Transcriber’s Note

The positions of the illustrative plates have been adjusted slightly to fall on paragraph breaks. The very occasional footnotes have been also moved to fall after the paragraphs in which they are referenced.

Please see the transcriber’s [note] at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.

The cover image has been fabricated and is placed in the public domain.

HISTORY
OF THE
SCOTTISH REGIMENTS
IN THE
BRITISH ARMY.

BY

ARCH. K. MURRAY, ESQ.,

MAJOR OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH LANARKSHIRE VOLUNTEER GUARDS.

Published by Request of his Brother Officers.

GLASGOW:

THOMAS MURRAY AND SON.

1862.

CONTENTS.

INDEX TO PLATES.

PREFACE.

In the present Work, the Author, without pretending to submit anything very startling or original, has endeavoured to gather from the records of the past such facts as may enable him, avoiding the tedium of detail, to present to the reader a brief and, it is hoped, at the same time, a comprehensive narrative of the origin and principal events in which our Scottish Regiments have so largely and honourably been distinguished.

It is wholly foreign to the purpose of the Author in any way to overlook the valorous achievements of the English and Irish Regiments in Her Majesty’s Service, which have alike contributed to build up the military renown of the British Army; he only trusts he shall receive that same charitable indulgence, in his present undertaking, which in like circumstances he, with every right-hearted Scot, should cordially extend to brethren of either a sister land or sister isle. It is in these pages, as a Scotsman, he ventures to give expression to the nation’s gratitude and honest pride—awards, in the name of friend and foe, the meed of praise justly due to the brave soldier who has fought his country’s battles in almost every land—ofttimes victoriously—at all times honourably.

The Author gratefully acknowledges the assistance freely rendered him in this compilation by many Officers of the Regiments described. He feels also considerably indebted to many very valuable works, on the same and kindred subjects, for much of his information. Unfortunately, many of these volumes are now very ancient, others nearly extinct, and nearly all so expensive as to fail in answering the purpose of the present Work, by bringing before the public, in a cheaper and more popular form, the records of those heroic deeds, the narrative of which ought to be as “household words,” infusing a thrill of living patriotism and loyalty into the soul.

It is hoped, as the grand result of the Work, that Scotsmen, considering the rich legacy of military glory bequeathed them by their heroic forefathers, specially registered in these Scottish Regiments, will be more impressed with the duty devolving on them to maintain and emulate the same. Whilst these records may afford knowledge, it is also hoped that they may awaken a larger sympathy and deeper interest on the part of the people in those, their brave countrymen, who so well represent the nation; and if circumstances preclude us from accepting the “Royal Shilling,” and so recruiting the army, let us be ready to accept, for the expression of our thoughts and feelings, that grand channel which, in our time, has been revived as the exponent of the people’s patriotism and loyalty—the Volunteer Movement—whether as active or honorary members, giving effect to our sentiments, and demonstrating, “by deeds as well as words” that we are in earnest.

INTRODUCTION.

Nature has been aptly represented as a fickle goddess, scattering her bounties here and there with a partial hand. Some spots, like very Edens, are blessed with the lavish profusion of her favours—rich fertility, luxuriant vegetation, warm and delightful climates. Some, on the other hand, which have not so shared the distribution of her gifts, represent the barren wilderness, the sterile desert, the desolate places of our earth—entombed in a perpetual winter—a ceaseless winding-sheet of snow and ice seems for ever to rest upon these cold, chilly, Polar regions: or parched, fainting, dying, dead, where no friendly cloud intervenes, like the kindly hand of love and sympathy, to screen the thirsty earth from the consuming rays of a tropical sun. But, as if by “the wayside,” we gather from the analogy, that as in the world of man there is a Scripture proclaiming comfort and blessing to the poor and needy—whilst it tells the rich how hardly they shall enter into “life”—so in the world of nature there is an over-ruling, all-wise, all-just Providence, “Who moves in a mysterious way,” making ample amends in the result upon the peoples of these climes, so as yet shall cause “the wilderness to rejoice.” Thus we find that lands enriched by nature ofttimes produce a people who, rich in this world’s good things, acquired without much effort, allow their minds to become so intoxicated with present delights and indolence, as to fail in cultivating the virtues of the man. Too frequently the fruits are these—ignorance, lust, passion, infidelity, and general debility. Whilst the barren, dreary wilderness, the bleak and desolate mountain-land—like the poor and needy upon whom Nature has frowned—enjoy the smile of Providence “in a better portion;” for there, amid a comparatively poor people, are nurtured all the sterner, the nobler, the truer, the God-like qualities of the man, the soldier, and the hero. There, too, hath been the birth-place and the abiding shrine of freedom—the bulwark and the bastion of patriotism and loyalty. Ascending higher, these—the peoples of the rejected and despised places of the earth—have ofttimes begotten and been honoured to wear the crowning attribute of piety. Turning to the history of Scotland or of Switzerland, for illustration, and taking merely a military retrospect, there it will be found. All centuries, all ages, all circumstances, are witness to the bravery and the fidelity of their mountain-soldiers.

Scotland, the unendowed by Nature, has been thus largely blessed by Nature’s God, in yielding a long line of valiant and illustrious men. Perhaps no nation engrosses so large and prominent a place in the temple of military fame—none can boast so bright a page in the history of the brave. Her stern and rugged mountains, like a vast citadel, where scarce a foeman ever dared to penetrate, have been defended through centuries of war against the advancing and all but overwhelming tide of aggression; besieged, too, by the countless hosts of Tyranny, they have still remained impregnable. Her wild and desolate glens, like great arteries down which hath flowed the life-blood of the nation, in the living stream—the native and resistless valour of her clans. Her bleak and dreary heaths have written on them one dark history of blood—“the martyred children of the Covenant.” Faithful unto death; “of whom the world was not worthy.” Her crown oft crushed beneath a tyrant’s heel—her freedom trampled on—her people betrayed—all lost but honour. Unscathed, unsullied, she has triumphed, and still lives to write upon her banner, the mighty, envied, and thrice-glorious word, “Unconquered.”

Armies have a very ancient history. Their origin might be traced to the very gates of Paradise. When the unbridled lust and wrathful passions of man were let loose like Furies, to wander forth upon the earth, then it was that lawless adventurers, gathering themselves together into armed bands for hostile purposes, to live and prey upon their weaker brethren, constituted themselves armies. Passing down the stream of time, through the Feudal Age, we find one among the many greater, mightier, wealthier—a giant towering above his fellows—exercised lordship, levied tribute, military and civil, over others as over slaves. These were the days of chivalry,—the Crusades—when cavalry constituted the grand strength of an army. Here we might begin the history of cavalry as an important constituent in armies, were such our purpose. The comparative poverty of our ancient Scottish nobility prevented them contributing largely to the chivalry of the age. Almost the sole representative we have of our Scottish Cavalry, is the Second Regiment of Royal North British Dragoons, or Scots Greys—a most worthy representative. The wars of the Interregnum in Scotland—the times of Wallace and Bruce—when the feudal lords had nearly all either deserted or betrayed her, introduce us to a new force, more suited to the independent character and patriotism of the Scottish people—the formation of corps of infantry, or armed bands of free burghers. These were the fruit, to a large extent, of the Magna Charter in England, and of the struggle for liberty in Scotland. Hence the wars of Edward the Black Prince with France, distinguished by the victories of Poitiers, Agincourt, and Cressy, may be viewed not merely as the epitome of the triumphs of England over France, but more especially as illustrating the success of this new force—represented in the English yeomen, burghers, citizens, and freemen—over the old force, sustained in the chivalry, the cavalry of France. The result of these successive defeats, we find, was most disastrous to France. The jealousy and fear of the nobles and feudal lords had denied the people the use and the knowledge of arms; so that when themselves were defeated, France was ruined—since they could expect no support, as in Scotland, from an unarmed and unskilled people. They had done what they could to quench rather than foster the spirit of free patriotism, which in the nation’s extremity should have been the nation’s refuge—the soul burning to deliver their land from the yoke of the stranger. In not a few cases, the French rather sympathised with, as they sighed for the same blessings of our free-born English yeomen. Here we would mark, respectively in the English and Scottish armies, the first formation of that branch of the service for which the British army has ever been specially distinguished—the Infantry.

Our reader is no doubt aware of the calamitous results which flowed from the short-sighted policy of these privileged orders—the old feudal lords; whose love of a petty despotism laboured to postpone the day of reckoning “till a more convenient season”—and so refused the timely surrender of those privileges and that liberty which the growing wealth and intelligence of the people claimed. Long, bloody, and unavailing civil wars have desolated and vexed many countries as the consequence; and in France the contest attained a fearful crisis, and the people wreaked a cruel retribution in the awful horrors of the Revolution.

