even at the windows, and even among the common people many showed their dislike by a sullen silence.*

At the same time that Charles was gratified with this introduction to royalty, his followers were preparing to support it by seizing the cannon, arms, and ammunition belonging to the city, which, through the imbecility of the magistracy, fell into their hands an easy prey. The day following, being Wednesday the eighteenth, they issued a proclamation requiring all persons in the shire of Edinburgh, forthwith to deliver up, at the palace of Holyrood, all the arms and ammunition they had in their custody, on pain of being treated as rebels, and on Thursday the nineteenth, they sent a message in writing to the city of Edinburgh, requiring, on pain of military execution, that one thousand tents, two thousand targets, six thousand pairs of shoes, and a proportional number of water cantines, should be furnished to their army against the twenty-third, and promising payment as soon as the present troubles should be over. these things were accordingly furnished, and to defray the expense a tax laid upon the inhabitants of two shillings and sixpence in the pound of real rent, within the city, Canongate, and Leith.

All

with repair to his majesty's royal standard, or join themselves to such as shall first appear in their respective shires for his service, 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.

Lastly, we do hereby require all mayors, sheriffs, and other magistrates, of what denomination soever, their respective deputies, and all others to whom it may belong, to publish this our declaration at the market crosses of their respective cities, towns, and boroughs, and there to proclaim his majesty, under the penalty of being proceeded against according to law, for the neglect of so necessary and important a duty; for as we have hereby graciously and sincerely offered a free and general pardon for all that is past, so, we at the same time seriously warn all his majesty's subjects, that we shall leave to the rigour of the law, all those who shall from henceforth oppose us, or wilfully and deliberately do and concur in any act or acts civil or military, to the let or detriment of us, our cause or title, or to the destruction, prejudice, or ammoyance of those who shall, according to their duty, and our intentions thus publicly signified, declare and act for us.

"Given at Paris, the 16th May, 1745.

* Home's History of the Rebellion, p. 73

"C. P. R."

Whilst the metropolis of Scotland was thus subjected to the sway of an usurper, Sir John Cope, whose erratic expedition to the Highlands had unwittingly made way for so many evils, was doing all that he could to remedy the mistake he had made. Having reached Inverness, where he was joined by two hundred Munroes, he made every disposition for marching back to the metropolis without a moment's loss of time. To facilitate his progress, he sent a special messenger to Leith to order transports round to Aberdeen, which place he reached on the eleventh of September, and finding the transports in waiting, embarked immediately, and arrived, as we have had occasion already to state, at Dunbar, on the evening of the sixteenth. The troops were landed on the seventeenth, on which day he was joined by Hamilton's and Gardiner's dragoons, who, after making good their retreat from the Colt Bridge on the sixteenth, were encamped on a field between Preston Grange and Dauphinston, where one of them, seeking forage for his horse after dark, fell into an old coal pit, where he made such a noise, that his companions imagined the whole Highland host was upon them, and mounting their horses, fled to Dunbar in the utmost trepidation. Colonel Gardiner, who had gone to bed in his own house hard by, "knew nothing of the matter till next morning, when he rose, and followed his men," says Home, "with a heavy heart, for the road to Dunbar was strewed with swords, pistols, and firelocks, which were gathered together, and carried in covered carts to Dunbar, so that the flight of the two regiments was very little known in the army.'

The eighteenth was partly employed in disembarking the artillery and stores, and in making other necessary preparations for marching to the attack of the rebels, of whose number, equipments, and general appearance, the commander in chief received a most circumstantial account from a volunteer, who had the day before personally examined them at all their posts, and passed leisurely through their main body. He was also joined by the

* Home's History of the Rebellion, pp. 73, 74.

This volunteer was probably no other than the celebrated Mr. John Home, and we have the following strikingly graphic account of the Highland army from his own pen:

"That day a volunteer from Edinburgh was introduced to Sir John Cope,

earl of Home, who, being an officer in the guards, thought it his duty to offer his service when his majesty's forces were in the field, and it did not fail to excite unfavourable remarks on the state of the country, that this noble lord, whose ancestors could in a few days, perhaps a few hours, have raised a body of men before whom this army, which had obtained possession of the metropolis of Scotland, and was prepared to fight the collected military force of that kingdom, would have fled in the utmost dismay,

who told the general that he had remained in Edinburgh after the rebels took possession of the town, not only from curiosity to see the Highland army and their leader, but to make himself sure what was the number of the rebels, which, during their march to Edinburgh, nobody seemed to know; that he had gone to the different posts which they occupied in the town, and reckoned them pretty exactly; that he had gone up to the hollow between the hills, where the main body of their army lay; that when he came there, fortune favoured his design, for a great quantity of provisions, which had been ordered from the town, was brought to the Highlanders just as he arrived amongst them, and they were sitting in ranks upon the ground extremely intent on their food; that in this situation he found no difficulty in counting them man by man, and was persuaded that the whole number of Highlanders whom he saw, within and without the town, did not amount to two thousand men ; but he was told that several bodies of men from the north were on their way, and expected very soon to join them at Edinburgh.

