his army. CHAP. V. upon an enemy down hill, he changed his front and reformed His right then rested on Colonel Gardiner's His position Park wall and the village of Preston; Seaton House and at Preston. the sea being on his left, and the village of Preston Pans in his rear. The numerous houses and enclosures which girt this position prevented the Highlanders from performing their formidable manœuvre; and it met with a more serious impediment in a morass, which was cut by a deep ditch, and was impassable except at the risk of a murderous fire. But a Jacobite gentleman of the neighbourhood conducted the rebels overnight to a place where they could cross the morass and the ditch, unseen by Cope's army. A dense mist also shrouded this movement, and when the Highlanders made their appearance, fully prepared for the attack, the English general was actively engaged in making new dispositions of his men, to meet the surprise. The consequence was, that the royal army He is sur was in much confusion, when the Highlanders fell upon Highlanders. them; and in five minutes from the firing of the first gun, the rebel victory was complete (21st September). Then commenced a slaughter which has few parallels in modern warfare. The walls and enclosures, which should have served as fortifications to Cope's army, now became slaughter pens; and the soldiers, huddled together in heaps, were cut to pieces. Among the slain was Colonel Gardiner, who alone of all the royal officers, nobly remained at his post, and fell close to the door of his own mansion. Cope, with the dragoons, reached Coldstream that night, and next day carried the tidings of his defeat to Berwick. The Highlanders gave the name of Gladsmuir, a large heath in the neighbourhood, to this battle, on account of an old prediction which said “On Gladsmuir shall the battle be." prised by the 25. The Pretender's March to Derby, and Retreat.—This victory gave such promise of ultimate success to the Pretender's cause, that those chiefs and lairds who had hitherto held aloof, now came in with their followers, and in the short space of six weeks raised his army to 6000 men, 500 of whom were cavalry. These forces were encamped at Duddingstone, and were in excellent heart and condition, being abundantly clothed and fed, and well armed. But Charles experienced considerable difficulty in persuading A march into them to follow him to the south, for the whole of his men were still Highlanders, who, as in 1715, dreaded a march into England; and there were still some important dis England hazardous. * Burton's Scotland. VIII., 452-457; Chambers's Rebellion, chapters 10-12; Stanhope's England, III., 233-242. 1745 takes tricts, even in the Highlands, which had not declared for him. Old Lord Lovat, at Castle Downie, still continued to waver between his hopes and fears, and he at length adopted the dastardly expedient of sending his son with his clan (the Frasers) to join the Prince, while he wrote to the authorities protesting that this was done against his will and orders. The Castles of Edinburgh and Stirling were still in the hands of the Government, and in the neighbourhood of Inverness the Lord President Forbes was gradually collecting forces round his residence at Culloden House. Under these circumstances, an expedition into England, where the Jacobites had as yet taken no apparent measures to rise in arms, and where the French had not made their promised descent, was extremely hazardous. But Charles believed in his destiny, and that he had only to march to London to take possession of the throne; he therefore overruled all the objections of his Council, and gave orders for the march (31st October, 1745). He skilfully evaded Marshal Wade's army at Newcastle, and readily obtained possession of Carlisle, as no preparations had been made on the western borders for Charles his reception. Leaving a small detachment to garrison Carlisle. this ancient city, the Pretender now pushed on through Shap, Kendal, and Lancaster, to Preston, where a few recruits joined him under Major Townley. At Manchester, also, he enrolled a body of 200 men; but these were the sole substantial proofs he received of popular favour. The people came out to see the procession of his kilted men, as if to see a show; and although the Catholic gentry of Westmoreland and Lancashire warmly sympathised with him, their Jacobitism was not strong enough of English to induce them to peril all that was dear to them Jacobitism sonally, in the face of a strong Government. Even the period. ladies of such families gave the Pretender no further countenance, than stately hospitality; and the full extent of their feeling was expressed by one of them, when she exclaimed, at his departure from her house "May God bless him." "The policy of Walpole," it has been well observed, "had in fact secured England for the House of Hanover. The long peace, the prosperity of the country, and the clemency of the Government had done their work. Jacobitism as a fighting force was dead." The temporary gleam of popularity which shone upon the Jacobite cause at Preston and Manchester, was therefore soon overshadowed. Chester and Liverpool both secured themselves against the fate of Carlisle; the bridges on the * Burton's Scotland, VIII., 465. per Nature at this + Greene's Short History, 725. CHAP. V. Mersey were all broken down; Marshal Wade was advancing from Yorkshire; a second army under the Duke of Cumberland was concentrating round Lichfield; while a third, under the King and Lord Stair, was forming at Finchley Common, for the protection of London. Even the tidings from Dangers gather round the Pretender. Scotland, showed how brief and frail was the tenure of the rule of the Stuarts in their own ancient dominions. Now that the Highlanders had gone, all the great Lowland towns had quietly resumed their allegiance, and at Perth the populace had insisted on celebrating King George's day, in spite of their Jacobite garrison. Some of the Highland clans had also risen in arms for King George, while others, though inclined to the Stuarts, refused to stir. He betrays the haughtiness of the Stuarts. These threatening appearances did not, however, deter the Prince from persisting in his march; but when he reached Derby (4th December), his Council presented to him their earnest and unanimous opinion of the utter hopelessness of their enterprise, and the necessity of an immediate retreat to Scotland. Their representations were received with much impatience; but Charles sullenly agreed to them in the end, adding, however, in the haughty spirit of his race, that he would call no more councils, since