789 



STUART FAMILY. 



STUART FAMILY. 



790 



began their march to Stirling, in two divisions. When the troops 

 came near Stirling, the prince took up his abode in a house called 

 Bannockburn. Lord George Murray 's division occupied Falkirk. The 

 town of Stirling soon surrendered, and Charles's army, now, by the 

 junction of the forces of Lord Strathallan and Drummond, amounting 

 to 9000 men, attacked the castle of Stirling. On the 16th of the 

 month General Hawley left Edinburgh, which he had entered during 

 Charles's absence, and marched to Falkirk ; so that his army was now 

 only seven miles distant from that of the Pretender. Lord George 

 Murray marched at the head of the Macdonalds of Keppoch with his 

 drawn sword in his hand. The Macdonalds began the fight, and 

 repulsed the king's dragoons. The rout of the royalists seemed com- 

 plete. With difficulty General Hawley kept a few of his regiments 

 together, and retreated to Linlithgow, leaving seven pieces of cannon 

 and a quantity of provision, ammunition, &c., upon the field. A 

 strong body of Highlanders, commanded by Lord George Murray, 

 i'.> i mediately took possession of Falkirk. f 



The friends of the House of Hanover were greatly dejected on 

 hearing of the defeat ; whilst the generals of the rebel party deemed 

 it incomplete, and blamed each other. Charles remained at his 

 quarters that night, and on the following day returned to Bannock- 

 burn. Meantime the siege of Stirling Castle proceeded slowly, owing 

 to tho superior fire of the castle. On the 30th of January the Duke 

 of Cumberland arrived at Edinburgh, whither General Hawley had 

 retired; and on the following day the duke marched against the 

 f nemy. Lord George Murray with the clan regiments was now at 

 Falkirk, and Prince Charles was still in the house of Bannockburn. 

 The rebels at first resolved to make a stand, and to give the duke 

 battle ; but on the following morning they suddenly raised the siege 

 of Stirling Castle, and retreated. Two explosions were the first signal 

 of this event which reached the duke's ears; these were the powder- 

 magazines blown up by the Highland troops, who retreated in disorder 

 over the river Forth. 



The Highlanders marched through Dunblane to Crieff, where the 

 two divisions of their army separated: one, under Prince Charles, 

 marched north by the highland road ; the other, commanded by Lord 

 George, proceeded through Montrose and Aberdeen, by the coast road, 

 to Inverness. In the vicinity of that town both divisions approached 

 each other. Charles, suffering his men to straggle about, lodged at 

 Moy, the seat of Mackintosh, about ten miles from Inverness. Here 

 he was saved from a surprise by the presence of mind of a woman. 

 Lord London, who was at Inverness, hearing that the prince had only 

 five or six hundred men with him, set out one evening as soon as it 

 was dark, with a design to seize him. Lady Mackintosh, the wife of 

 Charles's host, is supposed to have been apprised of this attempt by 

 letters from her mother. Without saying a word to Charles, she 

 ordered five or six of the people, well armed, to watch on the road 

 from Inverness, under the direction of a country smith. When Lord 

 London's troop drew near, the smith and his party gave them a shot 

 or two, calling upon the Macdonalds and Camerous to join them. 

 Lord Loudon's men, deceived by these shouts, retreated precipitately 

 to Inverness, and many of them were trampled down in the confusion 

 of their flight. Charles, on the following day, hearing of this skirmish, 

 which was called the Rout of Moy, marched to Inverness. Upon 

 Lord Loudon retreating, he laid siege first to Fort George, and next to 

 Fort Augustus, both of which places he captured. During the months 

 of February and March a desultory war was carried on, until, at the 

 end of March, news was brought that the Duke of Cumberland was 

 marching towards Inverness with all his forces. On the 14th of April, 

 Charles retreated from Inverness to Nairn, where he again made a 

 stand. That night the Highlanders slept amid the furze and trees of 

 Culloden wood, about three miles from Nairn. The prince's army 

 was now much dispersed, and many of his best officers were absent. 

 The Master of Lovat, son of Lord Lovat, was, as well as others, 

 recruiting his forces. Lochiel however joined the army of Charles 

 with his regiment ; and, on the 15th, the army, reinforced by Keppoch 

 and his regiment, was drawn out in order of battle upon Drummossie 

 Muir, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Culloden House. 

 About two o'clock the men were ordered to their quarters, and 

 Charles, calling together the generals, announced his intention of 

 making an attack upon the duke's army, then at Nairn. When he 

 explained his design, the Duke of Perth and John Drummond 

 dissented; and Lochiel remarked, that on the next day the prince's 

 army would be stronger by fifteen hundred men. But the matter was 

 decided when Lord George Murray seconded Charles's proposal, and 

 urged the advantage of a night attack. Many men had gone to Inver- 

 ness to get food ; and the ranks were thinned : but Charles, bent upon 

 a night attack, ordered the men to march at eight o'clock. At the 

 appointed hour the Highland army advanced in a column, with an 

 interval in the middle, according to a plan of Lord George Murray's, 

 who marched in the front at the head of the Athol brigade. Charles 

 and the Duke of Perth were in the centre of the line of march. The 

 night was very dark, and was far spent before the Highlanders reached 

 Kilravock wood, where the officers, finding by their repeating-watches 

 that it was two o'clock in the morning, consulted what was to be 

 done ; as Nairn was still more than three miles off, and it would be 

 daylight before they could reach it. The matter was decided by Mr. 

