According to a statement made by John Hay, who occasionally acted as secretary to the prince, Charles was so transported with rage, after reading this paper, that he struck his head against the wall of the room till he staggered, and exclaimed most violently against Lord George Murray. To dissuade the subscribers from their resolution, Charles sent Sir Thomas Sheridan to Falkirk, who, not succeeding in his mission, returned to Bannockburn, accompanied by Keppoch and several other chiefs. These argued the matter with Charles himself, and ultimately prevailed upon him to consent to a retreat.[1129] This retreat was condemned by some of the prince’s flatterers; but the simple fact, stated by Patullo the muster-master of the prince’s army, that, before the retreat, the army had been diminished by desertion to 5,000 men, fully justifies the advice given by Lord George Murray and the chiefs at Falkirk.[1130] Even Sir Thomas Sheridan, the especial favourite of the prince, admitted the necessity of the retreat, for reasons apart from the reduction of the army.[1131]
In order to make the retreat with as little loss as possible, horses and carriages were ordered in from all quarters, under the pretext of carrying the field artillery and ammunition towards Edinburgh, whither it was given out that the army was to march immediately. The army, however, began to suspect the design, and every person, not in the secret, looked dejected. During the 30th, a great deal of bustle took place in the country in collecting horses and carriages, but with little effect, as the country people, who also began to conjecture that a retreat was intended, were not disposed to attend to the order.[1132] At length the design of these preparations became apparent when, in consequence of a previous arrangement, Lord George Murray left Falkirk with the clans on the evening of the 31st for Bannockburn, leaving behind him Elcho’s, Pitsligo’s, and Kilmarnock’s horse, who were directed to patrol betwixt Falkirk and Linlithgow till ten o’clock that night. Lord George continued at the prince’s quarters till after twelve o’clock at night, when it was agreed that the army should rendezvous at nine o’clock next morning near St. Ninians; and a message was directed to be sent to the Duke of Perth and Lord John Drummond, both of whom were at Stirling, to be ready to march between nine and ten o’clock, but not to evacuate the town without further orders. However, after Lord George had left the prince’s quarters for his own, these orders were countermanded without his knowledge, and orders were sent to Stirling to evacuate it by break of day.[1133]
The appointed rendezvous at St. Ninians never took place, for the private men, imagining when they first heard of the retreat that the danger was much greater and nearer than it really was, had begun at day-break to take the road to the Frews. Before the hour appointed for assembling, many of them had arrived at that ford, so that when Charles left his quarters for St. Ninians, scarcely a vestige of his army was to be seen. Officers were sent after some parties, who were still visible, for the purpose of stopping them, but without effect. The troops in Stirling, in terms of the orders they had received, after spiking their cannon, also marched to the Frews, so that the prince and Lord George Murray found themselves almost deserted. Charles finding it impossible to recall his troops, marched off with some of the chiefs and the few troops that remained with him.[1134]
On the morning of the retreat the church of St. Ninians, in which the insurgents had fifty barrels of gunpowder, blew up with a terrible explosion, which was heard by the Duke of Cumberland’s army at Linlithgow. Whether it happened from accident or design, is a point which cannot be ascertained. If from design, it must have been the act of some unknown individual, as there was no warning given to any person to keep out of the way. That it could not have been perpetrated by any person in the prince’s interest, seems very evident from the fact, that Charles himself was near enough to have suffered injury, and that some of the Highlanders, as well as several of the inhabitants of the village, were killed.[1135] Yet, such was the spirit of misrepresentation which prevailed at the time, that, without the least assignable motive, the odium of the act was thrown upon Charles.
When this explosion took place, Lord George Murray was still at his head quarters. He thought the castle-guns had fired a volley; and on repairing to the town about an hour after the explosion, he was utterly amazed to find that the besiegers had disappeared. He, therefore, sent an aide-de-camp to call off some horse he had posted near Falkirk, and proceeded immediately, with the few troops that remained with him, to the Frews.
The Highland army was quartered that night at Doune, Dunblane, and adjacent villages, and continued to retire next day, the 2d of February, in a very disorderly manner. The prince halted at Crieff, where he reviewed his army, and, according to the statement of one of his officers,[1136] his army was found not to have lost above 1,000 men by desertion. Charles, who had consented to a retreat on the supposition that his army had lost a third of its numbers from this cause, is said to have been deeply affected on this occasion. Lord George Murray’s enemies did not let slip the opportunity of reproaching him, and, indeed, all the chiefs who had signed the representation, with deception; but the author above referred to observes, that their mistake, if there really was a mistake, can be easily accounted for, if people will divest themselves of prejudice, and examine the circumstances impartially. He observes, that, from the battle of Falkirk up to the time of the Duke of Cumberland’s march from Edinburgh, the country being absolutely secure, the Highlanders had indulged their restless disposition by roaming about all the villages in the neighbourhood of their quarters, and that numbers of them were absent several days from their colours—that their principal officers knowing for certain that some had gone home, imagined that such was also the case with all who were not to be found in their respective quarters, but that all the stragglers had got to Crieff and appeared at the review. Without questioning such a respectable authority as Mr. Maxwell, who may be right in the main fact, as to the number of the army at Crieff, it seems more likely that the army had recruited its ranks on the retreat to Crieff, by overtaking the deserters on their homeward route, than that 2,000 or 3,000 men should have been absent on a sojourn in the neighbourhood of their camp.
After the review, the prince held a council of war, to deliberate upon the course to be pursued. At no former meeting did heats and party animosities break out to such an extent as at this council. Lord George Murray complained greatly of the flight, and requested to know the names of the persons who had advised it; but the prince took the whole blame on himself. After a great deal of wrangling and altercation, it was determined that the army should march north to Inverness in two divisions,—that the horse and low-country regiments should proceed along the coast road, and that the prince, at the head of the clans, should take the Highland road.[1137] Lord George, after other officers had refused, agreed to take the command of the coast division, which arrived at Perth late that night. The prince remained at Crieff, and passed the night at Fairnton, a seat of Lord John Drummond, in the neighbourhood. Next day, being the 4th, Charles marched from Crieff to Dunkeld, and thence to Blair Athole, where he remained several days, till he heard of the arrival of the other division at Aberdeen.
It would have been quite impossible, under almost any circumstances, for the Duke of Cumberland’s army to have overtaken the Highlanders; but slow as the movements of such an army necessarily were, it met with an obstruction which retarded its progress nearly three days. This was the impassable state of Stirling bridge, one arch of which had, as formerly mentioned, been broken down by General Blakeney to embarrass the intercourse between the Highland army when in the south, and its auxiliaries in the north. It was not till the morning of the 4th of February that the bridge was repaired, on which day the English army passed over. The advanced guard, consisting of the Argyleshire Highlanders and the dragoons, went on to Crieff, and the foot were quartered in and about Dunblane, where the duke passed the night. Next day he proceeded to Crieff, and on the 6th arrived at Perth, of which his advanced guard had taken possession the previous day.
Lord George Murray marched from Perth for Aberdeen with his division on the 4th. He left behind thirteen pieces of cannon, which were spiked and thrown into the Tay, a great quantity of cannon balls, and fourteen swivel guns, that formerly belonged to the Hazard sloop-of-war, which had been surprised and taken at Montrose by the Highlanders. These pieces were taken out of the river next day by the royal troops.