1745 and its left on the wood of Barré. The passage of the Scheldt was secured by the bridge of Calonne, lower down the river, and in the rear of the French; and the broad Brussels highway which skirted the wood of Barré also crossed the river at Tournay, still further down. The river and the road thus formed a triangle, of which the villages above- Their posimentioned made a kind of circular base of six or eight miles. On tion at this base Saxe had constructed the most formidable defences, Fontenoy. while across the river to the south-west of Antoin was a subsidiary battery, which took the allied left, in flank. In front of Antoin and Fontenoy were elaborate redoubts, batteries and connecting redans; in the wood was an abattis, mounted with cannon, and at the point of the wood within double range of Fontenoy was the Redoubt d'Eu. Attack of the Allies. At four o'clock in the morning of the 11th of May the allies advanced, Waldeck with the Dutch and Austrians against Antoin and Fontenoy; and the Duke of Cumberland, with the British and Hanoverians, against the enemy's left. At every point the assailants were repulsed; Waldeck's men retired in confusion, and remained unmoved spectators for the rest of the day, while Colonel Ingoldsby, who had been despatched with a division of Highlanders, to pierce the wood of Barré and storm the Redoubt d'Eu, also retreated and stood aloof. The French, in fact, were astonished that an army, inferior in numbers, should attack them at all in so impregnable a position. But the Duke of Cumberland was altogether fearless, yet, at the same time, quite inexperienced, and he determined to take the position at all hazards. Thrice he attacked Fontenoy, and thrice he was repulsed. Leaving his cavalry then in the rear, because the ruggedness of the ground prevented its acting, the Duke formed a column of 14,000 Advance of British infantry, thirty or forty abreast. Regardless of column. the cannonade which mowed down their ranks, this terrible column pressed on, through bushy hollows, water-courses, and other natural obstacles, till it reached the crown of the rising ground, where the first French line of battle was posted. On this ridge, the British instantly planted the field pieces which they had trailed by hand along the heavy road, and began to retaliate upon the enemy the terrible slaughter they had themselves experienced. the British The French cavalry charged the British column again and again, but still it went on, steadily and terribly, hurling back all opposition and threatening even to cut off the enemy's retreat by the bridge of Calonne. Saxe, who was earnestly surveying this unparalleled advance, a hundred paces ahead, now regarded the battle as decided, and he urged the King and his son, who were present on the field at a place called the Gallows Hill, to retire. But the column had now been reduced to about 10,000 men; no cavalry or artillery had The critical moment. CHAP. V. supported its fearless advance, and to win the battle under such circumstances was plainly impossible. If the Dutch had moved at this critical moment, when all was confusion in the French ranks, there would have been no chance, even of retreat, for Marshal Saxe and the King. This contingency, however, did not occur, and during an awful pause of half an hour, when the Duke was readjusting his men, some three hundred yards ahead of Fontenoy, and was looking round to see what to do next, the young Duc de Richelieu advised that a battery should be brought up, to fire down the length of the column, whilst it was attacked in flank by the Household Troops and the Irish Brigade, which had been released from Antoine and Fontenoy, by the inactivity of the Dutch. A fierce and decisive onset ensued. Exhausted by their own exertions, their column slit into ribbons by the artillery in front, and assaulted by the fresh troops in flank, the British wavered, broke, and fell back. Still there was neither cowardice nor confusion in their ranks. Their retreat was made slowly, step by step, with their faces to the foe. The cavalry now came up and covered their retreat, and in this guise they left the field, and repaired to the ramparts of Ath. Few pieces of artillery, no standards, and scarcely any prisoners but the wounded, were left on the ground. The British had lost above 4,000 men killed; the Hanoverians nearly 2,000, and the Dutch about 1,500. The French acknowledged a loss of 7,000 men. Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Oudenarde and Dendermond fell into the enemy's hands, one after another, while the allies merely stood on their ground, covering Brussels and Antwerp,* 21. England withdraws from the War on the Continent.-This great blow, which was followed up in June by a signal defeat of the Austrians at Hohen-Friedberg, by the King of Prussia, and by the landing of Charles Edward in Scotland, in July, rendered it desirable that England should withdraw from the continent, and endeavour to secure a general peace on moderate terms. The Convention of Hanover was therefore concluded with Prussia (August 26th, 1745), by which England guaranteed the possession of Silesia to Frederick and withdrew from the war so far as Germany was concerned. The Queen of Hungary declined, at first, to listen to any terms of peace; but a second defeat of her troops by the Prussians, at Sohr, near the The Convention of Stanhope's England, III., 193-198; Knight's Popular History, VI., 113, 114; Carlyle's Frederick the Great, Book XV., Chap. 8. 1745 sources of the Elbe (30th September); the election of her husband to the Empire, as Francis I. (Charles VII. having died in the previous January, and his son having withdrawn from his father's claims); and a third defeat of her forces by Frederick at Kesselsdorf, near Dresden (15th December), together with the threats of the British Government to withdraw its subsidies, overcame her resolution, and in return for his acknowledgment of her husband's imperial election, she confirmed to the Prussian monarch the possession of Silesia, by the Treaty of Dresden (25th December, 1745).* 2.-THE JACOBITE REBELLION OF 1745. 