upon

gust, by carting quantities of earth and emptying it the bloody heaps. A circumstance worthy of note occurred at the inhumation of a small party of dragoons, which had been cut off at a short distance below Tranent churchyard. A hole was dug for these men, into which they were thrown as they had fallen, undivested of their clothes. A Highlander, happening to approach, and seeing a pair of excellent boots upon one of the party, desired a rustic who had been employed in digging

the

grave, to descend into the pit and hand them up to him. The rustic refused, and said the Highlander might go down himself, if he pleased. With some hesitation he did so, and was stooping to pull off the boots, when the indignant grave-digger gave him a blow on the back of the head, with his spade, which stretched him beside his prey; and he was immediately inhumed in the same pit.

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When the search for spoil had ceased, the Highlanders began to collect provisions. They fixed their mess-room in one of the houses of Tranent, and, sending abroad through the neighbouring parks, seized such sheep as they could conveniently catch. The people of the village have a picturesque tradition of their coming straggling in, every now and then, during the day, each with a sheep upon his back, which he threw down at the general depôt, with the exclamation, "Tare's mhair o' Cope's paagage!" When men's minds are agitated by any mirthful or triumphant emotion, they are pleased with wonderfully small jokes; and to represent the spoil which they procured among private individuals as only a further accession of plunder from the vanquished army, seems to have been the prevailing witticism of the Highlanders on this auspicious day.

CHAPTER XV.

PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD.

What says King Bolingbroke?

Richard the Second.

THE Camerons had entered Edinburgh scarcely three hours after the battle, playing their pipes with might and main, and exhibiting with many marks of triumph the colours they had taken from Cope's dragoons. 1 But the return of the main body of the army was reserved for the succeeding day (Sunday), when an attempt was made to impress the citizens with as high an idea as possible of the victory they had achieved. The clans marched in one long extended line into the lower gate of the city, an hundred bagpipes playing at once the exulting cavalier air- "The King shall enjoy his own again. They bore, besides their own appropriate standards, those which had been taken from the Royal army; and they displayed with equally ostentatious pride the vast accession of dress and personal ornament which they had derived from the vanquished. In the rear of their own body came the prisoners, 3 at least half as numerous as themselves, and then followed the wounded in carts. At the end of all, came the baggage and

cannon under a strong guard. They paraded through all the principal streets of the city, as if anxious to leave no one unimpressed with the sight of their good fortune. Charles himself did not accompany the procession, but came in the evening to Holyroodhouse, where, according to the Caledonian Mercury, he was " welcomed with the loudest acclamations of the people."

The news of the battle, which told the complete overthrow of all the force Government had been able to send against the insurgents, occasioned a violent revulsion of public feeling in favour of the victor, and spread proportionate consternation among all who had any interest in the state. The whole of the Scottish state-officers, as well as many inferior persons enjoying public trust, betook themselves in disguise to England, or to remote parts of their own country; and in all Scotland there soon did not remain a single declared friend of Government, except those who kept the fortresses. Charles might be said to have completely recovered his paternal kingdom from the hands of the usurper; and as the British army still remained in Flanders, there seemed nothing wanting, but a descent upon England, in order to secure that portion of his dominions also. It has been the opinion of many, that, had he adopted this vigorous measure, considering the terror of his name, the rapidity with which he could have marched, and the general idea which at this moment prevailed, that there was nothing impossible to his arms, he might have dislodged his Majesty from London, and changed, for a time at least, and probably for ever, the titles of King and Pretender.

His own sentiments in the hour of victory were in favour of an immediate march into England. Those of his chief adherents and counsellors suggested a more cautious measure, and one perhaps less likely to ensure the success of his enterprise. It was represented that his army was considerably diminished by the slaughter at Preston, and by the desertion of those who had gone home to secure their booty; that to penetrate into England with less than two thousand men would discourage his English adherents; and that, by waiting a little longer, he would be sure to increase his force to a respectable amount, by the accession of those clans and other Scotsmen who had not yet declared themselves in his favour. By these objections, Charles permitted himself to be overruled, and was, in the mean time, amused with the state and circumstances of royalty which he enjoyed at Holyroodhouse.

It is difficult to describe the extravagant rejoicings with which the Jacobites hailed the news of Preston. They received the messengers and homeward-bound Highlanders, who every where dispersed the intelligence, with the most unbounded hospitality; and they no longer made any scruple to disclose those sentiments in public, which they had hitherto been obliged to conceal as treasonable. The gentlemen drank fathom-deep healths to the prince who, in their own language," could eat a dry crust, sleep on peas-straw, take his dinner in four minutes, and win a battle in five; "5 whilst the ladies busied themselves in procuring locks of his hair, miniature portaits of his person, and ribbons on which he was represented as "the Highland Laddie. " But perhaps the most extra

ordinary instance of individual zeal in his behalf, was one afforded by an old Episcopalian or nonjurant clergyman, who had attended his camp before Preston, as some of the violent Presbyterians, on the other hand, followed that of Cope. This zealous partisan, immediately after the battle, set out on foot for his place of residence beyond Doune in Perthshire; and, having travelled considerably more than fifty miles, next morning gave out the news of the victory from his own pulpit, at the ordinary hour of worship, invoking a thousand blessings on the arms and person of the Chevalier.❝

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The cessation of public worship in Edinburgh was not the least remarkable circumstance attending this defeat. On the evening of his victory, Charles sent messengers to the houses of the various clergymen, desiring them to preach next day as usual; but when the bells were rung at the usual hour, no clergymen appeared; and, for the first time on record, a Sunday passed in that city undistinguished by the ordinances of religion. The ministers, with a pusillanimity which was afterwards censured even by their own party, had all left their charges, and taken refuge in the country. Charles, on learning this, issued a proclamation on Monday, assuring them that he designed in no respect to disturb them in the exercise of their duties; but they persisted, notwithstanding, in their absurd terrors, and absented themselves from the city during all the time the Highlanders remained in it. A century before, their predecessors had displayed a precisely similar degree of timidity and distrust, when, having taken refuge in Edinburgh Castle from the victorious arms of Cromwell, they repeatedly refused the toleration and protection