The increasing importance of commerce, and the growing desire for wealth in preference to the uncertain and doubtful lustre of the battle-field, induced men to gather themselves together, not as formerly for war, but rather for the prosecution of trade; thus constituting themselves into trade-unions, communities, burgherates, free townships. Disowning the bondage of feudalism, as a system peculiarly adapted for war, and hostile in its spirit to a more peaceful vocation, they sought and obtained, in their earlier history at least, royal protection. Independently of their engagements and allegiance to the throne, these trading communities, aware of the restlessness, rapacity, and necessities of the old feudal lords around them, formed themselves into trained bands of free yeomen, or sort of militia, for the purpose—first, of defending their own industry, property, and lives; and, secondly, for the service of their sovereign and country in times of need. These are amongst the earliest ideas we have of a regiment. At an earlier age, we find many of the monarchs of Europe retaining in their service a body of foreign guards, specially entrusted with the defence of the royal person, so often threatened through the ambition of the nobles and the turbulence of the people. In nearly every instance these were composed of Scottish emigrants, driven from their country by the cruel and desolating wars which then disturbed her peace, and had proscribed many of the honourable and brave. We know no exception in which these corps of guards have not maintained the Scottish character, nay, been specially distinguished for the valour and fidelity with which they fulfilled their duty. Thus originated the First Royals, or Royal Scots Regiment of the present British army. The free citizens, continuing to prosper and proportionably growing in power and influence, gradually insinuated themselves into State affairs. As they grew in wealth, so unfortunately they increased in pride and arrogance, forgetting altogether their early humility. They essayed to be a political as well as a trading community. Having overthrown the power of feudalism, they threatened to shake the foundations of the throne. These murmurings speedily awakened the royal jealousy, and broke in upon the peaceful harmony of their hitherto successful alliance. The prosperity and support of these freemen had elevated the might and majesty of the throne, with which they had been early leagued, and these together had compelled the old feudal nobility to exercise their rule in something more of a constitutional way. Gladly, therefore, did these last avail themselves of these dissensions to restore their long-lost power. Uniting with the crown, whose interests were more peculiarly their own, they called upon their still adherent tenantry to muster around them; and thus commenced the sanguinary civil wars, already in a previous paragraph referred to, between king and people, which have devastated so many lands. These tenantry, thus raised, ultimately taken into the royal pay, as regiments, have gone far to constitute the armies of their several states.

In conclusion, we would remark, that the wars of the past have been as it were material contests—wars of matter rather than of mind—by which we mean that might has been understood as right; not as now, when right is acknowledged as might. Formerly it was he who excelled in physical strength and prowess that was crowned victor; now-a-days the appliances of mind, the inventive genius of man, have so improved the art of war, that upon these the result of the contest must largely depend. Skill and science, developed in a thousand ways, are the weapons with which our battles are to be fought and won; and this, too, at a time when man has been dwarfed in his bodily might by the bloody and protracted wars of the past, and enervated by the ease and indolence found in cities, so as to be no longer able for a contest as of old; and so the providence of God steps in to supply the vacuum occasioned by decay, and from the rapid march of civilisation, and the wonderful development of the mind, represents to us a better state of things—the triumph of the mind of the present over the matter of the past. The victories of the battle-field are being superseded by the triumphs of the Cabinet. The first Napoleon conquered by the sword—the present Napoleon conquers by superior craft and intrigue, whilst we, as a nation, are sitting by to register with an occasional growl his successes. It has been the knowledge of these facts—this new system of warfare—that has aroused the nation to see its danger in time; to feel that “our glory” is but an ideal security; to know that steam and electricity have comparatively bridged the sea, and so done away with our best defence; to learn that the inventions of men comparatively equalise combatants. It has been the knowledge of these things, along with indications of a coming struggle casting its shadow before, that has called the nation, with one enthusiastic voice, to arms—in our present Volunteer force.

SCOTCH DRAGOON 1680.

HISTORY OF THE SCOTTISH REGIMENTS.

SECOND ROYAL NORTH BRITISH DRAGOONS,
OR
SCOTS GREYS.

CHAPTER I.

“Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,

Come saddle my horses, and call out my men;

Unhook the west port and let us gae free;

For it’s up wi’ the bonnets o’ bonnie Dundee.”

EARLY HISTORY—COVENANTERS—BATTLES OF DRUMCLOG AND BOTHWELL BRIDGE—ARGYLE’S REBELLION—THE RAID OF THE MACDONALDS—FLIGHT OF JAMES II.—DUNDEE’S REBELLION—BATTLES OF KILLIECRANKIE AND CROMDALE—MASSACRE OF GLENCOE—1660–1693.

The page of history presents to us many dark scenes of oppression, where one man, trampling upon the rights of another, and disregarding the heaven-born principle of charity, has sold his brother into bondage. Nay, more, (as especially illustrated in the case of Spain groaning beneath the thraldom of the Papacy), some men have even succeeded in enslaving the mind; stopping up with vile trash the avenues of knowledge, and so defacing and ruining that mirror of the intellect which reflects so much of its Creator, which originally bore the impress of divinity, and was moulded in the likeness of God. But the pride of the human heart, and the unhallowed passion of man, stay not here, but have attempted more—to subdue the soul—but in vain. It is possible to fetter or destroy the body, nay, it is even possible to enslave, or annihilate in madness, the mind, but it is impossible for man to bind the undying soul. Nevertheless, it has been the infatuation of tyrants, deluded by false creeds, in many countries and in many ages, to seek, but in vain, to usurp the dominion of the soul. The soul, like “the bush burned but not consumed,” lives still, lives for ever, defying the fires of persecution, the wasting famine, and the devouring sword. It comes forth scatheless, purified, living; having shaken off the corruption of earth, it appears clothed in the garments of immortality. There can be no better testimony to the suitableness of the true religion to meet the wants of man than this—that whilst all others have proved themselves to be so many systems of tyranny, bereaving man of his beloved liberty, the religion of Jesus is free, and is always to be welcomed as the herald of civil and religious liberty; wherever its blessing rests, its benign influence is felt, and its glorious light shines.

It was in such a time as this in Scotland, when the iron will of Charles II., already oppressing the persons and the minds of his people, aspired to the dominion of their soul and conscience, by calling upon them to introduce into their simple forms of worship a host of objectionable mummeries, savouring of Popery, and threatening thereby to corrupt the purity of the Presbyterian faith. In vain they petitioned for liberty of conscience and protested against these intrusions. Persisting in the introduction of these idle rites, and denying redress, the monarch preferred plunging the nation into all the horrors of civil war, rather than depart from his purpose. To enforce these requirements the king raised in Scotland two troops of Life Guards, afterwards disbanded; a regiment of horse, known as Claverhouse’s Troopers—

“The bonnets o’ bonnie Dundee;”

a regiment of Foot Guards; a regiment of foot, now the Twenty-first, North British Fusiliers; and, in 1678, two troops of dragoons, which, increased by the addition of other troops in 1681, constituted the Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons, now known familiarly as the Scots Greys. The corps was originally commanded by Sir Thomas Dalziel, who in 1681 was appointed the first colonel of the regiment. He was always a staunch adherent of the House of Stuart, had been taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, but escaping from the Tower, served with distinction in the Russian army during the Tartar wars. Returning to Scotland at the Restoration, he was employed by the king in enforcing his will upon the Presbyterians, and he discharged his duty with all the scrupulous exactness of a soldier. To the Covenanters he has left a most unenviable memory—as a monster of cruelty, devoid of mercy. His eccentricities, especially in regard to dress, often excited the merriment of the Court, and created quite a sensation amongst the juveniles of the metropolis. He died in 1685.

The early history of the Royal Scots Dragoons is painfully and intimately associated with the sufferings and trials of the Covenanters—a page in our history which, would the truth admit, we would gladly omit. The ignominious duty imposed upon this gallant regiment, of hunting down the Presbyterians, and the cruelties which they were called to witness, sometimes to inflict upon their unhappy brethren, must have been extremely harrowing and repulsive to the feelings of brave men. Along with a troop of horse, a troop of the corps was present in 1679, under Graham of Claverhouse, at the battle of Drumclog, where they were defeated, with the loss of twenty men, by the superior numbers and desperate valour of the Covenanters, as also from the unsuitableness of the ground for cavalry to act upon. The result of this overthrow was a general rising of the disaffected and oppressed—a motley and undisciplined army was speedily assembled, better in the use of the tongue than the sword; and as always happens where that “unruly member” is in the ascendant, proved the precursor of party division, and in the end brought ruin to the good cause in which they had embarked. Foiled in an attack upon Glasgow by the retiring royal troops, especially the Royal Scots Dragoons and Scots Foot Guards, the Covenanters took up a strong position behind the Clyde at Bothwell Bridge, and there awaited the attack of the royal army, now advancing from Edinburgh under the Duke of Monmouth. Failing in effecting an accommodation, the battle was commenced by the Royal Scots Dragoons, supported by the Scots Foot Guards attacking the bridge, which, defended with great bravery, was only relinquished when the ammunition of the defenders was exhausted. The loss of this most important post, as well as the divisions already prevailing amongst the Covenanters, soon produced a panic which lost the battle, ruined for the present the cause of liberty of conscience, and served to add nearly ten years more to their sufferings. In the pursuit, the troopers of Claverhouse took a cruel revenge for the defeat of Drumclog, upon the broken and flying remnant.

The Royal Scots Dragoons continuing to be employed in the humiliating work of persecution, were often roughly handled by the Presbyterians, especially at Ayr Moss on the 20th July, 1680, where a desperate rencontre took place.

