438 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



the capture of Stirling ; the defeat of General Hawley at 

 Falkirk ; and the surrender of Inverness and its castle : 

 these were as pebbles of little value which were carried off 

 the shore of fortune by the ebbing tide. Charles Edward 

 was fated never again to be carried on the crest of the 

 wave of success. When his army faced the English troops 

 on Culloden Moor, the crisis in his affairs was reached ; 

 and the dispersal of the clans on the fateful i6th April, 1746, 

 sounded the knell alike of his personal hopes, and of the 

 chances of the House of Stuart ever regaining the British 

 throne. At the decisive battle of Culloden, the High- 

 landers saved their honour though they lost the day. By 

 the barbarities which succeeded the battle, the Duke of 

 Cumberland lost his honour though he had saved the 

 Crown. The English soldiers had learned that the so- 

 called savage Highlanders were not only superb fighters, 

 but generous victors. When they, themselves, tasted the 

 sweets of unaccustomed success, their moderation was that 

 of the hyaena. In the Highlands of Scotland, the name of 

 " Butcher " Cumberland is still remembered with a degree 

 of abhorrence equalling, if not surpassing, that in which 

 the name of Cromwell is held in the South of Ireland. 

 The specious excuses which have been made for him are 

 altogether unconvincing. His subordinates, with some 

 honourable exceptions, displayed a spirit of ferocity in 

 carrying out his instructions, which suggests that they were 

 brutalised by the lust of revenge. They had heavy scores 

 to pay off against the Highlanders, who had disgracefully 

 beaten in fair fight some of their best troops. They dis- 

 charged their debt by the barbarous murder of the wounded ; 

 by the massacre of defenceless men in cold blood ; by abomin- 

 able outrages on women and infants ; and by remorseless 

 and wholesale destruction of property. This was the devil's 

 work by means of which William, Duke of Cumberland, 

 hoped to plant firmly on the brows of his Royal father, 

 the Crown which, a few months previously, appeared to be 

 toppling from his head. 



The operations of the Independent Companies of High- 



