XXVIII. A.D. 1739-1745…

XXVIII. A.D. 1739-1745

BRITISH SOVEREIGN:--George II., 1727-1760.

Foreign intrigues--Edinburgh Association--Maria Theresa--Jacobite intrigues--Drummond of Bochaldy at Edinburgh, and Murray of Broughton at Paris--Plan of a French invasion--Prince Charles Edward, the Chevalier’s son, arrives at Paris--Preparations for invasion--Embarkation and failure of the expedition--Murray of Broughton proceeds to Paris--Interview with the Prince, who resolves to proceed to Scotland.

War having been declared against Spain in the year 1739, the Chevalier de St. George despatched Lord Marischal to Madrid to induce the court of Spain to adopt measures for his restoration. But however willing Spain might be to assist him, he was desirous that no attempt should be made without the concurrence of France.[781] About the same time, that is, in the beginning of the year 1740, some of the more zealous and leading Jacobites, in anticipation of a war with France, held a meeting at Edinburgh, and formed themselves into an association, by which they engaged themselves to take arms and venture their lives and fortunes to restore the family of Stuart, provided the King of France would send over a body of troops to their assistance. The association, like that which brought over King William to England, consisted of seven persons, viz., Lord Lovat, James Drummond, commonly called Duke of Perth, the Earl of Traquair, Sir James Campbell of Auchinbreck, Cameron of Lochiel, John Stuart, brother to Lord Traquair, and Lord John Drummond, uncle to the Duke of Perth.[782] The conspirators despatched Drummond of Bochaldy, or Balhady, (nephew to Lochiel,) to Rome with the bond of association, and a list of those chiefs and chieftains who were considered by the associates to be favourable to the cause. Drummond was instructed to deliver these papers into the hands of the Chevalier de St. George, and to entreat him to procure assistance from France in furtherance of their design. The project was well received by James, who, after perusing the papers, forwarded them immediately by the same messenger to Cardinal Fleury at Paris, with a request that the court of France would grant the required assistance. But the cardinal, with that caution which distinguished him, would come under no engagement, but contented himself at first by a general assurance of conditional support.

The negotiation was, however, persevered in, but the death of the Emperor Charles VI., which happened on the 20th of October, drew off the cardinal’s attention to matters which appeared to him of greater importance. The emperor was succeeded in his hereditary dominions by his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, married to the Grand-duke of Tuscany, formerly Duke of Lorraine. Though this princess succeeded under the title of the pragmatic sanction, which had been guaranteed by England, France, Spain, Prussia, Russia, Holland, and the whole of the Germanic body, with the exception of the elector-palatine, and the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, a powerful confederacy was formed against her by almost all these powers, to strip her of her dominions.

Alarmed at the formidable confederacy formed against her, the Queen of Hungary applied to Great Britain for succour; but Sir Robert Walpole evaded the demand, and recommended an immediate peace with Prussia. The parliament, as well as the nation, however, had different views; and as the minister saw that he would be compelled to fulfil his engagements to the house of Austria, parliament was called upon to support the Queen of Hungary, and maintain the liberties of Europe. The commons cheerfully voted a sum of £300,000 to enable George II. to fulfil his engagements, which sum was remitted to the Queen of Hungary, and the contingent of 12,000 Danish and Hessian troops, which Great Britain had engaged to furnish, was got in readiness.

While the flames of war were thus spreading over Europe, the situation of the British ministry was every day becoming more critical from the clamours of the Tories and the discontented Whigs. Walpole had triumphed in both houses on motions for an address to the king to dismiss him from his presence and councils; but his triumph was short, and the approach of an election redoubled the efforts of his enemies. Though the Jacobites required no incentive to induce them to assist in displacing a minister who had been the chief obstacle to the restoration of the exiled family; yet to make perfectly sure of their aid, Lord Chesterfield went to France, and by means of the Duke of Ormond, obtained, it is said, a circular letter from the Chevalier de St. George to his friends, urging them to do every thing in their power to ruin Walpole. To encourage the popular clamour against the minister, reports, the most absurd and incredible respecting him, were circulated among the people and believed; and while the general discontent was at its height, the election commenced. The contests between the two parties were extremely violent; but the country party, backed by the adherents of the Prince of Wales, who had formed a party against the minister, prevailed. So powerful was the influence of the Duke of Argyle, who had lately joined the opposition, that out of the forty-five members returned for Scotland, the friends of the ministry could not secure above six. The new parliament met on the 4th of December, 1741; and Walpole, no longer able to contend with the forces arrayed against him, retired from office within a few weeks thereafter.

Encouraged by appearances, and imagining that some of the old discontented Whigs who deprecated the system which had been pursued since the accession of the house of Hanover, of maintaining the foreign dominions of the sovereign at the expense, as they thought, of the honour and interests of the nation, Drummond of Bochaldy proposed to the Chevalier to visit England, and make overtures in his name to the “old Whigs.”[783] This plan was highly approved of by James, who wrote him a letter in his own hand, which was intended to be exhibited to such persons as might seem inclined to favour his restoration. This letter was inclosed in a private letter containing instructions for the regulation of his conduct in the proposed negotiation, which it was intended should be kept an entire secret from the Jacobites, both in England and Scotland. Erskine of Grange, who enjoyed the confidence of some of the discontented Whigs, and who privately favoured the designs of the exiled family, was pitched upon as a fit person to make advances to the old Whigs.[784]

In pursuance of his instructions, Drummond departed for England about the beginning of the year 1742, but it does not appear that at this time he entered upon the subject of his mission. He came privately to Edinburgh in the month of February, and there met some of the persons who had entered into the association, and several others, who, in conjunction with the original conspirators, had formed themselves into a society, denominated by them “the Concert of Gentlemen for managing the King’s affairs in Scotland.” To these, among whom was Murray of Broughton, Drummond represented that, on his return from Rome, he had been extremely well received by Cardinal Fleury, to whom he had delivered the papers which he had carried from Edinburgh,--that the cardinal expressed great satisfaction with the contents of these papers, had the Pretender’s interest so much at heart, and was so sanguine of his success, that provided he had sufficient assurances from the friends of the exiled family in England, that they would assist in the restoration of the Stuarts, he would send over an army of from 13,000 to 15,000 men, the number required. One division of this force, consisting of 1,500 men, was to be landed on the east coast of Scotland, at or near Inverness; another of a similar amount in the west Highlands of Scotland; and the main body, which was to consist of 10,000 or 12,000 men, was to be landed as near London as possible. He added, that, provided assistance could be obtained in England, the projected invasion might be put in execution the following autumn. Before leaving Edinburgh, Drummond had an interview with Cameron of Lochiel, who came to town at his desire, and to whom he communicated the result of his mission to Rome and Paris.[785]

After a short stay at Edinburgh, Drummond returned to Paris, where, according to his own account, as communicated in letters to Lord Traquair and Lochiel, he had an audience of the cardinal, to whom he represented matters in such a favourable light that he promised to carry his design of invasion into effect in a very short time. The French minister, however, though he appears to have seriously contemplated such a step, was not yet in a condition to come to an open rupture with England; and to postpone the enterprise, he proposed to Drummond that an application should be made to Sweden for a body of troops to invade Scotland, and that a person from Scotland, along with another person from France whom the cardinal would appoint, should be sent thither to urge the application at the Swedish court. The cardinal gave as his reason for thus deviating from his original plan, that the Swedes being Protestants, would be more agreeable to the people of Scotland than French or Irish troops. In accordance with this proposal, Lord Traquair suggested that Murray of Broughton should be sent to Sweden on the proposed mission, but he declined.[786]

From the turn which the affair of the invasion had now taken, and the time when it was expected to take place being allowed to elapse without any preparations on the part of France, a suspicion began to be entertained by the members of the Concert, that the cardinal never had any intention to invade Scotland, and that the whole was a scheme of Drummond’s to keep alive the spirit of party in Scotland, and to make himself pass for useful in the eyes of his employers. To ascertain the real state of the case, Murray of Broughton, at the suggestion of Lord Traquair, was sent to Paris in the month of January, 1743. He took London on his way, but before he reached the capital, he heard of the death of Cardinal Fleury. After staying a short time in London, Murray went privately to Paris, where he met Drummond and Sempil, who managed the Chevalier’s affairs in France. They stated to him, that in all probability the scheme of invasion would have been carried into effect, had not the army of Marshal Maillebois been sent towards Hanover instead of the coast of Flanders, as at first intended; and that from the interest taken by the cardinal in the affairs of the Stuarts, he had put all the papers relating to them into the hands of Monsieur Amelot, the secretary for foreign affairs.[787]

At an audience which Murray afterwards had with Monsieur Amelot at Versailles, the foreign secretary told him that, on being made acquainted by Sempil with the cause of Murray’s journey, he had informed the King of France of it, and that his majesty had authorised him to assure Mr. Murray that he had the interest of the Stuart family as much at heart as any of the gentlemen who had signed the memorial of association, and that as soon as he had an opportunity he would put the scheme into execution.[788]

Shortly after this interview, Murray left Paris for London, accompanied by Drummond, who came over to obtain the assurances required by the French court from the English Tories and Jacobites. After remaining a few days in London, Murray returned to Edinburgh, to report to his friends the result of his mission. Drummond stopped at London, where he met Mr. Erskine of Grange,[789] but although overtures were then, it is believed, made to Lord Barrymore, Sir John Hynde Cotton, and Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, they declined to give any assurance or promise of support in writing. By desire of Drummond, Lord Traquair met him in London shortly after his arrival to assist him in his negotiations.[790]

At first view it may appear singular, and the circumstances must convey a very sorry idea of the councils of the Chevalier de St. George, that a person of so little weight and influence as Drummond, who was utterly unknown to the English Tories and Jacobites, should have been sent on such an important mission; but when it is considered that some of the leading Jacobites were proscribed and in exile, and that those at home were strictly watched by the government, and were therefore afraid to commit themselves by any overt act, it cannot excite surprise that the Chevalier availed himself of the services of one whom he considered “an honest and sensible man.”[791] Drummond was, however, considered, even by his original employers, as a person unfit to execute the trust reposed in him, and Lord John Drummond, one of the seven who had signed the association, was quite indignant when he found him engaged in the mission to England.[792] Nor was Sempil, between whom and Drummond a close intimacy subsisted, more acceptable to the Scottish Jacobites, some of whom he offended by his forwardness.[793]

During the earlier part of the year 1743, the French ministry were too much occupied with the war in Germany to pay much attention to the affairs of the Stuarts; but towards the close of that year they began to meditate an invasion of Great Britain. The British parliament met in the beginning of December, when a motion was made in the house of peers by the Earl of Sandwich, for an address to the crown to discontinue the Hanoverian troops in British pay, in order to remove the national discontent, which was represented to be so violent, that nothing but their dismission could appease it. The motion was negatived, but renewed in another shape on the army estimates being brought forward, when it shared the same fate. The attention of the French ministry being drawn to these and similar discussions, and to the general dissatisfaction which seemed to pervade the people of Great Britain, by the agents and partizans of the exiled family, backed by the influence of Cardinal Tencin, entered upon the project of an invasion in good earnest. The cardinal, who now had great influence in the councils of France, had, while a resident at Rome, been particularly noticed by the Chevalier de St. George, by whose influence he had been raised to the cardinalate, and he was moved as much by gratitude to his patron as by ambition to bring about the restoration of the Stuarts. The court of Versailles, indeed, required little inducement to engage in an enterprise which, whether it succeeded or not, would at all events operate as a diversion in favour of France in her contest with the house of Austria, whose chief support was Great Britain; but it is not improbable that they at this time contemplated a more serious attempt. In intimating, however, his resolution to undertake the expedition, the King of France notified to the Chevalier de St. George that it was to be kept a profound secret, and that neither the Duke of Ormond nor Lord Marischal should be told, till the enterprise was ready to be put into execution.

The command of the troops designed for this expedition, amounting to 15,000 men, was given to the celebrated Marshal Saxe; and the naval part, consisting of thirteen ships of the line, besides transports, collected at Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne, was intrusted to Monsieur de Roquefeuille, an officer of considerable experience and capacity. This force was destined for the coast of Kent, and a smaller force was to be landed in Scotland under the command of Lord Marischal.

While the preparations for the expedition were going on, Cardinal Tencin kept up an active correspondence with the Chevalier de St. George. As James felt rather disinclined to accompany the expedition himself, he proposed that his eldest son, Charles, then in his twenty-third year, should go in his stead; but as it was doubtful whether the prince would arrive in time to join the expedition, the Chevalier sent an express to the Duke of Ormond requesting him to accompany the expedition, and to act as regent, by virtue of a commission of regency formerly granted him, until the prince should arrive. On arriving in England, the duke was directed to advise with the principal friends of the family, among whom he particularly enumerated the Duke of Beaufort, the Earls of Barrymore, Westmoreland, and Orrery, Lord Cobham, and Sirs Watkin Williams Wynne, John Hynde Cotton, and Robert Abdy. Having obtained the consent of the French court to this arrangement, the cardinal, upon the completion of the preparations for the expedition, despatched a messenger to Rome to request the attendance of the young prince at Paris. Accordingly, on the morning of the 9th of January, 1744, Prince Charles, accompanied by his brother Henry and two or three attendants, left Rome before break of day, but they had not proceeded far when they parted, the prince on his route to France and the duke to Cisterna.[794] The former was disguised as a Spanish courier, and took only one servant along with him on his journey. To account for the departure of the two brothers, it was given out at Rome that they had gone to a boar hunt, and so well was the secret of the prince’s real destination kept, that nearly a fortnight elapsed before it was discovered.[795]

Provided with passports furnished by Cardinal Aquaviva, the prince travelled through Tuscany and arrived at Genoa. From Genoa he proceeded to Savona, where he embarked in a felucca, and passing by Monaco arrived at Antibes. From the latter place he proceeded to Paris, where he met Marshal Saxe and other officers belonging to the expedition, and after a private audience of the French king, he set out incognito for the coast of Picardy. The route by Genoa and Antibes was selected as the safest, and, from the season of the year, the most expeditious; but so unfavourable was the weather, that the prince had to stop some days at different places, and when he reached Antibes he was recognised, and information of his arrival there and of his departure for Paris was sent to the British government by persons in its interest. Hitherto the British ministry do not appear to have had any suspicion that the armaments at Brest, Boulogne, and other French ports, were destined for the shores of Britain, but the appearance of the eldest son of the Chevalier de St. George in France opened their eyes to the dangers which now menaced them. At this time the military force in England did not exceed 6,000 men, so that if the threatened invasion had taken place, the result might have been disastrous to the reigning family.[796]

Meanwhile, the French fleet, consisting of 15 ships of the line and 5 frigates, under M. de Roquefeuille, sailed from Brest, and for several days displayed itself in the channel. Knowing the object for which these ships had put to sea, the government was greatly alarmed, and not without cause; for, besides the paucity of troops in the island, they had only six ships of the line at home ready for sea, the grand fleet being then in the Mediterranean. The activity and preparations of the government corresponded with the magnitude of the danger with which it was threatened. Orders were instantly sent to fit out and man all the ships of war in the different ports of the channel. These orders were so promptly obeyed, that in a few days an English fleet of three ships of 100 guns, four of 90, six of 70, and six of 50, was collected at Spithead under the command of Sir John Norris.[797] Several regiments were immediately marched to the southern coast of England; all governors and commanders were ordered to repair forthwith to their respective posts; the forts at the mouth of the Thames and Medway were put in a posture of defence; and the militia of Kent were directed to assemble to defend the coast in case of an invasion. On the 15th of February, the arrival of Prince Charles in France, the preparations along the French coast, and the appearance of the French fleet in the English channel, were announced to parliament in a message from the king. Both houses joined in an address, in which they declared their indignation at the design formed in favour of “a popish pretender,” and assured his majesty they would take measures to frustrate so desperate and insolent an attempt. The city of London, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge,[798] the principal towns in Great Britain, almost all the corporations and communities of the kingdom, the clergy of the establishment, the dissenting ministers, and the Quakers, or Society of Friends, presented similar addresses. A demand was made from the States-general of the 6,000 auxiliaries which by treaty they had engaged to furnish on such occasions; and this force was immediately granted. Forgetful of the wrongs which he had suffered at the hands of the government, the Earl of Stair tendered his services, and was reappointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Great Britain. Several noblemen of the first rank followed his example, among whom was the Duke of Montague, who was permitted to raise a regiment of horse. Orders were sent to bring over the 6,000 British troops from Flanders; and both houses of parliament, in a second address, exhorted the king to augment his forces by sea and land, in such manner as he should think necessary at this dangerous juncture of affairs. The habeas corpus act was suspended for six months; several suspected persons were taken into custody; the usual proclamation was issued for putting the laws in execution against the unfortunate Catholics and nonjurors, who were ordered to retire ten miles from London; and every other precaution, deemed necessary for the preservation of the public tranquillity, was adopted.[799]

Meanwhile the preparations for invasion were proceeding rapidly at Boulogne and Dunkirk, under the eye of Prince Charles. Roquefeuille had in his excursion in the channel come in sight of Spithead; and, as he could perceive no ships there, he imagined that the English ships had retired within their harbours. Judging the opportunity favourable, he detached M. de Barriel with five ships of war to hasten the embarkation at Dunkirk, and to order the transports thereupon to put to sea. Roquefeuille then sailed up the channel with the remainder of his fleet as far as Dungeness, a promontory on the coast of Kent, off which he anchored to await the arrival of the transports. Having received intelligence of Roquefeuille’s arrival from an English frigate which came into the Downs, Sir John Norris left Spithead with the British fleet, and doubling the South Foreland from the Downs, on the 23d of February discovered the French fleet at anchor. Though the wind was against him, Sir John endeavoured, by availing himself of the tide, to come up and engage the French squadron; but the tide failing, he was obliged to anchor when about two leagues from the enemy. He intended to attack them next morning, but M. de Roquefeuille, not judging it advisable to risk an engagement, weighed anchor after sunset, and favoured by a hard gale of wind from the north-east which blew during the night, ran down the channel and got into Brest harbour. So violent was the gale, that all the English fleet (two ships only excepted,) parted with their cables and were driven out to sea, and before they could have returned to their station, the transports, under convoy of the five ships of war despatched by Roquefeuille, might have disembarked the army under Marshal Saxe had the storm not reached the French coast; but the tempest, which merely forced the English ships to quit their moorings, was destructive to the expedition, and utterly disconcerted the design of invading England.

