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Historical Geography of the Clans of Scotland
By T. B. Johnston, F.R.G.S. and Colonel James A. Robertson
The Highland Campaigns
The Forty-Five - After Culloden


KING GEORGE’S forces, twice defeated in the field by the insurgents, were now at last victorious, and their victory was followed by such cruelties and atrocities as never have disgraced a British army. It may be admitted at once that, from the point of view of the Government, severity, even great severity, was justifiable. Militant Jacobitism had to be stamped out once for all, and the military clan system had to be broken up. It was quite out of the question that the north of Scotland should be left in such a condition as to make another rising possible. It may be admitted also that the antecedents and training of the Duke of Cumberland were very different from those of a British General. What there is to say in his defence has been temperately said by Mr Hill Burton.

"To believe that this victory was followed by much cruelty, it is not necessary to believe that the cruelty was wanton. We may be assured, from the Duke of Cumberland’s character, that he was led by a sense of duty. But that duty led him to severity. He was a soldier, according to the German notions of a soldier, and a rebel province was a community to be subjected to martial law. Many of the insurgents, attempting to escape or hide themselves, when detected by well-known peculiarities, were put to death by the soldiery, who, even when they made a mistake and slew the wrong man, could not easily be punished. The Duke, brought up in the German military school, seems to have been unable to distinguish between a rebellion suppressed in constitutional Britain, where all men are supposed to be innocent but those proved to be guilty, and a revolted German province, where every accorded grace to the unfortunate people proceeds from the will of the conqueror. Thus there was a propensity to subject all the northern districts to something too closely resembling military law or license."

It may also be admitted that some stories have received general credence without much examination of the evidence on which they rest, but, after all palliations have been conceded and after all exaggerations have been deducted, there remains an amply authenticated residue of hideous charges against the Duke, his officers, and his army. Bishop Forbes made it his business to collect evidence with regard to these atrocities, and the numerous documents relating to them which are included in the Lyon in Mourning, and have recently been given to the world for the first time at full length, present a sickening record of infamous outrage and devilish cruelty. We give two specimen documents, with Bishop Forbes’s notes. Their unstudied language presents a more vivid picture of the terrible reality than could be given by any modern paraphrase. Some facts may be exaggerated, but it will be seen that the writers have been careful to avoid groundless statements. When it is recollected that the deeds narrated took place in the Highlands of Scotland in modern times, and were perpetrated by regular troops under the command of English officers, it will be well understood why the name of the Butcher Cumberland is still mentioned in the North with loathing and horror.

The first document is a narrative written by Mr Francis Stewart, son of Bailie John Stewart of Inverness, and communicated by him to Bishop Forbes on October 4, 1748.

"To recollect and enumerate all the hardships endured and cruelties committed in and about Inverness, on and after the 16th of April 1746, is what I cannot pretend to do; and I am certain many things were done that very few, if any, can give any account of. The following facts you have, as I either saw them myself or was informed of them by others:-

"It is a fact undeniable, and known almost to everybody, that upon Friday, the 18th of April, which was the 2nd day after the battle, a party was regularly detached to put to death all the wounded men that were found in and about the field of battle. That such men were accordingly put to death is also undeniable, for it is declared by creditable people who were eye-witnesses to that most miserable and bloody scene. I myself was told by William Rose, who was then greeve to my Lord President, that 12 wounded men were carried out of his house and shot in a hollow, which is within very short distance of the place of action. William Rose’s wife told this fact to creditable people, from whom I had it more circumstantially. She said that the party came to her house, and told the wounded men to get up, that they might bring them to surgeons to get their wounds dress’d. Upon which, she said, the poor men, whom she thought in so miserable a way that it was impossible they could stir, made a shift to get up; and she said they went along with the party with an air of cheerfulness and joy, being full of the thought that their wounds were to be dressed. But, she said, when the party had brought them the length of the hollow above mentioned, which is at a very short distance from her house, she being then within the house, heard the firing of several guns, and coming out immediately to know the cause, saw all those brought out of her house, under the pretence of being carried to surgeons, were dead men.

"Upon the same day the party was detached to put to death all the wounded men in and about the field of battle. There was another party detached, under the cornmand of Collonel Cockeen, to bring in the Lady McIntosh, prisoner, from her house at Moy. Tho’ Cockeen himself was reckoned a most discreet, civile man, yet he found it impossible to restrain the barbarity of many of his party, who, straggling before, spared neither sex nor age they met with; so that the lady has told many that she herself counted above 14 dead bodies of men, women, and children ‘twixt Moy and Inverness. There is one woman still alive who is a sufficient document of the barbarity of Cockeen’s party; for she, after receiving many cuts of swords on the face and many stabbs of bayonets in other parts of her body, was left for dead on the highway. However, it has pleased Providence that she still lives to set forth to the world the monstrous cruelty of those miscreants, by a face quite deformed, and many other conspicuous marks of their barbarity.

"I had almost forgot to tell you of a most monstrous act of cruelty committed by the party before mentioned, which was detached to the field of action—that is, the burning of a house near the field, in which there were about 18 wounded men. This fact is well vouched by many creditable people. I myself heard one, Mrs Taylor, a wright’s wife at Inverness, tell that she went up the day thereafter to the field to search for the body of a brother-in-law of hers who was killed, and that she saw in the rubish the bodies of severals of those that had been scorched to death in a most miserable, mangled way.

