enemy from following thein to the mountains at that season of the year, —and that, in spring, they had no doubt that an army of ten thousand effective Highlanders could be brought together, who would follow his royal highness wherever he might think proper,—that such a plan would certainly disconcert his enemies, and could not but be approved of by his royal highness's friends both at home and abroad,--and that if a landing should happen in the meantime, the Highlanders would immediately rise either to join the invaders, or to make a powerful diversion elsewhere,—that on considering the hard marches which the army had undergone, the season of the year, and the inclemency of the weather, his royal highness, as well as his allies abroad and his adherents at home, could not fail to approve of the proposal,—that the greatest objection to the retreat was the difficulty of saving the artillery, particularly the heavy cannon; but that it would be better that some of these were thrown into the Forth, than that his royal highness and the flower of his army should be exposed to the risk they inevitably would, should the proposed retreat not be agreed to, and put in execution without loss of time, and that they thought that it would be the greatest imprudence to risk the whole on so unequal a chance, when there were such hopes of succour from abroad, besides the resources his royal highness would have from his adherents at home. In conclusion, they informed the prince that they had just been apprized, that numbers of their people had gone off, and that many were sick, and not in a condition to fight. They added, that nobody was privy to the address but the subscribers; and they assured his royal highness that it was with great concern and reluctance they found themselves obliged to declare their sentiments in so dangerous a situation,-a declaration which nothing could have prevailed upon them to make but the unfortunate diminution of the army by desertion.*

According to a statement made by John Hay, who occasionally acted as secretary to the prince, Charles was so transported with rage, after reading this paper, that he struck his head against the wall of the room till he staggered, and exclaimed most violently against Lord George Murray. To dissuade the subscribers from their resolution, Charles sent Sir Thomas Sheridan to Falkirk, who, not succeeding in his mission, returned to Bannockburn, accompanied by Keppoch and several other chiefs. These argued the matter with Charles himself, and ultimately prevailed upon him to consent to a retreat.† This retreat was condemned by some of the prince's flatterers; but the simple fact, stated by Patullo the muster-master of the prince's army, that, before the retreat, the army had been diminished by desertion to five thousand men, fully justifies the advice given by Lord George Murray and the chiefs at Falkirk. Even Sir Thomas Sheridan, the especial

No. 39 of Appendix to Home's Works, vol. iii. p. 335.

t No. 40 of Appendix, vol. iii. p. 338.

No. 30 of Appendix, vol. iii. p. 317.

favourite of the prince, admitted the necessity of the retreat, for reasons apart from the reduction of the army.*

In order to make the retreat with as little loss as possible, horses and carriages were ordered in from all quarters, under the pretext of carrying the field artillery and ammunition towards Edinburgh, whither it was given out that the army was to march immediately. The army, however, began to suspect the design, and every person, not in the secret, looked dejected. During the thirtieth, a great deal of bustle took place in the country in collecting horses and carriages, but with little effect, as the country people, who also began to conjecture that a retreat was intended, were not disposed to attend to the order.† At length the design of these preparations became apparent when, in consequence of a previous arrangement, Lord George Murray left Falkirk with the clans on the evening of the thirty-first for Bannockburn, leaving behind him Elcho's, Pitsligo's, and Kilmarnock's horse, who were directed to patrole betwixt Falkirk and Linlithgow till ten o'clock that night. Lord George continued at the prince's quarters till after twelve o'clock at night, when it was agreed that the army should rendezvous at nine o'clock next morning, near St Ninians; and a message was directed to be sent to the duke of Perth and Lord John Drummond, both of whom were at Stirling, to be ready to march between nine and ten o'clock, but not to evacuate the town without farther orders. After Lord George, however, had left the prince's quarters for his own at Easter Green-yards, these orders were countermanded without his knowledge, and orders were sent to Stirling to evacuate it by break of day.‡

