*

manded by Lord Mar had opened their fire upon the Royalists' left wing. The first fire of the English in return mortally wounded the Chief of Clanranald, a gallant veteran who had served abroad under Marshal Berwick, and who is remembered in the Highlands to this day for his feudal state and splendour. For a moment the fall of this revered leader damped the courage of the clans. But Glengarry, starting from the ranks, and throwing his bonnet into the air, "Revenge! Revenge!" he cried in Gaelic; "to-day for revenge, and to-morrow for mourning!" Fired at these quickening words, the Highlanders rushed forward; in another moment they were upon-amongst the enemy, thrusting aside the bayonets with their targets, and by their broadswords spreading destruction and-what with Englishmen is still more difficult-terror through the hostile ranks. In a few minutes the whole of Argyle's left wing was completely routed. General Whitham fled headlong from the field, and never stopped till he found himself in the streets of Stirling. Nor do terrified generals ever want followers. A part of the Royal centre gave way with their left wing, and, had these been vigorously charged, the whole might have been scattered; but this opportunity being neglected, chiefly from the obstinacy and waywardness of the Master of Sinclair, General Wightman drew off three regiments of foot to the right, and then marched forward to rejoin Argyle.

The two armies were now in a very strange situation, each having defeated the left wing of the other. Argyle had had no communication with the main body of his forces; an aide-de-camp whom he sent for that purpose having fallen as he passed along the lines; and it was afterwards ironically said of the Duke by his enemies, that he had strictly fulfilled the Christian precept of not letting his left hand know what his right was doing. On being joined, however, by the three regiments of foot, and learning the disaster of the rest, he with an undaunted spirit,† immediately drew together his weary soldiers, and led them back to the field of battle. Lord Mar, on his part, had driven the fugitives before him as far as Corntown, a village near Stirling, when he heard of the Duke's success on the other wing. At this intelligence he stopped short, ranged his men in some order, and marched back to the Sheriffmuir, where, fearful of ambuscade or surprise, he took up his position on some rising ground. From thence he soon beheld the harassed forces of Argyle on their return, slowly toiling along the road at the bottom of the hill. So scanty was their number, and so exhausted their strength, that a single charge down-hill must have, in all probability, destroyed them. Argyle himself fully expecting an attack, ranged his men behind some enclosures and mud walls, placed two cannon in his

This was the same chief who had carried the Royal standard at the battle of Killiecrankie. He died in 1724. Scott's note to Sinclair, p. 292.

One of his officers observing to him that he much feared his Grace had not won a complete victory, Argyle answered in two lines of an old Scotch song:

"If it was na weel bobbit, weel bobbit, weel bobbit,

If it was na weel bobbit, we'll bobb it again!"

front, and steadily awaited the danger. In this position both armies remained for some time, gazing at each other; but the energy of Mar utterly failed him at this decisive crisis. Instead of crying Forwards! he gave orders for a retreat in the opposite direction; and the Duke, hearing the sound of the receding bagpipes, quietly pursued his march to Dumblane, where he fixed his quarters for the night. It was on this occasion that Gordon of Glenbucket, one of the insurgent Highlanders, his heart swelling at the torpor of his general, made the celebrated exclamation, "Oh, for an hour of Dundee !"*

Thus ended the desultory and half-fought battle of Sheriffmuir. Both parties eagerly claimed the honour of a victory in their despatches, thanksgivings, and sermons;† but the Duke showed the better right to it, by re-appearing on the field of battle the next morning with his guard, while Mar never came again within several miles of it. Argyle might also boast of the usual trophies of success; having captured four pieces of cannon, thirteen stand of colours, and three standards, including the Royal one, called "the Restoration." The loss of men sustained by the two armies bore a more equal proportion. The insurgents are supposed to have had 700 killed, including the young Earl of Strathmore,§ and other persons of note; nearly 200, amongst them Lord Strathallan, were sent prisoners to Stirling; and many more had been taken, but were rescued in the course of the engagement; as was the case, for instance, with the Earl of Panmure, and Mr. Robertson of Strowan. The Duke's army had nearly 200 killed, as many wounded, and scarcely fewer taken; the most eminent among the last being the Earl of Forfar and Colonel Lawrence.