 Hepburn, who, on hearing a drum in the enemy's camp, observed, that 



if they should retreat they would be pursued ; and that they would 

 then be in a worse condition than they now were. The Duke of 

 Cumberland had gained intelligence of the attempt, and by five o'clock 

 in the morning his army was on its march. The Highlanders, weary 

 and dispirited, retraced their steps to Culloden, where many of them 

 lay down to sleep. About eight o'clock the duke's forces were seen 

 marching towards them ; and about twelve, they were within two 

 miles and a half of the rebels. About one o'clock a heavy cannonade 

 was begun by the king's troops, and continued till two. The Highland 

 regiments suffered severely, and a very inefficient fire was returned 

 from their cannon. Colonel Belford, of the artillery, seeing a body of 

 horse with Charles, who was stationed on a small eminence behind 

 the right of the second line, pointed two pieces of cannon at them ; 

 one of Charles's servants, who stood behind him with a led horse, was 

 killed, and the face of the prince was bespattered with dust. The 

 Highlanders now became impatient to attack. A messenger was sent 

 to Lochiel, representing the necessity for doing something. Whilst 

 Lochiel was speaking to Lord George Murray, the Mackintosh regi- 

 ment broke out from the line, and drove back the king's troops, sword 

 in hand, but they were mostly brought to the ground by a terrible 

 fire. A few desperate men pressed on, and perished by the bayonet. 

 The Macdonalds and other Highland regiments now retired : it is said 

 that the former were affronted by being deprived of the right, the 

 post of honour, which their clan had possessed from time immemorial. 

 It was in vain that the Duke of Perth called upon them to behave 

 themselves, and make a right of the left, declaring that if they did, 

 " he would henceforth call his name Macdonald.'' The Highlanders 

 were dispirited, and their condition became desperate. 



At this crisis the Duke of Cumberland advanced with the infantry, 

 and the Highlanders fled ; some retired to Badenoch, and others to 

 the hills. Many who had fasted all day ran twenty miles without 

 tasting food. The Fraser and Drummond's regiments retired to 

 Inverness. The dragoons pursued and slaughtered the fugitives. 

 When Charles saw, for the first time, his Highlanders repulsed and 

 flying, he advanced to rally them ; but Sir Thomas Sheridan dissuaded 

 him from the fruitless attempt. The entreaty would not have availed, 

 according to the testimony of the prince's standard-bearer, if General 

 Sullivan had not led the prince's horse by the bridle from the field. 

 Whilst some Highland troops still kept their ground, Lord Elcho, it 

 is said, rode up to the prince, and exhorted him to make one final 

 attempt to rally, or, at least, to die like one worthy of a crown. The 

 reply was hesitating. Lord Elcho, with execrations, turned from him, 

 for whom he had sacrificed everything, and swore never to see his face 

 again ; an oath which he kept. 



The rebels are said to have lost about a thousand men ; and among 

 these were the bravest and the most devoted to the cause. The prince, 

 after dismissing the troops which followed him, went to Gorthleek, 

 where Lord Lovat was, and whence he sent a farewell message to the 

 remnant of his army, thanking them for their services, but desiring 

 them to attend to their own preservation. He next proceeded to 

 Invergarie, near Fort Augustus, where he took leave of all his followers 

 except Sullivan, O'Neil, and Burke, a servant who knew the country. 

 Charles had now resolved to escape to France. For a time he kept 

 about the islands of North and South Uist, sometimes in fishermen's 

 huts, sometimes subsisting upon the bounty of the islanders, but 

 generally in a state of the utmost privation. Hunted from place to 

 place by the king's troops, his adventures are scarcely equalled by the 

 fictions of any romance. General Campbell searched the islands of 

 Barra and South Uist in vain ; and Long Island, in which he also took 

 shelter, was surrounded by frigates and sloops of war. In this peri- 

 lous condition Charles remained until the end of June, when he was 

 delivered from his danger. Flora Macdonald, the daughter of Mac- 

 douald of Melton, in the isle of South Uist, was the generous and 

 courageous woman who risked her life to save that of the prince. 

 She had heard of his misfortunes and dangers, and expressed a wish 

 to assist him. Charles was introduced to Flora, who undertook to 

 convey him to Skye as her maid, dressed in female attire. As no one 

 was allowed to go without a passport, she procured one for herself and 

 her supposed maid, Betty Burke. On the evening before they were to 

 sail, she and Lady Clanronald met the prince at a place near Orma- 

 clade, on the sea-shore. Whilst they were at supper here, news came 

 that a party of officers and soldiers were searching Ormaclade in quest 

 of Charles. Shortly afterwards, on seeing four armed cutters a1> a 

 little distance, the Jadies and the prince hid themselves among the 

 rocks. About eight hi the evening they sailed ; and although threat- 

 ened by a party of the Macleod's militia, who saw them from the shore, 

 they pursued their way to Kilbride in Skye. Here Flora intended to 

 lodge the prince at Mugstot, the seat of Sir Alexander Macdonald, but 

 several of the king's soldiers being in the house, he was sheltered at 

 the house of Macdonald of Kingsburgh, Sir Alexander's factor. On 

 the following day Charles changed his attire, and crossed over to 

 Rasay, where he lodged for some time in a cowhouse ; but growing 

 impatient in this retreat, he returned to Skye, where he was assisted 

 by the Mackinnons, and by their aid sailed to Loch Nevis, a lake in 

 the mainland, where he was put ashore on the 5th of July. Here a 

 number of the king's troops were stationed, and Charles was now 

 enclosed between a line of posts formed by the officers who had 

 notice of his situation. To escape this danger, he was forced, with 