The appointed rendezvous at St Ninians never took place, and for this reason, that the private men imagining when they first heard of the retreat that the danger was much greater and nearer than it really was, had begun at day-break to take the road to the Frews. Before the hour appointed for assembling, many of them had arrived at that ford, so that when Charles left his quarters for St Ninians, scarcely a vestige of his army was to be seen. Officers were sent after some parties, who were still visible, for the purpose of stopping them, but without effect. The troops in Stirling, in terms of the orders they had received, after spiking their cannon, also marched to the Frews, so that the prince and Lord George Murray found themselves almost deserted. Charles finding it impossible to recall his troops, marched off with some of the chiefs and the few troops that remained with him.§

On the morning of the retreat the church of St Ninians, in which the insurgents had fifty barrels of gunpowder, blew up with a terrible explosion, which was heard by the duke of Cumberland's army at Linlithgow. Whether it happened from accident or design, is a point which cannot be ascertained. If from design, it must have been the act of

• Vide Letter from Sir Thomas in the Appendix, dated from the Castle of Blair, 8th December, 1746, from the Stuart Papers in the possession of his Majesty. $ Ibid.

+ Kirkconnel MS.

Jacobite Memoirs, p. 100.

some unknown individual, as there was no warning given to any person to keep out of the way. That it could not have been perpetrated by any person in the prince's interest, seems very evident from the fact, that Charles himself was near enough to have suffered injury, and that some of the Highlanders, as well as several of the inhabitants of the village, were killed. Yet, such was the spirit of misrepresentation which prevailed at the time, that, without the least assignable motive. the odium of the act was thrown upon Charles.

When this explosion took place, Lord George Murray was still at his head quarters. He thought the castle-guns had fired a volley; and on repairing to the town about an hour after the explosion, he was utterly amazed to find that the besiegers had disappeared. He, therefore, sent an aid-de-camp to call off some horse he had posted near Falkirk, and proceeded immediately, with the few troops that remained with him, to the Frews.t

The Highland army was quartered that night at Doune, Dumblane, and adjacent villages, and continued to retire next day, the second of February, in a very disorderly manner. The prince halted at Crieff, where he reviewed his army, and, according to the statement of one of his officers, his army was found not to have lost above a thousand men by desertion. Charles, who had consented to a retreat on the supposition that his army had lost a third of its numbers from this cause, is said to have been deeply affected on this occasion. Lord George Murray's enemies did not slip the opportunity of reproaching him, and, indeed, all the chiefs who had signed the representation, with deception; but the author in question observes, that their mistake, if there really was a mistake, can be easily accounted for, if people will divest themselves of prejudice, and examine the circumstances impartially. He observes, that, from the battle of Falkirk up to the time of the duke of Cumberland's march from Edinburgh, the country being absolutely secure, the Highlanders had indulged their restless disposition by roaming about all the villages in the neighbourhood of their quarters, and that numbers of them were absent several days from their colours-that their principal officers knowing for certain that some had gone home, imagined that such was also the case with all who were not to be found in their respective quarters, but that all the stragglers had got to Crieff and appeared at the review. Without questioning such a respectable authority as Mr Maxwell, who may be right in the main fact, as to the number of the army at Crieff, it seems more likely that the army had recruited its ranks on the retreat to Crieff, by overtaking the deserters on their homeward route, than that two or three thousand men should have been absent on a sojourn in the neighbourhood of their camp.

After the review, the prince held a council of war, to deliberate upon

• Kirkconnel MS.

Ibid. Jacobite Memoirs, p. 100.

# Maxwell of Kirkconnel.

the course to be pursued. At no former meeting did heats and party animosities break out to such an extent as at this council. Lord George Murray complained greatly of the flight, and requested to know the names of the persons who had advised it; but the prince put an end to this branch of the conversation by taking the whole blame on himself. After a great deal of wrangling and altercation, it was determined that the army should march north to Inverness in two divisions,-that the horse and low-country regiments should proceed along the coast road, and that the prince, at the head of the clans, should take the Highland road. Lord George, after other officers had refused, agreed to take the command of the coast division, which arrived at Perth late that night. The prince remained at Crieff, and passed the night at Fairnton, a seat of Lord John Drummond, in the neighbourhood. Next day, being the fourth, Charles marched from Crieff to Dunkeld, and thence to Blair in Athole, where he remained several days, till he heard of the arrival of the other division at Aberdeen.