The Earl of Argyle, a nobleman of great merit, and for some time enjoying the esteem of his sovereign, being suspected of a leaning to the Nonconformists, or Covenanters, at the instigation of the Duke of York was arraigned for treason, and, accordingly, condemned to death. Escaping to France, Argyle returned in 1685, and landing with a force of 300 men in Argyleshire, summoned his clansmen, and endeavoured, with little success, to raise the Presbyterians, and so, setting up the standard of rebellion, threatened to dethrone James II., who but lately had succeeded his brother in the throne. After much fruitless manœuvring, he advanced into the Lowlands, but was met by the royal troops, including the Royal Scots Dragoons, near Dumbarton, under the Earl of Dumbarton. Attempting to retreat in the darkness of the night, his guides betrayed him, his army fell into disorder and disbanded, whilst he himself was taken prisoner and afterwards executed at Edinburgh. On the morrow, the Royal Scots Dragoons, assisted by other troops, attacked a considerable body of the rebels under Sir John Cochrane, which still remained together in the neighbourhood in a strongly fortified position. After hard fighting, in course of which the dragoons dismounted and fought hand to hand on foot, and after the loss of many officers, among whom were Sir Adam Blair, Sir William Wallace, and Capt. Clelland, also Lord Ross wounded, the rebels were driven back and ultimately dispersed.

On the death of Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Dalziel, in 1685, Lord Charles Murray, afterwards the Earl of Dunmore, and son of the Marquis of Athole, one of the original officers of the corps, was promoted to the colonelcy.

In 1688 a part of the regiment was called upon to interfere on behalf of the Government—unfortunately on the wrong side—in one of those unhappy broils which, as the dregs of feudalism, still so sorely distressed the Highlands. The Macintoshes having despoiled the Macdonald of Keppoch of his estate, during his temporary absence in the Highlands, the Macdonald, on his return, taking the law—as was usual in those days, specially amongst the clans—into his own hand, and taking an ample vengeance, redeemed his own. The Royal Scots Dragoons were sent to the assistance and for the release of the Mackintosh, who had been taken prisoner. In retaliation they were inhumanly ordered to destroy all that pertained to the Macdonald—man, woman, and child. Although such instructions were quite in keeping with the character of the Court, happily it was about the last exercise of a power ever rioting in such acts of merciless cruelty.

The close of the same year brought the Prince of Orange to our shores, to deliver the land from the bondage of the Stuarts who had so grievously oppressed it. To meet this emergency, King James had drawn together to London and its neighbourhood the whole reliable forces of his kingdom. Amongst these were the troops of Scottish Life Guards; Claverhouse’s regiment of horse; Dunmore’s regiment of Royal Scots Dragoons; the regiment of Scottish Foot Guards; and two regiments of Scottish Foot—in all, 3,765 men from Scotland. After a seeming show of resistance, and much manœuvring in the vicinity of Salisbury, the monarch, dreading the wrath of an outraged people, fled to France.

“Conscience makes cowards of us all.”

When the Prince of Orange, as William III., ascended the vacant throne, he found many of the troops inclined to dispute his authority, especially the regiments of Royal Scots Horse and Royal Scots Dragoons; which still remained together under the command of Viscount Dundee, and with the characteristic loyalty of Scotsmen, would still have maintained the cause of an unworthy and exiled prince, the degenerate representative of the Bruce of Bannockburn. The tact of the new monarch succeeded in winning the submission of the Royal Scots Dragoons; but the Royal Scots Horse, deserting, followed Dundee into Scotland, took part with him in his subsequent rebellion, and so, sharing his fate, have been lost to the British army. The Earl of Dunmore, declining to serve under the new king, was superseded in the colonelcy of the Royal Scots Dragoons by Sir Thomas Livingstone, afterwards Viscount Teviot—a Scottish soldier of distinction, who came over from the continent with the prince.

To stem the torrent of rebellion which the return of Dundee to Scotland had excited—especially among the Highland clans, nearly all of whom were devotedly attached to the Stuarts—the Royal Scots Dragoons were ordered to return to Scotland. Throughout the succeeding campaigns the regiment behaved with signal fidelity and gallantry, with the exception of some few of its officers who were found guilty of treasonable intercourse with the rebels—having a sympathy with their old comrade in arms, Viscount Dundee. Amongst the arrested were Lieut.-Colonel Livingstone, Captains Murray, Crichton, and Livingstone. The royal forces under the command of Major-General Mackay, included, besides the Royal Scots Dragoons, many regiments since known to fame—Lord Colchester’s Horse, or the Third (Prince of Wales’) Dragoon Guards; Berkeley’s, or the Fourth (Queen’s Own Hussars) Dragoons; Sir James Leslie’s, or the Fifteenth (York, East Riding) Foot; besides a considerable body of Dutch troops under Colonel Ramsay. Dundee was joined at Inverness by Macdonald of Keppoch and his clan, thirsting for revenge because of the atrocities committed upon them and theirs by the soldiers in the previous year. After much time spent in marching and counter-marching in search of, and pursuit of, each other, the two armies met at the Pass of Killiecrankie, when the death of Dundee, in the moment of victory, virtually ruined the Jacobite cause. The Royal Scots Dragoons, although not present at that disastrous battle, had previously distinguished themselves in a skirmish with a body of about 500 Highlanders, chiefly Macleans, who, defeating with great loss, they dispersed, and, dismounting, pursued among the rocks and crags of the mountains. In the following year, the rebels still continuing in arms, under General Canon—who on the death of Dundee assumed the command—and being recruited by a body of men from Ireland under General Buchan, took up a strong post and awaited the attack of the royal forces at Cromdale. Here, on the morning of the 31st April, they were suddenly attacked by Sir Thomas Livingstone, at the head of the Royal Scots Dragoons and other troops, and, amid the darkness and confusion, totally defeated and dispersed with great slaughter. The scene was one of consternation and horror, and had it not been for the merciful intervention of a mountain mist, as if to befriend her own children in their day of calamity, would have proved even more fatal to the flying enemy. In this action the Royal Scots Dragoons took a gallant part. This victory was quickly followed by the relief of the castle of Abergeldie, then besieged by the Highlanders, where two troops of the Royal Scots Dragoons utterly routed the rebels with great carnage. Unable longer to sustain such a hopeless struggle, the clans tendered their submission to King William, which was accepted.

But the triumph of the Government was stained by a deed of barbarous cruelty and sin, which remains a blot on the page of British history, known as “the Massacre of Glencoe.” The Macdonalds of Glencoe having failed to tender their allegiance within the prescribed time, although they had done so a few days afterwards, the whole were treacherously murdered in cold blood, whilst peaceably sleeping, by a party of soldiers from Argyle’s regiment, who had been received and hospitably quartered among them as friends. This inhuman action has been vainly attempted to be excused, and all authorities have alike endeavoured to escape the responsibility. We gladly record that the Royal Scots Dragoons were not called to take any part in the matter; and their colonel, Sir Thomas Livingstone, although then Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, has been fully exonerated from blame by Parliament.

CHAPTER II.

“Loudon’s bonnie woods and braes,

I maun lea’ them a’, lassie;

Wha can thole when Britain’s faes

Would gi’e Britons law, lassie?”

WARS OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION—REBELLION OF 1715—SEVEN\

YEARS’ WAR—1693–1793.

Our last chapter closed the dark record which unhappily clouds the early history of the Royal Scots Dragoons, and it is with pleasure we turn from the record of these unnatural and suicidal wars to narrate the nobler deeds of the regiment on a nobler field. The accession of William, Prince of Orange, to the throne, is not to be regarded merely as the triumph of the Protestant party, but as involving the dawn of freedom to an oppressed people; as the guarantee of liberty of conscience; and as the harbinger of peace, especially to distressed Scotland. In 1694, the Royal Scots Dragoons, accompanied by Cunningham’s Scots Dragoons—now the Seventh (Queen’s Own) Hussars—and associated with the First (Royal English), the Third (King’s Own Hussars), the Fourth (Queen’s Own Hussars), and the Fifth (Royal Irish Lancers) Dragoons, were sent over to the Netherlands against the French. Here they represented the nation with credit, especially at the siege of Namur, until the conclusion of peace, four years afterwards, permitted their return.