he was accountable to no one, except God and his father. During the retreat, he moodily adhered to this resolution. His cheerfulness and affability left him; instead of marching on foot, in the front, he rode dejectedly in the rear, and he held no intercourse with his men. The retreat, however, was conducted with so much skill and celerity by Lord George Murray, that two days elapsed before the Duke of Cumberland was aware of it; and the Highlanders kept ahead of him for twelve days, until they reached Penrith. A sharp action took place, near this town, on Clifton Moor, in which the insurgents repulsed their pursuers with considerable loss; so that they were allowed to continue the remainder of their retreat without molestation. Leaving their English contingent to garrison Carlisle, they crossed the border, by fording the Esk; passed through Dumfries, and entered Glasgow on the 24th of December, thus completing one of the most extraordinary marches recorded in history. It lasted fifty-six days; extended over a distance of five hundred and eighty miles; and was conducted with such ability and resolution, that not more than forty men were lost by sickness or the sword, out of an army of nearly five thousand.* *Stanhope's England, III.. 246-283; Chambers' Rebellion, chaps. 14, 15, and 16; Burton's Scotland, VIII., 458-478. 1745 26. Public Feeling in London during the Highland March to Derby. The day on which the news reached London, that the Highlanders had arrived at Derby, and thus placed themselves between the two armies of Wade and Cumberland, and the capital, was long remembered in the metropolis under the name of "Black Friday." It was said that there was a run upon the Bank Black Friday. of England, and that it only escaped bankruptcy by paying not panic in sixpences, to gain time; that the Duke of Newcastle shut himself up for a whole day, in order that he might deliberate calmly, whether to retain his allegiance to the House of Hanover, or transfer it to the House of Stuart; while a wilder report gave out that King George had embarked his most precious treasures at the Tower Quays, ready for momentary flight. These stories were, however, only Jacobite rumours, devoid of evidence; and more trustworthy proofs of the state of public feeling are given by such contemporary writers as Fielding and Smollett, and the public prints of the day. That the citizens were struck with terror, at the approach of five thousand savage warriors, of whose plundering and cruelty they had heard such terrible accounts, was very natural; but they The citizens did not on that account give way to despair. The London stricken. and Middlesex militia were kept in readiness for the march; the city volunteers were under arms; and other bodies of volunteers had been incorporated and joined with the men of Dettingen and Fontenoy at Finchley. Hogarth's famous print of the "March to Finchley" gives us sufficient proof of the fact, that the general demeanour of the people was not that of The caricapanic and abject alarm, while the general opinion of the day. Pretender's pretensions is well expressed in the caricatures and songs of the day. These caricatures most frequently represent him as bringing into the country the religious principles of Rome, and the absolutism of France; while others show that, even in such a time of danger, the people could afford to laugh at the ludicrous military swagger of the volunteers, and to satirise Johnnie Cope's famous race from Preston Pans to Berwick.‡ tures of the compelled to 27. The Battle of Falkirk.-The Highland army 1em ined a week in Glasgow, during which the men were clothed and maintained at the expense of the citizens, who loudly Glasgow complained of the exaction, and were afterwards reim- support the bursed by Parliament. The Pretender was now at the head of the largest force he ever mustered, some artillery Pretender's army. + Burton's Scotland, VIII., 468; Wright's Caricature History of the Georges, 151. *Stanhope's England, III., 275. Knight's Pop. Hist., VI., 148. S Hawley against the CHAP. V. and refugees from France, together with other reinforcements raising his numbers to 9,000 men. Thus strengthened he considered himself able to besiege Stirling Castle, but first resolved to give battle to General Hawley, who had followed his retreat, and was now encamped at Falkirk. Hawley had fought at Sheriff Muir, and had since served in Flanders; but he was a man of greater ferocity than ability, and his first proceeding on advances his arrival at Edinburgh was to order the erection of Highlanders. gibbets for the rebels, and to attach a number of executioners to his army. He spoke with ignorant contempt of the "Highland rabble," and believed that the enemy would disperse at the mere news of his approach. He accordingly neglected the most common military precautions, and when the Highlanders came in full sight (23rd January, 1746) ready for an immediate attack, he was breakfasting at Callendar House with the Countess of Kilmarnock, entirely forgetful of his army, in the fascination of her manners and conversation. When he at last awoke to a consciousness of the exigency of his affairs, he galloped off in breathless haste, without his hat, and, like Cope, whom he had professed to despise, was busily arranging his men when they should have been incomplete victory. in full order of battle. The consequence was, that the They gain an mountaineers, who had gained an advantageous position on Falkirk Moor, rushed down hill like a torrent, upon the English centre, and broke it; but during their pursuit, the English right, protected by the rugged bank of a ravine, gave them a sharp volley on their flank, and thus saved Hawley from being totally defeated. Content, as was their custom, with this one wild charge, the Highlanders then returned to Bannockburn, and resumed the siege of Stirling Castle, Hawley's shattered forces falling back upon Edinburgh.* 28. The Pretender falls back upon Inverness.-The doubtful victory of Falkirk rendered no service to the Pretender's cause. The clansmen deserted in large numbers, to secure their booty; the insurgent engineers were quite unequal to the siege of such a fortress as that of Stirling Castle; and when reports came in of the advance of the Duke of Cumberland, orders were reluctantly given for a retreat to the north. This movement was not executed with the discipline and regularity which had marked the retreat from Derby; and it was entirely owing to the celerity of the mountaineers Stanhope's England, III., 281-290; Chambers' Rebellion, chaps. 17-18; Burton's Scotland, VIII., 480-482. |