“It is now time to conclude, and I shall do it with this reflection; civil wars are ever attended with rancour and ill-will, which party-rage never fails to produce in the minds of those whom different interests, principles, or views, set in opposition to one another: I therefore earnestly require it of my friends, to give as little loose as possible to such passions: this will prove the most effectual means to prevent the same in the enemies of our royal cause. And this my declaration will vindicate to all posterity the nobleness of my undertaking, and the generosity of my intentions.”
During Charles’s stay in Edinburgh the magisterial authority was in complete abeyance, and thieves and robbers, no longer restrained by the arm of power, stalked about, in open day, following their vocation. Under pretence of searching for arms, predatory bands, wearing white cockades and the Highland dress, perambulated the country, imposing upon and robbing the people. One of the most noted of these was headed by one James Ratcliffe, the same individual who figures so conspicuously in the Heart of Mid-Lothian, and who, having spent all his life in the commission of acts of robbery, had twice received sentence of death, but had contrived to effect his escape from jail.[973] To suppress these and other acts of violence, Charles issued several edicts, and in one or two instances the last penalty of the law was inflicted by his orders upon the culprits.
Early in October a ship from France arrived at Montrose with some arms and ammunition and a small sum of money. On board this vessel was the Marquis Boyer d’Eguille, who arrived at Holyrood house on the 14th of October. The object of his journey was not exactly known, but his arrival was represented as a matter of great importance, and he was passed off as an ambassador from the French court. This vessel was soon followed by two others in succession, one of which brought, in addition to a supply of arms and money, some Irish officers in the service of France. The other had on board six field-pieces and a company of artillerymen. These succours, though small, were opportune, and were considered as an earnest of more substantial ones, of which d’Eguille gave the prince the strongest assurances. To facilitate and shorten the conveyance of arms and cannon, and of the reinforcements still expected from the north, batteries were raised at Alloa and on the immediately opposite side of the Frith of Forth, across which these were transported without any annoyance, although the Fox, a British man-of-war, was stationed in the Frith.
The army of the prince continued to increase by the arrival of several additional detachments from the north, and before the end of October he found that his forces amounted to nearly 6,000 men; but this number was far below what Charles had expected. He had entertained hopes that by the exertions of Lord Lovat and other chiefs, whom he expected to declare in his favour, about triple that number would have been raised; but a messenger who arrived at Edinburgh from his lordship, brought him intelligence which rendered his expectations less sanguine. Lovat had calculated that he would be able to raise by his own influence a force of 4,000 or 5,000 men for the service of Charles; and, the better to conceal his design, he opened a correspondence with President Forbes, in which, with his characteristic duplicity and cunning, he avowed himself a warm supporter of the government, and succeeded for a considerable time in throwing the president off his guard. By degrees, however, his real intentions began to develop themselves, and after the battle of Preston he resolved to assemble his clan for the purpose of joining the prince. To deceive the government he compelled his son, (afterwards known as General Fraser,) a youth of eighteen who had been pursuing his studies at the university of St. Andrews, to put himself at the head of the clan, and afterwards pretended that his son had, by this proceeding, acted in direct opposition to his orders.[974] The only force raised south of the Tay was a regiment of 450 men which Colonel Roy Stewart formed in Edinburgh during the stay of the Highland army; for, although the prince was joined at Edinburgh by the Earls of Kilmarnock and Kellie, Lord Balmerino, Maxwell of Kirkconnel, and other south-country gentlemen, they did not bring as many men along with them as would have formed the staff of a company.
Having now spent nearly six weeks in Edinburgh, the prince considered that he could no longer delay his intended march into England. By postponing that measure a few days longer he might have still farther increased his force by the return of the men who had gone home after the battle, of whom he had received favourable accounts; by the accession of a body of Gordons which Lord Lewis, brother to the Duke of Gordon, was raising among the followers of the family; and by other small corps from the north. But it was judged that this advantage would be more than counterbalanced by other circumstances attendant upon delay. The long stay of the Highland army in Scotland had enabled the government to concentrate a considerable force in the north of England, already far superior, in point of numbers, to the prince’s troops, and this force was about to receive large additions from the south and from the continent. Nothing but a dread of the Highlanders and ignorance of their real strength kept the English army, already concentrated in the north, from entering Scotland; but terrible as was the impression made upon the minds of the English troops, by the reports which had been carried to England of the prowess of the Highlanders, it was not to be supposed, that, after the arrival of large reinforcements, their commanders would remain inactive. Had the government been aware of the weakness of the prince’s army after the battle of Gladsmuir, it would probably not have delayed a single week in sending an army into Scotland; but the exaggerated reports which had been every where spread, of the great strength of the Highland army, were fully credited. Attempts were made by some friends of the government, as well as by others, to ascertain their numbers; but Charles, by perpetually shifting their cantonments, and dividing them into detached bodies, not only contrived to conceal his weakness, but to impress these prying persons with an idea that he was much stronger than he really was.[975]
Another reason for hastening his march south was the danger that the army might be diminished by desertion if kept in a state of inactivity. Desertions were frequent, and it was thought that nothing but an active life would put an end to a practice imputed to idleness and repose, and which allowed the men time to think on their families, and contemplate the hardships and dangers they were likely to undergo in a foreign land. But the chief motive which urged Charles and his council to put the army in motion was an apprehension that their supplies of money would be soon exhausted, in which event it would be quite impossible to keep the army together for a single day. By adhering to a declaration he had made, that he would not enforce the obnoxious malt tax; the public money, which had been collected, and was still in course of being raised, was far from being adequate to support the army which Charles had collected; and the contributions of his friends, which at first were considerable, were now beginning to fail. The supplies which had lately been received from France were therefore very opportune; but without additional and early pecuniary succours, which, though promised, might not speedily arrive or might miscarry, it was considered that unless the exchequer was replenished in England, the abandonment of the enterprise was inevitable. For these reasons, and as the prince informed his council[976] that he had received the strongest assurances of support from numbers of the English Tories and Jacobites, a unanimous resolution was entered into to march forthwith into England.[977]
