Chapter XXXVI: A.d. 1746 (3)

“When I came into this country, it was my only view to do all in
my power for your good and safety. This I will always do as long
as life is in me. But alas! I see with grief I can at present do
little for you on this side the water, for the only thing that
can now be done is to defend yourselves till the French assist
you, if not to be able to make better terms. To effectuate this,
the only way is to assemble in a body as soon as possible, and
then to take measures for the best, which you that know the
country are only judges of. This makes me be of little use here;
whereas, by my going into France instantly, however dangerous it
be, I will certainly engage the French court either to assist
us effectually and powerfully, or at least to procure you such
terms as you would not obtain otherways. My presence there, I
flatter myself, will have more effect to bring this sooner to a
determination than any body else, for several reasons; one of
which I will mention here; viz. it is thought to be a politick,
(policy,) though a false one, of the French court, not to restore
our master, but to keep a continual civil war in this country,
which renders the English government less powerful, and of
consequence themselves more. This is absolutely destroyed by my
leaving the country, which nothing else but this will persuade
them that this play cannot last, and if not remedied, the Elector
will soon be as despotick as the French king, which, I should
think, will oblige them to strike the great stroke, which is
always in their power, however averse they may have been to it
for the time past. Before leaving off, I must recommend to you,
that all things should be decided by a council of all your
chiefs, or, in any of your absence, the next commander of your
several corps with the assistance of the Duke of Perth and Lord
George Murray, who, I am persuaded, will stick by you to the very
last. My departure should be kept as long private and concealed
as possible on one pretext or other which you will fall upon. May
the Almighty bless and direct you.”[1226]

At Glenboisdale Charles was joined by Clanranald, Lockhart, younger of Carnwath, Æneas Macdonald, the banker, and several other adherents, who endeavoured to dissuade him from embarking for the isles, where, from the number of cruisers which hovered among the Hebrides, they considered he would run greater risk than if he remained on the mainland. Charles seemed disposed to adopt this advice; but O’Sullivan being averse to it, and having represented the great probability of speedily finding a ship among the isles to convey him to France, and the great danger of staying where he was, the prince adhered to his determination of seeking a temporary refuge in the Long island. With the intention of soliciting the protection of Sir Alexander Macdonald and the laird of Macleod, Charles sent to Kinlochmoidart for one Donald Macleod, a trustworthy person whom he wished to intrust with his despatches. Macleod had been at Inverness shipping a cargo of meal for Skye when Charles entered that town, and had been employed to accompany Æneas Macdonald to the island of Barra, for the purpose of bringing over a sum of about £380, which was lying there. They had reached Kinlochmoidart, on their way back, and were about setting out for Inverness, when Macdonald received a letter from the prince announcing his defeat, and requesting him to repair to Borodale. On receiving this message Macleod immediately set out, and in passing through a forest in the vicinity of Glenboisdale, he observed a solitary wanderer among the trees, who immediately came forward and asked him if he was Donald Macleod of Gualtergill in Skye. Macleod answered that he was, and having recognised the prince in the person of his interrogator, he stated that he was at his service. “Then,” said the prince, “you see, Donald, I am in distress. I therefore throw myself into your bosom; do with me what you like. I hear you are an honest man, and fit to be trusted.” The aged Highlander doubting his capacity to serve him, Charles stated to him the nature of the mission on which he intended to send him. Macleod, startled at the proposal, positively refused to undertake the task; and having remonstrated with Charles upon the impropriety of asking the protection of men who had, contrary to their promise, taken part against him, he abandoned his design.[1227]

During the few days that Charles spent at Glenboisdale, he is said to have wavered in his plans. Though informed of the dispersion of his troops, he had hopes that a good many might still be collected as occasion offered. He is said even to have entertained thoughts of again assembling his scattered forces, and acting on the defensive. He sent a few men, with whom Clanranald had supplied him, on all sides to obtain intelligence, but they learned nothing favourable; and accounts which he received from the Isle of Skye, that Lord Loudon was about to come over immediately to the coast of Arisaig, joined to a report, which, however, turned out to be false, that a detachment of the Duke of Cumberland’s army had already reached Fort Augustus, hastened his departure from the mainland.[1228]

Accordingly, on the evening of the 26th of April, Charles, accompanied by O’Sullivan, O’Neil, Allan Macdonald, a catholic priest of Clanranald’s family, and Edward Burke, embarked in an eight-oared boat at Borodale, in the bay of Lochnanuagh, where a few months before he had landed full of hope and enthusiasm. Besides the persons enumerated, and Donald Macleod who acted as pilot, there were seven boatmen. Charles sat down in the bottom of the boat at the feet of the pilot. Macleod, who observed indications of an approaching storm, had advised Charles to postpone his voyage till next day; but the prince was so intent upon proceeding, that he would not put off his departure. Four pecks of oatmeal were all the provision the whole party carried along with them, and the only cooking utensil was a pot which Macleod had taken care to provide.