It would have been quite impossible, under almost any circumstances, for the duke of Cumberland's army to have overtaken the Highlanders; but slow as the movements of such an army necessarily were, it met with an obstruction which retarded its progress nearly three days. This was the impassable state of Stirling bridge, one arch of which had, as formerly mentioned, been broken down by General Blakeney to embarrass the intercourse between the Highland army when in the south, and its auxiliaries in the north. It was not till the morning of the fourth of February that the bridge was repaired, on which day the English army passed over. The advanced guard, consisting of the Argyleshire Highlanders and the dragoons, went on to Crieff, and the foot were quartered in and about Dumblane, where the duke passed the night. Next day he proceeded to Crieff, and on the sixth arrived at Perth, of which his advanced guard had taken possession the previous day.

Lord George Murray marched from Perth for Aberdeen with his division on the fourth. He left behind thirteen pieces of cannon, which were spiked and thrown into the Tay, a great quantity of cannon balls, and fourteen swivel guns, which formerly belonged to the Hazard sloop-ofwar, which had been surprised and taken at Montrose by the Highlanders. These pieces were taken out of the river next day by the royal troops.

Having learned at Perth the different routes taken by the Highland army, and that it had gained two or three days' march in advance, the duke of Cumberland resolved to halt a few days to refresh his men. From Perth parties were sent out to perambulate the neighbouring country, who plundered the lands and carried off the effects of the prince's adherents. The duchess-dowager of Perth and the viscountess

. Kirkconnel MS.

of Strathallan were apprehended, carried to Edinburgh, and committed to the castle.

Shortly after his arrival at Perth, the duke of Cumberland received an express announcing the arrival in the Frith of Forth of a force of about five thousand Hessians, under the command of the prince of Hesse, son-in-law of George the Second. These auxiliaries had been brought over from the continent to supply the place of the Dutch troops, who had been recalled by the states-general in consequence of the interference of the French government, which considered the treaty entered into between the king of Great Britain and Holland, by which the latter agreed to furnish these troops to suppress the rebellion, as a violation of the capitulations of Tournay and Dendermonde.

The fleet which conveyed the Hessian troops anchored in Leith roads on the eighth of February, having been only four days from Williamstadt. The prince of Hesse, accompanied by the earl of Crawford, a son of the duke of Wolfenbuttel, and other persons of distinction, who had attended him in the expedition, landed that night at Leith, and proceeded to Holyrood-house. His serene highness was saluted on his arrival in the roads by the ships of war lying there, and afterwards by a round from the great guns of Edinburgh castle. The troops were disembarked at Leith on the ninth and the following day, and were cantoned in and about Edinburgh. On the fifteenth of February the duke of Cumberland paid a visit to the prince of Hesse, his brother-in-law, at Edinburgh. On that evening they held a council of war in Milton-house, the residence of the lord-justice-clerk. In consequence of the sudden and disorderly retreat of the Highlanders, an opinion had begun to prevail among the friends of the government at Edinburgh, that it was the intention of the insurgents to disperse themselves, and that Charles would follow the example set by his father in seventeen hundred and sixteen, by leaving the kingdom. Impressed with this idea, the generals who attended the council gave it as their unanimous opinion that the war was at an end, and that the duke had nothing now to do but to give orders to his officers to march into the Highlands, as soon as the season would permit, and ferret the insurgents out of their strongholds, as it appeared evident to them that they would never risk a battle with an army commanded by the duke of Cumberland. After the officers had delivered their sentiments, the duke requested Lord Milton to give his opinion, as he knew the Highlands and Highlanders better than any person present. His lordship at first declined doing so, as he was not a military man, but being pressed by the duke, he began by expressing a hope that he might be mistaken in the opinion he was about to give, but he felt himself bound to declare, from all he knew of the Highlands and Highlanders, that the war was not at an end, and that as the king's troops could not follow the Highlanders among their fastnesses in the winter season, they would, though now divided and scattered, unite again, and venture another battle before giving up the war. Acquies