It must also be observed, that several of the chiefs and soldiers in Mar's army were, at best, but lukewarm in the cause, and inefficient in the conflict. According to the Master of Sinclair's own avowal, it appears that he, Lord Huntly, and several others, were desirous, even before the battle, of treating with Argyle and laying down their arms. From such men, even though personally brave,

Scott's note to Sinclair's MS. p. 843. "If they had but thrown down stones," says Sir Walter," they might have disordered Argyle's troops." General Wightman himself owns in his official despatch (Nov. 14, 1715), “If they had had either courage or conduct, they might have entirely destroyed my body of foot; but it pleased God to the contrary."

It may be observed that a controversial war of sermons was waged at this period between both camps. The party of the established Government were particularly pleased with a text which they thought happily reflected on the titles of James the Seventh, and of the Pretender as James the Eighth, of Scotland:-" And the beast that was and is not, even he is the Eighth, and is of the Seven, and goeth into perdition." Rev. xvii. 11.

Woodrow Lettters, MS., as quoted in Chambers' History.

He was taken and murdered by a dragoon; and it may "be said of his fate, that a mill-stone crushed a brilliant." Sinclair's MS. p. 859.

Sinclair's MS. p. 790. Soon afterwards Sinclair and Lord Rollo secretly offered to go over with the whole Fife squadron!—a fact which Sinclair takes care to suppress in his Memoirs, but which appears from Lord Townshend's despatch of Jan. 10, 1716. See Appendix.

no great exertions could be expected. Sinclair, as I have already mentioned, refused to charge. The Marquis of Huntly made what historians, when speaking of great men, usually call "a prudent retreat." Of Lord Seaforth's common Highlanders, we are told, without circumlocution, that they "ran off." Robert MacGregor, afterwards so well known under his nickname of Rob Roy, showed hardly more spirit: when he received orders to advance, he merely said to the messenger, "If they cannot do it without me, they shall not do it with me." The Stuarts of Appin and the Camerons of Lochiel, two of the bravest clans of the Highlanders, retired without striking a blow. The latter were commanded by the son of Sir Evan Dhu, the renowned chieftain who had fought against Cromwell, and who was still alive in 1715, but incapable, from his great age, of taking the field; and it is said that, on returning home, the clan contrived to keep the event of the battle a secret from their aged chieftain-ashamed to make him feel that the Camerons had declined from the spirit of their fathers.

* This son, John Cameron, was father of Donald, of whom Sir Walter Scott says that "he united all the accomplishments of a gentleman and scholar with the courage and high spirit of a Highland chief." Notes to Sinclair, p. 292. Donald was the hero of Mr. Campbell's poem, "Lochiel;" and will be frequently mentioned in my narrative of "the 45."

[In the introduction to Rob Roy (Revised Edition of the Waverley Novels), Sir Walter Scott has given a particular and interesting account of Rob Roy's conduct at Sheriffmuir; he attributes his inactivity not to want of spirit, but to the conflict between his Jacobite partialities and a sense of obligation to his patron the Duke of Argyle.]

CHAPTER VI.

AFTER the battle of Sheriffmuir, the Duke of Argyle returned to his former camp at Stirling, satisfied at having arrested the progress of the insurgents, and maintained the passage of the Forth. It was still in the power of Lord Mar to have renewed the conflict, and such was the wish of many of his officers. "If we have not yet gained a victory," said General Hamilton, "we ought to fight Argyle once a week till we make it one." But more timid counsels prevailed, and Mar, leading back his troops to Perth, relapsed into his former inactivity.