"The cruelties committed the day of the action are so many that I cannot pretend at all to enumerate them. That no quarter was given is a thing certain. There is one instance of this that I cannot ommitt. A very honest old gentleman, of the name of McLeod, was pursued by two of the Light Horse from the place of action to the hill near Inverness called the Barnhill; and when he came there, and found it impossible to save his life any further by flight, he went on his knees and beg’d quarters of the two that pursued him, but both of them refused his request, and shot him through the head. Several of the inhabitants of Inverness were witnesses to this fact. There was another poor man shot by a soldier at the door of one Widow McLean, who lives in the Bridge Street of Inverness, as he was making his way for the Bridge. There was a most monstrous act committed in the house of one Widow Davidson in the afternoon after the action. A gentleman, falling sick in town, took a room at her house, being a retired place. He was in a violent fever the day of the action, and unable to make his escape when he was told the Prince and his army were defeat. Several soldiers coming up in the afternoon to this Widow Davidson’s, the maid of the house told them there was a rebell above stairs, upon which they went immediately, rushed into the room wherein the poor gentleman lay, and cut his throat from ear to ear. This I was told by an honest woman, a neighbour of Mrs Davidson’s, who went to the room and saw the gentleman after his throat was cut.

"The proceedings after His Royal Highness came in to town were, I’m certain, unprecedented. Many gentlemen were taken and confined amongst the common prisoners without any reason given them for their being so used, and after being confined they were for some time denied the use of both bedding and provisions, so that some of them have not to this day recovered the cold they contracted and the bad usage they met with at that time. The women of Inverness did not escape His Royal Highness his notice. Severals of them were made prisoners and confined to the common guard, amongst whom was the Lady Dowager Mackintosh, who was confined for the space of 14 days, and contracted so violent a cold during that time that she had almost died of it. The usage the prisoners in general met with was so monstrous that I am certain there are few, if any, histories can parallel the like of it. The allowance of provision for gentle and simple was pound meal each per day, and very often not so much watter given them as wou’d help them to swallow it. I myself have gone often by the prison at that melancholy time, when I heard the prisoners crying for watter in the most pitifull manner. Many died at that time of their wounds, that were never dressed nor look’t to, in the utmost agony; and as none of the inhabitants durst take the least concern in them, dead or alive, I have several times seen 3 or 4 dead bodies in a day carried out of the prisons by the beggars, and brought, all naked, through the streets to be buried in the churchyard.

"N.B.--—The original of the above, in the handwriting of Mr Francis Stewart, is to be found among my papers. The said Mr Stewart is betwixt nineteen and twenty years of age, and is a modest, sober, sensible youth.

"ROBERT FORBES, A.M."

The next document is a narrative written by the Rev. James Hay of Inverness and sent by him to Bishop Forbes in May 1749

"One of the dragoons who came first into Inverness after the battle of Culloden oblidged a servant maid to hold his horse in a doss, and then he followed two Low Country men into a house, where he hash’d them with his broad sword to death. The maid heard their lamentable cryes. and when he came out he was all blood. Poor men! they had no arms.

"At the same time some of these dragoons found a gentleman who was highly distressed with a fever, not able to stur from his bed, and there they cut his throat. He and the other two were some time unburied, for none durst venture to do it. Ther was a poor beggar killed on the street.

"The prisoners were in a most miserable condition, being stripped of their cloaths when taken. They were sent to prisons, and some had not wherewith to cover their nakedness. No regard had to the cryes of the wounded, or to the groans of the dying. No surgeon allow’d to apply proper remedies for their care or recovery, and when any of these were in the same unhappy circumstances their instruments were taken from them that they might give no relief. It was reckon’d highly crirnenal and very dangerous to give them anything, even water. The servant maids had more than common courage. They did (men and boys being allowed to go to the prisoners, but the guards were discharged upon their peril to let any of them out), all that was possible for them, tho’ they were sure of maletreatment. And Anna M’Kaye, ["See f. 1124, where this story is more minutely told. The agreement or sameness of circumstances in the narratives of Mr Hay and Mr Stewart is the more remarkable, as I never allowed Mr Hay to know that I had got anything from Mr Stewart, who went from Leith to London and from London to Carolina, so that Mr Hay and he had no opportunity of comparing notes together—an undeniable proof of the truth of the facts. I take the same fact from ten different hands if I can have it from so many.—Robert Forbes, AM."] a poor woman descended of very honest substantiall people in the Isle of Sky, who had her house and effects of a considerable value burnt, as was attested by the best in that island, made it her chief bussiness to get for and carry to the prisoners every thing that possibly she could; so that she was justly called the prisoners’ nurse. When Mr Nairn made his escape, sad and dismall was the treatment she met with. Poor woman! what small effects she had got (she being in town sometime before) was taken from her, and she was carried to the guard among a house full of sogars, and the orders were that she should not be allowed to sitt or ly down, and in that condition she was keept for three days and three nights. The common language she was intertained with she will not nor cannot express. She was at five court martialls, had many promises and many threatenings, such as scourging to tell who had a hand in Mr Nairn’s escape. She was keept seven weeks thereafter in common prison, and contracted a swelling in her legs that she’ll never get the better of.

