’Tis finish’d. Their thunders are hushed on the moors!
Culloden is lost, and my country deplores.
. . . . . . . . . .
Culloden that reeks with the blood of the brave.”
Their Prince—
“Like a limb from his country cast bleeding and torn,”
for long lurked a wandering fugitive amongst our Western Islands, until, through many dangers, he effected his escape to France. The Duke of Cumberland, visiting with a cruel revenge the rebellious clans, nay, in some cases, with barbarous heedlessness, mingling the innocent with the guilty in a common ruin, tarnished the lustre of his success, and left behind a most unenviable memory in these northern provinces.
The Rebellion being thus at an end, several of the regiments which had been withdrawn from the Continent for its suppression now returned, whilst the first battalion of the Royals was employed in several descents upon the French coast with various success. At L’Orient the attempt proved fruitless; but at Quiberon, sustained by the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, the destruction of the enemy’s arsenal, stores, and shipping, was attained. Subsequently the battalion joined the British army in the Netherlands, and, in 1747, was greatly distinguished in the heroic defence of Fort Sandberg. The attack on the part of the French, was made late in the evening, with more than their wonted impetuosity. The Dutch garrison, unable to withstand the shock, was signally routed, and the conquest seemed complete, when the progress of the enemy was unexpectedly arrested by the Royals, who, with unflinching obstinacy, maintained the conflict, which proved of the most sanguinary and desperate character. The horrors of the fight were deepened by the sable pall of night. “The morning light had already dawned upon this scene of conflict and carnage,—between three and four hundred officers and men of the Royals were hors de combat; yet the survivors,—though standing amidst the dying and the dead, and being unable to take one step without treading on a killed or wounded man,—maintained their ground with resolution, and continued to pour their fatal volleys upon their opponents, who had sustained an equal or greater loss, until five o’clock, when the Royals were relieved by the Highlanders; and the French, dismayed by the sanguinary tenacity of the defence, retreated.” Ultimately the fort, rendered untenable, was abandoned. In 1749, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the war, when the battalion returning home, was stationed in Ireland.
CHAPTER X.
“For pleas of right let statesmen vex their head,