The time when he might have acted with effect was, indeed, already flown. It was observed at the time, by even the detractors of Argyle's military reputation, that whether or not Sheriffmuir were a victory for the Duke, it was at least a victory for the King. The clans speedily began to forsake the standard of Mar, and to go home; some in order to secure their plunder, others from shame at their late misconduct; some from having quarrelled with their Lowland allies, others because disheartened at the General's temporising policy. News also reached head-quarters that Lord Sutherland was advancing at the head of the Monroes, the Mackays, and other Whig clans, and that Inverness had been retaken from the insurgent garrison by Forbes and Culloden and Simon Fraser of Lovat.* This intelligence afforded to Lords Huntly and Seaforth a plausible pretext, which they had for some time desired, of withdrawing from the enterprise. "It was their duty," they said, "to cover their own country;" and they marched with all their retainers from the camp; not, however, without many promises of a speedy return.

Through these and similar causes, Lord Mar's army dwindled to half its original numbers: nor was the remnant firm and compact. There were not a few, who, hopeless of success, apprised of the surrender at Preston, having no tidings whatever of the Chevalier, and believing him, therefore, to be a prisoner in England, were inclined to lay down their arms if they could obtain honourable terms. Mar endeavoured, on the contrary, to persuade them to sign a declaration, which should engage them to stand by the cause and by each other. At length, however, to prevent private and separate trea

This was the famous-may we not say the infamous ?-Lord Lovat, executed in 1745. His deceit and treachery are still proverbial in the Highlands. He had originally joined the insurgents of 1715, but now turned against them with the view of establish. ing his pretensions as head of the family against the claims of a Jacobite heiress. Chambers History, p. 283.

ties, he was compelled to promise that he would ascertain how far Argyle might be inclined to treat, or what terms he might be prepared to offer. For this overture Mar employed two channels of communication: first, the Countess of Murray, the Duke's aunt; and secondly, Colonel Lawrence, one of the prisoners at Sheriffmuir, who was now released on parole.* The Duke sent a very courteous answer, declaring that his instructions only enabled him to treat with individuals, and not with the whole body, but that he would immediately apply for more extended powers. According to this promise, he sent his commission to London for enlargement. The ministers, however, were by no means inclined to come into his views. They had averted Ormond's insurrection; they had crushed Forster's; they had therefore the best part of their troops at their disposal, and were determined not to treat on a footing of equality with the rebels who still remained in arms, wishing not merely to lop the growth, but to pluck out the roots, of the rebellion. Some reports had already reached them as to Argyle's doubtful and temporising views; and so far from enlarging his commission, they would not even return his old one. Moreover, the 6000 Dutch troops for whom they had applied had landed about the middle of November, and were already in full march to Scotland.

On the arrival of these powerful reinforcements, Argyle's army was increased in a still greater proportion than Mar's had fallen off, and he might now consider the rebels as completely in his grasp. A great fall of snow at this season, and a long continued frost, alone, he said, prevented him from marching against them. Mar remained at Perth only as it were by sufferance, and had secretly determined, whenever Argyle should advance, to yield the town without a blow.†

It was at the time that the affairs of the Chevalier bore this lowering and gloomy aspect, that he himself arrived in Scotland. I have elsewhere explained the reasons of his long delay, and shown that it was in no degree attributable to any want of zeal or spirit on his part. He landed at Peterhead on the 22d of December, attended by only six persons, one of whom was the Marquis of Tynemouth, son of the Duke of Berwick; and the vessel that brought him was immediately sent back to France with the news of his safe arrival. He passed through Aberdeen without disclosing the secret of his rank, and proceeded to Fetteresso, the principal seat of his young partisan the Earl Marischal, where he was detained for several days

* I have compared Sinclair's Memoirs, p. 1086, with Lord Mar's Journal from France: but neither of these is much to be trusted on this point, the former being a philippic against Mar, and the latter his apology. In the collection of original papers (p. 114), is given a most minute report to Lord Mar from a trumpet, John Maclean, sent to Stirling on a previous message. He especially dwells on the good cheer he received, which to him was probably not the least interesting part of the business:"A sentry brought me my dinner, viz. pies, roast beef, and hens, and a bottle of wine; and in the afternoon another bottle of wine, and at night a third. . . Mr. Kinears showed me

......

his embroidered vest, and asked me if I saw any gentleman at Perth with a vest such as he wore? I said a thousand," &c.

† Lord Mar's Account from France; Tindal's Hist., vol. vi. p. 495.