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he received a violent contusion from a cannon-ball, which completely disabled him. Brigadier Stapleton, having no other engineer, was obliged to send to Inverness for M. Mirabelle, the singular personage formerly alluded to. Meanwhile, the besieged heightened the parapets of the walls on the side where they dreaded an attack, and raised the two faces of the bastions seven feet high.*

For several days a skirmishing was kept up between the garrison and two sloops of war stationed in the river, on the one side, and the besieg ers on the other, with varied success; but the insurgents having completed a battery on the Sugar-loaf on the twentieth of March, opened the siege that evening. From its distance from the fortress, and the smallness of the cannon, which consisted of six and four-pounders only, little execution was done. Next day the besiegers erected a new battery at the foot of the Cow-hill, within half the distance of the other, which was also opened, but with little better effect. On the twentysecond, Brigadier Stapleton sent a drummer to Captain Scott, the commanding officer, with a letter, requiring him to surrender, but his answer was, that he would defend the place to the last extremity. The bombardment was thereupon renewed on both sides for some hours, but at last the garrison silenced the besiegers by beating down their principal battery. The besiegers then erected a third battery, and the bom-. bardment continued, with little intermission, till the thirty-first, when the garrison made a sally, forced one of the batteries erected upon a place called the Craigs, about a hundred yards from the walls, and captured several pieces of cannon and two mortars. Notwithstanding this disaster, they continued to annoy the besieged from five cannon which they had still mounted, but with no other damage to the garrison than the destruction of the roofs of most of the houses. At length, on the third of April, Brigadier Stapleton, in consequence of instructions he had received from the prince to join him immediately, raised the siege, and, after spiking his heavy cannon, marched for Inverness with the piquets, taking his field pieces along with him. He left the Highlanders behind, on the understanding that they were to follow him with as little delay as possible. The loss sustained on either side was trifling.t

Abounding as the prince's enterprise did, in many brilliant points, there is, unquestionably, no part of it more deserving of admiration than that which now presents itself, near the end of his short, but very eventful career. At Gladsmuir and at Falkirk, almost the whole of the prince's energies were directed to a single point, but at Inverness he projected a number of expeditions, attacks, and sieges, and conducted them with an energy and promptitude which astonished the government. The whole force he was able to collect, after his retreat to the north, did not exceed eight thousand men; and, although there was no certainty that the duke of Cumberland might not advance im• Jacobite Memoirs, p, 103. Kirkconnel MS.

+ Scots Magazine. Home's Works, vol. iii. p. 196. Kirkconnel MS.

mediately from Aberdeen, which is only a hundred miles from luverness, yet he separated his forces, and, while with one detachment he kept General Bland in check, he almost at the same time carried on a series of operations with the isolated parts of his army in the distant ter

ritories of Athole, Lochaber, and Sutherland.

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CHAPTER IX.

March of the duke of Cumberland to the north-The duke crosses the Spey--Dissatis. faction in the Highland army-Cause of it-Arrival of the duke of Cumberland at Nairn-Retreat of the duke of Perth-Prince Charles leaves Inverness with his army -Forms his army on Drummossie moor-Night march to Nairn resolved uponThe march, its failure-Return of the Highland army to Culloden-Advance of the duke of Cumberland-Battle of Culloden.

HAVING spent upwards of five weeks at Aberdeen, the duke of Cumberland began to prepare for his march to the north. As it was his intention to proceed by the coast road, he had ordered a number of victualling ships to rendezvous at Aberdeen; and early in April, these vessels, escorted by several ships of war provided with artillery, ammunition, and other warlike stores, had arrived at their destination, for the purpose of following the army along the coast and affording the necessary supplies, About this time the weather had become favourable, and though still cold, the snow had disappeared, and a dry wind which had prevailed for some days had rendered the river Spey, the passage of which was considered the most formidable obstacle to his march, fordable.*

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The publication of the Forbes Papers has recently brought to light the meanness and rapacity of the duke of Cumberland and General Hawley. The duke lived, all the time he was at Aberdeen, in the house of Mr Alexander Thomson, advocate, and, although he made use of every kind of provisions he found in the house, and of the coals and candles, he did not pay Mr Thomson a single farthing, nor did he even thank him. He left, however, six guineas for the servants, a boy and two women, one of whom had washed and dressed his linen. Mrs Gordon of Hall head was induced to yield possession of her house in the town to General Hawley, under a promise that the greatest care would be taken of every thing in the house. Having represented that she was unable to furnish linen and other necessaries for Hawley and his suite, Mrs G. was informed, that as the general would bring every thing with him, she might lock up all she had, and that all that was wanted was the use of two of her maid-servants to do the work of the house. Mrs G. accordingly secured her effects under lock and key; but Hawley had not been above a day in the house when he sent a messenger to Mrs G. demanding delivery of all her keys, and threatening, in case of delay, to break open all the locks. Having received the keys, the general sent Major Wolfe, one of his aides-de-camp, to Mrs G. in the evening, who intimated to her that she was deprived of every thing except the clothes on her back. The poor lady then desired to have her tea, but the major told her that it was very good, and that tea was scarce in the army. She next asked for her chocolate, and the same answer was returned. She expressed a wish to get other things, particularly her china, but the gallant major told her that she had a great deal of it, that it was very pretty, and that the general and his friends were very fond of china themselves; but perhaps she might get back some of it. Mrs G. petitioned the duke of Cumberland to order her property to be restored to her. The duke, it is said, promised to grant the prayer of the petition, but no prohibitory order was issued, and General Hawley pro

