“General Gordon is hereby empowered, as soon as he has no other further occasion for the money left in his hands for the subsistence of the troops, to forward, if he thinks fitt, the enclosed letter to the duke of Argil, and to fill up the blanks of my letter with the name of the town where he shall leave the money, and the summ he shall leave.
“James R.”
It was not until the eve of his departure, that James thought of selecting the persons he wished to accompany him in his flight, but the near approach of the enemy, of whose motions he had just received intelligence, and the murmurings and jealousies of his troops compelling him to hasten his departure, he was narrowed in his choice, as some of the friends, whose presence he desired, were at some distance from Montrose. The first individual he pitched upon was Mar; but the earl begged that he might be left behind with the army. The Chevalier, however, insisted that he should go; and on representing to him that reasons almost equally strong existed for Mar’s departure as for his own, that his friends would make better terms with the government without him than with him, and that his services could be of no use in Scotland under existing circumstances, he gave his consent.
Matters being adjusted, the Chevalier left his lodgings privately about nine o’clock on the evening of the 4th of February, accompanied only by one of his domestics, and having met Mar at his lodgings, they both proceeded by a private way to the beach, where a boat was lying in readiness to receive them, which carried them on board a small French vessel that lay at a little distance from the shore. The boat was immediately sent back, and returned in about a quarter of an hour with the Earl of Melfort, Lord Drummond, and the remainder of the Chevalier’s suite. Being favoured with a fresh breeze from the west-south-west, the vessel stood directly out to sea, and after a voyage of five days, arrived in safety at Waldam, near Gravelines in French Flanders.
The insurgents, under General Gordon, marched to Aberdeen, which they entered on the morning of the 6th of February. Here he communicated to his men the paper of instructions he had received from the Chevalier, which, he informed them, he had been ordered not to open till their arrival at Aberdeen. In this writing the prince complained of the disappointments he had met with, particularly from abroad, and informed the army of the necessity he was under, for his own preservation, to leave the country. He thanked them for having entered so cheerfully into his service, and imputed the failure of the enterprise to the apathy of others, who had not seconded their efforts as they had promised to do. He advised them to consult their own safety by keeping together in a body under General Gordon till he should order them to disperse, and concluded by encouraging them to hope for better times. After reading this document, the General notified to his men that their pay would cease after that day.
General Cadogan arrived at Montrose on the afternoon of the 5th of February with three regiments of foot, and 600 of Argyle’s Highlanders, and the duke reached Brechin with the dragoons the same night. The whole royalist forces continued their march the following day towards Aberdeen, but they could not overtake the insurgents, who were nearly two days’ march in advance. The latter left Aberdeen on the 7th, and the Duke of Argyle entered it the following day at the head of 400 dragoons. The main body of the insurgents, chiefly foot, marched in the direction of Old Meldrum, but a party of about 200 horse, among whom were many officers and gentlemen-volunteers, took the route to Peterhead, where some vessels were lying to carry them to France. The Duke of Argyle, without waiting for the coming up of the rest of his army, immediately sent 200 dragoons, and a party of foot under Major-General Evans, to cut off the retreat of the latter, but he did not overtake them. Upwards of 100 of the gentlemen composing this party escaped to France.
Meanwhile the insurgents continued their march westwards into Moray, and after marching through Strathspey, retired into Badenoch, where they quietly dispersed. During their retreat, however, many, whose houses lay contiguous to their route, gradually withdrew from the ranks, so that before their arrival in Badenoch a considerable reduction had taken place in their numbers. Though closely pursued by Argyle’s troops, the insurgents did not lose 100 men during the whole retreat, so well and orderly was it conducted by the Jacobite commander.
After the dispersion of the insurgents, about 160 officers and gentlemen-volunteers who had followed the army into the Highlands, hearing that two French frigates, destined to receive on board such of the adherents of the Chevalier as might be inclined to retire abroad, had arrived off the Orkney coast, sallied from the hills on horseback, and crossing the low country of Moray embarked in boats at Burgh-head, and landed in Caithness. From Caithness they proceeded to the Orkney islands, where they had the good fortune to reach the French ships, which carried them to Gottenburg. Among this party were Lord Duffus, who, being a seaman, entered into the naval service of the King of Sweden, Sir George Sinclair, Sir David Threipland of Fingask, and General Eckline. Most of these refugees entered into the Swedish army then about to invade Norway.
Thus ended an enterprise badly contrived, and conducted throughout with little judgment or energy. Yet notwithstanding the disadvantages under which it was attempted, it might have succeeded, if the efforts of the Scottish Jacobites had been seconded by the Jacobites of England; but the latter, though decidedly hostile to the House of Brunswick, were not inclined to risk their lives and fortunes in a doubtful contest, in support of the pretensions of a prince known to them only by name, and to whose religion many of them felt a deep-rooted repugnance.