[939] According to the Chevalier Johnstone, (Memoirs, p. 38,) 1,300 of Cope’s men were killed; but Home states the number as not exceeding 200. He says, however, in a note, that some accounts of the battle written by officers in the rebel army, make the number killed to have been 400 or 500. These last seem to be nearer the truth.
[940] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 41.
[941] Report of Cope’s examination. The story told by the Chevalier Johnstone, of Cope’s having effected his escape through the midst of the Highlanders by mounting a white cockade, seems improbable, as Cope does not appear to have been in a situation to have rendered such a step necessary. If any officer made his escape in the way described, it is likely Colonel Lascelles was the man. He fell into the hands of the Highlanders; but in the hurry they were in, contrived to make his escape eastward, and arrived safe at Berwick. Amid the confusion which prevailed, he might easily have snatched a cockade from a dead or wounded Highlander, or procured one for a sum of money.
[942] Doddridge’s Life of Colonel Gardiner.
[943] Home, p. 121.
[944] These were Captain Robert Stewart of Ardshiel’s battalion; Captain Archibald Macdonald of Keppoch’s; Lieutenant Allan Cameron of Lindevra; and Ensign James Cameron of Lochiel’s regiment.
[945] Account published by the Highland army.—Kirkconnel MS.
[946] Caledonian Mercury, 25th September 1745.
[947] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 491.
[948] Lord George Murray says, that when traversing the field of battle in the afternoon he observed that some of Cope’s men, “who were the worst wounded, had not been carried to houses to be dressed; and though there were several of the country people of that neighbourhood looking at them, I could not prevail with them to carry them to houses, but got some of our people to do it.”—Jacobite Memoirs, p. 42.