Charles soon had occasion to repent of his obstinacy in not listening to the advice of the aged mariner; for before the boat had proceeded far, a storm arose, which is described by Macleod as the most violent he had ever witnessed, though he had been all his life a seafaring man. The danger was greatly increased by the darkness of the night, and to add to the distress of the party, the rain poured down in torrents. Vivid flashes of lightning which threw a momentary gleam over the face of the troubled deep, and the crash of the thunder which rolled over the heads of the affrighted party, increased the horrors of the scene. Unprovided with a compass, they were entirely ignorant of the course they were steering; but they had, from the violence of the tempest, no alternative but to go before the wind, and in the event of escaping the fury of the waves, running the risk of being driven upon Skye, where the prince might fall into the hands of the militia who were in that island. But all their apprehensions of danger on this score were removed, by discovering at day-break that they were on the coast of the Long island. At seven o’clock in the morning they landed with great difficulty at Rossinish, a point of land on the north-east of Benbecula, one of the islands which form the group called the Long island. Having secured their boat, Charles and his party entered an uninhabited hut, in which they kindled a fire to warm themselves and dry their clothes, which were saturated with rain and salt-water. Charles purchased a cow, which was immediately slaughtered; and which, with the small quantity of meal provided by Donald Macleod, served to support the party during the time they remained on the island.[1229]

Meanwhile the Duke of Cumberland was using every effort to capture the persons of the young Chevalier and his principal adherents. For this purpose, several detachments were sent out by the duke from his camp at Inverness in different directions, and as he was desirous that Charles should not fall alive into his hands, his instructions to the commanders of the detachments were to make no prisoners. One of these detachments, under Colonel Cockayne, proceeded to Moy castle, and after shooting some fugitives who had taken refuge in that mansion, and massacring some old men, women and children, returned to Inverness, carrying along with them Lady Mackintosh, who, on her arrival there, was committed to custody by the duke. Another party went to castle Downie, the seat of Lord Lovat, which they burnt to the ground, having previously secured a large quantity of booty, which they carried to Inverness. A body of 600 Grants was sent into the Frasers’ country to reduce and disarm that powerful clan; and the Monroes, Mackays, and Sutherlands, were scattered over the shires of Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, and Caithness, to keep the disaffected in these counties in check. To secure the passages to the isles, Lord Fortrose, son of the Earl of Seaforth, proceeded to raise the Mackenzies, and orders were given along the coast to prevent any suspicious persons from making their escape by sea. Cobham’s and Lord Mack Ker’s dragoons were posted along the east coast, and bodies of militia were stationed at the passes leading into the Highlands to intercept all persons who might attempt to escape to the lowlands. The pass of Stirling was also guarded by a detachment posted at the Fords of the Frew, and the Edinburgh regiment was spread along the south side of the Frith of Forth, to apprehend such of the insurgents as might attempt to cross that arm of the sea. Besides these different detachments, a body of 1,700 militia, under the Earl of Loudon, the laird of Macleod, and Sir Alexander Macdonald, the last of whom had raised his men before the battle of Culloden, and another body of 800 Argyleshire men under General Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle, spread themselves over Lochaber, all eager to secure the person of the prince. In short, no means were neglected to attain this object; and the eager pursuers required no other stimulus to urge them on than the splendid reward of £30,000, which had been offered for the capture of the royal fugitive.

The departure of Charles from Lochnanuagh was not known at Inverness till some days after he had sailed, and the place of his destination become a matter of interesting speculation. No doubt could exist that he designed to seek refuge among the western islands, and as St. Kilda is the most distant and the least frequented of the whole, it was supposed that Charles had repaired thither. Acting on this supposition, General Campbell collected some sloops of war and transports, and having embarked a considerable body of troops, set sail for St. Kilda.[1230] After touching at Barra and some other islands, and searching for the prince, he approached St. Kilda, the inhabitants of which, alarmed at the sight of the fleet, fled and concealed themselves in the cliffs of the rocks. Landing with some of his forces, the general inquired at some of the inhabitants, whom he discovered in their recesses, what had become of the “Pretender;” but these people answered, with great simplicity, that they had never heard of such a person,--that they had indeed been informed that their laird (Macleod) had lately been at war with a woman a great way abroad, and that he had overcome her. This, they added, was all they knew of the affairs of the world. General Campbell, however, not satisfied with this statement, made a search over the island, but not finding any strangers, returned to the main land after visiting South Uist.

Anticipating the utter ruin which awaited them and their followers, if no attempt was made to resist the meditated designs of the Duke of Cumberland, several chiefs and others[1231] held a meeting at Mortlaig on the 8th of May, at which they entered into a bond for their mutual defence, and agreed never to lay down their arms, or make a general peace, without the consent of the whole. They may be supposed to have come to this resolution the more readily, as a sum of 35,000 louis d’ors had been received a few days before by two French frigates which had arrived on the west coast. By the bond of association, the chiefs agreed, and solemnly promised, with the utmost expedition, to raise in behalf of the prince and in defence of their country, as many able-bodied armed men as they could on their respective properties, and they further promised and agreed, that the following clans, viz., Lochiel, Glengarry, Clanranald, Stewarts of Appin, Keppoch, Barisdale, Mackinnons and Macleods, should assemble on Thursday, the 15th of May, at Auchnacarry, in the braes of Lochaber. To facilitate the junction of the different corps with all possible speed, it was agreed that the Frasers of Aird and the other Jacobite clans on the north side of the river Ness, should join the people of Glenmoriston and Glengarry, and that the Frasers of Stratherrick, the Mackintoshes and Macphersons, should assemble and meet at the most convenient place in Badenoch on the same day;--that the Macgregors, and Menzies’ and Glenlyon’s people should march to Rannoch and join the Rannoch and Athole men, and be kept in readiness to receive intelligence and orders to meet the main body in the braes of Mar, or at any other place that might be considered convenient,--that Gordon of Glenbucket and Colonel Roy Stewart should intimate the resolutions of the meeting to Lord Lewis Gordon, Lords Ogilvy and Pitsligo, the Farquharsons, and the other principal gentlemen in the north, who were to be directed to fix a place of rendezvous among themselves, and that Macpherson of Cluny and Colonel Roy Stewart should advertise the principal gentlemen of the Mackintoshes of the resolutions adopted by the meeting. The better to conceal their designs from the Duke of Cumberland, the assembled chiefs agreed not to discover or reveal to any of their men or inferior officers, the agreement they had entered into, nor the day and place of rendezvous, till they had assembled their respective corps. It was finally agreed, that should any one engaged in the association make separate terms for himself, he should be looked upon as a traitor to the prince, and be treated by his associates as an enemy.[1232]