On the very day on which the two fleets discovered each other, Marshal Saxe, accompanied by Charles Edward, arrived at Dunkirk, and proceeded to get his troops embarked as fast as possible; 7,000 men were actually shipped, and proceeded to sea that day with a fair wind, but in the evening the wind changed to the east, and blew a hurricane. The embarkation ceased, several of the transports which had put to sea were wrecked, many soldiers and seamen perished, and a considerable quantity of warlike stores was lost. The remainder of the transports were damaged to such an extent that they could not be speedily repaired.

Such was the result of an expedition planned with great judgment and conducted with such secrecy as to have escaped the vigilance of the government till on the very eve of its being carried into execution. After the discomfiture it had met with from the elements, and the formidable attitude which England, aroused to a sense of the imminent danger she was in, had now assumed, the French court must have instantly abandoned, as it is believed it did abandon, any idea of renewing the enterprise; but Charles Edward, sanguine of success, and in no shape discouraged by the catastrophe which had happened, daily importuned Marshal Saxe to re-embark his troops and proceed to England; but the marshal excused himself, by urging the necessity of fresh instructions from court and the previous repair of the damaged transports.[800] The French ministry, however, finally resolved to postpone the expedition.

Although war may be said to have virtually commenced between Great Britain and France by the battle of Dettingen, which was fought between the allies and the French in the month of June, 1743, no formal declaration of war was issued by either power till the month of March following, after the expedition against England had been given up.

After the failure and abandonment of the enterprise, Prince Charles retired to Gravelines, where he lived several months in private, under the assumed name of the Chevalier Douglas. Ever since his arrival in France he had been forced by the French court to preserve an incognito, which, though highly approved of by Drummond and Sempil, his father’s agents, was productive of great uneasiness to the Chevalier de St. George, who could not understand the reason for affecting to conceal a fact which was notorious to all the world.[801]

The preparations for invasion had raised, not without foundation, great hopes of a restoration in the minds of the Scottish Jacobites; but when they ascertained that the expedition was relinquished, they felt all that bitterness of disappointment which the miscarriage of any cherished scheme is sure to engender. They did not however despair of effecting their object ultimately, and, in the meantime, the leading members of the Concert despatched a messenger to the prince to assure him of their attachment to his cause, and inform him of the state of the country and the dispositions of the people.[802] About the same time Murray of Broughton went to Paris, by advice of the Earl of Traquair, to ascertain the exact situation of affairs. Here he was introduced to the prince by Drummond and Sempil. At a private interview which he had with Charles the following day, Murray stated, that from the absurd and contradictory nature of the communications made by the prince’s agent at Paris, they had, as it appeared to him, a design to impose upon him with the intention of serving themselves. Charles alluded to the association which had been formed at Edinburgh, said that he did not doubt that the King of France intended to invade Britain in the ensuing spring,--that he was already preparing for it, and intended to execute it as soon as the campaign in Flanders was over; but that whether the King of France undertook the expedition or not, he himself was determined to go to Scotland. Murray, thereupon, endeavoured to show him that such an attempt would be desperate, as he could not at the utmost expect to be joined by more than 4,000 or 5,000 men; but notwithstanding Murray’s representations, Charles repeated his determination of going to Scotland. Murray says that he was so much against the undertaking, that he spoke to Sir Thomas Sheridan--an Irish gentleman who enjoyed the prince’s confidence--to endeavour to persuade him against it, and that Sir Thomas told him, on his arrival in Scotland, that he had done so, but to no purpose. On returning to Scotland Murray reported to the members of the association all that had passed at the conference with the prince; and all of them, except the Duke of Perth, declared themselves opposed to the prince’s resolution of coming to Scotland without troops.[803] Murray then wrote a letter to Charles, stating the opinion of his friends, and representing the ruinous consequences which might ensue from such a rash undertaking. This letter was committed to the care of a gentleman who went to London in the month of January, 1745; but he neglected to forward it, and it was returned to Murray in the month of April. Murray made several attempts afterwards to forward the letter to France, and at last succeeded; but it never came to the hands of the prince, who departed for Scotland before the letter reached its destination.

During the spring of 1745, the agents of the Chevalier de St. George renewed their solicitations at the French court for another expedition; but Louis and his ministers were too much occupied with preparations for the campaign in Flanders to pay much attention to such applications. They however continued to amuse the Jacobite negotiators with assurances of conditional support; but James began to perceive that little or no reliance could be placed upon such promises. To relieve himself from the ennui occasioned by the failure of the expedition, and the state of seclusion in which he was kept by the French government, and to obtain some knowledge of military tactics, Charles applied for permission to make a campaign with the French army in Flanders; but although he was warmly backed in his application by his father, Louis refused to accede to his wish. Though frustrated in his expectations of any immediate aid from France, and denied the trifling gratification of making a campaign, Charles manifested little of the restlessness and hauteur which he afterwards displayed on his return from Scotland. Though he had much reason, as he observed, “to be out of humour,” he resolved, notwithstanding, to bear with patience the disappointments which he had experienced.[804]

To ease his mind from the anxieties which pressed upon it, the Duke of Fitzjames and other friends of his family, invited the prince to pass the spring at their country-seats in the neighbourhood of Paris, where, amid the society of his friends and rural recreations, he seemed, for a time, to forget the object for which he had come to France.

FOOTNOTES:

[781] Letters to the Duke of Ormond and Lord Marischal, 27th January, 1740, among the Stuart Papers. Alluding to his expectations of assistance from France, the Chevalier, in a letter (of which a copy is also in the same collection,) written to Marischal on the 11th January, 1740, while the latter was on his way to Madrid, says, “I am betwixt hopes and fears, though I think there is more room for the first than the last, as you will have perceived by what Lord Sempil (so an active agent of James was called,) has I suppose writ to you. I conclude I shall sometime next month see clearer into these great affairs.”

[782] Trial of Lord Lovat, p. 21. Home’s Rebellion, p. 24.

[783] This scheme was first broached by Drummond to Sempil, another active agent of the Chevalier, and communicated by him to James, who signified his approbation of it in a letter to Sempil, dated Nov. 22, 1741. “I approve very much in general of our making application to the old Whigs, and take it as a new and great mark of Balhaldy’s zeal. The offer he makes of being instrumental in that measure, I perused with satisfaction. What you write on the subject, I shall consider seriously on it betwixt this and next week; I shall by next post send you a packet for Balhaldy, with all that may appear proper and necessary for me on that particular.”--Stuart Papers.

[784] There is, among the Stuart Papers, a copy of a letter from the Chevalier de St. George to Mr. Erskine, 13th March, 1740, thanking him for the zeal he had shown in his cause.

[785] Lord Lovat’s Trial, p. 75.

[786] Lord Lovat’s Trial, p. 76.

[787] Idem.

[788] Idem.

[789] The Chevalier alludes to this meeting in a letter to Sempil, 9th April, 1743; and in another of 16th May following, he mentions a long paper which Mr. Erskine had sent him on the state of affairs.--Stuart Papers.

[790] Letter from the Chevalier to Sempil, 24th May, 1743.--Stuart Papers.

[791] Letter to Sempil, 16th March, 1740,--Stuart Papers. Drummond was not the only person employed by the Chevalier about this time to visit his friends in England. A Colonel Bret, and afterwards a Colonel Cecil, with both of whom James corresponded, made frequent journeys to England. The Duchess of Buckingham made many unsolicited trips to Paris to hasten Cardinal Fleury’s motions, but James was by no means satisfied with her officiousness. In writing to her on 20th July, 1741, he cautions her as follows:--“I must seriously recommend to you not to importune the old gentleman too much. When you have given him what lights and information have come to your knowledge, all the good is done, for in the present situation one would think he should want no spur to befriend us, and in all events he will go on in his own way, while teazing him can serve for nothing but to make him peevish and out of humour.” The duchess must have been possessed of some important papers, as James, in a letter to Sempil, (2d May, 1743,) written shortly after her death, expresses his concern lest her papers should fall into the hands of the government.--Stuart Papers.

[792] Letter from Lord John to Secretary Edgar among the Stuart Papers, Feb. 25th, 1743.

[793] Letter from Lord Marischal to Lord John Drummond.--Stuart Papers, Feb. 12th, 1743.

[794] “My children,” says James in a letter to Sempil, 9th January, 1744, “parted both this morning from hence before day, the duke for Cisterna and the prince for his long journey. We have been at so much pains and contrivance to cover it, that I hope the secret will be kept for some days, perhaps for several.”--Stuart Papers.

[795] Alluding to the discovery, James says, (letter to Sempil, 23d January, 1744,) that it made “a great noise, as you may believe, here,” viz. at Rome.--Stuart Papers.

[796] About this time, if we may believe the accounts of the Stuart party, the spirit of Jacobitism was widely diffused in Scotland. “The violentest Whigs,” says Mr. John Stuart in a letter to Secretary Edgar from Boulogne, in February, 1744, “are become the most zealous Jacobites. My friend says that the last night of the year with us (that is to say, the prince’s birth-night,) was celebrated there (in Scotland) as publicly as we could do it here,--that he was himself in a numerous company of people of fashion, amongst whom were several officers of the army,--that the health of the day, the merry meeting, and a whole train of such, were drunk publicly,--that about the third hour, when the third bottle had banished all reserve, servants were turned out and the doors lockt, one of the company made a speech, and filled a bumper to the restoration, and damnation to every one that would not help; the whole stood to their feet, drunk the (some words are here torn away in the original,) and their hands to their swords: the officers pulled the cockades out of their hats, trampled them under feet, and then tossed them into the fire; then called for music, and serenaded the ladies with loyal tunes, songs,” &c.--Stuart Papers.

[797] Memoirs of Europe, vol. ii. p. 197.

[798] The Chevalier de St. George drew up an address to both universities. It bears the same date (23d December, 1743,) as the two declarations published in 1745. This address was not published.--Stuart Papers.

[799] Smollett’s History of England, vol. iii. book ii. chap. 5.

[800] The Marshal, in answer to a querulous note sent by the prince on 11th of March, says in his answer on the 13th, “Vous ne pouvez, Monseigneur, accuser que les vents et la fortune des contretemps qui nous arrivent.” But he promises after the ships were refitted to proceed with the expedition.--Stuart Papers.

[801] James, however, at first approved of the incognito. Writing to Sempil, on 10th March, 1744, he observes, “The prince will have been tired with his confinement; but, as matters stand, the French court was much in the right to keep him private, tho’ that will not, it is true, hinder the Elector of Hanover from taking the alarm, and his measures against the invasion.” His views were different when writing Drummond on 12th June. After complaining of the disagreeable way in which the prince had been employed on his first arrival at Gravelines, (of which no particulars are given,) he continues, “I shall not be easy till I know the prince is out of his strange and long confinement and incognito, which must be so uneasy to him, and, I think, does little honor to the King of France, while it must carry something very odd with it in the eye of the public. But there were, to be sure, reasons for it which the public never knew, but I hope I shall at last.”--Stuart Papers.

[802] The arrival of this messenger, whose name was Blair, was announced by Drummond of Bochaldy to the prince’s father, in a letter, dated 30th July, 1744:--“Yesterday night there arrived here, (at Dunkirk,) a gentleman from Scotland sent by the Duke of Perth, Lord Traquair, and young Lochiel, to inform the prince of the state and disposition of that country, and the hazard the clans run by Lord John Drummond attempting to raise a regiment in your majesty’s name, which he gloriously averred to every particular, was by his majesty’s command and order; but the dangerous effect of this was prevented by the gentlemen of the Concert, their prudence and influence in allowing nobody of any distinction to give either countenance or credit to it except his brother, who, it seems, they could not hinder from going such lengths as brought troops about him, and forced him to abscond, till such time as the government came to understand that the view was absolutely private in Lord John, and that the using your majesty’s name was an imposition for private ends, which the clans had disappointed as much as they could. It would appear exaggeration to repeat to your majesty the accounts this gentleman brings of the real spirit and forwardness every man showed on hearing that the prince was coming to them, and what an universal melancholy succeeded that flow of spirits on being made certain of a disappointment.”--Stuart Papers.

It appears from the Chevalier’s answer (28th August, 1744), to the above-mentioned letter, that Lord John Drummond was authorised to raise the regiment:--“I remarked what you said last post in relation to Lord John: he had my approbation for endeavouring to raise a Scots regiment in the French service; and as I think that in general the more troops there be of my subjects in that service, the better. I must recommend to you not to take any steps to obstruct the raising of the said regiment.”--Stuart Papers.

[803] The prince’s design was rumoured at Paris, and communicated by Sempil to the Chevalier, who, in his answer, dated 23d February, 1745, remarks as follows:--“I am noways surprised that some French people should have a notion of the prince’s going to Scotland without troops, tho’ nobody surely can enter into such an idea except out of ignorance, and from not knowing the true state of things. But I am always alarmed at it, because I think it impossible that the King of France should approve of such a project, and that it is well known how much I should myself be averse to it. However, it will be always well that you use your best endeavours to refute so dangerous a scheme, and that nobody can do more solidly and effectually than yourself, from the lights and knowledge you have of the affairs of Britain; and I own, till I see the contrary, I shall, as long as the war lasts, always hope that the French will take at last some generous resolution in our favour.”--Stuart Papers.

[804] Stuart Papers, February and March, 1745.

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XXIX. A.D. 1745

BRITISH SOVEREIGN:--George II., 1727-1760.

Preparations--Departure of the expedition--Incidents of the voyage--The Prince lands in Eriska--Has interviews with Macdonald of Boisdale and young Clanranald--Kinlochmoidart, Dr. Cameron, and others, visit the Prince--Charles lands at Borodale--Cameron, younger, of Lochiel--His interview with the Prince--Charles arrives at Kinlochmoidart--Commencement of hostilities--Charles raises his standard at Glenfinnan--Manifesto--The Chevalier’s ignorance of the expedition.

From mere auxiliaries in the war of the Austrian succession, Great Britain and France at last entered the field as principals; and in the spring of 1745, both parties were prepared to decide their respective differences by force of arms. The Jacobites, who looked upon war as the harbinger to a speedy realisation of their wishes and their hopes, awaited the result with anxiety; though, from the policy of France, it was not difficult to perceive that the issue, whether favourable or unfavourable to France, would in reality neither advance nor retard the long looked for restoration. France, if defeated in the field, almost on her own frontiers, would require all her forces to protect herself; and could not, therefore, be expected to make a diversion on the shores of Britain. And, on the other hand, if successful in the campaign about to open in Flanders, she was likely to accomplish the objects for which the war had been undertaken, without continuing an expensive and dubious struggle in support of the Stuarts.

Charles Edward Stuart, the aspirant to the British throne, seems to have viewed matters much in the same light on receiving intelligence of the victory obtained by the French over the allies at Fontenoy.[805] In writing to one of his father’s agents at Paris,[806] who had sent him information of the battle, Charles observes that it was not easy to form an opinion as to whether the result would “prove good or bad” for his affairs. He had, however, taken his resolution to go to Scotland, though unaccompanied even by a single company of soldiers; and the event which had just occurred made him determine to put that resolution into immediate execution. At Fontenoy, the British troops maintained by their bravery the national reputation, but they were obliged to yield to numbers; yet, to use the words of a French historian, “they left the field of battle without tumult, without confusion, and were defeated with honour.”[807] The flower of the British army was, however, destroyed; and as Great Britain had been almost drained of troops, Charles considered the conjuncture as favourable, and made such preparations for his departure as the shortness of the time would allow.

