Whilst these congratulatory exhibitions were going on, the councillors of the Chevalier were deliberating upon the course they should pursue; but although they sat during the whole night they could come to no decided resolution. When the irresolution of the council became generally known, the men could not restrain their indignation, and a general opinion began to prevail among them that they had been betrayed. Impressed with this feeling, they became mutinous, and carried their insubordination so far as to insult the officers, whom they supposed had betrayed them, in the streets, and to load them with reproachful epithets. The gentlemen volunteers also participated in the same sentiments; and one of them from the higher parts of Aberdeenshire was heard to declare before a group of malcontents assembled in the streets, that the clans should take the person of the Chevalier out of the hands of the weak councillors who surrounded him, adding that he would find 10,000 gentlemen in Scotland who would hazard their lives for him, if he was equally ready as a prince to risk his own life in vindicating his right to the crown. A friend of the Earl of Mar, after remonstrating with this party, asked what they wished their officers to do.—“Do,” replied a Highlander, “what did you call us to take arms for? Was it to run away? What did the king come hither for? Was it to see his people butchered by hangmen, and not strike a stroke for their lives? Let us die like men and not like dogs.”[737]
Amid the confusion and perplexity occasioned by such a state of things, Mar convened another meeting of the council on the evening of the 29th, at which a resolution to retreat was entered into chiefly at Mar’s suggestion. His reasons for advising an abandonment of the enterprise for the present, were, 1st, the failure of the Duke of Ormond’s attempt to invade England; 2dly, the great accession of force which Argyle had received from abroad; and, lastly, the reduced state of the Jacobite forces, which did not exceed 4,000 men, and of whom only about 2,500 were properly armed.[738] Besides these there were, according to the Master of Sinclair, other reasons of a private nature which influenced Mar to give the advice he did, the chief of which, says the above-named authority, was that the Earl of Seaforth, the Marquis of Huntly, and other Jacobites who were in treaty with the government, had basely resolved to deliver up the Chevalier to the Duke of Argyle, that they might procure better terms for themselves than they could otherwise expect. This odious charge, which is not corroborated by any other writer, must be looked upon as highly improbable.
Before communicating to the army the resolution to retreat, a general meeting of all the officers was held at Scone on the following day, when they were informed of the determination of the previous evening, and of the reasons which had led to it. It was then secretly resolved that the Chevalier and his principal officers should take shipping at Montrose for France, and that the army should be disbanded as soon as it reached the Highlands, or as soon as circumstances permitted; but to save appearances with the men, it was given out, that as Perth was untenable, it became necessary to retire to a stronger position, where they could not only defend themselves, but keep up a more secure and direct communication with their friends in the north. At this time there were three ships lying in the Tay off Dundee, which had lately arrived with supplies from France; and to secure these for the conveyance of the Chevalier and his followers, a French officer and clergyman were despatched to Dundee with orders to send them down the coast to Montrose, there to wait his arrival.[739]
On the return of the officers to the camp, they promulgated the order to retreat to their men, and, as might have been anticipated, it was received with scorn and contempt. Among the Jacobite inhabitants of the town who had shown themselves very zealous in the cause of the Chevalier, the intelligence caused nothing but dismay, as from the prominent and decided part they had taken, they had incurred the penalties of treason against the government. The morning of the 31st of January was fixed upon for the retreat, but a body of about 800 Highlanders, disliking the aspect of affairs, and displeased with the conduct of the principal officers, quitted Perth the preceding night for the Highlands by way of Dunkeld. Preparatory to his departure, the Chevalier went from Scone to Perth in the evening, and took up his residence in the house of Hay the provost, a stanch Jacobite, where he supped and passed the night. At ten o’clock next morning the rebels began their march across the Tay, which was covered with ice of extraordinary thickness. About noon the whole army had passed, and was on the march to Dundee along the Carse of Gowrie.
Meanwhile, the Duke of Argyle was advancing upon Perth as fast as the nature of the difficulties he had to contend with would admit of. He had left Stirling on the 29th of January, and marched to Dunblane. Next day he advanced as far as Auchterarder, which had been entirely burnt by the rebels. Here they passed the night upon the snow without “any other covering than the fine canopy of heaven.”[740] On the following day a detachment of 200 dragoons and 400 foot, which had been sent forward to protect the country people who were engaged in clearing away the snow, took possession of the castle of Tullibardine, the garrison of which had capitulated. The Duke of Argyle had resolved to take up his quarters for the night in this fortress; but receiving intelligence that the rebels had retired from Perth that morning, he ordered a party of 400 dragoons and 1,000 foot to hasten forward to take possession of that town. The duke, at the head of the dragoons, arrived at Perth about two o’clock in the morning of the 1st of February; but the foot, who were greatly fatigued, did not come up till ten o’clock. The remainder of the duke’s army reached Perth that evening.
The distance from Stirling to Perth is only 34 miles, yet such was the obstruction that Argyle’s army met with from the snow, that their march occupied three entire days. The difficulties of the march and the privations which his men had suffered by resting two nights on the snow, exposed to all the severities of the weather, had so exhausted his men, that it was not till the day after his arrival at Perth that the duke could muster a force sufficiently strong to pursue the enemy.
On the 2d of February Argyle left Perth at the head of six squadrons of dragoons, three battalions of foot, and 800 Highlanders. He stopped at Errol that night, and entered Dundee next day. Having learned that the Chevalier had left Dundee the preceding day on his way to Montrose, the duke sent forward a detachment towards Arbroath, and being joined by the remainder of his army on the 4th of February, he despatched on the same day three battalions of foot, 500 of his own Highlanders, and 50 dragoons, towards Arbroath, and another detachment of 300 foot, and 50 dragoons, in the direction of Brechin; but their march was retarded for some time by the snow. On the 5th the duke followed with the remainder of the army; and while he himself, at the head of the cavalry, took the high road to Brechin, General Cadogan with the infantry marched in the direction of Arbroath.
Second Duke of Argyle.