Unfortunately, the peace was not of long duration, and afforded but a short respite, during which the regiment was remounted on grey horses, as a corps élite. The question of the Spanish succession rousing the ambition of France, the flames of war were again rekindled. Accordingly, in 1702, the regiment was called to maintain the honour of their country on the plains of Holland. The earlier campaigns were chiefly made up with a variety of sieges—Venloo, Ruremonde, Stevenswaert, Liege, Bonn, Huy, Limburg, &c., in all of which the regiment had a part. Lord Hay, afterwards Marquis of Tweeddale, this year (1704) purchased the colonelcy of the regiment. The daring spirit and rising genius of Marlborough, who then commanded the British army, aspiring to something mightier, turning his eye towards Germany, selected a grander field of action—planned a campaign, which, taking Europe by surprise, fell like a thunderbolt upon the foe, and produced the most glorious results. The soldierly bearing of the Royal Scots Dragoons had already attracted the keen eye of the Commander-in-Chief, and won for them this tribute to their fidelity and worth, inasmuch as they were selected to be his own body-guard. They were, moreover, destined to lead the van, or, at all events, to assume a first place in the memorable actions of the campaign. Their firmness and valour helped their great commander to a great renown, as they were honoured to share with him the dangers and the glories of the campaign, and so “win laurels that shall never fade.” Not less brave, although not so favoured, were the gallant troops which accompanied the Royal Scots Dragoons in the marvellous march from the Netherlands to Germany, and who alike contributed to the success of the expedition. These comprised the First (King’s), the Third (Prince of Wales’), the Fifth (Princess Charlotte of Wales’), the Sixth (Carabineers), the Seventh (Princess Royal’s) Dragoon Guards, and the Fifth (Royal Irish Lancers) Dragoons; besides the infantry which followed, including the Foot Guards, the First (Royal Scots), the Third (East Kent Buffs), the Eighth (the King’s), the Tenth (North Lincoln), the Fifteenth (York, East Riding), the Sixteenth (Bedfordshire), the Eighteenth (Royal Irish), the Twenty-first (Royal North British Fusiliers), the Twenty-third (Royal Welsh Fusiliers), the Twenty-fourth (Warwickshire), the Twenty-Sixth (Cameronians), and the Thirty-seventh (North Hampshire) regiments of Foot. Marlborough having successfully accomplished with rapidity and secrecy this masterly manœuvre, and united his army to the Imperialists—hardly allowing the French and Bavarians time to know, far less to recover from their surprise—immediately prepared for action. The assault upon the French lines on the heights of Schellenberg, and the consequent capture of Donawerth, was the first event calling forth the bravery of the Scots Greys. But this was but the precursor to a more decisive blow. On the 13th of August the French and Bavarians were encountered in the vicinity of the village of Blenheim. The struggle was a severe one. The Greys and other troops attacking the village, which was strongly occupied by the French, for long waged a very doubtful conflict; but at length, by indomitable efforts, they succeeded in driving back the enemy, and cutting off their retreat—twenty-four battalions of infantry and twelve squadrons of cavalry surrendered. The campaign closed with the siege of Landau. Having delivered Germany from the immediate presence of the enemy, Marlborough withdrew the British army into winter quarters in the Netherlands. The only action of importance which falls to be recorded in the succeeding year is the victory of Helixem, where the same redoubtable British cavalry successfully attacked and broke in upon the French lines.

A mightier achievement awaited the arms of our “gallant Greys” in 1706. At the battle of Ramilies, after much hard fighting, the regiment succeeded in penetrating into the village of Autreglize, inflicting a dreadful carnage, and were honoured in receiving the surrender of the French “Regiment du Roi,” with arms and colours. Amid the trophies of the day, the Greys are said to have taken no fewer than seventeen standards. At the close of the battle a very curious circumstance was brought to light, affording an illustrious example of woman’s love, fidelity, endurance, and heroism. Amongst the wounded of the Scots Greys, a female (Mrs Davies) was discovered, who, donning the habiliments of man, had enlisted in the regiment, braved the perils of Schellenberg and Blenheim, that in this disguise she might follow her husband, who was a soldier in the First (Royal Scots) Foot, then with the army. Her case at once excited the interest and sympathy of the whole army; and awakening the generosity of the officers, especially of the colonel of her regiment, she was restored to her true position as a woman, lived to be of considerable service as envoy to the army, and at her death in 1739 was buried with military honours in Chelsea Hospital.

In the autumn of this eventful year, the Greys were called to mourn the death of their colonel, who had been with them throughout the war, and who was cut off by fever in the midst of a bright and glorious career. He was succeeded in the colonelcy by the Earl of Stair. About the same time the regiment was authoritatively designated the Royal North British Dragoons, and in 1713 was further registered as the Second Regiment of Dragoons.

It is superfluous to say that, at the battle of Oudenarde, in 1708, the sieges of Lisle and Tournay, and specially at the battle of Malplacquet in 1709—where, thrice charging the French household cavalry, they ultimately broke through that magnificent and hitherto invincible corps—as well as at a variety of minor engagements, the Greys maintained their high character. On the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, they returned to England loaded with the honours of war.

In the following year, the Earl of Portmore, a distinguished one-eyed veteran, was appointed colonel in room of the Earl of Stair—retired.

The rebellion of 1715, in Scotland, in favour of the Pretender, again called for the service of the Greys, who, with a firm fidelity, continued to discharge their duty to the king—notwithstanding many pressing temptations to desert. Whilst quartered at Stirling, they dispersed gatherings of rebels at Kinross and Dunfermline. With the Third (King’s Own Hussars), the Fourth (Queen’s Own Hussars), the Sixth (Inniskillings), and the Seventh (Queen’s Own Hussars) Dragoons; also the Third (East Kent Buffs), the Eighth (the King’s), the Eleventh (North Devon), the Fourteenth (Buckinghamshire), the Seventeenth (Leicestershire), the Twenty-first (Royal North British Fusiliers), the Twenty-fifth (King’s Own Borderers), and the Thirty-Sixth (Herefordshire) regiments of foot, in all 4000 men, they were present at the drawn battle of Sheriffmuir, where the enemy mustered fully 10,000 men. The royalist army was mainly saved from utter defeat by the dauntless valour of the Greys, who, repeatedly charging the cavalry and right wing of the rebel army, succeeded in driving back and ultimately dispersing them, so as to counterbalance the success of the rebels on the left. Although forced to retreat for the time, the royalists, recruited by other regiments, were soon able once more to assume the offensive, and, notwithstanding the presence of the Pretender himself, ultimately dispersed the rebel army. A second attempt, aided by a Spanish force, in 1719, met with the same firmness, and fared no better. The rebel army, encountering the king’s army—including the Greys—at Strachell, were completely routed.

Meanwhile the regiment was permitted to enjoy its laurels in peace. In 1717, General John Campbell had been appointed colonel of the Scots Greys, in room of the Earl of Portmore—resigned.

In 1742, France, Prussia, and Bavaria having leagued together for the destruction of Austria, George II., espousing the cause of Austria, in person, led an army of 16,000 British through Flanders into Germany. Of this force the Greys formed a part, under the command of their own chivalric monarch. The battle of Dettingen, in 1743, was the first event of importance in the war, in which the Greys were engaged—successively charging and defeating the imposing line of French Cuirassiers, and thereafter the magnificent array of the French household cavalry; capturing from these last a white standard—a trophy which never before had been taken by an enemy.

The army having been withdrawn into Flanders, and placed under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, achieved nothing of importance until the disastrous battle of Fontenoy, in 1745, in which, although no very prominent place had been assigned the Scots Greys, they nevertheless suffered severely—especially in the loss of their gallant colonel, General Campbell. He was succeeded in the colonelcy by the Earl of Stair—reappointed.

The rebellion of 1745, in Scotland, occasioning the withdrawal of a large portion of the army, the following regiments were left behind to make head against the overwhelming hosts of France:—the Second (Scots Greys), the Sixth (Inniskillings), the Seventh (Queen’s Own Hussars) Dragoons; the Eighth (King’s), the Eleventh (North Devon), the Thirteenth (1st Somersetshire or Prince Albert’s), the Nineteenth (1st York, North Riding), the Twenty-fifth (King’s Own Borderers), the Thirty-second (Cornwall), and the Thirty-third (Duke of Wellington’s) Foot. These were aided by a few regiments of Dutch and Hessians. Taking advantage of these circumstances, the enormous masses of the French under Marshal Saxe were advanced, with the intent to overwhelm this handful of brave men. The attack was accordingly made at Roucoux, but failed; although the British general was forced to retreat, which was accomplished with success, notwithstanding the immediate presence of a foe greatly superior in numbers. It was the intrepidity of the British cavalry which rescued the army from destruction.

The following year the Earl of Crawford was appointed colonel in room of the then deceased Earl of Stair. He was an officer of very extensive military knowledge, having served in many of the continental armies, as a volunteer, with credit.

The bloody and glorious battle of Val, fought in 1747, and which may fitly be considered the closing event of the war, exhibits in bold relief what may well be esteemed as the crowning achievement of the Scots Greys. Towards the close of this desperate fight, the regiment was ordered to charge. Notwithstanding their resistless bravery and accompanying success, by which the French cavalry were broken and lost four standards, these fortunate results and glorious trophies were dearly won, not merely because of the numerous casualties which the regiment was called to mourn (157 killed and wounded), but on account of the loss of that which to a soldier is dearer than life itself—a standard. It fell into the enemy’s hands in the confusion of retreat.

On the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1749, the regiment returned to England. In the following year the Earl of Crawford dying, the colonelcy of the regiment was conferred on the Earl of Rothes, but exchanging into the Third (Scots Fusiliers) Foot Guards in 1752, he was succeeded in the command by General Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle.