"Murdoch M’Raw was taken in or near Fort Augustus, who had no concern in the Highland army. (He was nearest relation to the chieftain of that name.) Being sent prisoner to Inverness, where he was not above one hour when he was hang’d at the Cross on the Apple tree. The only thing they alledg’d against him, that he was a spy, which he positively deny’d, and when they put the rope about his neck, he, believing they did it for diversion, said, ‘You have gone far enough, if this be jest.’ He was keept hanging there naked a night and the most of two days. He appeared all the time as if had been sleeping, his mouth and eyes being shut doss, a very uncommon thing in those who die such a death. Sometimes they . . . and whiped the dead body for their diversion.

"Eavan M’Kay was taken in the Highlands by a whig teacher with letters in French or cyphers, and was sent into town, where he was most barbarously and inhumanly treated. Being asked from whom he had and to whom he was going with the letters, to which he giving no answer got five hundred lashes, being ty’d to a stake, and then sent to prison again. Some days after he got five hundred more, and they threatn’d to whip him to death if he would not discover what they wanted. None durst go nigh him while in the pit with any necessary; and when they threw down a pound of meal, which was all the allowance given to any one of the prisoners, it was found untouch’d, he being sickly, full of sores, and most barbarously struck by one of the sogars with the butt of his gun in the breast, of which he complain’d while he lived. At last he was carryed to the Tolbooth. One there said to him that he was a great fool not to discover what he knew, to which he gave a noble return: ‘You are the fool. It signifies nothing what they can do to me (Let them do the worst) in respect of what could be done to those from whom I had and to whom I was going with the letters. Their deaths would be great loss, but mine will be none.’ His father and he had considerable effects, and all were taken, and the poor father was begging in the town that very time, but durst not say that he was his son. A charitable person, when he died, sent word that if they would allow his body one hour to lie unburied a coffin and grave cloaths would be got, but that was refused. Being carryed to the grave by two or three beggars, a sogar went and thrust his bayonet several times into the body, to try (as he said) if the rebel! was dead.

"Jo. Fraser, then present provost, was taken from denner by an officer and musquetiers to Cumberland’s stable, where he was ordered to clean it. He said he never cleand his own. He was oblidged to gett men to do it, and there stay for some hours until! they had done.

"Provest Hosack, with the majestrates, having gone to the levie to pay their complements, hearing orders given to shut the ports that no rebel! might escape, and that the meeting house should be burnd and the man who preachd in it, said he hoped they would mix mercy with judgment. Upon which they said: ‘D— n you puppie, do you pretend to dictate here?’ They orderd him to be kickd down stairs. Accordingly he was tossd to the stair head from one to another, and there one of a considerable character gave him a toss that he never touchd the stair untill he was at the foot of the first fiate of it. These two gentlemen were ill rewarded,’ for none could be more attached to the Government than they were. But they had compassion on the distress’d and oppress’d, which was then ane unpardonable crime of the deepest dye. When the orders about the meeting house were given by Halley, Husk said that it should be taken down and the timber given for the ovens, which was done.

"It’s not possible to find out the certainty of the poysoned bread. I was told by a person of credite, that a woman in great want saw them burying bread, which afterwards she took a part of, and she and her two children did eat of it, and all the three were dead within 24 hours. One of C—d’s sogars said there were some wagons with poysoned bread, and ane gentleman belonging to his army told the same, for he would not, he said, midle with there bread. This is all I can learn about it.

"A gentleman who was long prisoner in Inverness told me that he saw an officer, winter ‘46, when it was excessively cold and the fireing so scarce that the inhabitants had the greatest difficulty to get any at the greatest price, when the prisoners many times were crying that they would sterve with cold, give half a crown to the sogars to go in a very cold night and extinguish the prisoner’s fire and light, which they did accordingly. All the officers of Blackney’s regement, except three, were extremely cruel, but none exceeded Captain Dunlope, who occasioned the prisoners much misery; he being Blackney’s advicer, who being a man of a timorous disposition, was aifraid to leave undone what he, Dunlope, thought proper to be done. Collonell Leightown was like an infernall fiand when Mr Nairn made his escape, and was one of poor Anna M’Kayes greatest persecuteors, who sometimes offerd her severall guineas, and promised to do great things for her if she would tell who assisted Mr Nairn, and who were in the knowledge of his escapeing. At other times he threatnd her in a terrible manner with several! punishments, particularly scourgeing. But all proved in vain.

"When an account was given that there were many wounded in houses on the field of batle the orders given were that the houses should be burnt and all within them, and if any offerd to come out that they should be shot. Its impossible to know what number suffer’d. There were three tennants’ houses and all their office houses. The first that ventur’d to go near that place saw most shocking sights, some of their bodies boiling and others lying with the marks of their ruffels, which when they touched they went into ashes.

"Orders were given on the Fryday to ane officer, Hobbie, or such a name, that he should go to the field of bade and cause carry there all the wounded in the neighbouring houses at a miles distance, some more, some less, and kill them upon the field, which orders were obeyed accordingly. When these orders were given at the levie, an officer who was well pleased told it to his comrades. One of them replyd, ‘D—n him who had taken that order.’ He could not do ane inhumane thing, tho no mercy should be shewn to the rebels.

"An officer was heard more than once say that he saw that day seventy-two killed, or, as he termed it, knocked in the head. He was a young captain.

"An officer upon his return from seeing the field of balk told he saw a beautiful young man ~ quite naked and mortally wounded, who begged of him that he might shoot him, which shockd the officer who said, ‘God forbid, how can you imagine that?’ He replyed that he had seen seventeen shot by an officer and those who were orderd by him. The officer gave him a dram, which he greedily took, and no wonder, and put (him) like a sack upon a horse and carryed to an house where there were wounded redcoats, who were most disagreeable neighbours to him. From that he was carryed to an hospitall, and thereafter to Anna M’Kays house where there were very poor intertainment, but she did all she possibly could for him. By her care he was preserved, and is now healthy and strong.