The French government was apprised of Charles’s intentions, and though the French ministers were not disposed openly to sanction an enterprise which they were not at the time in a condition to support, they secretly favoured a design, which, whatever might be its result, would operate as a diversion in favour of France. Accordingly, Lord Clare, (afterwards Marshal Thomond,) then a lieutenant-general in the French service, was authorised to open a negotiation with two merchants of Irish extraction, named Ruttledge and Walsh, who had made some money by trading to the West Indies. They had, since the war, been concerned in privateering; and with the view of extending their operations, had lately obtained from the French government a grant of the Elizabeth, an old man-of-war of sixty-six guns, and they had purchased a small frigate of sixteen guns named the Doutelle, both of which ships were in the course of being fitted out for a cruise in the north seas. Lord Clare having introduced Charles to Ruttledge and Walsh, explained the prince’s design, and proposed that they should lend him their ships. This proposal was at once acceded to by the owners, who also offered to supply the prince with money and such arms as they could procure, in fulfilment of which offer they afterwards placed in his hands the sum of £3,800.[808]

While the preparations for the expedition were going on, Charles resided at Navarre, a seat of the Duke of Bouillon, and occupied himself in hunting, fishing, and shooting. A few persons only in his own confidence were aware of his intentions; and so desirous was he of concealing his movements from his father’s agents at Paris, that he gave out, shortly before his departure, that he intended to visit the monastery of La Trappe, in the vicinity of Rouen, and would return to Paris in a few days.[809] The prince ordered the few followers who were to accompany him to assemble at Nantes, near the mouth of the Loire; and the better to conceal their design, they arrived there singly, took up their residence in different parts of the town, and when they met on the streets did not seem to recognise one another.[810]

When informed that every thing was in readiness for his departure, Charles went to Nantes in disguise, and having descended the Loire in a fishing boat on the 20th of June, (O. S.) 1745, embarked on the 21st on board the Doutelle at St. Nazaire, whence he proceeded on the following day to Belleisle, where he was joined on the 4th of July by the Elizabeth, which had on board 100 marines raised by Lord Clare, about 2,000 muskets, and 500 or 600 French broad-swords. The persons who accompanied Charles were the Marquis of Tullibardine,[811] elder brother of James, Duke of Athole; Sir Thomas Sheridan, who had been tutor to Charles; Sir John Macdonald, an officer in the Spanish service; Francis Strickland, an English gentleman; George Kelly, a clergyman; Æneas or Angus Macdonald, a banker in Paris, brother to Kinlochmoidart; and O’Sullivan, an officer in the service of France. These were afterwards designated the “Seven Men of Moidart.” There were also some persons of inferior note, among whom were one Buchanan, who had been employed as a messenger to Rome by Cardinal Tencin, and Duncan Cameron, formerly a servant of old Lochiel at Boulogne, who was hired for the expedition, for the purpose, as he informs us, of descrying the “Long Isle.”[812]

The expedition sailed from Belleisle on the 5th of July with a fair wind, which continued favourable till the 8th, when a dead calm ensued. On the following day, when in the latitude of 47° 57´ north, and thirty-nine leagues west from the meridian of the Lizard, a sail was descried to windward, which proved to be the Lion, a British man-of-war of sixty guns, commanded by Captain Brett. When the Lion hove in sight, the prince, for better accommodation, was preparing to go on board the Elizabeth; but luckily for him he laid aside his design on the appearance of the man-of-war. While the Lion was bearing down on the French ships, M. D’Oe, or D’Eau, the captain of the Elizabeth, went on board the Doutelle, where a council of war was immediately held, at which it was determined, if possible, to avoid an action; but if an action became inevitable, that the Elizabeth should receive the first broadside, and should thereupon endeavour to board her adversary. While this conference lasted, both ships kept running before the wind; but the Lion being a fast sailing vessel soon neared the Elizabeth, and, when within nearly a mile of her, hove to for the purpose of reconnoitring the French ships and preparing for action. Judging an action now unavoidable, Captain D’Oe proposed to Walsh, one of the proprietors of the two vessels, and who acted as commander of the Doutelle, that while the Elizabeth and Lion were engaged, the Doutelle should assist the Elizabeth by playing upon the Lion at a distance; but Walsh declined to interfere in any shape. The Captain of the Elizabeth thereupon drew his sword, and taking leave, went back to his ship, with his drawn sword in his hand, to prepare for action.[813]

Captain D’Oe had scarcely reached the Elizabeth when the Lion bore down upon her. Contrary to the plan laid down on board the Doutelle, the Elizabeth gave the first broadside, which was instantly returned by the Lion; and before the Elizabeth could get her other side to bear upon her opponent, the latter tacked about and poured in another broadside into the Elizabeth, which raked her fore and aft, and killed a great number of her men. Notwithstanding this untoward beginning, the Elizabeth maintained the fight for nearly five hours, when night coming on, and both vessels being complete wrecks, they parted as if by mutual consent. The prince, in the Doutelle, viewed the battle with great anxiety, and, it is said, importuned the captain to assist the Elizabeth, but Walsh positively refused to engage, and intimated to the prince, that if he continued his solicitations, he would order him down to the cabin.[814]

After the action was over, Captain Walsh bore up to the Elizabeth to ascertain the state of matters, and was informed by a lieutenant of the severe loss she had sustained in officers and men, and the crippled state she was in. He, however, offered to pursue the voyage if supplied with a main-mast and some rigging, but Walsh had no spare materials; and after intimating that he would endeavour to finish the voyage himself, and advising the commander of the Elizabeth to return to France, both ships parted, the Elizabeth on her way back to France, and the Doutelle on her voyage to the Western Highlands.[815]

On the 11th of July a sail was discovered, which gave chase to the Doutelle; but being a swift-sailing vessel she outran her pursuer. She encountered a rough sea and tempestuous weather on the 15th and 16th, after which the weather became fine till the midnight of the 20th, when a violent storm arose. She stood out the gale, however, and on the 22d came within sight of land, which was discovered to be the southern extremity of Long Island, a name by which, from their appearing at a distance, and in a particular direction, to form one island, the islands of Lewis, the Uists, Barra, and others, are distinguished. On approaching the land, a large ship, which appeared to be an English man-of-war, was descried between the Doutelle and the island. On perceiving this vessel, Walsh changed the course of the Doutelle, and stretching along the east side of Barra, reached the strait between South Uist and Eriska, the largest of a cluster of little rocky islands that lie off South Uist. When near the land, Duncan Cameron, before mentioned, was sent on shore in the long-boat to bring off a proper pilot, and having accidentally met the piper of Macneil of Barra, with whom Cameron was acquainted, he took him on board. In the strait alluded to, the Doutelle cast anchor on the 23d of July, having been eighteen days at sea.[816]

Accompanied by his attendants, the prince immediately landed in Eriska, and was conducted to the house of Angus Macdonald, the tacksman, or principal tenant thereof and of the small islands adjoining. To anticipate that prying curiosity and speculation which the inhabitants of the western isles always display on the arrival of strangers, the prince’s companions represented him as a young Irish priest, a species of visitor by no means uncommon in these islands, whither priests from the opposite coast of Ireland had been long accustomed to resort, for the purpose of giving the islanders that religious instruction and consolation of which, by the change in the national religion, they had been almost debarred from receiving from the hands of native priests. From the tacksman of Eriska, the party learned, that Macdonald, chief of Clanranald, and Macdonald of Boisdale, his brother, were upon the island of South Uist, and that young Clanranald, the son of the chief, was at Moidart upon the mainland. As Boisdale was understood to have great influence with his brother, a messenger was immediately despatched to South Uist, requesting his attendance on board the Doutelle.

Charles and his companions passed the night in the house of the tacksman, but the accommodation was very indifferent. They had not a sufficient supply of beds, but the prince, regardless of his own ease, declined to occupy one.[817] Next morning they returned to the ship. Boisdale soon thereafter made his appearance. As his brother, Clanranald, was unfit, from age and bad health, to be of any essential service, Charles was anxious to secure the assistance of Boisdale, by whose means he expected that the clan would be induced to rise in his support. Boisdale had, however, already made up his mind upon the subject, and the result of the interview was extremely discouraging to Charles. At first, the prince proposed that Boisdale should accompany him to the mainland, and endeavour to engage his nephew to take up arms; but Boisdale decidedly declined the proposal, and even declared that he would do every thing in his power to prevent his brother and nephew from engaging in an enterprise which he considered desperate. Baffled in his first attempt, Charles next proposed to despatch Boisdale with a message to Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat and the Laird of Macleod, who had extensive possessions in the island of Skye, requesting their assistance; but Boisdale informed the prince that such a mission would be useless, as he had seen Sir Alexander Macdonald and Macleod very lately,--that they had stated to him the probability that the prince would arrive, but that if he came without a body of regular troops, they were determined not to join him, and were of opinion that no other person would. Boisdale added, that he was instructed by these gentlemen to mention their resolution to the prince in case he should meet him on his arrival, and to advise him, should he come unprovided with troops, to return directly to France.

Charles was sadly perplexed at Boisdale’s obduracy, but he endeavoured to soften him by representing his affairs in the most favourable light; but the Highlander was inflexible. Whilst this prolonged altercation was going on, two vessels appeared making for the strait in which the Doutelle lay, a circumstance which induced her commander to weigh anchor and stand in for the mainland. Boisdale, still pressed by the prince, remained on board till the ship had advanced several miles in her course, when he entered his boat, and left Charles to ruminate over his disappointment. The Doutelle continued her course during the night, and next morning cast anchor in the bay of Lochnanuagh, which partly divides the countries of Moidart and Arisaig.[818] On approaching the strait, the Marquis of Tullibardine, when about to retire below to dinner, observed an eagle hovering over the frigate, which he looked upon as a happy augury, but afraid of being taxed by his companions with superstition, he at first took no notice of the circumstance. On coming upon deck after dinner, he saw the eagle still hovering above the vessel and following her in her course. No longer able to restrain himself, he directed the attention of Charles and his suite to the royal bird, and thereafter turning to the prince, thus addressed him: “Sir, I hope this is an excellent omen, and promises good things to us. The king of birds is come to welcome your royal highness upon your arrival in Scotland.”

Though foiled in his attempt upon Boisdale, the young adventurer resolved to repeat the same experiment upon his nephew, and accordingly he immediately sent a boat on shore with a letter to young Clanranald; Æneas Macdonald also went on shore to bring off Kinlochmoidart, his brother. Kinlochmoidart came on board immediately, and after a short interview with the prince, was despatched with letters to Lochiel, the Duke of Perth, Murray of Broughton and others.

Next day young Clanranald, accompanied by his kinsmen, Alexander Macdonald of Glenalladale, Æneas Macdonald of Dalily and a Highland officer (author of a journal and memoirs of the expedition),[819] came to Forsy, a small village opposite to the Doutelle’s anchorage ground. They called for the ship’s boat, and were immediately carried on board. The feelings of the party on getting upon deck are thus described by the writer alluded to. “Our hearts were overjoyed to find ourselves so near our long-wished-for prince; we found a large tent erected with poles on the ship’s deck, covered and well furnished with variety of wines and spirits. As we entered this pavilion we were most cheerfully welcom’d by the Duke of Athole, to whom some of us had been known in the year 1715. While the duke was talking with us, Clanranald was a-missing, and had, as we understood, been called into the prince’s cabin, nor did we look for the honour of seeing His R. H. at least for that night.”[820]

Of the conversation which took place between the prince and young Clanranald during the three hours they were closeted together, no account was ever given; but it is probable that if the latter stated any objections against the enterprise, they had been overcome before he rejoined his companions, as no allusion is made by the writer just quoted, to any unwillingness on the part of the young chieftain to join the prince. Maxwell of Kirkconnel, who mentions the refusal of Boisdale, says, that young Clanranald frankly offered his services to the prince,[821] a statement which, from the ardent and romantic attachment for the Stuarts with which that young chieftain was inspired, seems to approximate nearer the truth than that of Home, who classes Kinlochmoidart and young Clanranald together, as joining in a positive refusal to take up arms.

According to Home, young Clanranald and Kinlochmoidart came on board together, and were addressed, with great emotion, by Charles, who had been almost reduced to despair by his interview with Boisdale. After using all the arguments he could for taking up arms, he conjured them to assist their countryman, their prince, in his utmost need. Though well inclined and warmly attached to the cause, the gentlemen in question are said to have positively refused, and to have told the prince, one after another, that to take up arms in their present unprepared state, without concert or support, would bring down certain destruction on their own heads. Charles persisted, argued, and implored, but without effect. During this conversation the parties walked backwards and forwards upon the deck, and were closely eyed by a Highlander who stood near them armed at all points, as was then the fashion of the country. He was a younger brother of Kinlochmoidart, and had come off to the ship to inquire for news, not knowing who was on board. When he gathered from their discourse that the stranger was Prince Charles, and heard his chief and his brother refuse to take up arms in his behalf, his colour went and came, his eyes sparkled, he shifted his place and grasped his sword. Charles observing his demeanour, stopped short, and turning towards him, put this interrogatory, “Will not you assist me?” “I will! I will!” exclaimed Ranald; “though no other man in the Highlands should draw a sword, I am ready to die for you.” Charles, delighted with the young man’s answer, evinced his gratitude by a profusion of thanks and acknowledgments, extolled his champion to the skies, and said he only wished that all the Highlanders were like him. Stung with the prince’s observation, which could be regarded only as a reproach, and smitten by the example set by the heroic youth, the two Macdonalds instantly declared that they would unsheath their swords in support of the claims of the house of Stuart, and would use their utmost endeavours to rouse their countrymen to arms.[822]

After the interview with the prince, Clanranald returned to his friends, who had, during the conference, been regaling themselves in the pavilion. In about half-an-hour thereafter, the prince entered the tent and took his seat without appearing to notice any of the company. His appearance, and the scene which followed, are thus described by an eyewitness. “There entered the tent a tall youth of a most agreeable aspect, in a plain black coat with a plain shirt, not very clean, and a cambrick stock fixed with a plain silver buckle, a fair round wig out of the buckle, a plain hat with a canvas string having one end fixed to one of his coat buttons; he had black stockings, and brass buckles in his shoes. At his first appearance I found my heart swell to my very throat. We were immediately told by one Obrian, a churchman, that this youth was also an English clergyman, who had long been possessed with a desire to see and converse with Highlanders.

“When this youth entered, Obrian forbid any of those who were sitting to rise; he saluted none of us, and we only made a low bow at a distance. I chanced to be one of those who were standing when he came in, and he took his seat near me, but immediately started up again and caused me to sit down by him upon a chest. I at this time taking him only to be a passenger or some clergyman, presumed to speak to him with too much familiarity, yet still retained some suspicion he might be one of more note than he was said to be. He asked me if I was not cold in that habit, (viz. the Highland garb,) I answered I was so habituated to it, that I should rather be so (feel cold) if I was to change my dress for any other. At this he laughed heartily, and next inquired how I lay with it at night, which I explained to him. He said that by wrapping myself so close in my plaid I would be unprepared for any sudden defence in the case of a surprise. I answered that in such times of danger, or during the war, we had a different method of using the plaid, that with one spring I could start to my feet with drawn sword and cocked pistol in my hand, without being the least encumbered with my bed-clothes. Several such questions he put to me; then rising quickly from his seat he calls for a dram, when the same person whispered me a second time to pledge the stranger but not to drink to him, by which seasonable hint I was confirmed in my suspicion who he was. Having taken a glass of wine in his hand, he drank to us all round, and soon after left us.”[823]

Having thus secured the support of young Clanranald, Charles selected him to execute the commission which his uncle, Boisdale, had refused to undertake. Accordingly, on the 22d of July the young chieftain, attended by Allan Macdonald, a younger brother of Kinlochmoidart, was despatched with letters from the prince, to Sir Alexander Macdonald and the laird of Macleod, to solicit the aid of their services. These powerful chieftains, who could raise nearly 2,000 men between them, had promised to join the prince if he brought a foreign force along with him, but when they found that he had come without troops, they considered themselves released from their engagements, and refused to join in an enterprise which they considered desperate.[824]

During young Clanranald’s absence, Donald Macdonald of Scothouse, Dr. Archibald Cameron on the part of his brother Donald Cameron, younger of Lochiel, and Hugh Macdonald, brother of the laird of Morar, came on board the Doutelle. The latter, on his way home from Edinburgh, had met Kinlochmoidart crossing the water of Lochy, and had been informed by him of the arrival of the prince.[825] In expectation of seeing the prince, he went to Kinlochmoidart’s house, where he found Æneas Macdonald, brother of Kinlochmoidart, who told him that he might see the prince the following day if he pleased, but cautioned him not to accost him as such, as the prince passed for a French abbé with the crew of the vessel, who were ignorant of his rank. Next day the two Macdonalds went on board; and Charles, being informed of the name and character of his visitor, invited him down to the cabin. In a conversation which ensued, Hugh Macdonald expressed his fears as to the result of the expedition if persevered in, and hinted that, as he had brought no forces along with him, the most eligible course the prince could pursue, was to return to France, and wait a more favourable opportunity. Charles remarked that he did not wish to be indebted for the restoration of his father to foreigners, but to his own friends; that he had now put it in their power to have the glory of doing so, and that as to returning to France without making an attempt, foreigners should never have to say that he had thrown himself upon his friends, that they had turned their backs upon him, and that he had been forced to retire for shelter to foreign lands. He concluded by observing, that if he could get only six stout trusty fellows to join him, he would choose rather to skulk with them among the mountains of Scotland than return to France. Dr. Cameron also urged Charles to return, and told him that Lochiel had made up his mind not to join; but Charles returned the same answer he had given to Hugh Macdonald. On the return from Skye of young Clanranald and Allan Macdonald, who brought back an absolute refusal from Sir Alexander Macdonald and the laird of Macleod, the whole party on board, including even Sir Thomas Sheridan, by whose advice the prince generally acted, importuned him to desist, chiefly on the ground that the refusal of two such influential and powerful chieftains would prevent others, who were well disposed to the cause, from joining; but Charles was immoveable, and though without a single supporter, persisted in his resolution.[826]

Charles remained on board the Doutelle till the 25th of July, the interval between which day and that of his arrival in Lochnanuagh, was spent in despatching letters and receiving communications from his friends, and in consultations with his companions and the adherents who visited him, as to the means to be adopted for raising the clans that were favourably disposed. During the same interval, all the arms, ammunition, and stores were landed; and every thing being in readiness for his reception on shore, Charles, accompanied by his suite, landed at Borodale, a farm belonging to Clanranald, and took up his abode in the house of Angus Macdonald, the tenant of the farm, who received him and his companions with a hearty welcome. By orders of young Clanranald, Macdonald of Glenalladale and another gentleman of the clan, had collected about 100 of their men to serve as a body-guard to the prince, all of whom were hospitably entertained at Borodale.

