with bars of it, which they proposed to carry down to Scotland with them!

The behaviour of the Prince also tended to dishearten the soldiers. He seemed to conduct himself on the retreat as if he were no longer commander of the army. Instead of taking the vanguard on foot, at the head of his people, with his target at his back, as had been his custom during the advance, he now lingered behind his men, so as to retard them, and then rode forward and regained his place in the column; he showed, in short, obvious marks of being dejected and out of hu

mour.

The few English insurgents by whom the Prince had been joined, were divided in opinion whether they should follow this retrograde movement, which coincided so ill with their more sanguine hopes, or remain hehind, and desert the cause. Morgan, one of these English volunteers, came up to Vaughan, a gentleman of the same country, and observed, in a tone of surprise, that the army were going to Scotland; "Be it so," answered Vaughan, "I am determined to go with them wherever their course lies."-Morgan replied, with an oath, it was better to be hanged in England than starved in Scotland. He had the misfortune to be hanged accordingly, while Vaughan escaped, and died an officer in the Spanish service.

The people of the country, who had shown them. little good-will upon their advance, appeared more actively malevolent when they beheld the Scots in retreat, and in the act of pillaging the places they

that of an orderly and civilized people. Now, when irritated by disappointment, they did not scruple to commit plunder in the towns and villages through which they passed; and several acts of violence induced the country people not only to fear them as outlandish strangers, but to hate them as robbers.1 In the advance, they showed the sentiments of brave men, come, in their opinion, to liberate their fellow-citizens;—in the retreat, they were as caterans returning from a creagh. They evinced no ferocity, however, and their rapine was combined with singular simplicity. Iron being a scarce commodity in their own country, some of them were observed, as they left Derby, to load themselves

1 [And as cannibals also, by the Chevalier Johnstone's account. "The terror of the English," says he, "was truly inconceivable, and in many cases they seemed quite bereft of their senses. One evening, as Lochiel entered the lodgings assigned to him, his landlady, an old woman, threw herself at his feet, and with uplifted hands, and tears in her eyes, supplicated him to take her life, but to spare her two little children. He asked her if she was in her senses, and told her to explain herself; when she answered that every body said the Highlanders ate children, and made them their common food. Mr Cameron having assured her that they would not injure her or her little children, or any person whatever, she looked at him for some moments with an air of surprise, and then opened a press, calling out with a loud voice, Come out, children; the gentleman will not eat you.' The children immediately left the press, where she had concealed them, and threw themselves at his feet. They affirmed in the newspapers of London that we had dogs in our army trained to fight; and that we were indebted for our victory at Gladsmuir to those dogs, who darted with fury on the English army. They represented the Highlanders as monsters with claws instead of hands. In a word they never ceased to circulate, every day, the most extravagant and ridiculous stories with respect to the Highlanders."-Memoirs, pp. 76, 77.]

passed through. At a village near Stockport, the inhabitants fired upon the patrols of the Highlanders, who, in retaliation, set fire to the place. Most of the country-people were in arms, and all stragglers were killed or made prisoners. The sick men also, of the Jacobite army, who were necessarily left behind the march, were killed or treated with violence. On the 9th of December the army approached Manchester; but in that city, which had lately appeared so friendly, they now encountered opposition. A violent mob was in possession of the town, and opposed the quartermasters of the Chevalier's army. Two battalions and two squadrons were detached to support the quartermasters, by whom the mob was dispersed. L.2500 was demanded from the town, in conse quence of this riot. On leaving the place, the mob even pursued, and fired upon the rear of the Chevalier's army, although they uniformly retreated so soon as the rear-guard faced about. The temper of the people, however, served to show how little reliance could at any time have been placed upon their attachment.

The Duke of Cumberland, who, as I already said, was lying at Litchfield, while Prince Charles was at Derby, did not learn for two days that the Highlanders had left Derby for Ashburn on the 6th; and did not commence any pursuit until the 8th, when the Duke marched northward with all his cavalry, and a number of infantry mounted upon horses furnished by the neighbouring gentry. The troops advanced with the utmost spirit. The

retreat of the Scottish army, whose advance had been regarded with a vague apprehension of terror, was naturally considered as an avowal of their inability to execute their purpose; and it was concluded by the regular soldiery, that they were pressing upon the flight of a disappointed and disheartened body of adventurers, who had failed in an attempt to execute a desperate object. The English troops also felt in spirits, as being under the command of a Prince of the blood, of undoubted experience and courage, who had arrived in Britain in time to assert the cause of his father, and to fix upon his head the crown which had been so boldly struck at. They anticipated little opposition from an enemy in full retreat, and whom, it might be supposed, a brisk attack would throw into utter disorder; their cavalry, therefore, pressed forward, in spirits, and by forced marches.

On their part, the Highlanders retreated with speed, regularity, and unabated courage. Lord George Murray, to vindicate the sincerity of his attachment to the cause he had embraced, undertook the charge of the rear-guard, the post of danger and of honour. This frequently detained him a considerable time beyond the march of the main body, more especially for the purpose of bringing up the baggage and artillery of the army, which, from the bad weather and bad state of the roads, was perpetually breaking down, and detained the rear-guard considerably.

Towards the evening of the 17th of December, the Prince, with the main body of his army, had