"When the redcoats wounds were dressed by ane surgeon one of the P—’s men begged he might dress him to which he replyed that he would willingly do it, but it was to no purpose for he would be shott the morrow, which made the poor distress’d crawl in the night on his fours an incredible distance, by which means he escaped.

"Its most surprising, and never can be accounted for how the wounded, quite naked, and without any kind of nourishment, lived so long in the open fields, the season being very cold. One instance is most remarkable of one who was disabled in both legs, and sadly wounded in many other places, particularly a sogar struck him on the face with the butt of his gun which dung out his eye. When the generall massacre was he lay as if dead, and on the Saturday an officer viewing the field cryed were there any of them in life, to which he answered. The officer gave him half crown, and ordered him to be carryed to an house, where the redcoats mockd and ridiculed him, surprised to see such a sad spectacle, gave him halfpenny at parting. But the inhumane, ungenerous, most barbarous canibells rob’d him of all he got. After staying some dayes there he was carryd to his friends, and is now going on crutches.

"A young gentleman of distinction, mortally wounded, lying on the ground, was enquired at by Cumberland to who he belongd. To which he replyd, To the Prince. Then he orderd one of his great men to shoot him, which he refused to do; and then another, who said he would not nor could not do it. Then he applyd to a common sogar, who obeyd him.

"No doubt you have heard of a woman in the Highlands when in labour of child, with 9 or 10 women. A party acquainted their commander of it, who orderd that the house should be burnt, with all who were in it. This, when told by a Collonel, who was there, but had not the command, cryed and shed tears that such a barbarous action should be committed by any who were called Christians.

"McGillavry of Delcrombie, who was not engag’d with the Prince, being at two miles distance from the field of battle without any arms, was attacked by dragoons, who oblidged him to cast of all his cloaths and give them to them, to prevent their dismounting, his cloaths being too good for them to part with, and then they shot him dead. If they had had but swords and he one, he would have given 2 or 3 of them enough of it.

"The men of Glenmoristown and Urquhart were advised to go to Inverness and deliver up their arms, upon solemn promises that they should return safe with protection, which incourag’d also those who were not ingag’d to go. How soon they went there they were put into a church, keept there doss prisoners for a few dayes, and then put into ships for London. The few that liv’d with their sad treatment were sent to the Plantations. To whom the breach of this promise is owing lyes a secret betwixt the mercifull generall and beloved knight for the one asserted he had allowance to do so, and the other refused, so that every body will be in a strait which of these good men’s words they can doubt of.

"The horses, cowes and calfs, ewes and lambs, goats and kids, were taken out of my Lord Lovat’s country, the Aird and Glenmazerin, and keept sterving and crying, which was not agreeable to hear or see. The common treatment they mett with was a stroak from the sogers, with D—n your soul, you rebells! These poor creatures deserv’d to suffer, being highly criminall; and if any of them were sent with the great flocks from the Highlands, they (like the ill-gotten penny) infected and consumed all their kind in England, and no wonder, for many innocent persons were deprived of their all.

"Six or seven weeks after the battle of Culloden, the party commanded by Major Lockart in Glenmoriston shot two old and one young man, a son of one of the former, when they were harrowing, and expecting no harm.

"Grant of Daldrigan, who took no concern with the Highland army, was ordered by Lockart (his house being surrounded by sogars) to gather his own and all the cattle in one part of the country while Lockart was herrying and burning the other part, which being impossible for him to do against the time that Lockart came back, he ordered him to be bound in hand and foot, erecting a gallows, stript him naked, and would not allow his nakedness to be coverd, and carried him to the foot of the gallows with the three corps of the men they had killed the day before, like sacks across on three horses, and hung the three bodies by the feet in the gallows, and they at the same time would have killed Daidrigan had not Captain Grant, in Lowden’s regiment, prevented it. They would hardly allow his wife time to take her rings of her fingers, but were going to cutt of her fingers, having stript her of her cloaths, her house and effects being burnt. And in the braes of Glenmoriston a party there ravishd a gentlewoman big with child, and tenants’ wives, and left them on the ground after they were ravishd by all the party. And Lockhart, on his way to Strathglass, shot a man widing a water, with the Whig teacher’s protection in his hand to shew him, without speaking one word. And the whole party ravishd there a woman big with child, and left her on the ground almost dead. All these are certain facts which may be depended upon, being known by a person of good credite.

"Campbell, an officer of militia, who was a chamberlain to Seaforth, with a party went to Fraser of Kilbokies, who was not with the Highland army, and burnt all his houses and effects they could not take with them, and took 13 score of catle, with many horses of the best kind. His loss was valued at 10,000 merks. And his wife being brought to bed 14 dayes before, they forc’d her to fly with a daughter in fever to the open fields, where they lay that whole night, being very cold. For several ["This refers to a story I have heard frequently reported—viz., that the soldiers’ wives and other women in the camp at Fort Augustus should (quite naked) have run races, sometimes on foot and sometimes mounted astraddle on Highland shelties, for the entertainment of Cumberland and his officers. See Scots Magazine for June 1746, p. 288, 1st col.—Robert Forbes, A.M."] days they killed man, wife, and child many miles from the field of bade. At 5 miles distance ane honest poor woman on the day of batle, who was brought to bed Sunday before, flying with her infant, was attacked by 4 dragoons, who gave her seven wounds in the head thro one plaid, which was eight fold and one in the arm. Then one of them took the infant by the thigh, threw it about his hand, and at last to the ground. Her husband, at the same time, was chased into a moss so far that one of the horse could not come out, where his rider shott him. The young infant who was so roughly maletreat is a fine boy, and the mother recovered and is living.