No situation could have been any where selected more suitable for the circumstances and designs of Charles than the abode he had chosen. Besides being one of the most remote and inaccessible places in the western Highlands of Scotland, it was surrounded on all sides by the territories of the most devoted adherents of the house of Stuart, by the descendants of the heroes of Kilsyth and Killiecrankie, in whose breasts the spirit of revenge had taken deep root, for the cruelties which had followed the short-lived insurrection of 1715, and the affronts to which they had been subjected under the disarming act. These mountaineers had long sighed for an opportunity of retaliation, and they were soon to imagine that the time for vengeance had arrived.

As soon as the landing of Charles was known, the whole neighbourhood was in motion, and repaired, “without distinction of age or sex,”[827] to the house of Borodale, to see a man with whose success they considered the glory and happiness of their country to be inseparably associated. To gratify his warm-hearted and generous visitors, and to attain a full view of the assembled group, Charles seated himself in a conspicuous part of the room where a repast had been laid out for him and his friends. Here, amid the congregated spectators who feasted their eyes with the sight of the lineal descendant of a race of kings, endeared to them by many sorrowful recollections, the prince partook of the fare provided by his kind host, with a cheerfulness which banished all reflection of the past or care for the future. At the conclusion of the repast, Charles drank the grace-drink in English, which, of course, was understood only by a few of the persons present. The guest, to whom we are indebted for this account, says, that when his turn came to propose a toast, wishing to distinguish himself, he gave “the king’s health” in Gaelic in an audible voice,--“Deoch slaint an Righ.” When the prince was informed that his father’s health had been drunk, he requested the gentleman who had proposed it to pronounce the words again in Gaelic, that he might repeat them himself. This being done, Charles repeated the words, and understanding that the proposer was skilful in Gaelic, the prince intimated to him that he would henceforth take instructions from him in that language. The same individual, afterwards, by desire, gave also the healths of the prince, and his brother “the duke,” in Gaelic.[828] Such condescension and familiarity on the part of Charles were highly gratifying to the feelings of all present, and were better calculated to secure the affections of the unsophisticated people, into whose arms he had thrown himself, than all the pomp and circumstance of regal splendour.

Though the extreme rashness of young Clanranald and his friends, in thus exposing themselves to almost inevitable destruction, be quite inexcusable on the score of sober reason, yet it is impossible not to admire the daring intrepidity of the men, who, at the call of a friendless and unprotected youth, could commit themselves in a struggle with the government even before they had ascertained that a single clan, except their own, would join. Their devotedness to the cause of the Stuarts did not blind them, however, to the dangers to which they were about to expose themselves by declaring for the prince; but having now thrown away the scabbard, they resolved to cling to the cause which a feeling of fidelity prompted them to espouse, reckless of the consequences. “All may judge (says a gentleman of the clan), how hazardous an enterprise we were now engaged in, being for some time quite alone; but we resolved, notwithstanding, to follow our prince, and risk our fate with his.”[829]

Charles, before landing, had despatched messengers to several of the chiefs who were favourably disposed. From Borodale he again sent off fresh messengers to all the chiefs from whom he expected assistance, requiring their attendance. Some of his friends, aware of his arrival, had, it is said, already held a meeting to consult as to the course they should pursue; at which Macdonald of Keppoch had given his opinion, that as the prince had risked his person, and generously thrown himself into the hands of his friends, they were bound, in duty at least, to raise men instantly for the protection of his person, whatever might be the consequences;[830] but it does not appear that any such resolution was at that time adopted.

The person pitched upon to visit Lochiel on this occasion, was Macdonald, younger of Scothouse, who succeeded in inducing that chief to visit the prince at Borodale, but he went with a determination not to take up arms. On his way to Borodale he called at the house of his brother, John Cameron of Fassefern, who, on being told the object of his journey, advised Lochiel not to proceed, as he was afraid that the prince would prevail upon him to forego his resolution.[831] Lochiel, firm in his determination, as he imagined, told his brother that his reasons for declining to join the prince were too strong to be overcome, and pursued his journey.

Donald Cameron of Lochiel, on whose final determination the question of a civil war was now to depend, (for it seems to be universally admitted, that if Lochiel had declined to take up arms the other chiefs would have also refused,) though called young Lochiel by the Highlanders, from his father being still alive, was rather advanced in life. His father, for the share he had taken in the insurrection of 1715, was attainted and in exile. In consequence of the attainder, young Lochiel had succeeded to the family estates upon the death of his grandfather, Sir Ewen Cameron, in 1719. Sir Ewen, the reader knows, had served with distinction under Montrose and Dundee, and his son and grandson had inherited from the old warrior a devoted attachment to the house of Stuart, which no change of circumstances had been ever able to eradicate. The Chevalier de St. George, sensible of the inflexible integrity of the young chief, and of the great influence which he enjoyed among his countrymen on account of the uprightness of his character, and as being at the head of one of the most powerful of the clans, had invested him with full powers to negotiate with his friends in Scotland, on the subject of his restoration.[832] Knowing the confidence which was so deservedly reposed in him, he was consulted on all occasions by the Jacobites in the Highlands, and, as has been elsewhere observed, was one of the seven who, in the year 1740, signed the bond of association to restore the Chevalier. Upon the failure of the expedition of 1743, young Lochiel had urged the prince to continue his exertions to get another fitted out; but he was averse to any attempts being made without foreign assistance, and cautioned the prince accordingly.[833]

Among the chiefs who were summoned to Borodale, Lochiel was the first to appear, and he immediately had a private interview with the prince. Charles told him that he meant to be quite candid, and to conceal nothing; he reprobated in severe terms the conduct of the French ministry, who, he averred, had long amused him with fair promises, and had at last deceived him. He admitted that he had but a small quantity of arms, and very little money; that he had left France without concerting anything, or even taking leave of the French court,--that he had, however, before leaving, written to the French king and his ministers soliciting succours, which he was persuaded they would send as soon as they saw that he really had a party in Scotland,--that he had appointed Earl Marischal his agent at the court of France,--and that he depended much upon the zeal and abilities of that nobleman, who would himself superintend the embarkation of the succours he was soliciting.

While Lochiel admitted the engagements which he and other chiefs had come under to support the cause, he observed that they were binding only in the event of the stipulated aid being furnished; and as his royal highness had come over without such support, they were released from the engagements they had contracted. He therefore reiterated his resolution not to join in the present hopeless attempt, and advised his royal highness to return to France and await a more favourable opportunity. Charles, on the other hand, maintained, that an opportunity more favourable than the present might never occur again,--that, with the exception of a very few newly raised regiments, all the British troops were occupied abroad. He represented, that the regular troops now in the kingdom were insufficient to withstand the body of Highlanders his friends could bring into the field; and he stated his belief, that if in the outset he obtained an advantage over the government forces, the country in general would declare in his favour, and his friends abroad would at once aid him,--that every thing, in fact, now depended upon the Highlanders,--and that to accomplish the restoration of his father, it was only necessary that they should instantly declare themselves and begin the war.

These arguments, which, as the result showed, were more plausible than solid, had no effect upon Lochiel, who continued to resist all the entreaties of Charles to induce him to alter his resolution. Finding the prince utterly averse to the proposal made to him to return to France, Lochiel entreated him to be more moderate in his views. He then suggested, that Charles should send his attendants back to France; that he himself should remain concealed in the country; that a report should be circulated that he also had returned to France, and that the court of France should be made acquainted with the state of matters, and informed that his friends would be ready to take up arms upon the first notice of a landing, but that nothing could be done without foreign support. Charles, however, rejected this proposal also, and told Lochiel, that the court of France would never be convinced that he had a considerable party in Scotland, till there was an actual insurrection, without which he was afraid they would not venture their troops.

As a last shift, Lochiel suggested, that Charles should remain at Borodale till he and other friends should hold a meeting, and concert what was best to be done. With an impatience which spurned delay, Charles would not even listen to the proposal, and declared his firm determination to take the field, however small the number of his attendants might be. “In a few days,” said he, “with the few friends that I have, I will erect the royal standard, and proclaim to the people of Britain, that Charles Stuart is come over to claim the crown of his ancestors--to win it, or to perish in the attempt: Lochiel, whom my father has often told me, was our firmest friend, may stay at home, and from the newspapers, learn the fate of his prince.” This appeal was irresistible. “No!” exclaimed Lochiel, “I’ll share the fate of my prince; and so shall every man over whom nature or fortune has given me any power.”[834]

Having extorted an acquiescence from Lochiel, who, impelled by a mistaken but chivalrous sense of honour, thus yielded to the prince’s entreaties in spite of his own better judgment, Charles resolved to raise his standard at Glenfinnan on the 19th of August. Accordingly, he despatched letters from Borodale on the 6th, to the various chiefs who were favourably disposed, informing them of his intention, and requiring the presence of them and their followers at Glenfinnan on the day appointed, or as soon thereafter as possible. Lochiel, at the same time, returned to his own house, whence he despatched messengers to the leading gentlemen of his clan to raise their men, and to hold themselves in readiness to march with him to Glenfinnan.

After sending off his messengers, Charles left Borodale for the house of Kinlochmoidart, about seven miles from Borodale, whither he and his suite had been invited by the proprietor to spend a few days, while the preparations for the appointed meeting were going on. Charles and his party went by sea, and their baggage and some artillery were forwarded by the same conveyance; but the body-guard, which had been provided by Clanranald, proceeded by land along the heads of two intervening bays. While at the hospitable mansion of his friend, Charles expressed his sense of the services of Kinlochmoidart in the warmest terms, offered him a colonel’s commission in a regiment of dragoons, and promised him a peerage.[835]

During Charles’s stay at Kinlochmoidart, the arming of the Highlanders went on with extraordinary alacrity; and several days before the prince’s departure for Glenfinnan, detached parties of armed Highlanders were to be seen perambulating the country in different directions. Though three weeks had elapsed since the arrival of the prince, and although Kinlochmoidart was only about thirty miles from Fort William, yet so effectually had his arrival been concealed from the officers of the government in the Highlands, that it was not until they received intelligence of these movements, that they began even to suspect his arrival. Alarmed by reports which reached him for the safety of Fort William, around which Lochiel and Keppoch were assembling their men, the governor of Fort Augustus despatched, on the 16th of August, two companies of the second battalion of the Scots Royals, under the command of Captain (afterwards General) Scott, to reinforce that garrison; but they did not reach their destination, having been taken prisoners by a party of Lochiel’s and Keppoch’s men. As this occurrence may be regarded as the commencement of hostilities, and as it is strongly characteristic of the ardour with which the Highlanders took the field at the command of their chiefs, the details of it may not here be considered as out of place.

At the period in question, as well as at the time of the previous insurrection of 1715, the country between Fort William and Inverness was inhabited altogether by disaffected clans; mainly to overawe whom, the chain of forts, namely, Fort William, Fort Augustus, and Fort George, which reach across the Highlands from the east to the west sea, was placed. In the centre of these, or almost equidistant between Fort William and Fort George, stands Fort Augustus, the distance between which and Fort William is twenty-eight miles. To keep up a regular communication between the garrisons of the two last mentioned forts, a road, as we have seen, was made by order of the government along the sides of the mountains which skirt the narrow lakes, which now form part of the bed of the Caledonian canal. It was along this road that the detachment in question marched. That they might reach Fort William the same day--there being no place on the road where so many men could have taken up their quarters during night--they left Fort Augustus early in the morning of the 16th of August, and met with no interruption till they arrived at High Bridge, within eight miles of Fort William. This bridge, which consists of one arch of great height, is built across the river Spean,--a mountain torrent confined between high and steep banks. On approaching the bridge the ears of the party were saluted by the sound of a bagpipe,--a circumstance which could excite little surprise in the Highlands; but when they observed a body of Highlanders on the other side of the bridge with swords and firelocks in their hands, the party became alarmed.

The Highlanders who had posted themselves at the bridge, were of Keppoch’s clan, and were under the command of Macdonald of Tierndriech; and though they did not consist of more than eleven or twelve persons, yet by leaping and skipping about, moving from place to place, and extending their plaids between one another to give themselves a formidable appearance, they impressed Captain Scott with an idea that they were a pretty numerous body. He therefore halted his men, and sent forward a sergeant with his own servant towards the bridge to reconnoitre; but when they came near the bridge they were seized and carried across by two nimble Highlanders, who unexpectedly darted upon them. Seeing the fate of his messengers, knowing that he was in a disaffected district, and ignorant of the strength of the Highlanders, Captain Scott deemed it more advisable to retreat than risk an encounter. He, therefore, ordered his men to face about, and return by the road they had come. Tierndriech had for some time observed the march of these troops, and had sent expresses to Lochiel and Keppoch, whose houses were within three or four miles of High Bridge, announcing their advance, and demanding assistance. Expecting immediate aid, and not wishing to display his weakness, which, from the openness of the ground near the bridge, would have been easily discernible, he did not follow Scott immediately, but kept at a distance till the troops had passed the west end of Loch Lochy, and were upon the narrow road between the lake and the mountain. The Highlanders thereupon made their appearance, and ascending the craggy eminences which overhang the road, and, sheltering themselves among the rocks and trees, began to fire down upon the retreating party, who, in place of returning the fire, accelerated their pace.

Before this fire had been opened, bands of Highlanders were proceeding in the direction of the bridge to assist in the attack. Upon hearing the report of the fire-arms, these hastened to the place whence the firing proceeded, and in a short time a considerable body joined the party under Tierndriech. Captain Scott continued his march rapidly along the loch, and when he reached the east end, he observed some Highlanders on a hill at the west end of Loch Oich, where they had assembled apparently for the purpose of intercepting him on his retreat. Disliking the appearance of this body, which stood in the direct way of his retreat, Scott resolved to throw himself for protection into Invergary castle, the seat of Macdonell of Glengarry, and accordingly crossed the isthmus between the two lakes. This movement, however, only rendered his situation more embarrassing, as he had not marched far when he perceived another body of Highlanders, the Macdonells of Glengarry, coming down the opposite hill to attack him. In this dilemma he formed his men into a hollow square, and proceeded on his march. Meanwhile, Tierndriech having been reinforced by a party of Keppoch’s men, headed by the chief, hastened the pursuit, and soon came up with the fugitives. To spare the effusion of blood, Keppoch advanced alone to Scott’s party, required them to surrender, and offered them quarters; but assured them, that, in case of resistance, they would be cut to pieces. Fatigued with a long march, and surrounded on all sides by increasing bodies of Highlanders, Captain Scott, who had been wounded, and had had two of his men killed, accepted the terms offered, and surrendered. This affair was scarcely over, when Lochiel arrived on the spot with a party of Camerons, and took charge of the prisoners, whom he carried to his own house at Achnacarie. The result of this singular rencounter, in which the Highlanders did not lose a single man, was hailed by them as the harbinger of certain success, and they required no farther inducement to prosecute the war thus auspiciously begun, as they imagined.[836]

Charles, to whom it may be supposed intelligence of this affair was instantly sent, left Kinlochmoidart on the 18th of August, on which day he went by water to the seat of Alexander Macdonald of Glenalladale, on the side of Loch Shiel, where he was joined by Gordon of Glenbucket, who brought with him Captain Sweetenham, an English officer of Guise’s regiment, who had been taken prisoner by a party of Keppoch’s men while on his way to Fort William to inspect that fortress. The prince passed the night at Glenalladale, and with his attendants, who amounted to about 25 persons, proceeded about six o’clock next morning, in three boats, to Glenfinnan, and landed within a few hours at the east end of Loch Shiel, where the little river Finnan falls into the lake.