The associated chiefs had been too sanguine in their expectations, not one of them being able, for various reasons, to meet on the day appointed. Clanranald’s people refused to leave their own country, and many of Glengarry’s had delivered up their arms. Lochgarry came with a small party to Invermely on the 20th of May; but, after staying one night, he crossed Loch Arkaig and did not return. Lochiel and Barisdale met at Auchnacarry, the place of rendezvous, on the 21st or 22d of May, but with very few men, and they were almost surprised by a large party of the government forces on the morning of the 23d, who took an officer and two of Lochiel’s men prisoners. The Highlanders immediately dispersed, and Lochiel, seeing no chance of making an effectual stand under existing circumstances, wrote a circular to his brother chiefs, advising them to disperse their people; but, as great expectations were entertained that the French king would send assistance, he requested them to preserve their arms as long as possible.

Conceiving that the only effectual mode of suppressing the rebellion was to march into the Highlands with the whole of his army, the Duke of Cumberland began, about the middle of May, to make preparations for his journey. He had in the beginning of that month issued a proclamation, ordering the insurgent clans to deliver up their arms; but little attention was paid to this mandate, and the continuance of considerable armed parties convinced him that the Highlands could never be reduced without the presence of a considerable army stationed in a central district. Having pitched upon Fort Augustus for his new head-quarters, the duke left Inverness, on the 23d of May, with eleven battalions of foot and Kingston’s horse, and reached Fort Augustus next day. Charles had intended to make this place a rallying point in case of a defeat; but his plan was rejected by the chiefs, and, that it might not be serviceable to the royal troops, the buildings had been blown up. No accommodation being therefore found for the duke’s army, a camp was formed in the neighbourhood, and a turf hut with doors and windows, and covered with green sods and boughs, was erected by Lord Loudon’s Highlanders for the use of his royal highness.[1233]

Resolving to inflict a signal chastisement upon the rebels, the duke sent, from his camp at Fort Augustus, detachments of his troops in all directions, which devastated the country with fire and sword, and committed excesses scarcely paralleled in history, resembling, though perhaps on a minor scale, those committed by the hosts of Hyder Ali, when that merciless destroyer burst into the Carnatic. The seats of Lochiel, Glengarry, Kinlochmoidart, Keppoch, Cluny, Glengyle, and others, were plundered and burnt to the ground, and great numbers of the houses of the common people shared the same fate.[1234] Major Lockhart, whose name, by his cruelties on this occasion, has obtained an infamous notoriety, marched with a detachment into the country of the Macdonalds of Barisdale, and laid waste and destroyed their dwellings. Some of these poor people had obtained protections from Lord Loudon; but the major disregarded them, and told the people who had them, that not even a warrant from heaven should prevent him from executing his orders. Another corps, under Lord George Sackville, ravaged the country about the glens of Moidart, while others carried fire and desolation through other districts. Not contented with destroying the country, these bloodhounds either shot the men upon the mountains, or murdered them in cold blood. The women, after witnessing their husbands, fathers, and brothers murdered before their eyes, were subjected to brutal violence, and then turned out naked, with their children, to starve on the barren heaths. A whole family was inclosed in a barn, and consumed to ashes. So alert were these ministers of vengeance, that in a few days, according to the testimony of a volunteer who served in the expedition, neither house, cottage, man, nor beast, was to be seen within the compass of fifty miles: all was ruin, silence, and desolation. Deprived of their cattle and their small stock of provisions by the rapacious soldiery, the hoary-headed matron and sire, the widowed mother and her helpless offspring, were to be seen dying of hunger, stretched upon the bare ground, and within view of the smoking ruins of their dwellings.

It may seem surprising that the Highlanders did not avenge themselves upon their oppressors, by assassinating such stragglers as fell in their way. It cannot be supposed that men in whose bosoms the spirit of revenge must have taken deep root, would have spared their relentless adversaries from any scruple as to the mode of despatching them; nor can it be imagined that the Highlanders could not have selected fit occasions when they might have inflicted vengeance upon individuals. The reason of their forbearance probably was, that such a system of warfare, if adopted, would lead to acts of retaliation on the part of the military, and thus increase their calamities. Only one instance is known where an injured person attempted to avenge himself. This was the case of a Highlander who had his house burned, his cattle plundered, and his son killed, while defending his family, who were turned out in the snow. Vowing revenge, he watched the officer who was the author of this inhuman outrage, and who, he was informed, was to be distinguished by a cloak of a particular kind. This officer riding one day with Captain George Munro of Culcairn in a shower of rain, lent him his cloak; and while marching in it with a party of men along the side of Loch Arkaig, the captain was shot by the enraged Highlander, who perceived the cloak, but could not distinguish the difference of person. The man escaped, and although he was well known, and might have been afterwards apprehended, he was allowed to pass unpunished.[1235]

Of the immense quantity of cattle carried off by Cumberland’s troops, some idea may be formed from the fact mentioned in a journal of the period,[1236] that there were sometimes 2,000 in one drove. Intelligence of such a vast accumulation of live stock reaching the ears of the graziers of the south, numbers of them went to Fort Augustus well provided with money, which they laid out to great advantage. Some of the people, impelled by starvation, repaired to the camp to solicit from the spoilers some of their flocks, to preserve an existence; but their supplications were unheeded, and they were doomed to behold their cattle sold and driven away, while famine stared them in the face.