Three days after the batle, at 4 miles distance, the sogers most barbarously cut a woman in many places of her body, particularly in the face.

"I am promised some more facts in few dayes, but I did not incline to lose the opportunity of this bearer.

"Tho the running naked be commonly reported, I have not got an account of the certainty. I beg you may let me know when this comes to your hands."

Cumberland’s comment on the deeds of his soldiers is quoted by Lord Mahon:

"I am sorry to leave this country in the condition it is in," he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle on July 17, 1746, "for all the good that we have done has been a little blood-letting, which has only weakened the madness, but not cured it; and I tremble for fear that this vile spot may still be the ruin of this island and of our family."

While the north of the island was thus given up to military rapine, the lawyers were reaping a harvest of death in the south. Cumberland, it is recorded, pressed for the "utmost severity." An Act had been passed suspending the law which required bills for high treason to be found in the counties where the crime was committed; under it the Scottish prisoners were removed for trial to England. The trials went on for months. In London Colonel Townley and eight others belonging to the Manchester regiment were hanged on Kennington Common. There were 382 prisoners in Carlisle Castle when the Commission there was opened on August 12; most of these were permitted to draw lots for one out of each twenty who was to be tried on the capital charge; the others were banished by their own consent. Bills were found against 127 altogether; of these over thirty suffered the extreme punishment of treason. The total number of executions in England was nearly eighty. Charles Radcliffe, brother of the Earl of Derwentwater, was executed upon his former sentence, now thirty years old. Lords Cromarty, Kilmarnock, and Balmerino were tried by their peers and convicted; Kilmarnock and Balmerino were beheaded. Lovat was impeached, and it was in his trial that Secretary Murray made his memorable appearance in the witness-box. Lovat was condemned and executed; perhaps none of the victims deserved less pity.

In the meantime Prince Charles, a proscribed fugitive, was being hunted through the north-western Highlands with a price of £30,000 on his head. As we have seen, he reached Gortleg on the evening of Culloden. Next morning he arrived at Invergarry Castle. Four days later, after a weary journey on foot over the hills, he reached Borradale on Lochnanuagh. There he remained for five days. On April 26 he sailed for the Hebrides in an open boat, which had been procured by Donald Macleod of Gualtergill. The party consisted of the Prince, O’Sullivan, Captain Felix O’Neil, Allan Macdonald, Donald Macleod, and Edward Burke, who had guided the Prince from Culloden, with a crew of seven boatmen. After a stormy and perilous voyage they landed at Rossinish in Benbecula. There they remained two days. On the evening of the 29th they again put to sea, and next morning reached Scalpa. From Scalpa Donald Macleod was sent to Stornoway to endeavour to hire a vessel in which the fugitives might leave the country. He succeeded in doing so, and communicated his success to the Prince, who with the rest of the party crossed to Harris and proceeded towards Stornoway on foot. The people of Stornoway, however, had got wind of the purpose for which the hired ship was wanted, and, fearing to compromise themselves, had refused to allow her to depart. There was nothing to be done but to turn south again. On the morning of May 6 the party sailed from Arnish, intending to return to Scalpa. By this time the coast was being watched by the King’s ships. Four men-of-war were sighted, and the fugitives put into the desolate Isle of Iffurt. They reached Scalpa again on the 10th. On the 11th they landed in Loch Uskavagh. Next day they walked to Coradale in South Uist.

At Coradale the Prince remained concealed in a forester’s cottage for more than three weeks. Here he was comparatively safe. He was visited by Clanranald, Boisdale, and others of his friends, and was able to amuse himself with shooting. Government troops were, however, being landed in the Hebrides in large numbers, and it was evident that the Prince’s place of refuge would soon become too dangerous. On June 6 he sailed to the Island of Ouia or Wiay. He was now closely surrounded; parties of regulars and militia were scouring the island in search of him, and he heard constantly of the near neighbourhood of his enemies. On June 10 he went from Ouia to Rossinish, accompanied by O’Neil. From Rossinish he went by boat to Uishness Point—near which he spent the night in a cave—thence to Ciliestella (Kyle Stuley), and on the 15th landed in Loch Boisdale.

From the 15th to the 20th of June the Prince remained in hiding on the shores of Loch Boisdale, sleeping in the open fields at night. On the 21st, accompanied by O’Neil, he reached a hut near Ormaclett, the residence of Clanranald in Benhecula. It was here that he met Flora Macdonald.

Flora Macdonald was the daughter of Macdonald of Milton in South Uist, whose widow had married Captain Hugh Macdonald of Armadale, who was in command of one of the militia companies now on duty in the island. O’Neil. had previously met her at Ormaclett. He succeeded in inducing her to render an essential service to the Prince. His position in the Hebrides was becoming every hour more dangerous. Failing a passage abroad his hope of safety lay in getting over to Skye, but every ferry was closely guarded, and no one was permitted to leave the island without a pass.