Glenfinnan, the place appointed for the rendezvous, is a narrow vale bounded on both sides by high and rocky mountains, between which the river Finnan runs. This glen forms the inlet from Moidart into Lochaber, and at its gorge is about fifteen miles west from Fort William. On landing, the prince was received by the laird of Morar at the head of 150 men, with whom he marched to Glenfinnan, where he arrived about eleven o’clock. Charles, of course, expected to find a large “gathering of the clans” in the vale awaiting his approach; but, to his great surprise, not a human being was to be seen throughout the whole extent of the lonely glen, except the solitary inhabitants of the few huts which formed the hamlet. Chagrined and disappointed, Charles entered one of these hovels to ruminate over the supposed causes which might have retarded the assembling of his friends. After waiting about two hours in anxious suspense, he was relieved from his solicitude by the distant sound of a bagpipe, which broke upon his ear, and by its gradual increase, it soon became evident that a party was coming in the direction of the glen. While all eyes were turned towards the point whence the sound proceeded, a dark mass was seen overtopping the hill and descending its side. This was the clan Cameron, amounting to between 700 and 800 men, with Lochiel, their chief, at their head. They advanced in two columns, of three men deep each, with the prisoners who were taken in the late scuffle between the lines.

If in the state of suspense in which he was kept after entering Glenfinnan, the spirits of Charles suffered a temporary depression, they soon recovered their wonted buoyancy when he beheld the gallant band which now stood before him. Without waiting, therefore, for the other clans who were expected to join, the prince at once resolved to raise his standard, and to declare open war against “the Elector of Hanover,” as George II. was called, “and his adherents.” The Marquis of Tullibardine, to whom, from his rank, was allotted the honour of unfurling the standard, took his station on a small knoll in the centre of the vale,[837] where, supported by two men, he displayed the banner, and proclaimed the Chevalier de St. George as king before the assembled host, who rent the air with their acclamations. The flag used upon this occasion was of silk, of a white, blue, and red texture, but without any motto. After proclamation, a commission from the Chevalier de St. George, appointing his son Prince Charles regent of these kingdoms, was read by the Marquis of Tullibardine.

The reading of this commission was succeeded by the following manifesto:--

“James VIII. by the Grace of God, King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all our loving subjects, of what degree or quality soever, greeting.

“Having always borne the most constant affection to our ancient kingdom of Scotland, from whence we derive our royal origin, and where our progenitors have swayed the sceptre with glory through a longer succession of kings than any monarchy upon earth can at this day boast of; we cannot but behold with the deepest concern the miseries they suffer under a foreign usurpation, and the intolerable burdens daily added to their yoke, which become yet more sensible to us when we consider the constant zeal and affection the generality of our subjects of that our ancient kingdom have expressed for us on all occasions, and particularly when we had the satisfaction of being ourselves amongst them.

“We see a nation always famous for valour, and highly esteemed by the greatest of foreign potentates, reduced to the condition of a province, under the specious pretence of an union with a more powerful neighbour. In consequence of this pretended union, grievous and unprecedented taxes have been laid on, and levied with severity in spite of all the representations that could be made to the contrary; and these have not failed to produce that poverty and decay of trade which were easily foreseen to be the necessary consequences of such oppressive measures.

“To prevent the just resentment which could not but arise from such usage, our faithful Highlanders, a people always trained up and inured to arms, have been deprived of them; forts and citadels have been built and garrisoned where no foreign invasion could be apprehended, and a military government has been effectually introduced, as into a conquered country. It is easy to foresee what must be the consequences of such violent and unprecedented proceedings, if a timely remedy be not put to them; neither is it less manifest that such a remedy can ever be obtained but by our restoration to the throne of our ancestors, into whose royal heart such destructive maxims could never find admittance.

“We think it needless to call to mind how solicitous we have ever been, and how often we have ventured our royal person, to compass this great end; which the Divine Providence seems now to have furnished us with the means of doing effectually by enabling our good subjects in England to shake off the yoke, under which they have likewise felt their share of the common calamities. Our former experience leaves us no room to doubt of the cheerful and hearty concurrence of our Scots subjects on this occasion, towards the perfecting the great and glorious work; but that none may be deterred by the memory of past miscarriages from returning to their duty, and being restored to the happiness they formerly enjoyed, we in this public manner think fit to make known our gracious intentions towards all our people.

“We do therefore, by this our royal declaration, absolutely and effectually pardon and remit all treasons, and other crimes hitherto committed against our royal father, or ourselves. From the benefit of which pardon we except none, but such as shall, after the publication hereof, wilfully and maliciously oppose us, or those who shall appear or endeavour to appear in arms for our service.

“We farther declare that we will with all convenient speed call a free parliament; that by the advice and assistance of such an assembly, we may be enabled to repair the breaches caused by so long an usurpation, to redress all grievances, and to free our people from the unsupportable burden of the malt-tax, and all other hardships and impositions which have been the consequences of the pretended union; that so the nation may be restored to that honour, liberty, and independency, which it formerly enjoyed.

“We likewise promise upon our royal word to protect, secure, and maintain all our Protestant subjects in the free exercise of their religion, and in the full enjoyment of all their rights, privileges, and immunities, and in the secure possession of all churches, universities, colleges, and schools, conform to the laws of the land.

“All this we shall be ready to confirm in our first parliament; in which we promise to pass any act or acts that shall be judged necessary to secure each private person in the full possession of his liberty and property, to advance trade, to relieve the poor, and establish the general welfare and tranquillity of the nation. In all such matters we are fully resolved to act always by the advice of our parliaments, and to value none of our titles so much as that of common father of our people, which we shall ever show ourselves to be by our constant endeavours to promote the quiet and happiness of all our subjects. And we shall be particularly solicitous to settle, encourage, and maintain the fishery and linen manufactures of the nation, which we are sensible may be of such advantage to it, and which we hope are works reserved for us to accomplish.

“As for those who shall appear more signally zealous for the recovery of our just rights and the prosperity of their country, we shall take effectual care to reward them according to their respective degrees and merits. And we particularly promise, as aforesaid, our full, free, and general pardon to all officers, soldiers, and sailors, now engaged in the service of the usurper, whether of the sea or land, provided that upon the publication hereof, and before they engage in any fight or battle against our forces, they quit the said unjust and unwarrantable service, and return to their duty, in which case we shall pay them all the arrears that shall be at that time due to them from the usurper; we shall grant to the officers the same commissions they shall then bear, if not higher; and to all soldiers and sailors a gratification of a whole year’s pay for their forwardness in promoting our service.

“We farther promise and declare, that the vassals of such as shall without regard to our present declaration, obstinately persist in their rebellion, and thereby forfeit all pretensions to our royal clemency, shall be delivered from all servitude they were formerly bound to, and shall have grants and charters of their lands to be held immediately of the crown, provided they, upon the publication of this our royal declaration, declare openly for us, and join heartily in the cause of their country.

“And having thus declared our gracious intentions to our loving subjects, we do hereby require and command them to be assisting to us in the recovery of our rights, and of their own liberties; and that all our subjects, from the age of sixteen to sixty, do, upon the setting up of our royal standard, immediately repair to it, or join themselves to such as shall first appear for us in their respective shires; and also to seize the horses and arms of all suspected persons, and all ammunition, forage, and whatever else may be necessary for the use of our forces.

“We also strictly command all receivers, collectors, or other persons who may be seized of any sum or sums of money levied in the name or for the use of the usurper, to retain such sum or sums of money in their own hands, till they can pay them to some person of distinction appearing publicly for us, and demanding the same for our use and service; whose receipt or receipts shall be a sufficient discharge for all such collectors, receivers, or other persons, their heirs, &c.

“Lastly, we do hereby require all sheriffs of shires, stewards of stewartries, and their respective deputies, magistrates of royal boroughs, and bailies of regalities, and all others to whom it may belong, to publish this our declaration, at the market crosses of their respective towns and boroughs, and there to proclaim us under the penalty of being proceeded against according to law, for their neglect of so necessary and important a duty.”

After this manifesto had been read, the Marquis of Tullibardine returned to the prince’s quarters with the standard under an escort of 50 Camerons. In about an hour after the conclusion of this ceremony, Macdonald of Keppoch joined the prince with 300 of his men; and in the evening some gentlemen of the name of Macleod, displeased with the conduct of their chief, arrived at Glenfinnan, proffered their services to the prince, and offered to return to Skye, and raise all the men they could in support of his cause. On arriving at Glenfinnan, Macdonald of Tierndriech presented the prince with an excellent horse which he had taken from Captain Scott. The animated appearance of the glen, which now resounded with the martial strains of the pibroch, contrasted strongly with the solitary gloom which pervaded when the prince entered it. Instead of the small party which joined him in the morning, Charles found himself within a few hours at the head of a body of about 1,200 brave and resolute men, warmly attached to his person and cause, at least those of them who were chiefs, and ready and willing to hazard their lives in his service. Charles was exceedingly delighted at the appearance of his little army, and it has been observed that at no other time did he look more cheerful or display a greater buoyancy of spirits.[838]

Of the many singular circumstances attending this extraordinary insurrection, the utter ignorance in which the personage in whose name it was undertaken was kept, is not the least. Charles had indeed written his father on the eve of his departure from France, acquainting him with the resolution he had taken, but before his letter reached Rome, the prince was actually at the head of his army. The object of Charles in concealing his design from the Chevalier is obvious. He was aware that his father would have opposed such a rash attempt, and might probably have applied to the court of France to prevent his departure; and having taken his resolution, he was determined not to put it in jeopardy by too timely an announcement of his intentions. Whatever opinion may now be formed of the prudence of an undertaking, which, had it succeeded, would have been considered as one of the boldest strokes of political wisdom, there can be but one sentiment as to the conduct of the prince, in thus withholding from his parent all knowledge of the design he had formed for accomplishing the object of his daring ambition. Though under the corrupt influence of a few interested persons, whom he kept about his person,[839] he still retained a sufficient portion of filial respect to prevent him from violating the declared injunctions of his father; and as no opposition short of actual violence could have induced him to forego his resolution of going to Scotland, he avoided the disagreeable alternative of disregarding the commands which his father would have laid upon him by taking the course he did.

When the Chevalier de St. George received the prince’s letter, which informed him that he was to proceed instantly to Scotland, he was greatly surprised and agitated;[840] but as the step had been taken, he became reconciled to it, and even could not help applauding the courage of the prince in entering upon the enterprise. Writing to the Duke of Ormond, on the 11th of August, the Chevalier says, “I have now by me your letters of the 14th July, and of the 27th, which last came by the courier, which brought me an account of the resolution the prince had taken, and executed without consulting me, for he was very sure I would not have approved it, tho’ I cannot but say, that the courage and sentiments he shows on this occasion, will always do him honor.”[841] Again in writing to his agent, Sempil, on the same day, he observes, “What takes me up wholly at present, is the resolution the prince has taken and executed, without my knowledge.... The question now is to look forward, and not to blame what is past. It is true, I never should have advised the prince to have taken such a step, but since it is taken it must be supported, and whatever be the event, it will certainly turn much to the prince’s personal honor, nay, even something may be said to justify what he has done. The usage he met with in France, and the dread of a peace, were no doubt strong motives to push him on a rash undertaking, than to sit still; and who knows but what has happened, may, in some measure, force the court of France out of shame to support him, while otherwise perhaps they had continued to neglect him, and then have abandoned him at last.... The prince’s example will, I hope, animate our friends in England; he has ventured generously for them, and if they abandon him, they themselves, and indeed our country, will be ruined.”

It had always been the opinion of the Chevalier--an opinion which experience has shown was well founded--that no attempt on Scotland could possibly succeed, unless accompanied by a simultaneous landing in England; and he now saw the necessity of enforcing this consideration more strongly than ever upon the court of France. In the letter which Charles had sent him, he desired his father to write to the King of France and Cardinal Tencin, entreating them for support. The Chevalier, however, did not confine himself to the king and to the cardinal, but addressed himself also to the Maréchal de Noailles, and the whole of the French ministers. Alluding to the necessity of supporting the prince by a descent on England, the Chevalier says in the letter to Ormond, from which a quotation has already been made; “Enfin, since the step is taken, it is certainly incumbent on all of us to do our best to support it, and I am very sure nothing will be wanting on your side for that effect. My darkness, my anxiety, and the multiplicity of my reflections on this occasion, are so great that I shall not pretend to enlarge on this subject at present. In the mean time, I now write to Lord Marischal by the way of Paris, and write also directly to the King of France, and all the ministers, for without a landing in England is soon made, humanly speaking, it will be impossible for the prince to succeed.” He repeats almost the same observations in his letter to Sempil, also referred to: “I know not particularly the grounds he (the prince) goes upon, but I am afraid there is little room to hope he will succeed, except he be vigorously supported by the court of France; and, therefore, we must all of us in our different spheres leave nothing undone for that effect. I now write myself to the King of France and all the ministers, and we must be all of us more than ever solely and wholly intent on the great object.”

But the Chevalier, in his anxiety to procure early succours for the prince, did not confine himself to words. To pay off the debts which Charles had contracted before his departure, he immediately remitted a sum of 200,000 francs to O’Bryan, his chief agent at Paris, and placed another sum of 50,000 francs in the hands of Waters, junior, his banker in Paris, at the disposal of O’Bryan, to meet instant contingencies.[842] He afterwards remitted to Waters, through Belloni, his banker at Rome, 80,000 Roman crowns, and promised another remittance of 28,000 in a few weeks, which, he said, would exhaust his treasury.

In his letter to the King of France, the Chevalier informed him that he had learned with great astonishment the departure of the prince for Scotland; that knowing well he would never have approved of such a step, he had taken his resolution and put it into effect without consulting him; but that being done, he was obliged in sincerity to confess that he could not but admire the conduct of the prince in entering upon the enterprise, which, he was certain, would make a great and favourable impression upon the minds of his adherents. He stated, however, his conviction, that without the aid of a foreign force it was utterly impossible for the prince to succeed, and he entreated his majesty to furnish the necessary assistance. He reminded him that the prince had been invited by him into France, and although a year and a half had since elapsed, that he certainly had not forgot the object which brought his son thither; and that a crisis had now arrived, when the smallest delay on the part of his majesty might be attended with danger to the success of the brave attempt which the prince had made, and that he might now, at little risk and at a small expense, finish the work which the prince was about to commence. As to himself personally, the Chevalier informed Louis that he had formerly intimated to him that he intended to resign his rights to the prince; and that his intentions were still the same, with this difference, however, that while he formerly considered that such a step would be advantageous for his family, it had now become indispensably necessary for his own honour, on account of his infirmities, as he considered that he should act rashly, and be guilty of bad faith towards his subjects, if he pretended to take upon himself the cares of government, when he was incapable of any fatigue either of body or of mind, and consequently unable to discharge the duties of a sovereign.

FOOTNOTES:

[805] This battle was fought on the 11th May, 1745.

[806] Letter to Colonel O’Bryan, 16th June, 1745, in Stuart Papers.

[807] Lettres et Mémoires du Maréchal de Saxe, Paris, 1794.

[808] Home’s Rebellion, p. 36.

[809] Letter to Colonel O’Bryan, 20th June, 1745, Appendix, No. II. See also Sempil’s letter to the Chevalier, Appendix, No. III.

[810] Forbes Papers, or Jacobite Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745, edited by Dr. R. Chambers, p. 2.

[811] He was styled Duke of Athole by the Jacobites, from being the eldest son of the preceding duke. The marquis had been attainted for the share he took in the insurrection of 1715; and the title and estates were, in consequence of his attainder, now enjoyed by his immediate younger brother.

[812] Forbes Papers, note, p. 1.

[813] Kirkconnel MS.

[814] Kirkconnel MS. Forbes Papers, p. 7.

[815] Forbes Papers, p. 8.

[816] Kirkconnel MS. Forbes Papers, p. 9.