On the breaking out of war with France in 1758, whilst a newly-raised light troop of the regiment was engaged with other troops in successive descents on the French coast, viz., St Maloes, Cherbourg, and Lunar, the remainder of the regiment was sent to Germany, to aid in the liberation of Hanover from the French yoke. Under the command of the Duke of Brunswick, the Greys were present at the battles of Bergen and Minden, but it was not until the assault upon Warbourg that they seriously encountered the enemy. Their conduct on the occasion is well described by the Commander-in-Chief when he says they performed “prodigies of valour.” At Zierenberg the battle was decided by a brilliant and successful charge of the Greys and Inniskillings. A variety of manœuvres and skirmishes continued to agitate the conflict in the following year, in all of which the regiment upheld its reputation. The peace of 1763 at length released the regiment from the turmoil of war, and permitted it to return home and rest awhile upon its honours.

It is interesting to observe that in nearly every instance the Royal Scots Dragoons shared the dangers and glories of the conflict with the Royal Irish or Inniskilling regiments of dragoons. It is still the same. Scotland and Ireland, side by side, are to be recognised fighting their country’s battles. It is an ancient and happy alliance which, strengthening with years, has been of signal service in the past, is blessed in the present, and promises to be of further use in the future.

In 1770, on the death of the Duke of Argyle, the Earl of Panmure was advanced to the colonelcy, and on his death, in 1782, General Preston was appointed colonel, but he in turn passing away in 1785, made room for General Johnstone.

These were times of peace, and afforded no opportunity for these venerable soldiers to distinguish their stewardships. The succeeding chapter introduces us to more stirring times.

CHAPTER III.

“O Fame, stern prompter of most glorious deeds,

What numerous votaries attend thy call!

For thee the poet sings, the hero bleeds,

And warlike kings bid empires rise or fall.”

THE REVOLUTIONARY AND CRIMEAN WARS—1793–1862.

In 1793 the restless and aggressive spirit which sorely troubled France, developed in the Revolution, once more plunged that nation into war with Britain; nay, not only so, but sending forth her revolutionary incendiaries charged with the subversion of all constitutional government, and seeking to poison the minds of almost every people, her ruthless and frantic demagogues virtually declared war against the whole monarchies of Christendom. Accordingly, a British force, including a portion of the Greys, was sent to the Netherlands under the Duke of York. These were chiefly employed in the sieges of Valenciennes, Dunkirk, Landrecies, etc., which preceded the double battle of Tournay, fought on the 10th and 22d May, 1794. The Greys and the other British cavalry easily routed the newly-raised horsemen of the Revolution, which were sadly degenerated from the splendidly-equipped cavalry of the old monarchy—long the terror of Europe, and most worthy foes. The utter bankruptcy of the French nation prevented them from equipping or maintaining a powerful cavalry, and, in consequence, we find the armies of the Revolution at that time very deficient in this branch of the service. Notwithstanding the excellence of his troops, the Duke of York found his position untenable, with such a handful, against the overwhelming hosts of France, which were being daily augmented by a starving crowd which the Revolution had ruined, and so forced into the army as the only refuge in those unhappy times. The British, retreating into Germany, reached Bremen in 1795, whence the Scots Greys shortly thereafter returned to England.

Notwithstanding the continuous and bloody wars in which our country was engaged during the next twenty years, the Scots Greys were allowed to pine in quietude on home service, until the campaign of Waterloo called them to take the field.

In the meantime, we take opportunity to enumerate the series of colonels who successively commanded the regiment during this interval. The Earl of Eglinton, appointed in 1795, was succeeded by that brave and distinguished officer, Sir Ralph Abercromby, who fell in the arms of victory on the 28th of March, 1801, at the battle of Alexandria. On his death, the colonelcy was conferred on a no less distinguished officer, Sir David Dundas, who continued to command the regiment until 1813, when, exchanging into the King’s Dragoon Guards, he was succeeded by the Marquis of Lothian. This nobleman dying in 1815, made way for an able and accomplished soldier, Sir James Stewart, who, retaining the colonelcy for the lengthened term of twenty-four years, lived to be the oldest general and the oldest soldier, both in one, in the British army. In 1839, Sir William Keir Grant was appointed colonel. As if worthily to recognise the heroic daring of the regiment at Waterloo, it has continued to be commanded by veterans who have earned their laurels in that proud field of fight. Lord Sandys was appointed in 1858, but only enjoyed the honour for two years, when death laid him low, and he was in turn succeeded by the present colonel, General Alex. K. Clarke Kennedy, C.B., K.G. The history of all these brave officers is replete with deeds of heroism, and it would have been truly a pleasant duty, had our space admitted, to have recounted somewhat of their achievements.

During the years of their home service, a part of the regiment was present at the imposing ceremony accompanying the burial of England’s Naval Hero, Lord Nelson, in 1805. They were also present at the great review in Hyde Park in 1814, when the allied Sovereigns visited England after the Treaty of Paris.

The following year witnessed the escape of Napoleon from Elba, his return to France, and the general and disgraceful desertion of the French army to their old chief. This untoward event at once arrested the retiring armies of the allies, and recalled them again in haste to Paris. The promptitude and harmony of the measures adopted by the Cabinets of Britain and Prussia enabled their armies forthwith to take the field, and so stemming the returning tide of French despotism, for ever crush the might of the tyrant whose restless ambition, like an evil spirit, had so long troubled Europe. They were honoured side by side to fulfil the first and last act in the short but decisive campaign which followed. Six troops of the Greys were ordered to the theatre of war, and, landing in the Netherlands in 1815, were brigaded with the Royals and their old comrades the Inniskillings, under Sir William Ponsonby. Anticipating no immediate attack from the French, and the better to obtain supplies, the Duke of Wellington had disposed his army as a chain of posts to watch the movements of the enemy. While separated from the Prussians, under Blucher, both armies narrowly escaped destruction. The immediate and personal presence of so able and enterprising a General as Napoleon, at the head of a powerful and well-appointed army—consisting largely of the veterans who, smarting under the disasters of a previous year, burned for revenge, or of those who, so unfortunately for their chief, had been too long incarcerated as garrisons in the distant fortresses of the Oder and Vistula, but who, released on the conclusion of the late peace, gladly welcomed their old commander, and followed him to the field with high hopes to retrieve the defeats of the past—the immediate presence of such an army rendered the position of the allies one of considerable danger. On the night of the 15th of June the Greys were unexpectedly awakened at the village of Denderhautem, to learn that the enemy was rapidly advancing to surprise and destroy the scattered fragments of the army in detail. Accordingly, immediate orders were issued to the various corps to concentrate in the vicinity of Waterloo. A rapid march of fifty miles brought the Scots Greys, on the evening of the 16th, to Quatre Bras, where some of the British troops were surprised by a portion of the French army, under Marshal Ney, and all but cut to pieces. As the eventful morning of the 18th of June dawned, the British army, having completed its concentration, was drawn up in all the magnificence of battle array, and anxiously waited the arrival of their allies. The Prussians, however, had in the interim been attacked by Napoleon himself at Ligny, and nearly overthrown.

In the battle of Waterloo, the Greys occupied a position in rear of the left centre. It was late in the day when the Earl of Uxbridge brought the orders for that fatal and memorable charge, the result of which had such an effect on the battle. It must have been a splendid sight to have seen these gallant regiments (the Greys, Royals, and Inniskillings) “hurl them on the foe;” and it must have been nobly done, since it specially attracted the attention of the great Napoleon—(particularly referring to the Greys)—and drew forth from him those ever-memorable words: “These are splendid horsemen, but in less than half-an-hour I must cut them to pieces;” and therewith he did all that human mind could devise, or human might achieve, to fulfil his boast, and annihilate these brave soldiers. Despite a dreadful carnage, and the resoluteness with which the successive columns of the French sustained the dreadful fight, they could not prevail against our Gælic infantry, nor dismay the firmness of the British square, far less withstand the shock of our gallant cavalry—they were broken; and amidst the terrible confusion which ensued, Sergeant Ewart, of the Greys, succeeded in capturing the eagle and colour of the Forty-fifth French regiment—a trophy which graced the day, and the eagle is a proud emblem on the regimental guidon. The Ninety-second Highlanders, reduced to 200 men, had long maintained a terrible conflict with a column of 2000 of the enemy. At length the Greys, charging a second time—but with sadly diminished numbers—came to the assistance of their countrymen, and, together, nearly annihilated the French. At the grand charge, where the famous and hitherto invincible Guards of Napoleon were brought forward for a last effort, the remnant of the Greys, kept in reserve, awaited the repulse of that dread column, when, a third time charging, they completed the ruin of their brave foemen. The loss to the regiment was upwards of 200 men. After the battle, they continued the pursuit of the enemy to the very gates of Paris; and, with other cavalry, contributed to prevent Napoleon re-forming or re-organising his still formidable legions. On the abdication of that mighty chief, the Greys returned to England in 1816. Thus, in three days, was the fate of an empire, nay, of the world, decided by British valour and Prussian firmness.

BALAKLAVA.