Miss Macdonald undertook to conduct the Prince to Skye. She procured from her step-father a pass for herself, a man-servant, and her maid, who was described in the pass as Betty Burke, and whom Captain Macdonald, in a letter to his wife, described as an "Irish girl" and "a good spinster." Betty Burke was none other than the Prince himself. Miss Macdonald hired a six-oared boat to convey the party across the Minch. On June 27 she met the Prince at his hiding-place, about eight miles from Ormaclett. On the evening of the following day they put to sea. The party consisted of Flora, her servant Neil MacEachan, the Prince, disguised in women’s clothes as Betty Burke, and four boatmen. Next morning they reached the point of Waternish in Skye, where they were fired upon by a party of Macleod militia. Crossing Loch Snizort they landed at Kilbride, close to Monkstat, the seat of Sir Alexander Macdonald. Sir Alexander was with Cumberland at Inverness, but Flora knew that the sympathies of his wife, Lady Margaret Macdonald, a daughter of the Earl of Eglinton, were on the Prince’s side, and she accordingly proceeded to Monkstat to inform Lady Margaret of their arrival, leaving the Prince with the boat. Macdonald of Kingsburgh, Sir Alexander’s factor, was in the house, and Lady Margaret took him into her confidence. It was determined that the Prince should be conducted to Portree, and thence taken over to Raasay, and that in the meantime he should be entertained at Kingsburgh’s house.

The Lyon in Mourning- contains an exceedingly dramatic account of Betty Burke’s entertainment at Kingsburgh.

"When the Prince came to Kingsburgh’s house (Sunday, June 29) it was between ten and eleven at night; and Mrs MacDonald, not expecting to see her husband that night, was making ready to go to bed. One of her servant maids came and told her that Kingsburgh was come home, and had brought some company with him. ‘What company?’ says Mrs MacDonald, ‘Milton’s daughter, I believe,’ says the maid, ‘and some company with her.’ ‘Milton’s daughter,’ replies Mrs MacDonald, ‘is very welcome to come here with any company she pleases to bring. But you’ll give my service to her, and tell her to make free with anything in the house; for I am very sleepy, and cannot see her this night.’ In a little her own daughter came and told her in a surprize, ‘O mother, my father has brought in a very odd, muckle, ill-shaken-up wife as ever I saw! I never saw the like of her, and he has gone into the hail with her.’ She had scarce done with telling her tale when Kingsburgh came and desired his lady to fasten on her bucklings again, and to get some supper for him and the company he had brought with him. ‘Pray, goodman,’ says she, ‘what company is this you have brought with you?’ ‘Why, goodwife,’ said he, ‘you shall know that in due time; only make haste and get some supper in the meantime.’ Mrs MacDonald desired her daughter to go and fetch her the keys she had left in the hall. When the daughter came to the door of the hall she started back, ran to her mother, and told her she could not go in for the keys, for the muckle woman was walking up and down in the hail, and she was so frightened at seeing her that she could not have the courage to enter. Mrs MacDonald went herself to get the keys, and I heard her more than once declare that, upon looking in at the door, she had not the courage to go forward. ‘For,’ said she, ‘I saw such an odd muckle trallup of a carlin, making lang wide steps through the hail, that I could not like her appearance at all.’ Mrs MacDonald called Kingsburgh, and very seriously begged to know what a lang, odd hussie was this he had brought to the house, for that she wits so frighted at the sight of her that she could not go into the hall for her keys. ‘Did you never see a woman before,’ said he, ‘goodwife? What frights you at seeing a woman? Pray, make haste, and get us some supper.’ Kingsburgh would not go for the keys, and therefore his lady behov’d to go for them. When she entered the hail the Prince happen’d to be sitting; but immediately he arose, went forward, and saluted Mrs MacDonald, who, feeling a long stiff beard, trembled to think that this behoved to be some distressed nobleman or gentleman in disguise, for she never dream’d it to be the Prince, though all along she had been seized with a dread she could not account for from the moment she had heard that Kingsburgh had brought company with him. She very soon made out of the hall with her keys, never saying one word. Immediately she importun’d Kingsburgh to tell her who the person was, for that she was sure by the salute that it was some distressed gentleman. Kingsburgh smiled at the mention of the bearded kiss, and said: ‘Why, my dear, it is the Prince. You have the honour to have him in your house.’ ‘The Prince!’ cried she. ‘O Lord, we are a’ ruin’d and undone for ever! We will a’ be hang’d now!’ ‘Hout, goodwife,’ says the honest stout soul, ‘we will die but ance; and if we are hanged for this, I am sure we die in a good cause. Pray, make no delay; go, get some supper. Fetch what is readiest. You have eggs and butter and cheese in the house; get them as quickly as possible.’ ‘Eggs and butter and cheese!’ says Mrs Mac Donald; ‘what a supper is that for a Prince?’ ‘O goodwife,’ said he, ‘little do you know how this good Prince has been living for some time past. These, I can assure you, will be a feast to him. Besides, it would be unwise to be dressing a formal supper, because this would serve to raise the curiosity of the servants, and they would be making their observations. The less ceremony and work the better. Make haste, and see that you come to supper.’ ‘I come to supper!’ says Mrs MacDonald; ‘how can I come to supper? I know not how to behave before Majesty.’ ‘You must come,’ says Kingsburgh, ‘for he will not eat a bit till he see you at the table; and you will find it no difficult matter to behave before him, so obliging and easy is he in his conversation.’

