towards Edinburgh, by the ordinary post-road from Haddington. After marching a very few miles, it occurred to him, that the defiles and inclosures near the road would, in case of an attack, prove unfavourable to the action of cavalry: and he resolved to adopt a less frequented and more open path. On coming to Huntington, therefore, he turned off to the right, and took what is called the Low Road, that is, the road which traverses the Low country near the sea, passing by St Germains and Seton. At the same time, he sent forward his adjutant-general, the Earl of Loudoun, accompanied by the Earl of Home, to mark out a camp for the army near Musselburgh, intending to go no farther that day. During the march, his soldiers were in the highest spirits; the infantry feeling confident in the assistance of the cavalry, and the cavalry, who had betrayed still greater pusillanimity when unsupported, acquiring the same courage by a junction with the infantry.

The first files of the troops were entering the plain betwixt Seton and Preston, when Lord Loudoun came back at a round pace, with information that the Highlanders were in full march towards the Royal army. The general surprised, but not disconcerted by this intelligence, and thinking the plain which lay before him a very proper place to receive the enemy, called a halt there, and drew up his troops with a front to the west. His right was thus extended to the sea, and his left towards the village of Tranent. Soon after he had taken up his ground, the Chevalier's army came in sight.

CHAPTER XII.

THE PRINCE'S MARCH TO PRESTON.

When Charlie looked this letter upon,
He drew his sword the scabbard from,
Crying, "Follow me, my merry, merry men,
And we'll gi'e Johnnie Cope his morning!"
Jacobite Song.

THREE days of rest at Edinburgh, where they were supplied with plenty of food, and did not want opportunities of improving their appointments, had meanwhile increased in no inconsiderable degree the efficacy and confidence of "Charlie and his men. Learning that Cope had landed at Dunbar, and was marching to give him battle, the Prince came to Duddingston on Thursday night, where, calling a council of war, he proposed to march next morning, and meet the enemy half way. The council agreed, that this was the only thing they could do; and Charles then asked the Highland chiefs, how they thought their men would behave in meeting a general who had already avoided them. The chiefs desired MacDonald of Keppoch to speak for them, as he had served in the French army, and was thought to

know best what the Highlanders could do against regular troops. Keppoch's speech was brief, but emphatic. He said, that the country having been long at peace, and few or none of the private men having ever seen a battle, it was difficult to foretell how they would behave; but he would venture to assure his Royal Highness, that the gentlemen would be in the midst of the enemy, and that the clansmen, devoted to their chiefs, and loving the cause, would certainly not be far behind them. Charles, catching the spirit of the moment, exclaimed he would be the first man to charge the foe, and so set, if possible, a still more striking example of attack! But the chiefs discountenanced this imprudent proposal; declaring that in his life lay the strength of their cause, and that, should he be slain, they would be undone beyond redemption, whether victorious or defeated. They even went so far as to declare, that they would go home, and endeavour to make the best terms they could for themselves, if he persisted in so rash a resoluThis remonstrance with difficulty repressed the ardour of their young commander, whose great passion at this moment seems to have been to strike a decisive blow, and share personally in its glory.1

tion.

On the morning of Friday the 20th of September, when the King's army was commencing its march from Haddington, the Highlanders roused themselves from their shelterless lairs, near Duddingstone, and prepared to set forward. They had been reinforced since day-break by a party of Grants from Glenmorriston, as they had been the day before by some MacLauchlans and Athole

men.

The Prince, putting himself at the head of his army, thus increased two hundred and fifty,

ג

presented his sword, and said aloud," My friends, I have thrown away the scabbard ! He was answered by a cheerful huzza; and the band then set forward in three files, Charles marching on horseback by their side, along with some of his principal officers.

The situation of the Highland camp, or rather bivouack, was not so near the Village, as it was to the Mill of Duddingstone. It was pitched in a snug and sheltered place upon the banks of the Figgat Burn, within the present park around Duddingstone House, and immediately adjacent to the cauld or dam-head belonging to the mill. 3

The

nearest road from that point towards the Bridge of Musselburgh, where the army had to cross the Eske, was of course that old and pleasant path, which, leading down betwixt two luxuriant hedges, passes the little village of Easter Duddingstone, and joins the post-road, near Magdalene Bridge. Along this retired and rural way Charles passed" with all his chivalry," his whole soul bent upon the approaching combat. We have had the good fortune to converse with a lady who saw him leading his men through Easter Duddingstone, and who yet lives (1827), at the age of eighty-nine, to describe the memorable pageant. The Highlanders strode on with their squalid clothes and various arms, their rough limbs and uncombed hair, looking around them with faces, in which were strangely blended, pride with ferocity, savage ignorance, with high-souled resolution. The Prince rode amidst his officers, at a little distance from the flank of the column, preferring to amble over the dry stubble-fields beside the road. Our aged friend remembers, as yesterday, his graceful carriage and

comely looks-his long light hair straggling below his neck-and the flap of his tartan coat thrown back by the wind, so as to make the star dangle for a moment clear in the air by its silken ribbon. He was viewed with admiration by the simple villagers; and even those who were ignorant of his claims, or who rejected them, could not help wishing good fortune and no calamity to so fair and so princely a young man.

Soon after falling into the post-road, the insurgents continued their march till they entered the Market-gate of Fisher-row, an old narrow street leading to the bridge. One of their number there went up to a new house upon which the tilers were engaged, and took up a long slip of wood technically called a tile-lath; from another house he abstracted an ordinary broom, which he tied upon the end of the pole. This he bore aloft over his head, emblematizing what seemed to be the general sentiment of the army, that they would sweep their enemies off the face of the earth. De Ruyter, the Dutch admiral, it will be recollected, in the reign of Charles the Second, affixed the same ensign to his top-mast, to signify that he had swept the British fleet out of the Channel; and it is probable that the Highlander merely copied the. idea from that famous incident. The shouts with

which the symbol was hailed on the present occasion, testified the high courage and resolution of the troops, and but too truly presaged the issue of the approaching conflict. Charles, in passing along the Market-gate, bowed to the ladies who surveyed him from their windows, bending to those who were young or beautiful even till his hair mingled with the mane of his charger. To all