From Original Painting at Culloden House.]

The atrocities committed by the English must have been revolting to the humane mind of Lord President Forbes. On paying his respects to the duke at Inverness, he hinted to his highness that the laws of the country should be observed even by his army; but the duke, who entertained very different ideas, not relishing such an intrusion upon his authority, cut the worthy president short with this exclamation, “The laws of the country, my Lord! I’ll make a brigade give laws, by God!” Judging farther remonstrance to be vain, Forbes dropped the subject, and was compelled to deplore in silence the cruelties which he could not prevent. He might have represented the matter to the government; but he was perhaps unwilling to run the risk of incurring its displeasure, and thereby deprive himself of the chance of being afterwards useful in saving many families from ruin.[1237]

The enormities of the lawless soldiery were not confined to the Highlands, but extended to all the adjoining lowland districts where the spirit of disaffection was known to exist. The houses of the low country Jacobite gentry were plundered and destroyed, and the chapels of the nonjurant episcopal clergy, as well as the more humble and secluded places of worship belonging to the Catholics, were either razed or burnt to the ground. “Rebel-hunting” was the term adopted by the ruffians of the British army to designate their bloody occupation.

To complete the work of extermination, the duke issued a proclamation, denouncing the punishment of death, by hanging, against every person who should harbour the insurgents, and a similar fate was declared to await such as should conceal arms, ammunition, or any other thing belonging to them, or should not immediately deliver up to persons authorized by the duke to receive the same, any property or effects in their possession belonging to the rebels. In compliance with a requisition made by the duke, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, about the end of May, enjoined the ministers of the different parishes to read a proclamation from the pulpits, in which they themselves, and every well affected person, were ordered by his royal highness to use every exertion to discover and seize the unfortunate fugitives; and to facilitate their discovery and apprehension, the clergy were required to furnish lists of the names of all persons in their respective parishes who had had any share in the insurrection. Many clergymen, including those of Edinburgh, with feelings of humanity and independence which did them honour, refused to read this proclamation, or to comply with the order requiring them to give in the names of such of their parishioners as had been engaged in the rebellion. The government, equally intent with its sanguinary general upon the destruction of the unfortunate adherents of the house of Stuart, offered rewards for apprehending such of the fugitives as might land in Ireland, and instructions were sent to the British ministers at foreign courts in alliance with George II., to seize all who might seek refuge in the territories of such powers.

The guilt of all these acts of bloodshed and rapine has been laid to the charge of the Duke of Cumberland, and the single fact that he issued no orders to put an end to the enormities which were daily committed, almost under his own eyes, and with his perfect knowledge, seems of itself sufficient to justify the charge. But when taken in connexion with his sanguinary order not to make prisoners, the proofs of his criminality, or rather unconstitutional severity, are evident. Though the foul stain of wanton cruelty must ever attach to the British army on the present occasion, from the commander down to the private, there were some redeeming exceptions among the officers, who alleviated the sufferings, and, in some instances, saved the lives of the devoted Highlanders. “I think myself,” says Mr. Maxwell, “bound in justice to let the reader know that there were in the duke of Cumberland’s army officers of all ranks, whom neither the prospect of ingratiating themselves and making their fortunes, nor the contagion of bad example were able to corrupt. Some of those that had done the government the most essential services were as conspicuous now for their humanity as formerly for their courage and conduct. It might be indiscreet to be particular at present; but their names, which are written with indelible characters in the hearts of those poor people that owe to them the preservation of their being, will be carefully handed down to posterity. They are already known, and even, in the worst of times, meet with the applause they deserve from all those that have a fellow-feeling for their species.”

With the honourable exceptions here alluded to, neither the duke nor the submissive slaves of his tyrannical will ever appear to have felt the least compunction for the miseries they inflicted upon the unfortunate Highlanders. On the contrary, they seem to have revelled amidst the ruin and desolation which they spread around; and when their occupation of “rebel-hunting” was gone, by the destruction of their victims, they endeavoured to relieve the _ennui_ of repose by ludicrous and indecent diversions. Horse and foot races were instituted by the royal duke, who did not think it beneath his dignity to induce the women of the camp to enter the lists, and to expose themselves in a way at which decency revolts.[1238] This species of amusement produced great insubordination in the army, for the soldiers got very fond of it, and, according to a volunteer, most of them had horses, which they bought and sold with one another at a low price, and on which they rode about, neglecting their duty, and consequently it became necessary to publish an order to part with them, otherwise they were all to be shot. “I saw,” continues the same writer, “a soldier riding on one of these horses, when, being met by a comrade, he asked him, ‘Tom, what hast thou given for the Galloway?’ Tom answered, ‘Half-a-crown.’ To which the other replied, with an oath, ‘He is too dear; I saw a better bought for eighteen-pence.’ Notwithstanding the low price, the vast quantities of cattle, such as oxen, horses, sheep, and goats, taken from the rebels, and bought up by the lump by the jockies and farmers from Yorkshire and the south of Scotland, came to a great deal of money, all which was divided amongst the men that brought them in, who were sent out in parties in search of the Pretender; and they frequently came to rebels’ houses, which they had left, as their owners would not be reduced to obedience. These our soldiers commonly plundered and burnt, so that many of them grew rich by their share of spoil.”

