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an English regiment, (Barrel's,) and the cry, "Here is a rebel here is a rebel!" at once met his ears. Escape being impossible, the major, thinking that he would not be discovered by the colour of his white cockade, which was quite dirty with the rain and the smoke of the firing, pretended that he was one of their own Campbells; but General Huske observed that it was easy to discover what the prisoner was by his sword, the blade of which was covered over with blood and hair. Huske gave orders, to shoot the dog instantly," and a party of musketeers immediately presented their pieces at the major's breast; but Lord Robert Ker generously interposed, and, beating down the muskets, saved the major's life. The general having refused to receive the major's arms, they were accepted by Lord Robert. When pulling his pistol from his belt, previously to surrendering his arms, Huske was alarmed, and exclaimed with an oath, that "the dog" was going to shoot him; but Macdonald indignantly observed, that he was more of a gentleman than to do any such thing, and that he was only pulling off his pistol to deliver it up. The major was carried to Edinburgh, and committed to the castle next day, and, after a few months' confinement, tried, convicted, and executed.

The victory would have been complete by the utter annihilation of the English army, had the prince taken the usual precautions to preserve unity of action among the different sections of his undisciplined host. Early in the morning, Lord George Murray had submitted a plan of the battle to his royal highness, and requested that he would name the officers that were to command, and assign them their different stations; but with the exception of Lord George himself, who was appointed to march at the head of the army, and who consequently had the command of the right wing, no other appointment appears to have been made. It seems to have been understood by Charles himself, that Lord John Drummond was to have commanded the left wing; but if such was the case, Lord John could have obtained no distinct notification thereof, as he never appeared in his place. It is maintained by Lord George Murray, that had there been an officer in command on the left, to have brought up two or three battalions from the second line, or from the corps de reserve so as to have extended the first line still farther to the left, and thus to have faced the English regiments which outflanked them, the whole of Hawley's foot must have been taken or destroyed, and that few even of the horse would have escaped, as the Highlanders would not have given over the chase till they had reached Linlithgow, and that, in short, had the three regiments which outlined the Highlanders been faced, the battle would not have lasted ten minutes, as these regiments, instead of keeping their ground, pouring in

Note in the prince's household book in Jacobite Memoirs, p. 158. The above, which is a correct version of the story, is at variance with that usually told of the major, who is said to have fallen a victim to his desire to obtain possession of a fine horse, which is said to have run off with him to the enemy.

part of their fire on the left flank of the Highlanders, and compelling those who attacked the right and centre of Hawley's foot sword in hand to retire to their former ground, would have given way with the rest of the main body. In the absence of Lord John Drummond, it was the duty of O'Sullivan, who, as adjutant-general, was chiefly intrusted by the prince with the formation of the left wing, to have brought up men for the purpose of extending the line; but instead of riding along the line as he should have done before the action, none of the officers of the first line of the Highland army saw him till the battle was over.* While Lord John Drummond could not but be sensible of the error which had been committed on the left, he retaliated upon the lieutenantgeneral, by ascribing the escape of Hawley's army to the conduct of Lord George himself, who prevented part of the right wing from joining in the charge upon the foot, after the flight of the dragoons.

The English imputed their defeat chiefly to the violence of the storm, which was full in their faces during the action; but this, though certainly a formidable difficulty, was not the only one they had to encounter To a combination of unfortunate circumstances, and not to any particular incident, is to be ascribed the unfortunate result which ensued. To Hawley's ignorance of the resistance which the Highlanders could oppose to cavalry, the loss of the battle was mainly owing. He had been major of Evans's dragoons at the battle of Sheriffmuir, where that regiment and the Scots Greys, led by the duke of Argyle, after getting over a morass, which the intense frost of the preceding night had rendered passable, attacked the flank of the insurgent army, which conceived itself secure from that quarter, and rode down, and drove off the field several regiments of Highlanders. Imagining from this occurrence, that the Highlanders could not withstand the charge of cavalry, he observed one day in a company of officers in Flanders, who were talking of the battle of Preston, that "he knew the Highlanders; they were good militia ; but he was certain that they could not stand against a charge of dragoons, who attacked them well."† Under this impression, he began the battle with his dragoons, before his infantry had been fully formed into line. and he soon saw the consequences of his indiscretion.+

Jacobite Memoirs, p. 91, 92, 94.

+ Home's Works, vol. iii. p. 158.