Accordingly, on the eighth of April the duke left Aberdeen with the last division of his army, consisting of six battalions of foot and a regiment of dragoons. The whole regular force under his command amounted to about seven thousand two hundred men, comprehending fifteen regiments of foot, two of dragoons, and Kingston's horse. Besides these, there were the Argyleshire men and other militia, whose united numbers may be stated at two thousand. At the time of the duke's departure, six battalions, with Kingston's horse and Cobham's dragoons, under Major-general Bland, were stationed at Strathbogie, and three battalions at Old Meldrum, under Brigadier Mordaunt. The duke quartered the first night at Old Meldrum and the next at Banff, where two spies were seized and hanged. One of them was caught while in the act of notching upon a stick the number of the duke's forces.* On the eleventh the duke marched to Cullen, and at Portsoy he was joined by the remainder of his army, which had been stationed at Old Meldrum and Strathbogie. The army being too numerous to obtain quarters in the town, the foot encamped for the night on some ploughed fields in the neighbourhood, and the horse were quartered in Cullen and the adjacent villages. The earl of Findlater, who, with his countess, had accompanied the army on its march from Aberdeen, on arriving at his seat at Cullen, made a present of two hundred guineas to the troops.

Next day, being Saturday, the twelfth of April, the duke put his army again in motion, and, after a short march, halted on the moor of Arrondel, about five or six miles from the river Spey. He then formed his army into three divisions, each about half a mile distant from the other, and in this order they advanced towards the Spey. The left division, which was the largest, crossed the river by a ford near Gormach, the centre by another close by Gordon castle, and the division on the right by a ford near the church of Belly. In their passage, the men were up to their waists in the water, but, with the exception of the loss of one dragoon and four women, who were carried away by the stream, no accident occurred.

ceeded to pack up every thing in the least portable, and shipped the best things off to Edinburgh a fortnight before he left Aberdeen. Mrs Gordon gives a very minute catalogue of the effects carried off, which she values at £600. Among those abstracted were the whole of her husband's body-clothes, three wigs, "with several shirts and night-gowns of Bob's," (Mr Gordon's son). He carried off all the china and other crockery ware, and did not leave a single tea cup or plate,-all the wine glasses and decanters.—the linens and table napery, and even the kitchen towels. He stript the beds of every thing, and left the bare posts standing. In short, he cleared the house of almost every thing,— of empty bottles, larding pens, iron skewers, flutes, music books, two canes with china heads, wash-balls, &c. &c. Mrs Gordon insinuates that the duke of Cumberland participated in the spoil. In a letter written by Thomas Bowdler, Esq. of Ashley, near Bath, brother of Mrs Gordon, to the Rev. Robert Lyon, who lived in Lady Cotton's family in London, he observes, that a Mrs Jackson, who knew Mrs Gordon's china well, recognised part of it one day in the window of a china shop in London, and having the curiosity to inquire of the shopkeeper from whom he had bought it, was informed that he had purchased it from a woman of the town, who told him that the duke of Cumberland had given it to her.

Ray, p. 313.

The duke of Perth, who happened at this time to be with the Highland forces appointed to defend the passage of the Spey, not thinking it advisable to dispute that position against such an overwhelming force as that to which he was opposed, retired towards Elgin on the approach of the duke of Cumberland. The conduct of the duke of Perth, and of his brother, Lord John Drummond, has been censured for not disputing the passage of the Spey, but without reason. The whole of the Highland forces along the Spey did not exceed two thousand five hundred men, being little more than a fourth of those under the duke of Cumberland. Notwithstanding this great disparity, the Highlanders, aided by the swollen state of the river, might have effectually opposed the passage of the royal army had it been attempted during the month of March, but a recent drought had greatly reduced the quantity of water in the river, and had rendered it fordable in several places to such an extent, that at two of them a whole battalion might have marched abreast. As some of the fords run in a zig-zag direction, some damage might have been done to the royal army in crossing, but as the duke of Cumberland had a good train of artillery, he could have easily covered his passage at these places.

The departure of the duke of Cumberland from Aberdeen was not known at Inverness till the twelfth, on the morning of which day intelligence was brought to Charles that he was in full march to the north with his whole army. Shortly after his arrival at Inverness, Charles had formed the design, while the duke of Cumberland lay at Aberdeen, of giving him the slip, by marching to Perth by the Highland road, so as to induce the duke to return south and thus leave the northern coast clear for the landing of supplies from France. With this view, he had directed the siege of Fort William to be pushed, and, calculating upon a speedy reduction of that fortress, he had sent orders to the Macdonalds, the Camerons, and the Stewarts, who were engaged in the siege, immediately on the capture of the fort to march into Argyleshire, and, after chastising the whigs in that district, and giving an opportunity to their friends there to join them, to proceed to Perth. Charles, however, for the present, laid aside the intention of marching south, and knowing that the duke of Cumberland would advance from Aberdeen early in April, he gave orders for concentrating his forces at Inverness, and, as soon as he was informed of the duke's march, he renewed these orders, by sending expresses every where to bring up his men. Those who had been at the siege of Fort William were already on their march, but Lord Cromarty was at a considerable distance with a large body of men, and could scarcely be expected to arrive in time if the duke was resolved on an immediate action.t

Besides the men who were absent on the expeditions in Lochaber and Sutherland, there were many others who had returned to their homes,

Home's Works, vol. iii., App. No. 41, p. 339.

t Jacobite Memoirs, p. 12

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