[817] Charles is said to have taken particular care of Sir Thomas Sheridan on this occasion. He “went to examine his bed, and to see that the sheets were well aired. The landlord observing him to search the bed so narrowly, and at the same time hearing him declare he would sit up all night, called out to him, and said, that it was so good a bed, and the sheets were so good, that a prince needed not be ashamed to lie on them. The prince not being accustomed to such fires in the middle of the room, and there being no other chimney than a hole in the roof, was almost choked, and was obliged to go often to the door for fresh air. This at last made the landlord, Angus Macdonald, call out, ‘What a plague is the matter with that fellow, that he can neither sit nor stand still, and neither keep within nor without doors?’”--Jacobite Memoirs, p. 11.

[818] Home’s Rebellion (edition of 1802), p. 29.

[819] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 479.

[820] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 479.

[821] Kirkconnel MS.

[822] Home’s Rebellion, p. 29.

[823] Journal and Memoirs. Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 480-1.

[824] Maxwell of Kirkconnel.--“There are not wanting in Scotland many men to follow such examples: but Lochiel’s feeling was that of far the greater number. The Scots have often been reproached with a spirit of sordid gain. The truth is merely--and should it not be matter of praise?--that by their intelligence, their industry, their superior education, they will always, in whatever country, be singled out for employment, and rise high in the social scale. But when a contest lies between selfish security or advancement on one side, and generous impulse or deep-rooted conviction on the other; when danger and conscience beckon onward, and prudence alone calls back; let all history declare whether in any age or in any cause, as followers of Knox or of Montrose, as Cameronians or as Jacobites, the men--ay, and the women--of Scotland, have quailed from any degree of sacrifice or suffering! The very fact that Charles came helpless, obtained him the help of many. Moreover, Charles was now in the very centre of those tribes, which, ever since they were trained by Montrose, had continued firm and devoted adherents of the House of Stuart.”--Mahon’s England, vol. iii. p. 314.

[825] The following is part of a dialogue which took place between them. “Said Kinlochmoidart, ‘You’ll see the prince this night at my house.’ ‘What number of men has he brought along with him?’ ‘Only seven,’ said Kinlochmoidart. ‘What stock of money and arms has he brought with him then?’ said Mr. Hugh. ‘A very small stock of either,’ said Kinlochmoidart. ‘What generals or officers fit for commanding are with him?’ said Mr. Hugh. ‘None at all,’ replied Kinlochmoidart. Mr. Hugh said he did not like the expedition at all, and was afraid of the consequences. ‘I cannot help it,’ said Kinlochmoidart, ‘if the matter go wrong, then I’ll certainly be hanged, for I am engaged already.’”--Jacobite Memoirs, note, p. 18.

[826] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 481. Note to Jacobite Memoirs, p. 18.

[827] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 482.

[828] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 483.

[829] Idem.

[830] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 17.

[831] Home’s Rebellion, p. 42.

[832] A tribute to the memory of Lochiel, who died in 1748, appeared in the Scots Magazine of that year, part of which we quote:--

Mistaken as he was, the man was just, Firm to his word, and faithful to his trust: He bade not others go, himself to stay, As is the pretty, prudent, modern way; But, like a warrior, bravely drew his sword, And rear’d his target for his native lord. Humane he was, protected countries tell; So rude an host was never rul’d so well. Fatal to him, and to the cause he lov’d, Was the rash tumult which his folly mov’d; Compell’d, by hard necessity to bear, In Gallia’s bands, a mercenary spear! But heav’n in pity to his honest heart, Resolv’d to snatch him from so poor a part The mighty mandate unto death was given, And good LOCHIEL is now a Whig in heaven.

[833] Letter from Lochiel under the signature of “Dan,” Feb. 22d, 1745, in Stuart Papers.

[834] Home, p. 43.

[835] As an inducement to favour his restoration, the Chevalier de St. George promised to ennoble a considerable number of his friends. Patents of nobility were accordingly made out and signed in favour of all the Jacobite chiefs and other leading supporters of the cause. See letter from the Chevalier to the prince, 7th Nov., 1747, in Stuart Papers.

[836] Home, p. 46.--Kirkconnel MS.--Tour in the Highlands. Lond., 1819.

[837] A monument was erected by the late Alexander M’Donald of Glenalladale, on the spot where the standard was unfurled; it bears the following inscription in Latin, Gaelic, and English:--“On this spot, where Prince Charles Edward first raised his standard, on the 19th day of August, 1745; when he made the daring and romantic attempt to recover a throne lost by the imprudence of his ancestors; this column is erected by Alexander M’Donald, Esq. of Glenalladale, to commemorate the generous zeal, the undaunted bravery, and the inviolable fidelity of his forefathers, and the rest of those who fought and bled in that arduous and unfortunate enterprise.”

[838] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 24.

[839] See extract Letter from the Chevalier to O’Bryan, 16 August, 1745, in Stuart Papers.

[840] Writing to O’Bryan, he says, (11 August, 1745,) “Je vous avoue que ma surprise et mon agitation étoient grandes en apprennant cette nouvelle.”--Stuart Papers.

[841] Stuart Papers.

[842] “J’ai, (says the Chevalier to O’Bryan, 16th Aug. 1745,) envoyé la semaine passée 200,000 francs à Paris pour payer ce que le Prince avait emprunté avant que de partir, et j’espère en cas de besoin pouvoir lever quelque argent sur quelques petits fonds qui me restent icy, et sur les pierreries du Prince même, mais tout cela n’ira pas fort loin, et a moins que la France ne la secours largement, je ne sçai ce que arrivera.”--Stuart Papers.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXX. A.D. 1745

BRITISH SOVEREIGN:--George II., 1727-1760.

Conduct of the Government--Intelligence of the Prince’s arrival reaches Edinburgh--Contradictory reports--Preparations of Sir John Cope--Marches to the North--Resolves to march to Inverness --Prince Charles issues a proclamation--Leaves Glenfinnan and crosses Corriearrick--Flight of Cope to Inverness--The Prince marches South--Arrives at Perth--Joined by Lord George Murray and others--Preparations made by the Prince--Alarm in Edinburgh --Association of Volunteers formed--Municipal intrigues.

No event was less expected on the part of the government than the landing of Charles Edward. A flying report had, indeed, been spread in the Highlands in the beginning of summer, that the prince was to come over in the course of that season; but no person, not in the secret of his design, could have imagined that Charles had any intention to risk his person without being accompanied by a sufficient body of troops, and no disposition appeared on the part of France to assist him.

The report alluded to was first communicated in a letter from “a gentleman of consideration in the Highlands” to Lord President Forbes, who, on the 2d of July, showed it to Sir John Cope, the commander-in-chief in Scotland. Little credit was, however, attached to the report, either by the writer of the letter or by the president. Cope, though equally incredulous, considered it his duty to communicate the report to the Marquis of Tweeddale, the secretary of state for Scotland; and to provide against any contingency that might occur, he proposed that the forts of Scotland should be well provided, and that arms should be transmitted for the use of the well-affected clans. In an answer which the marquis wrote upon the 9th, he ordered Cope to keep a strict watch upon the north, but informed him, that, as the measures he proposed were considered by the lords of the regency acting in behalf of the king during his majesty’s absence in Hanover, as likely to create alarm, they had declined to enter into them.[843]

But the lords of the regency were soon aroused from their supineness by advices from abroad that the French court was meditating an invasion of Great Britain, and that the eldest son of the Pretender had left Nantes in a French man-of-war, and, according to some accounts, was actually landed in Scotland. On the 30th of July, the Marquis of Tweeddale wrote to Sir John Cope, communicating to him the news which had just been received, and despatched letters of the same date to Lord Milton, the Justice Clerk,[844] and to the Lord Advocate, with similar intelligence, and enjoining them to keep a strict look out,--to concert what was proper to be done in the event of a landing,--to give the necessary orders for making the strictest inquiry into the truth of the intelligence,--and to transmit to the marquis, from time to time, such information as they were able to collect. The Lords Justices, however, without waiting for a return to these letters, issued, on the 6th of August, a proclamation, commanding all his majesty’s officers, civil and military, and all other loving subjects of his majesty, to use their utmost endeavours to seize and secure the son of the Pretender, promising at the same time a reward of £30,000 to any one who should seize Prince Charles, and “bring him to justice.”

The express sent by the Marquis of Tweeddale reached Edinburgh on the 3d of August, but the advices which had been received in London had preceded it. The Lord President, in a letter written the day before to Mr. Pelham,[845] mentions the alarm which, in a state of profound tranquillity, these advices had created. The report, however, of the prince’s intended visit was discredited by the President, who considered the “young gentleman’s game” to be then “very desperate” in Scotland, the President believing that there was not “the least apparatus for his reception, even amongst the few Highlanders who were expected to be in his interest.” As, however, where there was so much at stake, the President wisely judged that no report respecting the prince’s movements, however improbable, was to be disregarded, he resolved to make his accustomed journey to the north a little earlier than usual, to the end that, though, as he himself observes, his “fighting days” were over, he might give countenance to the friends of government, and prevent the seduction of the unwary, should the report turn out well-founded. On the 8th of August, Forbes wrote the Marquis of Tweeddale, stating that the Lord Advocate and Sir John Cope had informed him of the advices which had been received from abroad, but expressing his disbelief of the report, which he considered “highly improbable.” “I consider the report as improbable,” he observes, “because I am confident that young man cannot with reason expect to be joined by any considerable force in the Highlands. Some loose lawless men of desperate fortunes may indeed resort to him; but I am persuaded that none of the Highland gentlemen, who have ought to lose, will, after the experience with which the year 1715 furnished them, think proper to risque their fortunes on an attempt which to them must appear desperate; especially as so many considerable families amongst themselves have lately uttered their sentiments; unless the undertaking is supported by an arm’d power from abroad, or seconded by an invasion on some other part of his majesty’s dominions.”[846] To provide against any emergency which might arise in the north, his lordship proposed first, that a sufficient number of arms should be lodged in the forts in the Highlands, with directions by whom, and to whom they might be delivered out,--a proposal the same in substance as that made by Sir John Cope; and secondly, that money or credit should be lodged in the hands of confidential persons in the north, for the use of the public service. This last-mentioned measure he considered the more necessary, as it could not be expected, as he observed, that private individuals would come forward with money, when they recollected that several gentlemen, who, in the year 1715, had advanced large sums out of their pockets for the public service, had not even been repaid, far less rewarded by the government.

The Lord President, though a man of sound judgment, and gifted with a considerable portion of political foresight, was in this instance deceived in his speculations; and Lord Tweeddale, perhaps misled by the President, on whose personal knowledge of the state of the Highlands he placed great reliance, adopted the same views. In an answer to the President’s letter, which the marquis wrote on the 17th of August, he thus expresses himself: “I own I have never been alarmed with the reports of the Pretender’s son’s landing in Scotland. I consider it as a rash and desperate attempt, that can have no other consequence than the ruin of those concerned in it.”[847]

On the same day, however, on which the President’s letter to Lord Tweeddale was written, all doubts of the arrival and landing of the prince were removed at Edinburgh. An express came from Lord Milton, the Justice Clerk, then at Roseneath, to Sir John Cope, with a letter dated the 5th, which he had received from Mr. Campbell of Stonefield, sheriff of Argyle, in which was contained a copy of a letter received by the latter from Mr. Campbell of Aird, factor to the Duke of Argyle in Mull and Morvern, announcing the landing of the prince in Arisaig, and stating that some of the Macdonalds were already up in arms, and that other Highlanders were preparing to follow their example. This news was confirmed next day, by another express from the laird of Macleod to the Lord President, dated the 3d of August.[848]

This intelligence, which at first was withheld from the public, was shortly followed by the arrival of the Gazette, containing the proclamation for the apprehension of the prince. Nothing was now talked of at Edinburgh but the threatened invasion. In the state of ignorance in which the public was still kept, the most contradictory reports were circulated. A rumour of the departure of Charles from France had indeed been inserted in the Edinburgh Courant a few days before, and the same paper had also, on the back of this report, stated, upon the alleged information of a foreign journal, that the prince had actually landed in the Highlands, and was to be supported by 30,000 men and 10 ships of war; but neither of these statements appears to have excited any sensation, being generally discredited.[849] Now, however, every person firmly believed that the prince had arrived. One day it was confidently asserted that he had landed in the western Highlands with 10,000 French troops. Next day it was affirmed with equal confidence that he had landed without troops; but that wherever he came the Highlanders to a man had joined him. On the other hand, the Jacobites, who were in the secret of the arrival, anxious to conceal the fact till Charles should be ready to take the field, industriously circulated a report that he was still in France, and had not the least intention of coming over. To divert the public attention, they had recourse to the weapons of ridicule. In their conversation they represented the preparations of the commander-in-chief in a ludicrous light; and to make him contemptible in the eyes of the public, sent him anonymous letters containing most absurd articles of intelligence, which they afterwards circulated with scurrilous comments.[850]

In the present crisis Sir John Cope acted with more wisdom than has been usually ascribed to him, and certainly with more energy than his superiors. Not wishing, however, to trust entirely to his own judgment, he consulted Lord President Forbes, and the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General, the law-officers of the crown, upon the course to be adopted under existing circumstances. No man was better acquainted with every thing appertaining to the Highlands than Forbes; and in fixing upon him as an adviser, Cope showed a laudable desire to avail himself of the best advice and information within his reach. At the period now in question, the insurrection was in a merely inceptive state; and, according to the opinions of those best qualified to judge, there was little probability that it would assume a formidable character. At all events, sound policy dictated that the threatened insurrection should be checked in its bud, and as its progress could only be stopped by the presence of a body of troops, Cope proposed, and his proposal received the approbation of the three public functionaries before named, to march to the Highlands with such troops as he could collect. The number of regular troops in Scotland did not, it is true, amount to 3,000 men, and some of them were newly raised; but there can be little doubt that, by a timely and judicious disposition of about two-thirds of this force in the disaffected districts, the embers of rebellion might have been extinguished. The unfortunate result of Cope’s expedition detracts in no respect from the design he thus formed, though the propriety of his subsequent measures may well indeed be questioned.

Having formed his resolution, the commander-in-chief sent expresses to the Secretary of State for Scotland on the 9th and 10th of August, announcing his intention of marching to the Highlands. In pursuance of this resolution he ordered a camp to be formed at Stirling, and required all the officers who were absent from their regiments, to repair to their respective posts. About the same time he directed the Lord President to take the command of the companies raised in the north for Lord Loudon’s Highland regiment, and notified the appointment to the officers of the regiment commanding in that quarter. As there was no bread in the country through which he intended to march, he bought up all the biscuit which the bakers of Edinburgh and Leith had on hand, and set all the bakers there, as well as those of Perth and Stirling, to work night and day to prepare a quantity of bread sufficient to support his army for twenty-one days.[851]

On receipt of Cope’s letters, the Marquis of Tweeddale laid them before the Lords of the Treasury, who approved of the conduct of the commander-in-chief, and particularly of his resolution to march into the Highlands with such troops as he could assemble. The secretary notified the approbation of their lordships in a letter to Cope; and so satisfied were they with his plan, that when they understood that the march had been delayed only for a day or two, they sent down an express to him, with positive orders to begin his march to the north instantly. Their lordships seem not to have been aware of the causes which retarded his march, not the least of which was the want of money, a credit for which did not arrive till the 17th of August. The order to march reached Edinburgh on the 19th of August, on which day Cope, accompanied by the Earl of Loudon and several officers, set off for Stirling, where he arrived in the evening. Thus, by a singular coincidence, Charles and his opponent placed themselves at the head of their respective armies on the same day.

The force which Cope found upon his arrival at Stirling consisted of twenty-five companies of foot, amounting altogether to 1,400 men, and some of Gardiner’s dragoons. Leaving the dragoons, which could be of no use in a campaign among the mountains, behind him, Cope began his march towards the north on the 20th, carrying along with him four small field-pieces, as many cohorns, and 1,000 stand of spare arms for the use of such of the well-affected Highlanders as might join him. He carried also with him a considerable number of black cattle for the use of the army. Only a part, however, of the bread which had been ordered had arrived; but so anxious was Cope to obey his instructions, that he began his march with the limited supply he had received, after giving orders to forward the remainder as soon as it should arrive at Stirling.