In a pamphlet published at London in 1746, entitled, "A few passages showing the sentiments of the prince of Hesse and General Hawley, with relation to the conduct, measures, and behaviour of several persons, both civil and ecclesiastic, in the city of Edinburgh, since the commencement of the present civil war and rebellion ;" the following address is said to have been delivered by Hawley in Holyrood-house, a few days after the battle, to the civil authorities of Scotland, which, if correct, shows that that event had altered his opinion of the Highlanders: "Gentlemen, you pretend to have an extraordinary zeal for his Majesty's service, and seem to be very assiduous in promoting it; but let me tell you, you have either been mistaken in your own measures, or have been betraying his cause. How often have you represented the Highland army, and the multitude of noblemen and gentlemen, who have joined them from the low country with their followers, as a despi. cable pack of herds, and a contemptible mob of men of desperate fortunes? How have you, in your repeated advices, disguised and lessened the numbers and strength of his

Though the field of battle is about twenty-six miles distant from Edinburgh, the intelligence of Hawley's defeat was known there before nine o'clock at night, by the arrival of some spectators who had witnessed the action, and by some of the dragoons who, impelled by fear, did not halt till they reached the capital. The English general passed the evening of the battle at Linlithgow, and marched next morning with the mass of his army for Edinburgh, where he arrived about four o'clock in the afternoon. A prey to disappointment and vexation, the appearance of Hawley on the morning after the battle is said by an observer to have been most wretched, and even worse than that of Cope a few hours after his "scuffle," when the same person saw him at Fala on his retreat to Berwick.*

Before the return of Hawley's army, the greatest consternation prevailed among the friends of the government at Edinburgh from the reports of the fugitives the preceding night, who brought accounts of the total route and dispersion of the army, exaggerated by the relation of circumstances which had no existence, save in their own terrified imaginations; but the arrival of the greater part of the army served to dissipate their fears in some measure. Since the commencement of the rebellion, however, to its final close, never were the apprehensions of the supporters of the existing government more alarmingly excited than on the present occasion, when they saw the veteran troops, who had fought the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy, return from Falkirk discomfited Majesty's enemies in your rebellious country? And how often have you falsely magnified and increased the power and number of his friends? These things you had the hardiness to misrepresent to some of the ministers of state, and generals of the army. If the government had not relied on the truth of your advices, it had been an easy matter to have crushed this insurrection in the bud. If your information had not been unluckily believed, that most part of the Highlanders had run home with their booty after the battle of Gladsmuir, and that they who remained had absolutely refused to march into England, what would have hindered the king to send down a few troops from England to assist his forces in Scotland, to have at once dispersed and destroyed them? But you, out of your views or vanity, made him and his ministry believe that you were able to do it yourselves. And what are the consequences of your fine politics and intelligence? The rebels have got time to draw to such a head, that the king has been obliged to withdraw more than ten thousand of his own troops from the assistance of his allies abroad, and as many auxiliaries from Holland and Hesse, to defend his own person and dominions at home. As to your diminishing their numbers, and ridiculing their discipline, you see, and I feel the effects of it. I never saw any troops fire in platoons more regularly, make their motions and evolutions quicker, or attack with more bravery and better order than those Highlanders did at the battle of Falkirk last week. And these are the very men whom you represented as a parcel of raw undisciplined vagabonds. No Jacobite could have contrived more hurt to the king's faithful friends, or done more service to his inveterate enemies. Gentlemen, I tell you plainly, these things I am now blaming you for I shall represent at court, so that it may be put out of your power to abuse it for the future. I desire no answer, nor will I receive any. If you have any thing to offer in your defence or justification, do it above, and publish it here. It will not offend me. In the meantime I will deal with you with that openness and honour which becomes one of my station and character. I will send to you in writing what I have now delivered to you by word of mouth, that you may make any use of it that you think proper for your own advantage and exculpation.-Farewell."

by a body of undisciplined mountaineers whom they had been taught to despise. The Jacobites, on the other hand, exulted at the victory, and gave expression to their feelings by openly deriding the vanquished.