When the zeal and activity of the military in pursuing the leading fugitives on the one hand, and the great care of the government to prevent their escape to the continent on the other, are considered, it is surprising that so many succeeded in their attempts to leave the kingdom. Besides the Earls of Cromarty and Kilmarnock, and Lord Macleod, the only other Jacobite chiefs who fell into the hands of the government were the Marquis of Tullibardine, Lords Balmerino and Lovat, and Secretary Murray. The Marquis being unable, from the bad state of his health, to bear the fatigue of running from covert to covert, surrendered himself, on the 27th of April, to a Dumbartonshire gentleman, who committed him to the castle of Dumbarton; and Lord Balmerino, by the advice of Mr. Grant, younger of Rothiemurchus, most unwisely delivered himself up at Inverness, two days after the battle of Culloden. After having the mortification of witnessing, from the summit of a mountain, the conflagration of his seat of Castle Downie by the king’s troops, Lord Lovat took refuge in the western parts of Inverness-shire, and finally concealed himself in the hollow of a tree which grew on a small island in Loch Morar, where he was apprehended early in June by a party from the Furnace sloop of war. When discovered, he was wrapt up in a blanket; and, though he had between five and six hundred guineas in his pocket, had been obliged to live twelve days in his miserable retreat on oatmeal and water. Being unable, from his great age and infirmity, to ride, he was carried in a litter to the royal camp at Fort Augustus. Secretary Murray contrived to escape from the Highlands, and sought for safety in the house of his brother-in-law, Mr. Hunter of Polmood, in Peebles-shire; but information having been given of his retreat, he was apprehended on the morning of Saturday, the 28th of June, by a party of St. George’s dragoons, carried to Edinburgh, and committed the same evening a prisoner to the castle.

Macdonald of Barisdale and his son were also taken prisoners, but were almost immediately set at liberty. That a man who had taken such an active part in the insurrection as Barisdale did should have been liberated unconditionally is very improbable; and it was generally understood that he had entered into an engagement to apprehend the prince, and deliver him up to the Duke of Cumberland. So strong were the suspicions of Charles and his friends of Barisdale’s treachery, that when Colonel Warren arrived in the West Highlands for the purpose of transporting Charles to France, he actually seized Barisdale and his son, and carried them along with him to that country as prisoners. A list of charges, in the shape of interrogatories, was afterwards drawn up by Charles at Paris, to each of which Barisdale was required to make a direct and particular answer in writing; but the nature of his answers, if he made any, is not known. There may have been no foundation for these grave charges; but well or ill founded, an opinion long prevailed in the Highlands that Barisdale had been unfaithful.

If Glengarry’s apprehension proceeded upon the information of the gentlemen of his own clan, they must have had better grounds for taking the extraordinary step they are alleged to have done than the mere assertion of Barisdale; but the charge against Glengarry seems highly improbable, as it is scarcely credible, if, as stated, they had letters from him in their possession, advising them to take up arms in support of Charles, while he himself kept back, that he would, by such a perfidious act, have put himself in their power. Glengarry, after his apprehension, was sent to London, and, along with the other chief prisoners, was committed to the Tower, where he suffered a long and tedious confinement. Young Glengarry had been taken up some months previously and sent to the Tower, in which he was kept a close prisoner for twenty months.

Notwithstanding the sanguinary ferocity with which Cumberland’s soldiers hunted down the unfortunate fugitives, the lives of a considerable number of those who were taken or surrendered themselves were saved from immediate destruction by the interference of a few humane persons, who did everything in their power to put a stop to the exterminating system of these bloodhounds. Though they thus escaped the merciless sword of the destroyer, they were nevertheless doomed to suffer the most extraordinary privations. After having been cooped up in the loathsome prisons of the north, without any attention to their wants, many of them were afterwards huddled together in the holds of ships, where they were condemned unheeded to pine away, and, amidst a mass of filth and corruption, to inhale the seeds of pestilence and death. Of 157 persons who were immured for eight months in the hold of one transport, only 49 survived the cruel treatment they received.[1239]

Meanwhile several of the chiefs of the insurrection succeeded in effecting their escape to the Continent. The Duke of Perth, Lord John Drummond, Lords Elcho and Nairne, Maxwell of Kirkconnel, and others, embarked at Lochnanuagh, on board one of the French ships which arrived on the western coast about the end of April. The Duke of Perth, who had been long in bad health, died on the voyage. Another party of twelve or thirteen persons, including Lords Pitsligo and Ogilvy, and Hunter of Burnside, after skulking some time in Buchan, got a vessel which conveyed them to Bergen in Norway. The British consul applied to the governor to have them secured, but he disregarded the application, and the party proceeded to Sweden. Stewart of Ardshiel, and General O’Sullivan also succeeded in reaching France. Old Glenbucket, after being hunted from place to place, eluded his pursuers by assuming the garb of a beggar, and allowing his beard to grow. In the month of November he escaped to Norway in a Swedish vessel. Lord George Murray remained in concealment in Scotland till the month of December, when, after paying a private visit to his friends at Edinburgh, he took shipping at Anstruther in the Frith of Forth, and reached Holland in safety.