"The Prince ate of our roasted eggs, some collops, plenty of bread and butter, etc., and (to use the words of Mrs MacDonald) ‘the deal a drap did he want in’s weam of twa bottles of sma beer. God do him good o’t; for, well I wat, he had my blessing to gae down wi’t.’ After he had made a plentiful supper, he called for a dram; and when the bottle of brandy was brought, he said he would fill the glass for himself, ‘for,’ said he, ‘ I have learn’d in my skulking to take a hearty dram.’ He filled up a bumper, and drank it off to the happiness and prosperity of his landlord and landlady. Then taking a crack’d and broken pipe out of his poutch, wrapt about with thread, he asked Kingsburgh if he could furnish him with some tobacco, for that he had learn’d likewise to smoke in his wanderings. Kingsburgh took from him the broken pipe and laid it carefully up with the brogs, and gave him a new clean pipe and plenty of tobacco.

"The Prince and Kingsburgh turn’d very familiar and merry together, and when the Prince spoke to Kingsburgh, he for the most part laid his hand upon Kingsburgh’s knee and used several kind and obliging expressions in his conversation with the happy landlord. Kingsburgh remarked what a lucky thing it was that he happened to be at Mougstot (Sir Alexander MacDonald’s house), and that it was all a matter of chance that he was there, for he had no design of being there that day. And then he asked the Prince what he would have done if he had not been at Mougstot. The Prince replied, ‘Why, sir, you could not avoid being at Mougstot this day, for Providence ordered you to be there upon my account.’ Kingsburgh became so merry and jocose that, putting up his hand to the Prince’s face, he turned off his head-dress, which was a very odd clout of a mutch or toy, upon which Mrs MacDonald hasted out of the room and brought a clean nightcap for him." [This well-known account is taken from "Remarks, etc., and Particular Sayings of some who were concerned in the Prince’s preservation," Lyon in Mourning, vol. i., p. 108 c/ seq. The Lyon in Mourning is the great source of original information with regard to the Prince’s wanderings. The story of his adventures is fully and picturesquely told by Chambers,—History of the Rebellion, chapters xxvi., xxvii., and xxviii.; and his footsteps have been minutely traced by Mr W. B. Blaikie in his itinerary. The route given in the text is that contained in the former editions of this work, with some additions and corrections, for which the editor is indebted to Mr Blaikie’s book.]

Next morning Charles left the house, still in his female attire. After he was well out of sight of the house, he changed into a Highland dress with which he had been supplied by Kingsburgh, he then bade his host farewell, and proceeded on foot towards Portree, conducted by a guide. Flora Macdonald on horseback took another road towards the same destination. At Portree he was met by Donald Roy Macdonald, who had procured a boat and rowers to convey him to Raasay. On the morning of July 1, after bidding farewell to Flora, he crossed the Sound of Raasay, and landed in that island. Shortly afterwards Flora was taken prisoner by the Government troops and suffered a year’s captivity for the assistance which she rendered to the Prince. In 1750 she married the son of Macdonald of Kingsburgh, with whom she afterwards emigrated to America.

The remainder of Charles’s wanderings may be briefly summarised.

July 1. At Glam in Raasay. 2nd. At Nicolson’s Rock near Scorobreck.4th. At Elgol. 6th. Landed in Loch Nevis. 8th. Pursued by the troops up Loch Nevis. 10th. Arrived at Borradale, and remained there till joined by Glenaladale on the 15th. 17th. At Corrybeincabir. 18th. On the mountains Scoorvuy and Fruighvein. 19th. On the mountain Mamnyncallum in the Brae of Loch Arkaig. 20th. At Corrienagaull in sight of the enemy’s camps. 21st. At Corriscorridill, close to two camps, soldiers in sight often. 22nd. At Glensheil. 23rd. On the hills between Glenmoriston and Strathglass. 24th. In a cave at Coiraghoth in the Braes of Glenmoriston with the "Glenmoriston men." These were a party of eight men who had been concerned in the insurrection, and had taken refuge in this cave. The Prince was conducted to their retreat by Glenaladale, "they knowing nothing at all of his royal highness, only suspecting that a young man they were told was in company might be young Clanranald. . . . Accordingly his royal highness set out, and by the time appointed came to the place and meeting with these few friends, who upon sight knew his royal highness, having formerly served in his army, they conducted him to the grotto, where he was refreshed with such cheer as the exigency of the time afforded; and making a bed for him, his royal highness was lulled asleep with the sweet murmurs of the finest purling stream that could be, running by his bedside, within the grotto, in which romantic habitation his royal highness pass’d three days, at the end of which he was so well refreshed that he thought himself able to encounter any hardships.

"Having time in that space to provide some necessaries and to gather intelligence about the enemy’s motions, they removed on the 2nd of August (July 28?) into a place within two miles of them, called Coirmheadhain, where they took up their habitation in a grotto no less romantic than the former. After taking some refreshment, they placed their sentries and made up a bed for his royal highness in a closet shaped out by nature, and seemingly designed by her for the reception of his royal highness." (Journal in Captain Alexander Macdonald’s handwriting, Lyon in Mourning, vol. i., p. 343.)

August 2. Reached the Braes of Strathglass. 5th. At Glencannich. 6th and 7th. At Ben Acharain 9th. At Fasnakyle. 12th. On the Braes of Glenmoriston. 14th. In Glengarry. 15th. On the Brae of Achnasualioth to 21st. At Loch Arkaig. 22nd. At Torvault. About this time was nearly taken prisoner by a party under Grant of Knockando, but escaped to the top of Mullintagart. 28th. Set out for Badenoch to meet Lochiel. 29th. Arrived at Corrineuir. 30th. Came to Mellaneuir, where he met Lochiel, and two days afterwards was joined by Cluny.