Cope halted on the 21st at Crieff. He was here visited by the Duke of Athole, and his younger brother, Lord George Murray, the latter of whom, doubtless, little imagined he was to act the conspicuous part he afterwards did, as commander of the prince’s army. The duke attended in consequence of a notice which Cope had sent to him and the other leading adherents of the government, through, or in the neighbourhood of whose territories he meant to pass, requiring them to raise their men; but neither the duke nor the other chiefs who had been applied to seem to have been disposed to obey the call. Lord Glenorchy, who arrived shortly after the duke and his brother, excused himself on the ground that he had not had sufficient time. As Cope had calculated upon the junction of a considerable body of Highlanders on his route, he was exceedingly disappointed that his expectations were not likely to be realized, and would have instantly retraced his steps had the orders of government allowed him a discretionary power; but his instructions were too peremptory to admit of a return to Stirling. Seeing, therefore, no use for the large quantity of spare arms, he sent 700 of them back to Stirling castle. This was a judicious step, as from the want of carriages he could not have got them transported to Inverness.[852]

On the 22d the army advanced to Amulree, where it stopped for a supply of bread. Next day it proceeded to Tay bridge, on the 24th to Trinifuir, reaching Dalnacardoch on the 25th of August. Here Cope was met by Captain Sweetenham,--the officer who had been taken prisoner when on his way to Fort William from Ruthven, and who had been released on his parole. This officer informed Sir John that he was carried to Glenfinnan, where he saw the rebels erect their standard, and that when he left them on the 21st they amounted to 1,400 men,--that on the road to Dalwhinnie he had met several parties of Highlanders hastening to join them,--and that on arriving at Dalwhinnie he had been informed that they were 3,000 strong, and were in full march towards Corriearrick, where they intended to meet him and give him battle. Notwithstanding this alarming intelligence, Cope proceeded on his march, and arrived at Dalwhinnie next day. Here he received a letter from Lord President Forbes, written at his seat of Culloden near Inverness, corroborating the intelligence received from Sweetenham of the advance of the rebels, and of their intention to meet him upon Corriearrick.

Corriearrick, of which the royal army had now come within sight, and over which it was Cope’s intention to march into Lochaber, is, as we have already seen, a lofty mountain of immense extent, occupying no less than nine miles out of the eighteen that form the last day’s march from Garviemore to Fort Augustus. It is extremely steep on the south side, and appears at a distance to rise almost as perpendicularly as a wall. Wade, we have seen, carried his road up this steep ascent by a series of many traverses, the descent on the north side being accomplished in much the same manner. As there are several gullies and brooks on the south side, bridges have been thrown across, over which the road is carried. These tortuosities, rendered absolutely necessary from the nature of the ground, almost quadruple the real distance, which, from base to base, does not exceed five miles. As the mountain was peculiarly fitted for the operations of Highlanders, it is evident that in attempting to cross Corriearrick, Cope, if attacked, would labour under every disadvantage; for while his men could not leave the road in pursuit of their assailants, the latter could keep a running fire from numerous positions, from which it would be impossible to dislodge them. Cope was warned by the President of the dangers he would run, and his fears were not a little increased by a report that, on arriving at the bridge of Snugborough, a dangerous pass on the north side of the mountain, he was to be opposed by a body of Highlanders; and that, while this party kept him employed, he was to be attacked in his rear by another body, which was to be sent round the west end of the hill.[853]

Alarmed at the intelligence he had received,--distracted by a variety of reports as to the strength of the enemy, and disgusted with the apathy of those on whose support he had relied, Cope called a council of war at Dalwhinnie, on the morning of the 27th of August, to which he summoned every field officer, and the commanders of the different corps of his little army. He would have acted more judiciously had he convened a council at Dalnacardoch, when he first received intelligence of the advance of the Highlanders. At this meeting, Cope laid before his officers the orders he had received from the secretary of state to march to the north, which were too positive to be departed from without the most urgent necessity. After some deliberation, the council were unanimously of opinion, that the general’s original design of marching to Fort Augustus over Corriearrick, was, under existing circumstances, quite impracticable. Having abandoned the design of crossing Corriearrick, the council next considered what other course should be adopted. The wisest course certainly, if practicable, would have been to march back to Stirling, and guard the passes of the Forth; but against this proposal it was urged, that the rebels, by marching down the side of Loch Rannoch, would be able to reach Stirling before the king’s troops, and that, by breaking down the bridges, they would intercept them in their retreat. As it was impossible to remain at Dalwhinnie, no other course therefore remained, in the opinion of the council, but to march to Inverness. This opinion, which was reduced to writing, and signed by all the members of the council, was delivered to Sir John Cope, who, acquiescing in its propriety, immediately issued an order to march. We must now advert to the proceedings of the prince and his friends.

Charles remained only one night at Glenfinnan. On the 20th of August he marched to the head of Loch Lochy, where he encamped. At this place, a copy of the proclamation for his apprehension was brought him, which exasperated the Highlanders to such a degree that they insisted on a counter one being issued, offering a reward for the apprehension of “the Elector of Hanover.” Charles remonstrated against such a step, but he was forced to yield, and accordingly put forth the following answer:[854]

“Charles, Prince of Wales, &c., Regent of the Kingdoms of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging:

“Whereas we have seen a certain scandalous and malicious paper published in the style and form of a proclamation, bearing date the 6th instant, wherein, under pretence of bringing to justice, like our royal ancestor King Charles the I. of blessed memory, there is a reward of thirty thousand pounds sterling promised to those who shall deliver us into the hands of our enemies, we could not but be moved with a just indignation at so insolent an attempt. And though, from our nature and principles, we abhor and detest a practice so unusual among Christian princes, we cannot but, out of a just regard to the dignity of our person, promise the like reward of thirty thousand pounds sterling to him, or those, who shall seize and secure till our farther orders, the person of the Elector of Hanover, whether landed or attempting to land in any part of his majesty’s dominions. Should any fatal accident happen from hence, let the blame be entirely at the door of those who first set the infamous example.” This proclamation, which was dated from the “camp at Kinlocheill,” was countersigned by Murray of Broughton, who had lately joined the prince, and had been appointed his secretary.

On the 23d, the prince advanced to Fassefern, the seat of Lochiel’s brother, where he passed the night. While at Fassefern, intelligence was received by the prince of the march of Sir John Cope from Stirling. Having previously sent off his baggage under an escort of 200 Camerons towards Moy, in Lochaber, Charles put his army in motion on the 24th, and arrived at Moy on the following day. On the 26th, the prince crossed the water of Lochy with his army, and proceeded to the castle of Invergary, in which he took up his quarters for the night. During the night, he received an express from Gordon of Glenbucket, acquainting him, that Sir John Cope was considerably advanced in his march to the north, and that he intended to cross Corriearrick. About the same time, he was visited by Fraser of Gortuleg, who came to him in name of Lord Lovat, to assure him of his lordship’s services. Fraser advised him to march north, and raise the Frasers of Stratherrick, and assured him that Sir Alexander Macdonald, the laird of Macleod, and many of the Mackenzies, Grants, and Mackintoshes, would join him; but the proposal was opposed by the Marquis of Tullibardine and secretary Murray, the latter of whom considered the early possession of Edinburgh, where he alleged there were many persons ready to join the ranks of the insurgents, of more importance than any advantages that might be derived by remaining in the Highlands.[855]

This opinion was adopted by Charles, who next morning proceeded to Abertarf in Glengarry. He was joined at Low Bridge by 260 of the Stewarts of Appin, under the command of Stewart of Ardshiel, and at Aberchallader, near the foot of Corriearrick, by 600 of the Macdonells of Glengarry, under the command of Macdonell of Lochgarry; and by a party of the Grants of Glenmoriston. With these accessions the force under Charles amounted to nearly 2,000 men. Charles now held a council of war to deliberate upon the course he should pursue,--whether to advance and give battle to Cope, or postpone an engagement till he should receive additional strength. It was clearly the interest of Charles to meet his adversary with as little delay as possible, and as his forces already outnumbered those opposed to him, he could not doubt but that the result of an engagement would be favourable to his arms. The council, every member of which was animated with an ardent desire to engage Cope, at once resolved to meet him. This resolution corresponded with the inclinations of the clans, all of whom, to use the expression of Fraser of Gortuleg on the occasion, were “in top spirits,”[856] and making sure of victory.

The determination of the council, and the valorous enthusiasm of the clans, acting upon the ardent mind of the prince, created an excitement, to which even he, with all his dreams of glory and ambition, had before been a stranger. The generous and devoted people into whose hands he had committed the destinies of his house, struck with admiration by the condescension, and that easy yet dignified familiarity which never fails to secure attachment, were ready to encounter any danger for his sake. No man knew better than Charles how to improve the advantages he had thus obtained over the minds and affections of these hardy mountaineers. Becoming, as it were, one of themselves, he entered into their views,--showed an anxiety to learn their language, which he daily practised,--and finally resolved to adopt their dress. This line of policy endeared him to the Highlanders, and to it may be ascribed the veneration in which his memory is still held by their descendants, at the distance of more than a century. Having in this way inspired his faithful Highlanders with a portion of his own natural ardour, they in their turn, by the enthusiasm they displayed, raised his expectations of success to the highest possible pitch. A remarkable instance of this was exhibited before commencing the march next morning, when, after putting on his Highland dress, he solemnly declared, when in the act of tying the latchets of his shoes, that he would not unloose them till he came up with Cope’s army.[857]

Desirous of getting possession of the defiles of Corriearrick before Cope should ascend that mountain, Charles began his march from Aberchallader at four o’clock of the morning of the 27th August. His army soon reached the top of the hill, and was beginning to descend on the south side, when intelligence was brought the prince, that Cope had given up his intention of crossing Corriearrick and was in full march for Inverness. Cope had put his army in motion the same morning towards Garviemore; but when his van reached Blarigg Beg, about seven miles and a half from Dalwhinnie, he ordered his troops to halt, to face about, and, in conformity with the opinion of his council, to take the road to Inverness by Ruthven. To deceive Charles, Cope had left behind, on the road to Fort Augustus, part of his baggage, some companies of foot, and his camp colours. The news of Cope’s flight (for it was nothing else) was received by the Highland army with a rapturous shout, which was responded to by the prince, who, taking a glass of brandy, said, with a jeering smile, “Here’s a health to Mr. Cope; he is my friend, and if all the usurper’s generals follow his example, I shall soon be at St. James’s.” Every man, by the prince’s orders, drank this toast in a glass of usquebaugh.[858] The Highlanders immediately put themselves in motion, and marched down the traverses on the south side of the mountain with great celerity, as if in full pursuit of a flying enemy, on whose destruction they were wholly bent.

The Highland army continued the same rapid pace till it reached Garviemore, where it halted. A council of war was then held, at which various proposals were made for pursuing and intercepting the enemy; but none of them were agreed to. The council finally resolved to abandon the pursuit of Cope,--to march to the south, and endeavour to seize Edinburgh; the possession of which was considered, particularly by secretary Murray, as of the highest importance. This determination was by no means relished by the clans, who were eager for pursuing Cope, whose army they expected to have annihilated; but their chiefs having concurred in the resolution, they reluctantly acquiesced. A party of 600 Highlanders, however, volunteered to follow Cope under cloud of night; and undertook to give a good account of his army, but the prince dissuaded them from the enterprise.[859]

From Garviemore, Charles despatched Macdonald of Lochgary with a party of 200 men, to seize the small fort of Ruthven, in which there was a garrison of regular troops; but the vigilance of the commander rendered the attempt abortive, and the Highlanders were repulsed with a trifling loss. A party of Camerons, commanded by Dr. Cameron, was sent to the house of Macpherson of Cluny, the chief of the Macphersons, who commanded a company in the service of government, to apprehend him, and succeeded.[860]

On the 29th of August, the Highland army was again put in motion, and advanced towards Dalnacardoch. At Dalwhinnie, they were rejoined by Dr. Cameron and his party, bringing along with them Macpherson of Cluny, who, after a short interview with the prince, promised to raise his clan for his service. On giving this assurance he was released, and went home to collect his men. Next day, Charles marched to the castle of Blair, which had been abandoned by the Duke of Athole on his approach. The Marquis of Tullibardine took possession of the castle as his own property, and immediately assumed the character of host, by inviting Charles and the Highland chiefs to supper.[861] To make his guests as comfortable as possible, the marquis had written a letter from Dalnacardoch, to Mrs. Robertson of Lude, a daughter of Lord Nairne, desiring her to repair to the castle, to get it put in proper order, and to remain there to do the honours of the house on the prince’s arrival.[862]

At Blair, Charles was joined by Lord Nairne, and several other Perthshire gentlemen; but the greater part of the resident gentry had fled on hearing of the entrance of the Highland army into Athole. Charles reviewed his army the morning after his arrival at the castle, when he found that a considerable number of his men were wanting. Some officers were immediately sent to bring them up, and the only reason they assigned for loitering behind, was that they had been denied the gratification of pursuing Cope.

From Blair, Charles sent forward Lord Nairne, and Lochiel, with 400 men, to take possession of Dunkeld, which they entered on the morning of the 3d of September. In this town they proclaimed the Chevalier. After remaining two days at the castle of Blair, Charles repaired on the 2d of September to the house of Lude, where he spent the night,[863] and next day went to Dunkeld, whence he proceeded to Lord Nairne’s house, on the road to Perth. While at dinner, the conversation turning upon the character of the enterprise, and the peculiarity of the prince’s situation, some of the company took occasion to express their sympathy for the prince’s father, on account of the state of anxiety he would be in, from the consideration of those dangers and difficulties the prince would have to encounter. But Charles, without meaning to depreciate his father’s cares, observed that he did not pity him half so much as his brother; “for,” said he, “the king has been inured to disappointments and distresses, and has learnt to bear up easily under the misfortunes of life; but poor Harry! his young and tender years make him much to be pitied, for few brothers love as we do.”[864]

Charles spent the night at Nairne-house, and proceeded next day to Perth, which had been taken possession of by a party of Camerons the preceding evening. Attired in a superb dress of tartan, trimmed with gold, and mounted on Captain Scott’s charger, Charles entered the “fair city,” attended by several gentlemen on horseback. They immediately repaired to the cross, and proclaimed the Chevalier; after which ceremony Charles was conducted, amid the acclamations of the people, to the house of Viscount Stormont, which had been provided for his residence while in Perth. The magistrates and some of the principal inhabitants, following the example set by many of the landed proprietors of the county, abandoned the city on the appearance of the Highlanders, and fled to Edinburgh. An advanced party under Macdonald of Keppoch, had been sent forward to seize Dundee; but being informed by some of the inhabitants, who met him on the road, that his force was too small for the purpose, Keppoch applied for a reinforcement; which was accordingly sent off from Perth, about midnight, under Clanranald. These detachments entered Dundee at day-break, and captured two vessels with arms and ammunition on board, which were sent up the Tay for the use of the royal army.

At Perth, Charles was joined by the Duke of Perth, Lord Ogilvie and Strathallan, Robertson of Strowan, Oliphant of Gask, and several other gentlemen; but the chief personage who rallied under Charles’s standard at Perth, and was indeed among the first to appear there, was Lord George Murray,[865] immediate younger brother to the Duke of Athole. He was conducted by his eldest brother, the Marquis of Tullibardine, into the presence of the prince. Lord George had taken a share in the insurrection of 1715, and was one of the few persons who joined the Spanish forces, which were defeated at Glenshiel in 1719. He afterwards went abroad, and served several years as an officer in the King of Sardinia’s army; but having obtained a pardon, he returned from exile, and was presented to George I. by his brother the Duke of Athole. Lord George was tall in person, and though now past the meridian of life, retained all the qualities of a robust and vigorous constitution. Besides a natural genius for military operations, in which he had had considerable experience, Lord George was fertile in resources, indefatigable in application, and brave even to a fault. With sword in hand he was always the first to rush forward upon the enemy in the day of battle, often saying to his men, “I do not ask you, my lads, to go before, but to follow me.” The accession therefore of such a man, at such a crisis, was of the highest importance to the Jacobite cause. Charles, when at Glenfinnan, had conferred the post of quarter-master-general of the army on O’Sullivan. Aware of the brilliant qualifications of Lord George, the prince, almost immediately on his arrival at Perth, appointed him lieutenant-general, to the great satisfaction of the clans, to whom he was favourably known.