FOOTNOTES:

[1166] The publication of the _Forbes Papers_ has brought to light the meanness and rapacity of the Duke of Cumberland and General Hawley. The duke lived, all the time he was at Aberdeen, in the house of Mr. Alexander Thomson, advocate, and, although he made use of every kind of provisions he found in the house, and of the coals and candles, he did not pay Mr. Thomson a single farthing, nor did he even thank him. He left, however, six guineas for the servants, a boy and two women, one of whom had washed and dressed his linen. Mrs. Gordon of Hallhead was induced to yield possession of her house in the town to General Hawley, under a promise that the greatest care would be taken of every thing in the house. Having represented that she was unable to furnish linen and other necessaries for Hawley and his suite, Mrs. G. was informed, that as the general would bring every thing with him, she might lock up all she had, and that all that was wanted was the use of two of her maid-servants to do the work of the house. Mrs. G. accordingly secured her effects under lock and key; but Hawley had not been above a day in the house when he sent a messenger to Mrs. G. demanding delivery of all her keys, and threatening, in case of delay, to break open all the locks. Having received the keys, the general sent Major Wolfe, one of his aides-de-camp, to Mrs. G. in the evening, who intimated to her that she was deprived of every thing except the clothes on her back. The poor lady then desired to have her tea, but the major told her that it was very good, and that tea was scarce in the army. She next asked for her chocolate, and the same answer was returned. She expressed a wish to get other things, particularly her china, but the gallant major told her that she had a great deal of it, that it was very pretty, and that the general and his friends were very fond of china themselves; but perhaps she might get back some of it. Mrs. G. petitioned the Duke of Cumberland to order her property to be restored to her. The duke, it is said, promised to grant the prayer of the petition, but no prohibitory order was issued, and General Hawley proceeded to pack up every thing in the least portable, and shipped the best things off to Edinburgh a fortnight before he left Aberdeen. Mrs. Gordon gives a very minute catalogue of the effects carried off, which she values at £600. Among those abstracted were the whole of her husband’s body-clothes, three wigs, “with several shirts and night-gowns of Bob’s,” (Mr. Gordon’s son). He carried off all the china and other crockery ware, and did not leave a single teacup or plate,--all the wine glasses and decanters,--the linens and table napery, and even the kitchen towels. He stript the beds of every thing, and left the bare posts standing. In short, he cleared the house of almost every thing,--of empty bottles, larding pens, iron skewers, flutes, music books, two canes with china heads, wash-balls, &c. &c. Mrs. Gordon insinuates that the Duke of Cumberland participated in the spoil. In a letter written by Thomas Bowdler, Esq. of Ashley, near Bath, brother of Mrs. Gordon, to the Rev. Robert Lyon, who lived in Lady Cotton’s family in London, he observes, that a Mrs. Jackson, who knew Mrs. Gordon’s china well, recognised part of it one day in the window of a china shop in London, and having the curiosity to inquire of the shopkeeper from whom he had bought it, was informed that he had purchased it from a woman of the town, who told him that the Duke of Cumberland had given it to her.

[1167] Ray, p. 313.

[1168] Home, App. No. 41.

[1169] _Jacobite Memoirs_, p 120.

[1170] _Kirkconnel MS._

[1171] _Kirkconnel MS._ _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 507.

[1172] _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 518.

[1173] _A Particular Account of the Battle of Culloden._ In a letter from an officer (Lord George Murray) of the Highland army to his friend in London. London, 1749, p. 4. No. 42 of Appendix to Home. _Jacobite Memoirs_, p. 121.

[1174] _Kirkconnel MS._ _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 518.

[1175] _Particular Account of the Battle of Culloden_, p. 6.

[1176] Idem, p. 9.

[1177] _Particular Account_, p. 10.

[1178] _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 508.

[1179] _Particular Account_, p. 10.

[1180] Appendix to Home, No. 42.

[1181] Home, Appendix, No. 42. _True Account_, &c. p. 11.

[1182] In the letter which Lord George, under the signature of De Valignie, addressed to his friend Hamilton of Bangour, dated from Emerick, 5th August, 1749, he thus justifies himself for having ordered a retreat without the prince’s orders:--“They say, why return from Kilraick without the Prince’s positive orders? he was general, and without his immediate orders no person should have taken so much upon him. My answer to this is, (waiving what Mr. O’Sullivan said from the Prince,[1183]) that all the officers were unanimous;--that as it could not be done by surprise, and before day-break, as had been proposed and undertaken with no other view, it was impossible to have success; for it was never imagined by any one that it was to be attempted but by a surprise. Whatever may be the rules in a regular army, (and it is not to be supposed I was ignorant of them,) our practice had all along been, at critical junctures, that the commanding officers did every thing to their knowledge for the best. At Gladsmuir (the plan of which attack I had formed,) I was the last that passed the defile of the first line, and the first that attacked; and gained in going on a good part of the ground we had left betwixt us and the main ditch, by the front having, on account of the darkness, marched a little too far. When I came up with the enemy’s cannon, I did not stay to take them, but went on against both foot and dragoons, being very quickly followed by our right. I received no orders (nor did I wait for any, otherwise the opportunity would have been lost,) from the time I passed the defile till the battle was over. At Clifton, where I expected to have been supported by all our army, John Roy Stuart brought me orders from the Prince to retreat, for he had ordered the march for Carlisle, which was begun. The officers who were with me agreed in my opinion, that to retreat when the enemy were within less than musket-shot would be very dangerous, and we would probably be destroyed before we came up with the rest of our army. We had nothing for it but a brisk attack; and therefore, after receiving the enemy’s fire, we went sword in hand and dislodged them; after which we made our retreat in good order. I own I disobeyed orders; but what I did was the only safe and honourable measure I could take, and it succeeded. At the battle of Falkirk I never received an order or message from his Royal Highness after I passed the water at Dunipace till the battle was over. I could say much more on this subject; all I shall now add is, that at the time we returned from Kilravock there was no officer of any distinction with the prince, (except Sir Thomas Sheridan be reckoned one,) they being all in the van. Brigadier Stapleton was indeed in the rear, but he knew nothing of the ground there, and his people were only to have been a corps de reserve, and not in the attack.”