22. Landing of Prince Charles Edward, in Scotland. The failure of Marshal Saxe's meditated descent on the British shores did not deter the Young Pretender from again trying his fortunes, and on the 22nd of June, 1745, he embarked at St. Nazaire on the Loire, with only seven friends, in a small vessel, which had been furnished to him by some British refugees at Nantes. After a dangerous voyage, during which he narrowly escaped capture by a British cruiser, he landed on the little island of Eriskay, between Barra and South Uist (23rd July) and thence proceeded to the Bay of Loch Na Nuagh between Moidart and Arisaig, where he first put his foot on the Scottish mainland. The few Highland chieftains whom he saw, did not receive him very cordially, The Pretenand remonstrated against his enterprise as impracticable and insane. But with that sanguine fatalism which was at first. so marked a feature in his early character, he met all their objections with the confidence of one who had a right to success, and who chose that they should assist him in securing it. This confidence and decision brought the chieftains over, and it was arranged that there should be a gathering of the clans at Glenfinnan, a narrow valley near the western extremity of Loch Eil, on the 19th of August. der not welcomed On this day, Locheil and his Camerons, together with other clans assembled, and the young adventurer found himself at the head of 1,500 men. Although Fort William was not above twenty miles distant, the garrison seems to have been entirely ignorant of this warlike array, in their neighbourhood. The Highland forts were Carlyle's Frederick the Great, Book XV., Chaps. 8, 10, 14, 15; Dyer's Modern Europe, III., 380-381. The Government strangely ignorant of Highland feeling. CHAP. V. well adapted for preserving order in a general way, and keeping down petty disturbances; but the garrisons which occupied them were held at a distance by the people, and were consequently kept in ignorance of approaching danger. The facility with which the Highland peasantry could be converted into an army was also unknown to the mountain garrisons.* For these reasons, the Government in Edinburgh were not aware of the Pretender's landing, even so late as the 8th of August, and they regarded his enterprise as highly improbable. So strongly convinced, in fact, were the authorities, of the friendly feeling of the Highland gentlemen, that Sir John Cope, the commanderin-chief in Scotland, was despatched to meet the rebels in the mountains, and furnished with a vast quantity of baggage and arms, to distribute among those who were expected to join him as volunteers. the rebels. 23. The Capture of Edinburgh.-Cope soon found that these expectations were vain, and when he reached the Pass of Cope avoids Coiriaraic, near Dalwhinnie, and found it in the possession of the rebels, he avoided them, and marched northward to Inverness. By this movement he exposed all the Lowlands to the mercy of the insurgents, who marched unmolested to Perth, through the rugged mountains of Badenoch and the pleasant vale of Athole, their numbers swelling in every glen. These accessions ceased when they reached the Lowlands, which never furnished at any time, more than a thousand Jacobite followers; but two important men now joined the Pretender, namely, James Drummond, Duke of Perth, and Lord George Murray, the brother of Tullibardine, who had accompanied Charles from France. After resting a week in Perth, the rebel army resumed its march, and crossed the Forth at the fords of Frew, near Stirling, Colonel Gardiner's dragoons, whom They cross Cope had left behind to defend the passage, retiring on their approach. The Pretender therefore advanced upon Edinburgh, and was joined by Lord Kilmarnock, his first Lowland volunteer of rank, at Falkirk. the Forth. State of The Scottish capital had been plunged into violent agitation by the news of Cope's diversion to Inverness. The Castle was the only efficient means of defence, the antique ramparts of the city being entirely unfitted to resist artillery. There was a Town Guard, whose worth had been tested in the Porteous Mob; there were Trained Bands, who never met except * Burton's Scotland, VIII., 439; Chambers's Rebellion, chapters 2 and 3. 1745 for their annual dinner and parade; and there were some volun teers, ignorant of discipline, and without an able commander. The municipal authorities, moreover, were divided into factions; so that the city was utterly defenceless. An attempt was indeed made to strengthen the walls, under the guidance of Colin Maclaurin, the celebrated mathematician; but those who volunteered to work were very irregular in their attendance, and when a few guns had been placed in position, the only persons able to man them were the sailors from Leith, whom the Provost refused to employ. The first call to arms was made on Sunday, the 15th of September, during the hours of Divine worship. No sooner was the fire bell heard, than the congregations rushed into the streets in the utmost consternation. It was then found that the Town Guard, with some of the military, were hastening to Corstorphine, where Gardiner's dragoons had resolved to make a stand. But while a small detachment of these were reconnoitring at Coltbridge, they were scared by a party of Highland gentlemen, and dragoons and guard instantly fled panic-stricken-the former never halting in their mad gallop till they reached Preston, whence a second panic drove them to Dunbar. This disgraceful flight, popularly The Canter of called The Canter of Coltbrigg," brought new terrors to the citizens; and while they were negotiating for a surrender to the Prince, Locheil and his Camerons obtained an entrance through the Netherbow Port, by a stratagem, and when the inhabitants awoke on the morning of the 17th September, they found the rebels in possession of the city. The same day, Charles entered the Palace of Holyrood, and his father was proclaimed at the High Cross, by the title of "James the Eighth."* Coltbrigg. Cope lands his army at Dunbar. 24. The Battle of Preston Pans.- While the Edinburgh populace was huzzaing Prince Charles on his way to Holyrood, Cope, who had obtained transports from Aberdeen, was landing his men at Dunbar. He immediately set out to meet the insurgents, and on reaching Preston resolved to make a stand there, the ground being favourable. He drew up his troops, consisting of dragoons, artillery, and infantry, with their front towards the west; the right resting on the sea, and the left on the village of Tranent. His position was thus on the lower ground at Preston; but when he learned that the Highlanders, under the command of Lord George Murray, had struck across the hills from Musselburgh, with the intention of making their favourite attack * Burton's Scotland, VIII., 442-451; Chambers's Rebellion, chapters 6-10; Stan hope's England, III., 221-233. |