Upon this resolution being adopted, the prince despatched a messenger to France with intelligence of his intentions, and to solicit the French court to make a descent on England. As this court had all along given as its reason for not seconding the prince’s designs, by sending an army into England, the doubt which it had of his having a considerable party in that country, the messenger was instructed to represent the situation of the prince’s affairs in the most favourable point of view. This person, by name Alexander Gordon, a Jesuit, left Edinburgh accordingly on the 28th of October. On arriving in France he drew up a most flattering report, which he put into the hands of the prince’s brother, Henry, Duke of York, then at Paris, to be laid before the French king. In this report he stated, that while the prince had about 12,000 men with him in Edinburgh and its vicinity, there were 4,000 more expected to arrive—that he had already upwards of 1,000 cavalry, and that a great number more were on their march to join him,—that almost all these troops were well armed, and were amply provided with every necessary,—and that all the inhabitants of the counties and towns where the prince had appeared, and particularly those of Edinburgh and Glasgow, had furnished the army with clothing, arms, and money, and, in short, with every thing in their power. He stated, that besides the Highland chiefs and the noblemen of different counties, who had declared in favour of the prince before the battle of Preston, a great number of persons of distinction had since joined him at Edinburgh, among whom he particularly enumerated Lord Nithsdale and Kenmure, and Maxwell of Kirkconnel,—that besides these there were many others, who, being unable to give their personal services, had sent the prince horses, arms, and money, and that after the prince’s father had been proclaimed in the capital and the most considerable towns in Scotland, those who had formerly shown themselves least disposed to acknowledge him had displayed the most favourable dispositions towards the prince, being either subdued by the charms of his manners, or gained over by his manifestoes and proclamations. In short, that by the astonishing victory he had achieved, many persons, who would otherwise have still been in connexion with the court of London, had submitted themselves to the prince, who might be said to be now absolute master of Scotland. That with regard to England, the people of that kingdom were ready to receive the prince with open arms as soon as he should appear among them with an army supported by France,—that, independently of the general discontent of the nation with the government, the prince was emboldened to enter England by upwards of a hundred invitations which he had received from the nobility of England, and by large sums of money which he had obtained for the payment of his troops,—that the English government, alarmed at this state of things, had, as was reported, hesitated accepting offers, which some counties had made of raising bodies of militia, for fear that this force would be employed against itself. In fine, that such was the disposition of men’s minds throughout the whole of Great Britain, that the fear of the prince not being supported by foreign aid, of which the court of London was in great dread, alone prevented the people from openly declaring themselves, and that every person was persuaded, that for every thousand of foreign troops which the prince could bring into the field, his army would receive an accession, four times as large, from the English people, who only wanted the presence of a foreign force to encourage them to take up arms against the government.[978]
The last days of October were occupied in making the necessary arrangements for the march of the Highland army; preparatory to which, orders were issued, near the end of that month, to call in the different parties which were posted at Newhaven, Leith, and other places in the vicinity of Edinburgh. The army which, for three weeks after the battle of Preston had lain in camp at Duddingston, had, since the middle of October, been quartered in and around the city; but on the 26th of that month the main body left Edinburgh, and encamped on a field a little to the west of Inveresk church, with a battery of seven or eight pieces of cannon pointing to the south-west.[979] Hitherto Charles, to conceal his weakness, had reviewed his army in detached portions; but he now ordered a general review of his whole force on the 28th of October. The place appointed was Leith links; but being warned by a few bombs which were thrown from the castle as the army was approaching the ground, that he might expect some annoyance, Charles abandoned his intention, and reviewed his army on the sands between Leith and Musselburgh.[980]
Of the deportment of Charles, and the mode in which he spent his time during his abode at Holyrood house, it may now be necessary to say a few words. It has been already stated on the authority of an officer in his army, whose memoirs are quoted by Mr. Home, that before the meeting of his council, Charles held a levee. The same writer adds, that after the rising of the council, which generally sat very long, he dined in public with his principal officers, and that while the army lay at Duddingston he rode out there after dinner, accompanied by his life-guards.[981] The object of these visits was to keep the Highlanders together; and to show them that the change of circumstances had not altered his disposition towards them, he frequently supped and slept in the camp.[982]
Another writer, an eye-witness,[983] says that “the prince’s court at Holyrood soon became very brilliant, and that every day from morning to night there was a vast concourse of well-dressed people. Besides the gentlemen that had joined the prince, there was a great number of ladies and gentlemen who came either from affection or curiosity. People flocked from all quarters to see the novelty of a court which had not been held in Scotland for sixty years, and from its splendour, and the air of satisfaction which appeared in every person’s countenance, one would have thought the king was already restored, and in peaceable possession of all the dominions of his ancestors, and that the prince had only made a trip to Scotland to show himself to the people, and receive their homage.” The conduct of Charles corresponded in all respects with the attentions shown him. He professed the warmest attachment to Scotland, and was often heard to say, that should he succeed in his attempt, he would make Scotland his Hanover, and Holyrood house his Herenhausen;[984] an expression by which he not only marked his devotion to the Scotch nation, but conveyed a severe rebuke upon King George, who was justly accused of an undue predilection for his native soil.