[1183] “Mr. O’Sullivan said, (he had just come up to the front,) he had just then come from the Prince, who was very desirous the attack should be made: but as Lord George Murray led the van, and could judge of the time, he left it to him whether to do it or not.”--_Particular Account_, p. 12.

[1184] _Particular Account_, &c. p. 12.

[1185] Mr. John Hay’s account of the Retreat, No. 43 of Appendix to Home’s _Rebellion_. This statement has been hitherto supposed to rest upon the single authority of Hay; and Mr. Home has been blamed for making it, as it was not confirmed by others. The same statement, however, is also made by Mr. Maxwell of Kirkconnel, a much more respectable authority than Hay. Mr. Home had the Kirkconnel MS. in his possession when writing his history, but seldom refers to it. Mr. Maxwell’s words are: “The prince was incensed beyond expression at a retreat, begun in direct contradiction to his inclination and express orders. In the first moments he was convinced he was betrayed, and expressed himself to that purpose. He was confirmed in this opinion by those who never missed an opportunity of loading Lord George Murray, but when he knew that this step had been taken in concert with Lochiel and others, whom he had never distrusted, he did not know what to think or what to do: thus perplexed he arrived with the army at Culloden.” See also narrative by the Rev. George Innes in _Jacobite Memoirs_, who says, (p. 289,) that some persons positively said, that when the prince met the Duke of Perth’s regiment returning, he cried out, “I am betrayed; what need I give orders, when my orders are disobeyed.”

[1186] Answer by the Prince to Mr. Home’s query, Home’s _Rebellion_, No. 44 of the Appendix.

[1187] _Kirkconnel MS._ _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 519. _Particular Account_, p. 14.

[1188] _Kirkconnel MS._

[1189] _Particular Account_, p. 14.

[1190] Home, p. 226.

[1191] Boyse, p. 155.

[1192] Boyse, p. 156. English official account of the battle.

[1193] See a curious and interesting letter in the _Stuart Papers_, from Lord George Murray to the prince, written from Ruthven the day after the battle.

[1194] _Particular Account_, p. 15.

[1195] _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 510.

[1196] _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 510.--_Kirkconnel MS._

[1197] These guards were originally a body of cavalry, called the horse-grenadiers, but they were dismounted, and their horses were given to the men of Fitz-James’s regiment, who had landed in Scotland without horses.

[1198] “The great object of the duke, before recommencing his march, had been to prepare his men for a firm reception of the Highland charge. He knew that on this all depended, and that the two previous disasters had been caused by the men not being rightly disciplined to receive the novel mode of attack. Some writers on military tactics had, in the meantime, proposed alterations on the complex infantry movements of the day, for the purpose of evading the Highlander’s target, by directing the bayonet against his right breast. The men were trained during the winter, in some measure, to such a change of motion, but it appears to have rather been for the purpose of giving them a confidence that might make them steady, than from any belief in the absolute efficacy of the change.”--Burton’s _Scotland from Revolution_, vol. ii. p. 519.

[1199] Boyse, p. 159.

[1200] Boswell’s _Tour to the Hebrides_, p. 228.

[1201] _Kirkconnel MS._

[1202] Mr. Home says that about a hundred men were stationed in the inclosure, who were put to the sword by the dragoons when they entered; but he is certainly mistaken. Mr. Maxwell of Kirkconnel, from whom Mr. Home took his description of the battle, does not mention such an occurrence. In the memoir by a Highland officer, (Colonel Ker,) printed among the _Lockhart Papers_, it is stated, (p. 520,) that to guard against any attempts that might be made to break down the walls of the inclosure, there were two battalions placed facing outward, covering the right of the two lines, to observe the motions of the English; and that “when the attack began, the Campbells threw down a great part of the wall of the inclosure for the dragoons on the duke’s left, to pass to the rear of the prince’s army, which they did without receiving one shot from the two battalions that were placed to observe their motions.”--P. 521.

[1203] _Lockhart Papers_, vol. ii. p. 521.

[1204] Maxwell of Kirkconnel.

[1205] In retiring from the field, Captain Roy Macdonald received a musket bullet, which passed in at the sole of the left foot and came out at the buckle. With difficulty he reached Bun Chraobg, two miles beyond Inverness, where he procured a horse and set off for the Isle of Skye, but his foot had swelled so much that he could not put it in the stirrup.--_Jacobite Memoirs_, p. 425.

[1206] Johnstone’s _Memoirs_, p. 196.

[1207] One of the duke’s sycophants says, that after the fatigue of the battle was over, his royal highness retired to a place near the field to refresh himself; and that, after sitting a short time, he rose and took “a serious walk to view the multitudes that lay dead on the ground. He was followed by some of his attendants, who observed him in deep meditation. He laid his hand upon his breast, and with his eyes lifted up to heaven, was heard to say, _Lord, what am I! that I should be spared?_ when so many brave men lie dead upon the spot!--an expression of such deep humility towards God, and compassion towards his fellow creatures, as is truly worthy a Christian hero!!!”--_Marchant_, p. 396.

