CHAPTER X.

DUNCAN FORBES-SIR JOHN COPE, COMMANDER OF THE ROYAL ARMY-REWARD OFFERED FOR THE APPREHENSION OF CHARLES-HE MARCHES AGAINST COPE, WHO RETREATS TO THE NORTH, LEAVING THE ROAD TO EDINBURGH OPEN-DUPLICITY OF LORD LOVAT— DEVOTION OF CHARLES TO HIS MILITARY DUTIESHIS MARCH TO EDINBURGH.

HOWEVER difficult it may be to decide whether the French government was informed beforehand of the nature of Charles's projected expedition, it is at all events certain that the English government received no notice of the threatening danger, nor indeed any information that could at all be relied on, till some time after the landing. A letter, dated the 19th of August, from Lord Tweeddale, the Scottish Secretary of State, shows that at that date, nearly three weeks after the arrival of Charles on the coast, his departure from Nantes was still only a matter of belief, while the rumour

of his arrival in Scotland was treated as absurd

and incredible.

No time was indeed lost in forwarding such information as the government was possessed of to Edinburgh, where the persons most relied on were the Lord President, Duncan Forbes; Lord Milton, the Chief Justice Clerk; and Sir John Cope, the commander-in-chief. These gentlemen, however, received the news with the same incredulity as the authorities in London had done. Duncan Forbes, a man devoted to the house of Hanover, though he befriended the ruined Jacobites in their days of adversity, in a letter, dated the 19th of August, still speaks of the rumours as unlikely to be true. He is "confident," he says, speaking

He is "

*The correspondence between the Marquis of Tweeddale and Lord Milton, relative to Charles's landing, will be found in the Appendix to Home. So late as the 24th of August, Tweeddale writes: "Though it is not absolutely certain that the Pretender's eldest son is actually landed," &c. The Lord President's letter, mentioned above, will be found in the Culloden Papers (p. 240). In the Quarterly Review, No. XXVIII., will be found some admirable remarks on the character of Duncan Forbes, supposed to be from the pen of Sir Walter Scott.-George Lockhart writes on the 29th of January, 1728 (Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 405), "Whilst no party is acting for his (James's) interest, no projects formed, nothing done to keep up the spirits of the people, the old race drops off by degrees, and a new one sprouts up, who, having no particular bias to the king, as knowing little more of him

of Charles, "that young man cannot with reason expect to be joined by any considerable force in the Highlands;" and he goes on to show how much the Jacobite party had been reduced since 1715.

Sir John Cope, meanwhile, did not neglect to issue the necessary orders for concentrating his troops near Stirling, after having submitted his plans to the Lords Justices in England, and obtained their approval. They ordered him to oppose every obstacle that the force under his command might enable him to offer to the advance of the armed Jacobites; and forwarded to him a proclamation, issued in the London Gazette, a few days previously, offering a reward of 30,000l. to any person that should seize and secure "the pretended Prince of Wales."

The forces at Cope's disposal, however, did not exceed three thousand men. The regular troops

than what the public newspapers bear, enter on the stage with a perfect indifference, at least coolness, towards him and his cause, which consequently must daylie languish, and in process of time be totally forgot. In which melancholy situation of the king's affairs, I leave them in the year 1728."-The attachment of the Scottish people to the house of Stuart was indeed certain to die away gradually, and, under a wise direction, would have done so at a much earlier period than it did. The events of 1745 and 1746 showed, however, that the ancient feeling survived longer and in greater force than Lockhart supposed.

were for the most part on the Continent, and a few companies of a Highland regiment, under the Earl of Loudon, were stationed for the most part in the north, beyond Inverness. Cope left Edinburgh on on the same day on which the standard was unfurled in Glenfinnan, and proceeded in the direction of Fort Augustus, at the head of fifteen hundred men, leaving behind the whole of his cavalry, for whom it would have been difficult to obtain forage in the Highlands, where, moreover, they could not have afforded any very valuable services. From Fort Augustus it was his intention to direct his operations against the insurgents, whom he expected to reduce with ease. He had been deluded, however, by a multitude of false reports, spread by the Jacobites about him, and so completely had they deceived him with respect to the popular feeling, that he took with him a thousand stand of arms, to equip the volunteers, who, he was told, would come pouring in from all directions. On his arrival at Crieff, he sent back the greater part of his useless muskets, Captain Swetenham having joined him, in the mean time, and apprised him of the real state of affairs. On his arrival at

Dalwhinnie, Cope was apprised that the Highlanders had possessed themselves of the pass of Carry Arrack, and were prepared to dispute it with him.

On the day after that on which Charles had unfurled the banner of the Stuarts, he repaired to Auchnacarrie, the house of Lochiel, where he was joined by Macdonald of Glencoe, with a hundred and fifty men, by Ardshiel with two hundred of the Stuarts of Appin, and by the younger Glengarry, who likewise brought two hundred men with him. Thus the Highland force under the prince's command amounted to about sixteen hundred men, which was soon augmented by the arrival of a hundred men belonging to the Grants of Glenmorriston, while the deserters from Lord Loudon's companies were constantly bringing intelligence of Cope's movements. Animated by the prospect of an approaching battle, Charles determined to set forth without delay in search of the enemy.

On the 6th of September, Charles arrived at Aberchalder, three miles from Fort Augustus, and, on the following morning, before daybreak, commenced his march toward Carry Arrack.