Lord George appointed the Chevalier Johnstone,[866] who had also joined the prince at Perth, his aide-de-camp, and immediately entered on his duties with alacrity. Though the Highlanders acted in complete subordination to their chiefs when in the field of battle, they had so little idea of military discipline, that they would absent themselves without permission, and roam about the country. This happened more particularly on marches, when there was a scarcity of food, on which occasions they would spread themselves over the whole country, in straggling parties, in quest of provisions. The inconveniences and loss of time, and the great abuses to which such a practice led, had been strongly felt in the former insurrection, and had been witnessed by Lord George himself. To prevent a recurrence of such evils during the present contest, the first thing Lord George did, was to advise the prince to appoint proper persons to fill the commissariat department, by whose exertions an adequate supply of food might be provided for the use of the army, without which, he said, it would be impossible to keep the Highlanders together for any length of time. That no delay might take place in waiting for provisions, in forced marches, or in detached enterprises, which required despatch, he caused a considerable number of small knapsacks to be made, sufficient to contain a peck of meal each, which the men could carry on their backs without any inconvenience. A thousand of these knapsacks were sent to Crieff, for the use of the Athole men, who were to march south in that direction.[867]

The march of Charles into Athole had been so rapid and unexpected, that his friends in that district had had no time to gather any considerable force to join him on his route to Perth. He was, therefore, under the necessity of remaining a few days at Perth, to give his adherents time to raise their men. In mustering their tenants and vassals, some of them are said to have met with considerable difficulties from the unwillingness of their people to take up arms, and the Duke of Perth has been charged with the crime of shooting one or two of his tenants, who were refractory, but the charge does not appear sufficiently supported.[868]

Another reason for Charles’s stay in Perth was the want of money. His treasury had been completely drained by his liberal advances for the support of his army; and of the few thousand pounds which he brought with him from France, he had only one guinea remaining when he entered Perth. Taking the solitary coin from his pocket, he showed it to Kelly, one of the gentlemen who came over with him, and told him that it was all the money that now remained; but he added with an air of confidence, that the army had received a fortnight’s pay in advance, and that before the expiration of another fortnight he would receive a fresh supply.[869] In order to meet pecuniary demands, Charles had despatched a circular from Kinlochiel on the 22d of August to his friends in different parts of Scotland, soliciting an immediate supply; but up to the time of his arrival at Perth no money appears to have reached him.[870] Shortly thereafter, however, his expectations began to be realized by some private pecuniary contributions sent by persons well affected to his cause, but who were afraid of openly declaring themselves.[871] But Charles did not trust to such uncertain supplies to recruit his exhausted treasury. Besides compelling the city of Perth to contribute £500, he appointed persons in Perth, Dundee, and other towns in the counties of Perth and Angus, to collect the public money, by means of which, and the contributions of his friends, his coffers were speedily replenished.

During his stay at Perth, Charles devoted almost all his time to the disciplining and training of his men, in writing despatches, and in a variety of military details to which he had hitherto been unaccustomed. Though fond of amusement, he never allowed it to occupy much of his time; and if he accepted a convivial invitation, it was more from a wish not to disoblige than from a desire to join in the festivities of his friends. Amid the occupations of the camp he did not, however, neglect the outward observances of religion. For the first time, it is believed, of his life, he attended the Protestant service at Perth, on Sunday the 8th of September, rather, it may be conjectured, to please his Protestant friends, than from any predilection for a form of worship to which he was an entire stranger. The text appropriately chosen on this occasion by the preacher, a Mr. Armstrong, was from Isaiah xiv., verses 1, 2, “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.”[872] The non-juring Jacobite discourse delivered on the occasion in question, would certainly form an extraordinary contrast with the democratic harangues to which Charles’s great-grandfather, Charles I., and his grand uncle, Charles II., were accustomed to listen from the mouths of the stern Covenanters.

While Charles was thus employed at Perth, Sir John Cope was marching from Inverness to Aberdeen. After leaving the direct road to Fort Augustus, Cope had proceeded by forced marches to Inverness, where he arrived on the 29th of August. Here he met the Lord President, who communicated to him a letter he had received on his arrival in the north, from Sir Alexander Macdonald, informing him of the names of the chiefs who had joined Charles, and requesting directions how to act in the event of the insurgent chiefs being forced to retire to the islands. After consulting with the President, Cope resolved to march back his army to Stirling, provided he could obtain a reinforcement of Highlanders from the Whig clans in the neighbourhood of Inverness. An application was accordingly made to the chiefs; but as it turned out ineffectual, Cope determined to march to Aberdeen and embark his troops for the Frith of Forth. The feelings of alarm and anxiety with which he was agitated on this occasion, are thus described by himself in a letter which he wrote from Inverness, on the 31st of August, to Lord Milton the Justice Clerk:--“I, from the beginning, thought this affair might become serious; and sorry I am that I was not mistaken: indeed, my lord, it is serious. I know your activity and ability in business,--the whole is at stake,--exert your authority,--lengths must be gone,--and rules and common course of business must yield to the necessity of the times, or it may soon be too late. So much fatigue of body and mind I never knew of before; but my health continues good, and my spirits do not flag. Much depends upon the next step we take. In this country the rebels will not let us get at them unless we had some Highlanders with us; and, as yet, not one single man has joined us, though I have lugged along with us 300 stand of arms. No man could have believed that not one man would take arms in our favour, or show countenance to us; but so it is.”[873]

It is rather singular, that on the same day on which the above-mentioned letter was written, the adherents of government at Edinburgh, who had hitherto derided the attempt of the prince, should have been at last aroused to a full sense of the danger they were in. Lulled by a false security, they had never, for a moment, doubted that Cope would be successful on his expedition in the north; but certain intelligence, brought to them by James Drummond or Macgregor, son of the celebrated Rob Roy, who arrived at Edinburgh on the 26th, began to open their eyes. With the object of throwing the government party in the capital off their guard, this man was despatched from the Jacobite camp in Lochaber to Edinburgh, with the necessary instructions. Enjoying in some degree the confidence of the whig party, he was the better fitted to impose upon them by his misrepresentations. When introduced to the public functionaries on his arrival, he stated that the Highland army was not 1,500 strong,--that it was chiefly composed of old men and boys, who were badly armed, and that from what he saw and knew of them he was sure they would fly before Cope’s army. Though unsuccessful, as will be seen, in this branch of his mission, he succeeded in another which he had volunteered to perform, by getting one Drummond, a Jacobite printer, to print the prince’s proclamations and manifestoes, which he took care to distribute throughout the city among the friends of the cause. When apprised of the fact of the publication, the magistrates, without suspecting Macgregor as the importer of these treasonable documents, issued a proclamation, offering a large reward for the discovery of the printer.

Edinburgh, at the period in question, and for many years afterwards, was confined within narrow limits. It had never been properly fortified; and its castle, which majestically overtops the city, and forms the western boundary of that division now called the “Old town,” could afford it little security. On the south and on the east, the ancient city was bounded by a wall varying from ten to twenty feet high. On the north side, a lake, easily fordable, called the North Loch, now drained and converted into beautiful gardens, was its only defence. In several places the old wall had been built upon, so that dwelling houses formed part of the wall, but these erections were overlooked by rows of higher houses without the city. There were no cannon mounted upon the wall, but in some places it was strengthened by bastions and embrasures. The standing force of the city consisted of two bodies, called the Town Guard and the Trained Bands, neither of which now exist. The first, which, at the time we are now treating of, amounted to 126 men, acted in lieu of a police; and though pretty well versed in the manual and platoon exercise, were, from their being generally old men, unfit for military duty. The Trained Bands, or Burgher Guard, which was composed of citizens, and in former times amounted to a considerable number of men, did not at the period in question exceed 1,000. Anciently, the tallest men were armed with pikes, and those of a lower stature with firelocks, and both were provided with defensive armour. The captain of each company, eight in number, instructed his men one day in every week in the exercise of arms;[874] but the pikes and armour were afterwards laid aside, and since the Revolution the Trained Bands had appeared in arms only once in the year, to celebrate the king’s birth-day, on which occasion they were furnished with arms for the service of the day from a magazine belonging to the city.

As it was obvious that, under these circumstances, no effectual resistance could be made to the entrance of an army into the city, the provost and magistrates held a meeting on the 27th of August, at which some of the principal citizens attended, to devise means of defence. At this meeting it was resolved to repair the walls and to raise a regiment of 1,000 men, to be paid by a voluntary contribution of the inhabitants. A standing committee was, at the same time, appointed to carry this resolution into effect, and to advise with the Lord-Justice-Clerk and other judges then in town, and the crown lawyers, as to such other steps as might be considered necessary in the present crisis. To obtain the requisite permission to embody the proposed regiment, an application was sent to London by the Lord Advocate; and leave to that effect was granted on the 4th of September.[875]

Up to the 31st of August, no certain intelligence had been received at Edinburgh of the movements of the Highlanders; but in the evening of that day the inhabitants were thrown into a state of great alarm by receiving intelligence of the march of the Highland army into Athole, and of the ominous departure of Cope for Inverness. Instantly the drum beat to arms, and the town-council having met, they ordained that the keys of the city should be lodged with the captain of the city guard, and ordered sentries to be placed at each of the gates, and the city guard to be augmented. As an additional security, Hamilton’s dragoons, then quartered in the vicinity of the city, were kept under arms that night. The repairs of the city walls were commenced; orders were issued to place cannon on them, and to throw up a ditch on the north side of the castle, and arms were sent from the city magazine to Leith to arm its inhabitants. These preparations, and the hurry and bustle with which it may be supposed they were attended, may appear ludicrous when contrasted with the result; but the public functionaries were bound to put the city in as defensible a state as their means would admit of, and without the least possible delay.

It would have been perhaps fortunate for the honour of the city, if on the present occasion the civic authorities had been allowed, in conjunction with the committee which had been named, to follow out such measures as they might have deemed necessary for defending the city; but, unluckily, there existed a party consisting of ex-magistrates and councillors, who, by the course they adopted, brought dissension among the citizens. This party, at the head of which was ex-provost Drummond, “a zealous loyalist, and one of the most valuable municipal chiefs whom Edinburgh has possessed,”[876] had been succeeded in the town-council by Stewart, the then provost, and his friends, who, for five years, had kept possession of the municipal government, to the entire exclusion of Drummond and his party. Desirous of regaining their lost power, they availed themselves of the present opportunity, the elections being at hand, to instil distrust of the existing magistracy into the minds of the electors, by representing the members of the town-council as Jacobitically inclined, and as indifferent to the preservation of the city from the rebels. And indeed it appears that Stewart showed himself incapable of performing effectually the responsible duties of his office at this important juncture.[877] The opposition party, partly, no doubt, to ingratiate themselves still farther with the electors, the majority of whom were whigs, and warmly attached to the government, really showed greater zeal in organising measures for the defence of the city. They presented, on the 6th of September, a petition to the provost, signed by about 100 citizens, praying that they, the subscribers, might be authorised to form themselves into an association for the defence of the city,--that they might be allowed to name their own officers,--and that an application should be made by the provost to General Guest, for a supply of arms from the castle for their use.[878]

This petition was laid before an extraordinary meeting of the council next day, and the law officers of the crown having given their opinion that the council could legally authorise an arming of the inhabitants for the contemplated purpose, they acceded to its prayer, with the exception of that part which craved that the volunteers should have the nomination of their own officers, a privilege which the provost reserved to himself, in virtue of his office of chief magistrate. To ascertain the names of the citizens who were willing to serve as volunteers, a paper was lodged, on the 9th of September, in the Old-church aisle, and all loyal persons were invited by handbills to subscribe: 418 persons joined this association, and were supplied with arms from the castle. Simultaneously with the formation of the association, the magistrates exerted themselves to raise the regiment they had petitioned for, the warrant for which was received by the provost on the 8th of September; but their efforts were ineffectual, not being able, after a week’s recruiting, to raise 200 men. This paltry force, however, was named the Edinburgh regiment, to distinguish it from the volunteer association.

Hitherto the repairs of the city walls had been steadily progressing, and, to the great scandal of the more religious part of the inhabitants, no cessation took place even upon the Sunday; but although the persons employed upon the walls might plead necessity in justification of their work on the day of rest, they seem to have overlooked that necessity on the 10th of September, the day when the city elections commenced. So great was the anxiety of all classes to ascertain the names of the craftsmen sent up by the different incorporations to the council to represent them, that a total suspension of every business took place, and the magistrates, who felt little difficulty in procuring men to work upon the Sunday, now saw the works almost entirely deserted by the artificers employed upon them.

A few days after receipt of the intelligence of the march of the Highlanders into the low country, Captain Rogers, an aide-de-camp of Sir John Cope, arrived at Edinburgh from Inverness, with instructions to General Guest to send down a number of transports to Aberdeen to carry his men to the southern shores of the Frith of Forth. These vessels sailed from Leith roads on the 10th, under convoy of a ship of war, and their return was expected with the greatest anxiety by the inhabitants of Edinburgh, who were continually looking up to the weather-cocks to ascertain the direction of the wind.

The volunteers being officered and organised, were regularly drilled twice every day. Cannon were brought up from Leith and mounted on the walls, and the defensive works were proceeded with under the superintendence of Maclaurin, the celebrated mathematician, who had furnished the designs.

FOOTNOTES:

[843] Cope’s Trial, p 105. Home, p. 51.

[844] Appendix to Home’s works, No. V.

[845] Culloden Papers, p. 203.

[846] Idem, p. 204.

[847] Idem, p. 203.

[848] Culloden Papers, p. 203.

[849] Chambers’s Rebellion, p. 46.

[850] Home, p. 54.

[851] Cope’s Trial.

[852] Idem.

[853] Cope’s Trial, p. 24. Chambers’s Rebellion, p. 50.

[854] The prince thus relates the circumstances attending this affair in a letter to his father, dated from Perth, 10th September, 1745. “There is one thing, and but one, in which I had any difference with my faithful Highlanders. It was about the price upon my kinsman’s head, which, knowing your Majesty’s generous humanity, I am sure, will shock you, as it did me, when I was shown the proclamation, setting a price upon my head. I smiled, and treated it with the disdain I thought it deserved; upon which they flew into a violent rage, and insisted upon my doing the same by him. As this flowed solely from the poor men’s love and concern for me, I did not know how to be angry with them for it, and tried to bring them to temper by representing that it was a mean barbarous principle among princes, and must dishonour them in the eyes of all men of honour; that I did not see how my cousin’s having set me the example, would justify me in imitating that which I blame so much in him. But nothing I could say would pacify them. Some went even so far as to say,--‘Shall we venture our lives for a man who seems so indifferent of his own?’ Thus have I been drawn in to do a thing for which I condemn myself.”--Jacobite Memoirs, p. 32.

[855] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 442-484.

[856] Culloden Papers, p. 216.

[857] Culloden Papers, p. 216.

[858] Henderson’s History of the Rebellion, p. 34.

[859] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 25.

[860] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 443-485.

[861] Henderson’s History of the Rebellion, p. 36.

[862] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 26.

[863] At Lude Charles “was very cheerful, and took his share in several dances, such as minuets, Highland reels, &c. The first reel the prince called for was ‘This is no mine ain house,’ &c., and a strathspey minuet.”--Jacobite Memoirs, p. 26.

[864] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 468.

[865] See portrait at p. 672.

[866] The author of the Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745-6. He was descended, it is believed, from an ancient and powerful family, the Johnstones of Wamphray. When the news of the prince’s landing was confirmed at Edinburgh, where he lived with his father, Johnstone repaired to Duncrub, the seat of Lord Rollo, whose son was married to Johnstone’s sister; and on the 6th of September, went from Duncrub to Perth, accompanied by two of Lord Rollo’s daughters, who presented him to their relations the Duke of Perth and Lord George Murray.--Quarterly Review, No. lxxi. p. 211. Memoirs, 2d edit. p. 16.

[867] Lord George Murray’s Narrative. Jacobite Memoirs, p. 29. Some idea may be formed of the lieutenant-general’s activity, from the following extract from a letter written on 7th September, by him to his brother the marquis, who was then busily employed raising the men on his brother’s estates. “I hope the meal was with you this day--35 bolls--for it was at Inwar last night: It shall be my study to have more meal with you on Monday night, for you must distribute a peck a man: and, cost what it will, there must be pocks, (small sacks,) made to each man, to contain a peck or two for the men, to have always with them. Buy linen, harn, or any thing; for these pocks are of absolute necessity, nothing can be done without them.... You may please tell your own people, that there is a project to get arms for them.”--Jacobite Memoirs, p. 31.

[868] “In the interior of the Highlands absolute submission seems to have been easily exacted; but in the outskirts, where, perhaps, there was a slight mingling of Lowland population, and where the people were not too blind to see that their leaders alone had an interest in the rising, considerable opposition was offered to the commands of the chief. This was conspicuously visible in the Athole territory. The chivalrous Tullibardine was much provoked by the obstinacy of the retainers of his house in the valleys round Dunkeld. They had to be repeatedly threatened with coercive measures, and appear to have been literally forced into the service by press-gangs from the other clans. He had been absent from the country during the whole interval between the rebellions, and his brother, who adopted the interest of the government, enjoyed his estate. He could not see that this affected his divine right as chief any more than it affected that of his royal master; but the clan appear to have imperfectly participated in such a principle, and to have abandoned, as he expressed it, the virtues of their ancestors.”--Burton’s Scotland after Revolution, vol. ii. p. 414.

[869] Kirkconnel MS.

[870] Lord Elcho afterwards lent the prince 1,500 guineas. A curious correspondence on the subject of repayment will be found in the Stuart Papers.

[871] Kirkconnel MS.

[872] Caledonian Mercury, as referred to by Dr. Chambers.

[873] Home, p. 318.

[874] Maitland’s History of Edinburgh, p. 285. Home, p. 67.

[875] Home, p. 67.

[876] Burton.

[877] Burton, vol. ii. p. 451.

[878] Home, p. 69.

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