48 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



flames. Had this taken place in the heat of battle, as at Hougumont, where 

 the spirit of resistance was still maintained by those inclosed, the fact would 

 have been written down as one of those catastrophes which no humanity could 

 prevent ; but in the present instance the battle had long ceased resistance was 

 at an end the royal authority was recognised and Cumberland might have 

 reposed on his laurels, honoured, if not respected ; and, if not popular, yet in 

 the full enjoyment of power. By aspiring to those traits which show the avenger, 

 he lost sight of all that magnanimity which should distinguish the victor ; 

 dissatisfied with the mere honour of victory, he neutralized its fame by the 

 infamy of a massacre. It has been said, that if mercy were banished from the 

 earth it should find a resting-place in the hearts of princes ; but the royal 

 leader in the present instance was insensible to its pleadings, and in the means 

 adopted to render himself terrible in the eyes of the people, he became odious. 

 Such conduct threw a qualifying shade over the lustre of conquest, and by 

 degrading the illustrious personage from the character of a hero, avenged the 

 people whom he had sacrificed. 



" Mais pourquoi rappeler cette trisle victoire ? 

 Que ne puis-je plut&t ravir a la memoire 

 Les cruels monumens de ces affreux succes .'" 



Parties of the military were sent into every district whose chiefs were supposed 

 to have been concerned in the rebellion, to burn, plunder, and lay waste the 

 country; and in this their orders were executed to the letter. The Duke in 

 the mean time reached the highest degree of popularity ; in the south, his victory 

 of Culloden was regarded as a brilliant example of generalship, and the conqueror 

 was flattered by every token of public admiration.* But the honour so liberally 

 awarded him, and those high talents for which the parliament gave him 

 unbounded credit, were eventually proved to be rash and unfounded. In proof 

 of this, we need only allude to his royal highness's capitulation when opposed 

 by a French general at Closter Severn. The letters written by him to the 



countess of expose his memory to ridicule. That other great men 



have not done the same, we presume not to say ; some of our most distinguished 



* After the battle of Culloden, most of the old signs of naval and military heroes gave way to the Head 

 of Duke William. " I was yesterday out of town," says Horace Walpole in a letter to Mr. Conway, dated 

 April 16, 1747, " and the very signs at the inns, as I passed through the villages, made me make very 

 quaint reflections on the mortality of fame and popularity ! I observed how the ' Duke of Cumberland's Head' 

 had succeeded almost universally to ' Admiral Vernon's," and his had left but few traces of the ' Duke of 

 Ormond's.' I pondered these things in my heart, and said to myself, Surely all glory is but as the sign 

 over an inn duor ,'" 