The prince spent the eighteenth, the day after the battle, at Falkirk ; but, as the rain fell in torrents during the greater part of that day, few of the officers quitted their lodgings. Notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the weather, the slain were interred by orders of the prince, and a considerable body of Highlanders marched to Linlithgow, of which they took possession. Charles now took the advice of his friends as to the use he should make of his victory. Some were for following up the blow which had been struck, and driving Hawley out of Scotland. Others were for marching directly to London before the enemy had time to recover from their consternation. They argued that it was not to be supposed that Hawley would again face the prince and his victorious army till he should receive new reinforcements; that even then the troops which had been beaten would communicate terror to the rest; and that the prince's army, flushed with victory, could never fight with greater advantages on their side. There were others, however, who thought differently, and maintained that the capture of Stirling castle was the chief object at present; that it had never been before heard of that an army employed in a siege, having beaten those that came to raise it, had made any other use of their victory than to take the fortress in the first place; that any other conduct would argue a great deal of levity; and that it was of the utmost importance to obtain possession of the castle, as it opened an easy and safe communication between the prince, (wherever he might happen to be,) and his friends in the north. This last view was supported by M. Mirabelle de Gordon, a French engineer of Scotch extraction, who gave the prince the strongest assurances that the castle would be forced to surrender in a few days, and added, moreover, that if the prince went immediately upon another expedition he would be obliged to sacrifice all his heavy artillery which he could not carry with him into England. The opinion of an individual, decorated with an order, and who was consequently considered a person of experience and talents, had great weight with the prince, who, accordingly, resolved to reduce the castle of Stirling before commencing any other operations; but Charles discovered, when too late, that Mirabelle's knowledge as an engineer was extremely limited, and that he had neither judgment to plan nor knowledge to direct the operations of a siege. This person, whose figure was as eccentric as his mind, was called, in derision, Mr Admirable by the Highlanders.‡

During the prince's short stay at Falkirk, a misunderstanding took place between a party of the Camerons and Lord Kilmarnock, which had nearly proved fatal to that nobleman. As this incident affords a

• Culloden Papers, p. 272.

Kirkconnel MS.

Johnstone's Memoirs, p. 117.

remarkable illustration of clanship, the particulars cannot fail to be interesting. Lord Kilmarnock, having passed the evening of the battle in his house at Callander, came next morning to Falkirk with a party of his men, who had in their custody some Edinburgh volunteers, who, having fallen behind Hawley's army in its march to Linlithgow, had been taken and carried to Callander house. Leaving the prisoners and their guard standing in the street, opposite to the house where the prince lodged, his lordship went up stairs and presented to him a list of the prisoners, among whom was Mr Home, the author of the Tragedy of Douglas and the History of the Rebellion. Charles opened the window to survey the prisoners, and while engaged in conversation with Lord Kilmarnock about them, as is supposed, with the paper in his hand, a soldier in the uniform of the Scots Royals, carrying a musket and wearing a black cockade, appeared in the street, and approached towards the prince. The volunteers who observed this man coming up the street were extremely surprised, and, thinking that his intention in coming forward was to shoot the prince, expected every moment to see him raise his piece and fire. Observing the volunteers, who were within a few yards of the prince, all looking in one direction, Charles also looked the same way, and seeing the soldier approach appeared amazed, and, calling Lord Kilmarnock, pointed towards the soldier. His lordship instantly descended into the street, and finding the soldier immediately opposite to the window where Charles stood, the earl went up to him, and striking the hat off the soldier's head, trampled the black cockade under his feet. At that instant a Highlander rushed from the opposite side of the street, and, laying hands on Lord Kilmarnock, pushed him violently back. Kilmarnock immediately pulled out a pistol, and presented it at the Highlander's head; and the Highlander in his turn drew his dirk, and held it close to the earl's breast. They stood in this position about half a minute, when a crowd of Highlanders rushed in and drove Lord Kilmarnock away. The man with the dirk in his hand then took up the hat, put it on the soldier's head, and the Highlanders marched off with him in triumph.

The

This extraordinary scene surprised the prisoners, and they solicited an explanation from a Highland officer who stood near them. officer told them that the soldier in the royal uniform was a Cameron. "Yesterday," continued he, "when your army was defeated he joined his clan; the Camerons received him with joy, and told him that he should wear his arms, his clothes, and every thing else, till he was provided with other clothes and other arms. The Highlander who first interposed and drew his dirk on Lord Kilmarnock is the soldier's brother; the crowd who rushed in are the Camerons, many of them his near relations; and, in my opinion," continued the officer, "no colonel nor general in the prince's army can take that cockade out of his hat, except Lochiel himself.*

Home's Works, vol. iii. p. 162.