Whilst Mackintosh was in full march upon the capital from the east, the Duke of Argyle was advancing upon it with greater rapidity from the west, at the head of 400 dragoons and 200 foot, mounted, for the sake of greater expedition, upon farm-horses. He entered the city by the west port about ten o’clock at night, and was joined by the horse militia of Lothian and the Merse with a good many volunteers, both horse and foot, who, with the Marquis of Tweeddale, Lord Belhaven, and others, had retired into Edinburgh on the approach of the insurgents. These, with the addition of the city guard and volunteers, increased his force to nearly 1,200 men. With this body the duke marched down towards Leith next morning, Saturday, 15th October; but before he reached the town many of the “brave gentlemen volunteers,”[704] whose enthusiasm had cooled while contemplating the probable consequences of encountering in deadly strife the determined band to which they were to be opposed, slunk out of the ranks and retired to their homes. On arriving near the citadel, Argyle posted the dragoons and foot on opposite sides, and along with Generals Evans and Wightman, proceeded to reconnoitre the fort on the sea side. Thereafter he sent in a summons to the citadel requiring the rebels to surrender under the pain of high treason, and declaring that if they obliged him to employ cannon to force them, and killed any of his men in resisting him, he would give them no quarter. To this message the laird of Kynnachin, a gentleman of Athole, returned this resolute answer, that as to surrendering they did not understand the word, which could therefore only excite laughter—that if his grace thought he was able to make an assault, he might try, but he would find that they were fully prepared to meet it; and as to quarter they were resolved, in case of attack, neither to take nor to give any.
This answer was followed by a discharge from the cannon on the ramparts, which made Argyle soon perceive the mistake he had committed in advancing without cannon. Had his force been equal and even numerically superior to that of Mackintosh, he could not have ventured without almost certain destruction, to have carried the citadel sword in hand, as he found that before his men could reach the foot of the wall or the barricaded positions, they would probably have been exposed to five rounds from the besieged, which, at a moderate computation, would have cut off one half of his men. His cavalry, besides, on account of the nature of the ground, could have been of little use in an assault; and as, under such circumstances, an attack was considered impracticable, the duke retired to Edinburgh in the evening to make the necessary preparations for a siege. While deliberating on the expediency of making an attack, some of the volunteers were very zealous for it, but on being informed that it belonged to them as volunteers to lead the way, they heartily approved of the duke’s proposal to defer the attempt till a more seasonable opportunity.[705]
Had the Earl of Mar been apprised in due time of Mackintosh’s advance upon Edinburgh, and of the Duke of Argyle’s departure from Stirling, he would probably have marched towards the latter place, and might have crossed the Forth above the bridge of Stirling, without any very serious opposition from the small force stationed in the neighbourhood; but he received the intelligence of the brigadier’s movement too late to make it available, had he been inclined; moreover it appears that he had resolved not to cross the Forth till joined by General Gordon’s detachment.[706]
On returning to Edinburgh the Duke of Argyle gave orders for the removal of some pieces of cannon from the castle to Leith, with the intention of making an assault upon the citadel the following morning with the whole of his force, including the dragoons, which he had resolved to dismount for the occasion. But he was saved the necessity of such a hazardous attempt, the insurgents evacuating the place the same night. Old Borlum, seeing no chance of obtaining possession of Edinburgh, and considering that the occupation of the citadel, even if tenable, was not of sufficient importance to employ such a large body of men in its defence, had resolved, shortly after the departure of the duke, to abandon the place, and to retrace his steps without delay, and with all the secrecy in his power. Two hours before his departure, he sent a boat across the Frith with despatches to the Earl of Mar, giving him a detail of his proceedings since his landing, and informing him of his intention to retire. To deceive the men-of-war which lay at anchor in the Roads, he caused a shot to be fired after the boat, which had the desired effect of making the officers in command of the ships think the boat had some friends of the government on board, and thus allowing her to pursue her course without obstruction.
At nine o’clock at night, every thing being in readiness, Mackintosh, favoured by the darkness of the night and low water, left the citadel secretly, and pursuing his course along the beach, crossed, without observation, the small rivulet which runs through the harbour at low water, and which was then about knee deep, and passing the point of the pier, pursued his route south-eastward along the sands of Leith. At his departure, Mackintosh was obliged to leave about 40 men behind him, who having made too free with the brandy which had been found in the custom-house, were not in a condition to march. These, with some stragglers who lagged behind, were afterwards taken prisoners by a detachment of Argyle’s forces, which also captured some baggage and ammunition.