"The general asked, what sort of appearance they made, and how they were armed? The volunteer answered, that most of them seemed to be strong, active, and hardy men; that many of them were of a very ordinary size, and if clothed like Low countrymen, would in his opinion appear inferior to the king's troops; but the Highland garb favoured them much, as it showed their naked limbs, which were strong and muscular; that their stern countenances, and bushy uncombed hair, gave them a fierce, barbarous, and imposing aspect. As to their arms, he said that they had no cannon nor artillery of any sort, but one small iron gun, which he had seen without a carriage lying upon a cart drawn by a little Highland horse; that about fourteen or fifteen hundred of them were armed with firelocks and broadswords; that their firelocks were not similar nor uniform, but of all sorts and sizes-muskets, fusees, and fowling pieces; that some of the rest had firelocks without swords, and some of them swords without firelocks; that many of their swords were not Highland broadswords, but French; that a company or two (about one hundred men) had each of them in his hand the shaft of a pitchfork, with the blade of a scythe fastened to it, somewhat like the weapon called the Lochaber axe, which the town guard soldiers carry; but all of them, he added, would be soon provided with firelocks, as the arms belonging to the Trained Bands of Edinburgh had fallen into their hands."-Home's History of the Rebellion, pp. 74, 75.

was now attended in the camp only by two servants. Several of the judges and men of law came also to the camp, "not as fighting men, but as anxious and interested spectators of the approaching action."

On the nineteenth Sir John Cope left Dunbar, and proceeded towards Edinburgh; and though his army was small, the march was grand and imposing,-the cavalry, the infantry, the cannon, with a long train of baggage carts, extended along the road for several miles. The people of the country flocked from all quarters, to gaze upon a spectacle so novel as an army going to fight a battle in East Lothian, the issue of which they could not contemplate without deep concern.

In the evening the army encamped in a field to the west of Haddington, and sixteen young men who followed the camp were employed to ride between Haddington and Duddingston during the night, lest the Highlanders, by the celerity of their movements, might surprise the army. About nine o'clock eight of them set out, two and two, by four different roads that led to Duddingston, and, returning at midnight, made a report to the officer who commanded the piquet: the other eight set out at midnight, and rode till break of day between the two armies.* Next day the army moved again, directing its march towards Edinburgh by the post road till it came near Huntington, and turning off there, to avoid several defiles and enclosures that lay upon the post road, took the low road by St. Germains and Seton. During the march, the officers assured the numerous spectators who attended them that there would be no battle, as the Highlanders would not wait the attack of an army so complete, as they supposed their own now to be. How they came to form such an opinion, so contrary to all former experience,

• These young men had all belonged to the Edinburgh volunteers, and of the last division, two, approaching too near Duddingston, were made prisoners by the rebels, who threatened to hang them for spies. When the rebels marched to meet Sir John Cope, they carried them along to be placed, as they said, in the front of the army, and exposed to the fire of their friends: when the armies came in sight of each other, the Highlanders marched them backwards and forwards for some time, and at last allowed them to slip away, and they joined their friends the afternoon before the battle. They were Francis Garden, afterwards lord Gardenstone, and Robert Cunningham, afterward general Cunningham.-Home's History of the Rebellion, pp. 76, 81.

and to circumstances of the most recent date, it is not easy to conceive. True it is, however, that they had formed it, and every man who ventured to express himself otherwise was regarded as an enemy, or at best but a lukewarm friend.

As the communication with Dunbar and Edinburgh was perfectly free, the rebels had the most accurate information of every movement made by the king's army, and their measures were taken accordingly. On the evening of Thursday the nineteenth, Charles came to his camp at Duddingston, where, in a council of war, he proposed to march next morning, and meet the royal army half way, which was considered by the chiefs to be the best plan they could adopt. They accordingly next morning marched from Duddingston in a column of three men deep, which was their uniform method of marching, though they were sometimes in two columns. Crossing the Esk at Musselburgh, they proceeded along the post road till they came to Edge Bucklin Brae, when they left the post road, and, by the west side of Wallyford, advanced a considerable way up Fawside Hill, when turning to the left, they bent their course towards Tranent, and coming again into the post road to the west of that town, continued their march till they came in sight of the king's army, which gave a vehement shout as they came in view. This shout the Highlanders returned, and marching on till the head of the column was near Tranent, they halted, faced to the left, and formed the line of battle about half a mile from the king's army.

Sir John Cope having certain information from lord Loudon, who had been sent on before to reconnoitre the ground, that the rebels were in full march to meet him, pitched upon the plain between Seton and Preston, which lay before him, as the most proper place to receive them. He accordingly continued his march till he came to the place since known by the name of the Battle Field, where he formed his army fronting the west, the quarter from which the rebels were expected. Having made a circuit in their march, however, they came in sight from the south, to which the front of his army was instantly turned. On his right was the village of Preston, with the east wall of Mr. Erskine of Grange's property, which, extending a considerable way from south to north, had a high road at each end of