“Hitherto,” then exclaimed the captain, “I have been your friend; but if you continue obstinate an hour longer not a man of you shall be left alive; and for my part, I assure you, I shall give quarter to none.”
The Highlanders, who had too much generosity to resent this bold language, sent two of their number to escort him out of the wood. The guides were won over by his eloquence: one of them remained with him, while the other returned and tried to persuade his comrades to submit. Surrounded as they were by superior numbers, they were, after some negotiation, induced to surrender. They received a free pardon, and soon after embarked for Flanders, where their deeds of bravery atoned for their temporary disaffection.
A similar incident occurred in the case of a Highland regiment in the service of William III. It was the ardent love of country that led them to refuse to embark for Holland, and their devotion to King James that led them to drink his health while there in preference to that of their own prince. Some one reported this to William.
“Do they fight well, these Highlanders?” asked the king.
“None better,” was the reply.
“Then,” said the king, “if they fight so well for me, let them drink my father’s health as often as they choose.”
There was much magnanimity in these words. The Highlanders soon learned to drink William’s health as heartily as they had done his father-in-law’s.
In the year 1779 a circumstance occurred which proves in the most striking manner the attachment which the Highlanders have ever cherished for their own regiments. In the month of April two strong detachments belonging to the 42nd and 71st regiments arrived at Leith from Stirling Castle, en route to North America to join their respective regiments. On learning that they were about to be drafted into the 80th and 82nd, both Lowland regiments, the men firmly refused to obey this order, or to serve in any regiments save those for which they had been enlisted. A little friendly remonstrance might have won them over, but the authorities unfortunately adopted the idea of reducing them by force, and troops were sent to Leith for the purpose of subduing the mutineers and conveying them to Edinburgh Castle. This was no easy task, as the event proved. The Highlanders offered an obstinate resistance, and in the conflict which ensued, Captain Mansfield, of the South Fencible regiment, and nine men were killed, and thirty-one soldiers wounded. At length, overpowered by numbers, the Highlanders were compelled to surrender, and were shut up in Edinburgh Castle. In the month of May three of the prisoners, Charles Williamson and Archibald Mac Ivor, of the 42nd, and Robert Budge, of the 71st, were tried by court-martial for having been guilty of mutiny and inciting others to the same crime. The line of defence they adopted gives us considerable insight into the state of the Highlanders at this period. Mac Ivor and Williamson stated that they enlisted in the 42nd, a regiment composed exclusively of Highlanders, and wearing the Highland dress. Their native tongue was Gaelic, and they knew no other, having been born in counties where English was almost unknown. They had never worn breeches in their lives, and the only garb they could wear with comfort was the garb of old Gael. This dress had indeed been prohibited by Act of Parliament; but the government had connived at the use of it, provided that it was made of plain cloth and not of tartan. For these reasons they could neither understand the language nor use the arms, or march in the dress of any other than a Highland regiment. Budge’s defence was substantially the same. They submitted to the court that, on reaching Leith, the officer who had conducted them there informed them that they were now to consider themselves soldiers of the 82nd, a regiment wearing the Lowland dress and speaking the English tongue. No order from the commander-in-chief was shown to them, nor had they any opportunity of submitting their grievances to him. They had no intention to resist lawful authority; they only wished to remonstrate against an act of flagrant injustice. They would have gone willingly to the castle if the order had been explained to them; but the officer sent for that purpose told them that they were to join the Hamilton regiment immediately, and they considered themselves justified in repelling force by force. Every reader will feel his blood boil with indignation on learning that these three poor Highlanders were all found guilty and sentenced to be shot. The spirit of clanship, however, was too strong in the Highland regiments to admit of this sentence being carried into effect, and the king was pleased to grant them a free pardon, “in full confidence that they would endeavour, by a prompt obedience and orderly behaviour, to atone for their atrocious offence.” Without passing an opinion on the atrocity of the offence, we have much pleasure in adding that all the prisoners proved themselves worthy of the royal clemency. They were drafted into the second battalion of the 42nd, and were uniformly distinguished for their steadiness and good conduct.
The Mutiny of the Black Watch.