September 2nd. Went to Uiskchilra. 5th. Went to "Cluny’s Cage" in the face of the mountain Letternilichk, a spur of Ben Alder. ("The day after Clunie arrived he thought it time to remove from Mellaneuir, and took the Prince about two miles farther into Benalder, to a little sheil called Uiskchibra, where the hut or bothie was superlatively bad and smoky; yet His Royal Highness put up with everything. Here he remained for two or three nights, and then removed to a very romantic habitation, made for him by Clunie, two miles further into Benalder, called the Cage; which was a great curiosity and can scarcely be described to perfection. It was situated in the face of a very rough, high and rocky mountain called Letternilichk, still a part of Benalder, full of great stones and crevices, and some scattered wood interspersed. The habitation called the Cage, in the face of that mountain, was within a small thick bush of wood. There were first some rows of trees laid down in order to level a floor for the habitation; and as the place was steep, this raised the lower side to an equal height with the other; and these trees in the way of joists or planks were levelled with earth and gravel. There were betwixt the trees, growing naturally on their own roots, some stakes fixed in the earth, which with the trees were interwoven with ropes, made of heath and birch twigs, up to the top of the Cage, it being of a round or rather oval shape; and the whole thatched and covered over with fog. This whole fabric hung, as it were, by a large tree, which reclined from the one end all along the roof to the other, and which gave it the name of the Cage, and by chance there happened to be two stones at a small distance from one another, in the side next the precipice, resembling the pillars of a chimney, where the fire was placed. The smoke had its vent out here, all along the face of the rock, which was so much of the same colour, that one could discover no difference in the clearest day. The Cage was no larger than to contain six or seven persons; four of whom were frequently employed playing at cards, one idle looking on, one baking, and another firing bread and cooking. Here His Royal Highness remained till the 13th of September."— Cluny’s Account of Lochiel and himself after the Battle of Culloden. Home, Appendix No. 46). September 13. Heard of the arrival of two French ships in Lochnanuagh and set out for the coast. 14th. Reached Corvoy. 15th. Before daylight, got through Glenroy. 10th. Reached Achnacarie. 17th. Reached Glencamger. 19th. Reached Borradale where the ships were, and went on board. 20th. Early in the morning sailed for France.

Charles landed at Roscoff near Morlaix in Brittany on September 29. About his subsequent career perhaps the less said the better. On his father’s death in 1766 he succeeded to the phantom crown. He died at Rome in January 1788, a broken and disappointed old man; and with him perished the last hope of the House of Stuart. His brother Henry, Cardinal York, lived till 1807. But Jacobitism as a political cause may be said to have definitely come to an end on April 24, 1788, when, at a meeting of nonjuring bishops at Aberdeen, it was resolved that King George III. should be prayed for in the services of the church.

Indeed, the cause had all along been condemned to failure. A counter revolution might have taken place at the death of Queen Anne, but scarcely later. The true issue was not between one dynasty and another, it was between the old claim of Divine right and the Parliamentary settlement of the Crown. Charles’s real enemy was the Bill of Rights. The ultimate issue of such a contest could not be doubtful. To-day the old doctrine is as obsolete as the Ptolemaic astronomy. How obsolete it is may be curiously illustrated. The heir of line of the House of Stuart, who, by the strict theory of Divine right is now the rightful sovereign of these realms, is the Bavarian princess who represents Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, youngest daughter of Charles I.

[The descent is as follows —Charles I. ; Princess Henrietta (1644-70), who married Philip, Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV.; her daughter, Anne Mary (1669-1728), who married Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia; her son, Charles Emmanuel III. (1701-73), King of Sardinia ; his son, Victor Amadeus III. (1726-96), King of Sardinia; his son, Victor Emmanuel I. (1759-1824), King of Sardinia; his daughter, Mary (1792-1840), who married Francis, Duke of Modena; her son, Ferdinand (1821-49), who married Elizabeth of Austria; his daughter, Maria Teresa (b. 1849), who in 1868 married Prince Louis of Bavaria. Her son, Prince Rupert, was born at Munich, May 18, 1869.]

Probably not one British subject in a thousand has so much as heard her name.

Political causes have their day, but loyalty, courage, and self-sacrifice do not go out of fashion. So long as history is read the White Cockade will remain the symbol of heroic daring and heroic suffering, and men of all parties will think with sympathy and with pride of those who gave up all for the lost cause. Lord Macaulay, the most uncompromising of Whigs, has nobly expressed this feeling. The present sketch may fitly be ended by his Epitaph on a Jacobile:-

To my true king I offered free from stain
Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain.
For him I threw lands, honours, wealth away,
And one dear hope, that was more prized than they.
For him I languished in a foreign clime,
Grey-haired with sorrow in my manhood’s prime;
Heard on Lavernia Scargill’s whispering trees,
And pined by Arno for
my lovelier Tees;
Beheld each night my home
in fevered sleep,
Each morning started from the dream to weep;
Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave
The resting-place I asked—an early grave.
Oh thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone,
From that proud country which was once mine own,
By those white cliffs I never more must see,
By that dear language which I spake like thee,
Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear
O’er English dust. A broken heart lies here.


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