Passing over a long interval of peace—nearly forty years, during which nothing of sufficient importance transpired to call the Greys to take the field—we arrive at the time (1854) of the Crimean war, when Russian ambition, seeking to overwhelm Turkey in her weakness, was unexpectedly met and arrested in her unrighteous aggression, by France and Britain, on the plains of the Crimea. The Greys, as an after instalment of the British army, were sent out in the “Himalaya,” and landed in September—a few days after the battle of the Alma. With the Fourth (Royal Irish) and the Fifth (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) Dragoon Guards; and the First (Royals) and Sixth (Inniskilling) Dragoons, they formed the heavy cavalry brigade, under Brigadier-General the Hon. James Scarlett, now Adjutant-General to the Forces and K.C.B. At the action of Balaklava, fought on the 25th of October, and which was almost entirely a cavalry one—the Ninety-third Highlanders being the only infantry regiment actively engaged, and bearing the word on their colours—the Scots Greys, with their old comrades, the Inniskillings, fully sustained the ancient and heroic character of the regiment. Numbering together about 750 men, they charged fearlessly upon a body of 3500 of the very choicest Russian cavalry, defended, moreover, by several batteries; and, breaking the first line, had already pierced the column through, when they were aided in the completion of the victory by the Fourth and Fifth Dragoon Guards. Notwithstanding the desperate and unequal contest, the loss on the side of the Greys was very small. In less than five minutes the splendid array of Russian cavalry was broken and put to flight by about 1400 of the British cavalry. This splendid achievement may be considered as the only important event in which our cavalry assumed a prominent part. The severity of the weather and the prevalence of disease all but destroyed the Greys and their no less gallant comrades, and left our country to lament that so very few of that heroic brigade were spared to return and receive the thanks of a grateful people. Two years afterwards, peace restored the remnant of the regiment to its native land.

In closing our brief record of the Second Regiment of Royal North British Dragoons, we cannot help remarking on the almost unbroken success and splendid trophies which have crowned their arms. Scarcely in a single instance was the regiment broken or necessitated to retreat for its own sake; only once did a standard fall into the hands of the enemy, although in its several campaigns the regiment has been always actively engaged. The reader must feel that we have great reason to be proud of our countrymen—and that it is an honest pride we indulge in—when sustained by such an unprecedented series of triumphs as it has been our pleasure to record. There is not a heart in Scotland which does not beat with affectionate sympathy and respect for the “Scots Greys;” and be they Englishmen or Irishmen who join the regiment, we feel sure they do so with a generous spirit of emulation, and ungrudgingly unite with us in doing honour to our countrymen, who early won a good name for the regiment by brave deeds—no idle tale, but recorded in the most prominent page of the world’s history.

SCOTS GREY 1862

H.R.H. THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT, COLONEL OF THE GRENADIER GUARDS.

“THE GUARDS.”
THE GRENADIERS—COLDSTREAMS—SCOTS FUSILIERS.

CHAPTER IV.

“Star of the brave! whose beam hath shed

Such glory o’er the quick and dead;

Thou radiant and adored deceit!

Which millions rushed in arms to greet;

Wild meteor of immortal birth!

Why rise in Heaven to set on Earth?”

INTRODUCTION—EARLY HISTORY—THE RESTORATION—TIMES

OF THE STUARTS—THE REVOLUTION—1660–1688.

The very name of “Guards” inspires the idea of all that is militarily splendid and excellent, great and glorious, noble and brave, faithful and loyal; and awakens in our minds a host of most interesting and exciting recollections. Guards are peculiarly a monarchical and despotic institution, having no real existence in a Republic or similar form of government. We would esteem this force as a chosen band of faithful, stalwart, and splendidly-equipped soldiers, specially charged with the defence of the throne, and calculated, by their imposing array, to add lustre and dignity to the Crown. Apart from this holiday display, the history of Guards is pre-eminently distinguished by the most splendid achievements of heroism and devotion. Their firmness and fidelity have alike rebuked the arrogance of the nobles who insulted, and stilled the turbulence of the people who challenged, the prerogative of the Crown. Nay, more, when the avalanche of revolution, descending, overthrew the tottering throne, having enjoyed the smile, unshaken, the Guards encountered the frowning of fortune; whilst fond memory bids us trace the footprints of their greatness.

But the great Napoleon had a truer conception of what such a corps ought to be, in the constitution of his Imperial Guard, which at one time amounted to upwards of 100,000 of the best troops in the world. Selected not merely for fidelity or display, each one was a veteran, who, passing through the fires of battle and inured to war, had won by his valour the right to a place in the ranks of “the Brave.” No wonder that Europe trembled when the bearskin of the Guard was recognised amongst the number of her foes; no marvel that the charm of invincibility should so long be enjoyed by this phalanx of warriors, and the halo of victory rest upon their brows.

Romance presents no scene more deeply touching than is recorded in the page of history, when, amid the crumbling ruins of his colossal empire—under the eye and directed by the transcendent genius of their beloved chief, which never on any occasion shone forth more conspicuously—the shattered remnant of the French Guards, faithful amid the faithless, with unmurmuring constancy and heroic devotion, withstood, all but alone, the attack of allied Europe; dealing out the same terrible blows as of old, which, were it possible, must have rescued their country from the countless hosts which already desecrated her plains. But the closing scene was postponed for an after year, when France once more marshalled around the Guard, and Napoleon cast the fatal die for empire or ruin. What Austria, Russia, Prussia, nay, banded Europe, had failed to do, our British soldiers achieved. The spell was broken, as the Guard was overthrown. Noble and brave, ever commanding our respect in their life, they were doubly so in their death. We cannot help according this tribute to so brave a foe. Nay, we feel honoured as, regarding their grave on the plains of Waterloo, we shed a tear for the worthy representative of the Guard; and, lingering beside the relics of “the mighty dead,” we catch the meaning of their watchword—

“The Guard dies, but never surrenders.”

Guards claim to be of a very ancient origin. Perhaps the earliest record of such a force is to be found in the Bible, where—in times of the tyranny of Saul, first king of Israel, 1093 B.C.—we read “the goodliest of the young men” (1 Sam. viii. 11–16; xiv. 52) “were chosen” for himself, and “their hearts touched” (1 Sam. x. 26), so that “they followed him” as a guard. Notwithstanding this ill-omened inauguration, Guards have been perpetuated, and embraced in the military institutions of the several States which successively attained the dominion of the known world, especially where victorious ambition induced them to reject the simplicity of the Republic and adopt the glitter and the pomp of Imperialism. In despotic monarchies, princes have generally selected their Guards from foreigners, as less likely to be affected by the political struggles which from time to time agitated the nation and threatened the security of the throne. The Guard thus selected frequently included exiles of rank—of noble, nay, royal blood. To the Protestant refugees, which the persecutions of the Church of Rome had expatriated, the Guard presented a very general, an honourable, and a secure retreat. These, as well as the chivalrous and adventurous spirit of Scotsmen, are foremost amongst the many causes which have led our countrymen to enlist as the Guard in nearly every State in Europe.

Coming nearer home, and more immediately to our text, we find, in England, that Henry VII., in 1485, raised a bodyguard of 50 men, afterwards increased to 200, and styled it the “Yeomen of the Guard.” In 1550, Edward VI. added a corps of Horse Guards; whilst, in Scotland, at a very early period, “the Archers of the Guard” surrounded and upheld the Sovereign.

LORD CLYDE, COLONEL OF THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS.

The Guards of the present British army, comprised in three regiments—the first of which containing three, and the others two battalions each—were raised about the year of the Restoration, 1660. The union, and consequent intermixture of the peoples of the two, nay, of the three nations, has so assimilated the composition of our regiments, that, whatever may have been their origin, it is exceedingly difficult now to discover aught of the ancient landmarks—national or county—which once characterised them. Still, it is our business, in the present undertaking, to trace these originals, and do justice to the land, whichever it be, that, in earlier years, contributed its mite to lay the foundation of the present renown of our army.

From the intimate way in which our Guards have always been associated in duty and a brilliant career of honour, we have preferred briefly to sketch their history together, rather than separately and severally. In such a narrative as we have entered upon, it is scarcely possible to avoid repetition, many of the regiments having seen the same service. It must therefore be admitted as a necessary evil; we only trust the good old story of our nation’s glory will not suffer by being twice told.

The Coldstream, or Second Regiment of Guards—which, although second in the Army List, is nevertheless the senior—was raised by General Monk (afterwards Duke of Albemarle) about the year 1650. They were principally formed from Fenwick’s and Hesellrigg’s Regiments, and took their name from their having proceeded from Coldstream on their famous march to restore the “Merry Monarch!” Born during a time of war, they were early initiated into its bloody toils. They formed part of the army of General Monk, which, in name of Oliver Cromwell, subdued and occupied Scotland. With the Scottish army, they marched into England in 1660, were quartered in London, and there effectually helped to maintain peace between the factions of the Parliament and army, which then struggled for the dominion of the State—vacant by the death of the Protectorate. Ultimately, the intrigue of General Monk effected the present deliverance of the country from the disorders which distracted Government, by the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles II. On the disbandment of the army, Charles, grateful for the good offices of Monk, retained his—the Coldstream—regiment in his own service. The alarm attending the insurrection of Venner, in 1660—a fanatic preacher, who was ultimately overpowered, and his followers, about thirty in number, nearly all slain—presented a favourable opportunity, which the King was not slow to improve, for insisting upon Parliament granting him leave to raise money to maintain an additional military force for his own and the nation’s safeguard. The result was the formation of a chosen body of troops, chiefly composed of Jacobite gentlemen who had shared with him the vicissitudes of exile, and so constituted the First, or Grenadier Guards, under Colonel Russell. Two years later, 1662, the resistance which the unreasonable demands of the King upon the Scottish Presbyterians stirred up, induced the formation in Scotland, amongst other troops, of a regiment of Scots Foot Guards—the Scots Fusilier, or Third Regiment of Guards—the command being conferred on the Earl of Linlithgow.

