churches of Kelso,
Melrose, Dryburgh, Roxburgh, and Coldingham: that was done by Hertford's
army. If so, they merely deprived the Knoxian brethren of the pleasures
of destruction which they enjoyed almost everywhere else. The English,
if guilty, left at Melrose, Jedburgh, Coldingham, and Kelso more
beautiful remains of mediaeval architecture than the Reformers were wont
to spare.
{99} This part of our history is usually and erroneously told as given
by Knox, writing fifteen years later. He needs to be corrected by the
letters and despatches of the day, which prove that the Reformer's
memory, though picturesque, had, in the course of fifteen years, become
untrustworthy. He is the chief source of the usual version of Solway
Moss.
{106} The dates and sequence of events are perplexing. In 'John Knox
and the Reformation' (pp. 86-95) I have shown the difficulties.
{111a} The details of these proceedings and the evidence for them may be
found in the author's book, 'John Knox and the Reformation,' pp. 135-141.
Cf. also my 'History of Scotland,' ii. 58-60.
{111b} See 'Affaires Etrangeres: Angleterre,' xv. 131-153. MS.
{118} Mary's one good portrait is that owned by Lord Leven and Melville.
{129} I have no longer any personal doubt that Mary wrote the lost
French original of this letter, usually numbered II. in the Casket
Letters (see my paper, "The Casket Letters," in 'The Scottish Historical
Review,' vol. v., No. 17, pp. 1-12). The arguments tending to suggest
that parts of the letter are forged (see my 'Mystery of Mary Stuart') are
(I now believe) unavailing.
{137} I can construe in no other sense the verbose "article." It may be
read in Dr Hay Fleming's 'Reformation in Scotland,' pp. 449, 450, with
sufficient commentary, pp. 450-453.
{144} It appears that there was both a plot by Lennox, after the Raid of
Ruthven, to seize James--"preaching will be of no avail to convert him,"
his mother wrote; and also an English plot, rejected by Gowrie, to poison
both James and Mary! For the former, see Professor Hume Brown, 'History
of Scotland,' vol. ii. p. 289; for the latter, see my 'History of
Scotland,' vol. ii. pp. 286, 287, with the authorities in each case.
{156} Of these versions, that long lost one which was sent to England
has been published for the first time, with the previously unnoticed
incident of Robert Oliphant, in the author's 'James VI. and the Gowrie
Mystery.' Here it is also demonstrated that all the treasonable letters
attributed in 1606-1608 to Logan were forged by Logan's solicitor, George
Sprot, though the principal letter seems to me to be a copy of an
authentic original. That all, _as they stand_, are forgeries is the
unanimous opinion of experts. See the whole of the documents in the
author's 'Confessions of George Sprot.' Roxburghe Club.
{181} Colkitto's men and the Badenoch contingent.
{182} Much has been made of cruelties at Aberdeen. Montrose sent in a
drummer, asking the Provost to remove the old men, women, and children.
The drummer was shot, as, at Perth, Montrose's friend, Kilpont, had been
murdered. The enemy were pursued through the town. Spalding names 115
townsmen slain in the whole battle and pursuit. Women were slain if they
were heard to mourn their men--not a very probable story. Not one woman
is named. The Burgh Records mention no women slain. Baillie says "the
town was well plundered." Jaffray, who fled from the fight as fast as
his horse could carry him, says that women and children were slain. See
my 'History of Scotland,' vol. iii. pp. 126-128.
{186a} Craig-Brown, 'History of Selkirkshire,' vol. i. pp. 190, 193.
'Act. Parl. Scot.,' vol. vi. pt. i. p. 492.
{186b} 'Act. Parl. Scot.,' vol. vi. pt. i. p. 514.
{187} Hume Brown, vol. ii. p. 339.
{208} The Boot was an old French and Scottish implement. It was a
framework into which the human leg was inserted; wedges were then driven
between the leg and the framework.
{225} Many disgusting details may be read in the author's 'Life of Sir
George Mackenzie.'
{226} Hume Brown, ii. 414, 415.
{250} Dr Hay Fleming finds no mention of this affair in the Minutes of
the Societies.
{254a} All this is made clear from the letters of the date in the Stuart
Papers (Historical Manuscript Commission).
{254b} In addition to Saint Simon's narrative we have the documentary
evidence taken in a French inquiry.
{264} See 'The King over the Water,' by Alice Shield and A. Lang.
Thackeray's King James, in 'Esmond,' is very amusing but absolutely false
to history.
{265} 'The Porteous Trial,' by Mr Roughead, W.S.
{287} See the author's 'History of Scotland,' iv. 446-500, where the
evidence is examined.
{290} 'Register of Decreets,' vol. 482.
{293} Tradition in Glencoe.