[1208] Cromek’s _Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song_, p. 200.--Henderson’s _History_, p. 60.

[1209] _Jacobite Memoirs_, p. 124.

[1210] Chambers’s _Rebellion_, and authorities referred to there.

[1211] The ground was totally unsuited to Highland tactics. “It is impossible to look on this waste, with the few green patches still marking the graves where the slain were covered up in heaps, without a feeling of compassion for the helplessness of a Highland army in such a place. It is a wide flat muir, with scarcely a curve, where the mountaineers had nothing to aid their peculiar warfare, in high or rugged ground. A better field for steady disciplined troops could not exist. They could see everywhere around, and it was impossible either to surprise them, or subject them, as at Killiecrankie or Falkirk, to a rush from the higher ground.”--Burton after Revolution, vol. ii. p. 518.

[1212] _Scots Mag._ vol. viii. p. 192.

[1213] _Jacobite Memoirs_, p. 129.

[1214] Idem, p. 236.

[1215] Boyse, p. 164.

[1216] Johnstone’s _Memoirs_, p. 203.

[1217] “It is not necessary to believe all the Jacobite stories tending to show a wanton and fiendish indulgence, by the duke and his most distinguished followers, in cruelty and any kind of bloody work for its own sake; nor to admit that he ridiculed President Forbes as the old woman who spoke about humanity and the laws. What he did was, we may be assured from his character, not done in a spirit of wantonness, but after a sense of duty. But that duty led him to severity. He was a soldier according to the German notions of a soldier, and a rebel province was a community to be subjected to martial law. Many of the insurgents, attempting to escape or hide themselves when detected by well-known peculiarities, were put to death by the soldiery, who, even when they made a mistake and slew the wrong man, could not easily be punished. The duke, brought up in the German military school, seems to have been unable to distinguish between a rebellion suppressed in constitutional Britain, where all men are supposed to be innocent but those proved to be guilty,--and a revolted German province, where every accorded grace to the unfortunate people proceeds from the will of the conqueror. Thus there was a propensity to subject all the northern districts to something too closely resembling military law or license.”--Burton’s _Scotland after Revolution_, v. ii. pp. 522, 523.

[1218] Letter from a gentleman in London to his friend in Bath. Bath, 1751, reprinted in _Jacobite Memoirs_.

[1219] Idem.

[1220] Letter from a gentleman in London, &c.

[1221] _Life of George, Earl of Cromarty_: London, 1746. Boyse, p. 155.

[1222] From the _Stuart Papers_.

[1223] _Account of the Battle of Culloden, &c.;_ Lond. 1749.

[1224] Maxwell of Kirkconnel.

[1225] _Stuart Papers._

[1226] From a copy among the _Stuart Papers_ thus quoted on the back in Charles’s own hand:--“The Prince’s Letter to ye Chiefs in parting from Scotland, 1746.”

[1227] Macleod’s Narrative in _Jacobite Memoirs_.

[1228] _Kirkconnel MS._

[1229] Genuine and True Journal of the most miraculous Escape of the young Chevalier, by an Englishman. London, 1749. Macleod’s Narrative.

[1230] Genuine and True Journal, p. 7. Home, p. 245.

[1231] There were twelve or thirteen gentlemen present; among whom were Lochiel, young Clanranald, Barisdale, Dr. Cameron, John Roy Stewart, old Glenbucket, Secretary Murray, and Cameron of Dungallon. Lord Lovat was also present, but by accident.

[1232] Appendix to Home, No. xlvii.

[1233] Boyse, p. 169.

[1234] The booty taken must have been considerable, as in one instance, that of Glengarry House, the party who plundered it, consisting of 200 men, had the following allowances made as their shares, viz., every captain, £11 5s.; each subaltern, £5 18s.; a sergeant, £1 10s.; a corporal, £1; and every common soldier, 15s., clear of all deductions.--Boyse, p. 169.

[1235] “Colonel Grant of Moy, who died in April, 1822, in his 90th year, was walking along the road with a gun on his shoulder when Culcairn was shot. A turn of the road concealed him from the soldiers at the moment, but when he came in sight with his gun, they immediately seized him upon suspicion, and carried him to Fort William. After a short confinement he was released. Colonel Grant entered the 42d as a volunteer or soldier of fortune, and afterwards got a cadetship in India, from which he returned with a handsome fortune nearly fifty years ago.”--_Stewart’s Sketches_, vol. i. note p. 280.

[1236] _Scots Magazine_, vol. viii. p. 287.

[1237] How far any remonstrance on the part of the president would have been attended to may be judged from the following statement:--“When he visited London in the end of the year, (1746,) for the purpose of settling the accounts he had run with the loyal Highland militia, he, as usual, went to court. The king, whose ear had been offended with repeated accounts of the conduct of the military, thus addressed him:--‘My lord-president, you are the person I most wished to see. Shocking reports have been circulated of the barbarities committed by my army in the north; your lordship is, of all men, the best able to satisfy me.’ ‘I wish to God,’ replied the president, ‘that I could, consistently with truth, assure your majesty that such reports are destitute of foundation.’ The king, as was his custom, turned abruptly away from the president; whose accounts, next day, were passed with difficulty; and, as report says, the balance, which was immense, never fully paid up.”--_Antijacobin Review_, vol. xiii. _Review of Home’s History of the Rebellion_.