Whilst a small body of the Guards were hotly engaged on the shores of Africa, heroically defending against the Moors the fortress of Tangier—the profitless dowry of the Queen of Charles II.—the main body of the Grenadiers and Coldstreams, or, as they were then called, the First and Second Regiments of Guards, were employed at home sustaining the tottering throne of the monarch. Failing to profit by the lessons which a recent adversity were so well fitted to teach, Charles, like the rest of his unhappy race, devoted to his own indulgence, plunged heedlessly into all the excesses of folly and passion. Casting aside or neglecting the cares of his kingdom, so far at least as they interfered with his own gratification, he consigned to creatures of his pleasure, to the bigotry of fawning Jesuits, or the blind fanaticism of a cruel brother (the Duke of York) the interests, the business, and the duties of royalty. Amid such dissoluteness and misrule, the Guards, whilst fulfilling their duty, must ofttimes have been forced to witness the dark intrigues of a licentious court; nay, more, they were frequently called to obey officers who had obtained commissions from their having ministered discreditably to the passionate appetites of superiors, or as being the fruit of some unhallowed intercourse. Their duty, too, required they should guard not merely the Sovereign of a great nation, but his seraglio—the abandoned crowd who, dishonouring themselves, dishonoured their sex, preyed upon the honour of the nation, with undisguised effrontery daily glittered in finery, and disgraced the palaces of royalty by their presence. Gladly might the brave and honourable soldier welcome a respite from such irksome duties and the influences of such evil examples on the field of battle; but these were times of comparative peace. It was not until Charles had sunk into the grave, the victim of his own indulgence, and his brother, the Duke of York, had ascended the throne as James II., that the peace was disturbed—and then but for a moment—by the pretensions and rebellion of Monmouth, speedily terminated by the battle of Sedgemoor, in 1685. During the reign of James II., who departed not from the evil ways of his brother, but added injustice and cruelty to the lengthy catalogue of royal iniquities, only one incident would we notice as belonging to the history of the Coldstreams, and as emphatically declaring how far even these stood apart from the sins of the age. James had committed to the Tower the Archbishop of Canterbury and other six bishops, who dared respectfully to remonstrate with the King on behalf of their Protestant brethren, injured by the pretensions of the Roman Catholics. Faithful to their duty, the Coldstreams nevertheless received these martyrs to their ancient faith with every token of respect and reverence. From the heart of many a soldier ascended the prayer, and from his eye dropped the dewy tear, as he guarded the gloomy dungeons of their prison.

At length, when the cup of royal iniquity was full to overflowing, when the follies and cruelties of the race of Stuart had alienated the affections of an otherwise loyal people, then the oppressed, called to arms, with one voice drove the last and worst representative of that unfortunate family from the throne. Then, even then, when all else failed him, even his own children—the Duke of Grafton, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, deserting—the Guards, the Coldstreams, remained faithful, and with their Colonel, Lord Craven (appointed on the death of Monk, in 1670), at their head, refused to give place to the stranger. Nor did they forsake the unhappy prince, or for a moment belie their allegiance to him, until his pusillanimous flight had rendered their services no longer of advantage to him. Then only did they make their peace with the new Sovereign—William, Prince of Orange. Respecting their constancy to the fallen monarch, and recognising the Guards to be men of worth, the Prince—now the King—retained their services, nor hesitated to confide his own person to their keeping, as the faithful body-guard of a constitutional throne.

Aware that an officer, well versed in military histories, and to whose kindness we are largely indebted for much valuable information embraced in this compilation, is now preparing the annals of the Guards, in separate volumes, we forbear saying more of the Grenadiers and Coldstreams, esteeming the history of the Scots Fusilier Guards sufficient for the purposes of our present undertaking, as being the one regiment of the three undoubtedly Scottish.

CHAPTER V.

“Caledonians, brave and bold!

Heroes, never bought or sold!

Sons of sires, who died of old

To gild a martial story!”

SCOTS FUSILIER GUARDS—SCOTTISH CIVIL WARS—REVOLUTION.

Whilst the Grenadiers and Coldstreams were unwilling witnesses to the profligacy and lewdness of the Court, the Scots Foot Guards, since their establishment in 1661, were more especially the witnesses of its cruelties. The inquisition established by Royal Commission, and presided over by the then Duke of York, rioted in the shedding of the blood of “the faithful,” and with merciless cruelty persecuted and tortured our Covenanting forefathers. In 1679, the Scots Foot Guards were called to make their first essay in arms in the defence of Glasgow. Their firm front, as they withstood the army of the Covenanters, may be said to have stemmed the torrent of rebellion, and saved the Government and the royal cause from the ruin which threatened it. At the battle of Bothwell Bridge they were charged with the attack upon the bridge, which, although desperately defended, they ultimately carried. This single achievement was victory; the terror, the panic it inspired in the still formidable army of the Covenanters, led to a disorderly flight, even before the royal troops could be brought across the river and formed in line of attack.

The Scots Foot Guards continued to be deeply involved in the strifes of these unhappy times. Towards the close of their sojourn in Scotland, 200 of the regiment, under Captain Streighton, associated with a portion of the Scots Greys, were employed in taking summary and merciless vengeance upon Macdonald of Keppoch and his unfortunate clan, because of their recent raid upon the Macintosh. Immediately thereafter, the imminent danger to the Crown, caused by the threatened irruption of the Prince of Orange, which was so soon to overthrow the existing dynasty, induced James to draw together to London the whole reliable forces of the kingdom. Accordingly the Scots Foot Guards, under their colonel, Lieutenant-General Douglas, marched with the Scottish army southward. Arriving in London towards the close of October, the regiment, 1251 strong, was quartered in the vicinity of Holborn. Advanced with the royal army, the Scots Foot Guards were stationed at Reading. Here, becoming tainted with the general disaffection then prevalent, a battalion deserted to the Prince of Orange. The events in the sequel, bringing about the dissolution of the authority of the King, and the establishment of the House of Orange under William and Mary, speedily reunited the battalions of the regiment under the new authority, and it is hereafter to be regarded as the Scots Fusilier, or Third Regiment of Guards. The title of Scots Fusilier Guards was conferred on them as late as the 22d April, 1831.

The ambitious views of Louis XIV.—“Le Grand Monarque”—of France were for the moment paralysed, as he found himself outdone in his calculations by the unexpected turn of events in England—the overthrow of the Stuarts and the splendid triumphs of the House of Orange. Nettled by these disappointments, he readily entertained the schemes of James, not so much that he desired the restoration of that imbecile monarch—even although, as hitherto, enjoying the shadow of independent power, he should continue the tool of the Jesuits of France—but rather that he might find a favourable pretext to trouble the House of Orange, whom he had been long accustomed to regard as his natural and mortal foe. He aspired, moreover, to unite the Netherlands—the hereditary dominion of the Stadtholder—to France, perchance to reduce these sea-girt isles of ours to acknowledge his authority and become an appanage of his Crown. Whilst James—encouraged by the fair promises of Louis—laboured to fan into flame the discontents of the English Jacobites, the Scottish Clans, and the Irish Papists, Louis prepared formidable armaments by sea and land, with which he speedily assailed the Netherlands. Meanwhile, aided by the natural reaction which generally follows the outburst of strong feelings, James succeeded but too well in his malignant purpose; in Scotland, by the rebellion of the Highland Clans, under Viscount Dundee, and in Ireland, by the rebellion of Irish Papists, under Tyrconnell. It required all the firmness and ability of William to meet this formidable coalition, which threatened his dominions at home and abroad; but the King, who could point to times in his eventful history when, with far less promise of a successful issue, he had overthrown more powerful foes—sustained now, too, by the veteran experience of Schomberg and the rising genius of Marlborough—promptly prepared to uphold his new-gotten and extensive authority as the Champion of the Protestant cause, a title which he had long enjoyed, and a faith which, despite the wrathful persecution of kings, he had owned and protected.

For a time, in Scotland, victory seemed indecisive, but after the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie, the cause of James, languishing for a while, was at length abandoned as hopeless by the Clans, and in 1691 the rebellion terminated by their submission. In Ireland, the success of James was complete, with the exception of Londonderry and Enniskillen, which, being resolutely and gloriously defended as the last bulwarks of Irish Protestantism, still held out. Even the arrival of Schomberg, in 1689, at the head of a considerable number of newly-raised regiments of English and French Huguenots, aided by a Dutch force, failed to do more than awe the rebels. In the following year William himself joined the army, with large supplies, and by his presence revived the spirit of his troops—now increased to 36,000. A battalion of the Scots Foot Guards at the same time recruiting the royal army, led by their colonel, General Douglas, were present at the battle of the Boyne, where they materially contributed to the overthrow of the Irish rebels. They were also present with the army, under Ginkel, which ultimately dispersed the troops of the malcontents, driving James from the throne of Ireland, and so united the island once more to the British Empire.