The Highlanders continued their march during the night, and arrived at two o’clock on the morning of Sunday, the 16th of October, at Seaton House, the seat of the Earl of Wintoun, who had already joined the Viscount Kenmure. Here, during the day, they were joined by a small party of their friends, who had crossed the Frith some time after the body which marched to Leith had landed, and who, from having disembarked farther to the eastward, had not been able to reach their companions before their departure for the capital. As soon as the Duke of Argyle heard of Mackintosh’s retreat, and that he had taken up a position in Seaton House, which was encompassed by a very strong and high stone wall, he resolved to follow and besiege him in his new quarters. But the duke was prevented from carrying this design into execution by receiving intelligence that Mar was advancing upon Stirling with the intention of crossing the Forth.
Being apprised by the receipt of Mackintosh’s despatch from Leith, of the Brigadier’s design to march to the south, Mar had resolved, with the view principally of facilitating his retreat from Leith, to make a movement upon Stirling, and thereby induce the Duke of Argyle to return to the camp in the Park with the troops which he had carried to Edinburgh. Mar, accordingly, left Perth on Monday the 17th of October, and General Witham, the commander of the royalist forces at Stirling in Argyle’s absence, having on the previous day received notice of Mar’s intention, immediately sent an express to the duke, begging him to return to Stirling immediately, and bring back the forces he had taken with him to Edinburgh. The express reached Edinburgh at an early hour on Monday morning, and the duke immediately left Edinburgh for Stirling, leaving behind him only 100 dragoons and 150 foot under General Wightman. On arriving at Stirling that night he was informed that Mar was to be at Dunblane next morning with his whole army, amounting to nearly 10,000 men.[707]
The arrival of his Grace was most opportune, for Mar had in fact advanced the same evening, with all his horse, to Dunblane, little more than six miles from Stirling, and his foot were only a short way off from the latter place. Whether Mar would have really attempted the passage of the Forth but for the intelligence he received next morning, is very problematical; but having been informed early on Tuesday of the duke’s return, and of the arrival of Evans’s regiment of dragoons from Ireland, he resolved to return to Perth. In a letter which he wrote to Mr. Forster from Perth on the 21st of October, after alluding to the information he had received, he gives as an additional reason for this determination, that he had left Perth before provisions could be got ready for his army, and that he found all the country about Stirling, where he meant to pass the Forth, so entirely exhausted by the enemy that he could find nothing to subsist upon. Besides, from a letter he had received from General Gordon, he found the latter could not possibly join him that week, and he could not think of passing the Forth, under the circumstances detailed, till joined by him. Under these difficulties, and having accomplished one of the objects of his march, by withdrawing the Duke of Argyle from the pursuit of his friends in Lothian, he had thought fit, he observes, to march back from Dunblane to Auchterarder, and thence back to Perth, there to wait for Gordon and the Earl of Seaforth.
Mackintosh, in expectation probably of an answer to his despatch from Leith, appeared to be in no hurry to leave Seaton House, where his men fared sumptuously upon the best which the neighbourhood could afford. As all communication was cut off between him and the capital by the 100 dragoons which Argyle had left behind, and a party of 300 gentlemen-volunteers under the command of the Earl of Rothes, who patrolled in the neighbourhood of Seaton House, Mackintosh was in complete ignorance of Argyle’s departure from the capital, and of Mar’s march. This was fortunate, as it seems probable that had the Brigadier been aware of these circumstances, he would have again advanced upon the capital, and might have captured it. During the three days that Mackintosh lay in Seaton House, no attempt was, of course, made to dislodge him from his position, but he was subjected to some petty annoyances by the volunteers and dragoons, between whom and the Highlanders some occasional shots were interchanged without damage on either side. Having deviated from the line of instructions, Mackintosh appears to have been anxious, before proceeding south, to receive from Mar such new or additional directions as a change of circumstances might require. Mar lost no time in replying to Borlum’s communication, and on Tuesday the 18th of October, Borlum received a despatch desiring him to march immediately towards England, and form a junction near the borders with the English Jacobite forces under Mr. Forster, and those of the south of Scotland under Lord Kenmure. On the same day, Mackintosh received a despatch from Mr. Forster, requesting him to meet him without delay at Kelso or Coldstream.[708]
To give effect to these instructions, Mackintosh left Seaton House next morning, and proceeded across the country towards Longformacus, which he reached that night. Doctor Sinclair, the proprietor of Hermandston House, had incurred the Brigadier’s displeasure by his treatment of the laird of Keith, to revenge which he threatened to burn Sinclair’s mansion in passing it on his way south, but he was persuaded not to carry his threat into execution. He, however, ordered his soldiers to plunder the house, a mandate which they obeyed with the utmost alacrity. When Major-general Wightman heard of Mackintosh’s departure, he marched from Edinburgh with some dragoons, militia and volunteers, and took possession of Seaton House. After demolishing the wall which surrounded it, he returned to Edinburgh in the evening, carrying along with him some Highlanders who had lagged behind or deserted from Mackintosh on his march.[709]