While these events were taking place at home, Marlborough had been sent in command of a British contingent, which comprised, with other troops, a battalion of the Scots Foot Guards and one of the Coldstream Guards, to act with the Dutch and German allies, under Prince Waldeck, against the French in the Netherlands. It is interesting to note this, as being the first effort in arms of the Scots Foot Guards upon a foreign shore and against a foreign foe. In the first action of the campaign, fought at Walcourt, our Guards were present, but occupied no very important post, the brunt of the battle having been sustained by the Coldstreams, under Colonel Talmash, the Sixteenth Regiment of Foot and the First Regiment of Royal Scots, under Colonel Hodges. Although forming a part of the Scottish brigade, the regiment, indeed the army, achieved nothing of importance until 1692, when King William, having effectually secured peace at home, placed himself at the head of his forces, infusing by his presence new energy and life into the war. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm which pervaded the troops when William assumed the command, they could make no impression upon the French army, directed by the abilities of the Duc de Luxembourg. On the contrary, the allies were doomed to suffer severe defeats at Steenkirk in 1692, and Landen in 1693. In the latter, Corporal Trim, in Sterne’s renowned “Tristram Shandy,” is represented to have been wounded whilst serving with his master, the kindly-hearted Uncle Toby, in Leven’s regiment, now the Twenty-fifth King’s Own Borderers. The after campaigns are unmarked by any decisive event. The death of Luxembourg, and the incapacity of his successor—Villeroy—enabled the confederates somewhat to retrieve the disasters of the past. Soon the almost impregnable fortress of Namur—bravely defended by Marshal Bouffleurs, and as bravely assailed by our troops—was, after a fearful carnage, lost to France. In 1697, weary of a war which had been fraught with no decided success on either side, the peace of Ryswick put an end for the present to a further waste of blood and treasure.

The Guards, returning to England, enjoyed but for a short space a respite from active service. France having for a moment tasted the sweets of victory, having largely recruited her armies, thirsted for more blood, longed for new worlds to conquer; whilst her ambitious lord, grasping, through minions of his house, the vacant throne of Spain, once more roused the allied wrath of Europe. During the previous reign our country had groaned under a shameful vassalage to France. The gold of the crafty Louis had outweighed the feeble sense of honour which yet lived and lurked amid the corrupt Court of James. But the accession of William to the throne put an end to these traitorous traffickings for the independency of the land. The new rule and healthier administration of the House of Orange dispelled the night of slavery, revived the drooping spirit of liberty, and restored the nation to its true manhood. Even now did she begin to assume that position of first importance among the continental powers which she has never ceased honourably to retain. Her alliance was anxiously courted, and her enmity dreaded by all. With becoming majesty her ministers may be said to have presided in the councils of the nations. With terrible might she threw the weight of her sword into the scale as an arbiter—the defender of the right.

In 1701 and 1702 the British army was being assembled in the Netherlands, and posted in the vicinity of Breda—the Guards forming an important part of the force. Meanwhile the Dutch and German auxiliaries were drawing together their several contingents. Difficulties arose amongst the confederates as to the officer who should assume the chief command. Happily, however, these were at length overcome. The Earl of Athlone, as the senior, waving his claim, the command of the allied army was conferred on Marlborough, who, in the campaigns which were about to open, should win laurels of a mighty fame. From the great number of strong fortresses which studded the plains of the Netherlands and guarded the frontier, the campaigns were, in consequence, largely made up of perplexing manœuvres and sieges. It is, however, worthy of notice that in each year the might and energy of the combatants were concentrated into one great fight, rather than a succession of minor engagements. The character of the country, no doubt, helped to this mode of warfare. Thus we record, in succession, the great battles of Blenheim, in 1704; Ramilies, in 1706; Oudenarde, in 1708; Malplaquet, in 1709. It is unnecessary to detail the marchings and counter-marchings of the Guards as they waited upon the several sieges; sufficient be it to say, they did “the State some service.” At Nimeguen, with the First Royals, they rendered essential service in repelling an unexpected attack of an immensely superior French force, who had hoped to surprise and proudly capture the allied chiefs in the midst of their deliberations. In 1703 the strongholds of Huy and Limburg capitulated to the allies. During this campaign the Guards were brigaded with the Fifteenth, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Regiments under General Withers. But the succeeding year was destined to witness a far more magnificent achievement—the sudden and rapid transference of the British army from the plains of the Netherlands to the valley of the Danube; a movement which, affording timely succour, and graced by the triumphs of Schellenberg and Blenheim, restored the sinking fortunes of the Imperial arms, and proved the deliverance of Germany. Associated with the First Royals, the Twenty-third Regiment, with detachments from other corps, the Guards sustained a terrible fight and suffered a severe loss in storming the heights of Schellenberg. Their valour on this occasion was most conspicuous. The furious and repeated assaults of their gallant foe entailed frequent repulses; still their firmness was unconquerable; again and again they returned to the attack, until their perseverance was at length crowned with complete success in the utter rout of the enemy. But this defeat on the part of the French and Bavarians was only the prelude to a more terrible disaster. The allied army of Germans, Dutch, Prussians, and British, driving the enemy before them, at length halted in the neighbourhood of Blenheim, where the French and Bavarians, largely recruited and strongly posted, under Marshals Tallard and Marsin, had resolved to try the issue of battle. In the action which followed, the Guards had six officers killed and wounded. After the siege and surrender of Landau, which immediately followed this victory, the Guards returned with the army to the Netherlands, where, in the succeeding campaigns, they were hotly engaged, forcing the enemy’s lines at Helixem, and more especially at the great pitched contests of Ramilies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. In 1712 the peace of Utrecht once more restored them to their native land.

Meanwhile the Spanish Peninsula was the scene of a conflict, although conducted on a less gigantic scale, embittered by the personal presence of the rival sovereigns—Philip of Bourbon and Charles of Austria. France having espoused the cause of Philip—which was really the cause of the people—had so vigorously pressed the allies, that notwithstanding the presence of a British force, they could hardly maintain a footing in the Peninsula for themselves, or for Charles as claimant to the throne. The war is remarkable as developing the military abilities of two most illustrious soldiers who successively directed the French armies—the Duke of Berwick and the Duc de Vendôme. In 1704 Gibraltar had been captured by a party of British sailors. A portion of the Guards garrisoned the fortress, and heroically withstood all the efforts of the Spaniards to recover it. In the following year the British fleet arrived, and forced Marshal Tessé to raise the siege, in consequence of which the Guards were withdrawn to form a part of the expedition under the Earl of Peterborough, which landed in Catalonia and captured Barcelona. Soon, however, this transient success was dissipated by the return of the French and Spanish armies, who in turn besieged the British. After enduring many privations, and making a gallant defence, the besieged were relieved in the eleventh hour by the presence of a British squadron with reinforcements. But this temporary aid only served, by elevating the hopes of the garrison, to induce a more serious disaster, in the utter rout of the allies at the battle of Almanaza which shortly followed, and virtually gave the kingdom to the House of Bourbon. Urged by Marlborough, the British Government were roused to prosecute the war with greater vigour in Spain than hitherto, as being a diversion of the utmost importance to the allied operations in the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. Accordingly, in 1709 two formidable armies were sent out, one to act in Portugal, under Lord Galway, and the other in Spain, under Generals Staremberg and Stanhope. The latter of these included a battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards. Advancing upon Madrid, everything seemed to promise success to their enterprise—the speedy downfall of the Bourbon dynasty, and the establishment of the House of Austria upon the throne. Their advance was distinguished by the victory of Saragossa, in which the British captured thirty standards and colours. The French General retiring, waited his opportunity, when, with recruited ranks, and the popular opinion on his side, he returned and forced the British, under Staremberg and Stanhope, to make a precipitate retreat, in course of which General Stanhope, at the head of 6000 troops, including the Scots Fusilier Guards, was overtaken at Birhuega by a superior force of the enemy. The British for two days heroically defended themselves, but were ultimately forced to surrender. General Staremberg, however, somewhat repaired the disaster by defeating the enemy in the battle of Villa Viciosa with great slaughter, and thus secured for his wearied yet gallant troops a safe retreat.

In 1715 the Scots Fusilier Guards were placed in garrison in Portsmouth and Plymouth. Notwithstanding the rebellions in Scotland of 1715 and 1719 the regiment continued to be peacefully employed in the south. In 1722 the colonelcy was conferred on General St Clair.

CHAPTER VI.

“Heroes!—for instant sacrifice prepared;

Yet filled with ardour and on triumph bent

’Mid direst shocks of mortal accident—

To you who fell, and you whom slaughter spared

To guard the fallen, and consummate the event,

Your country rears this sacred monument.”

WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION—SEVEN YEARS’ WAR—AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE—FRENCH REVOLUTION—CRIMEA—ANTICIPATED RUPTURE WITH THE UNITED STATES—1742–1862.

The family feuds which at this time divided the House of Austria once more kindled the flames of continental war. In support of the Austrians, George II. sent a British army into the Netherlands. Assuming himself the command of the allies, he prepared to combat, on this ancient battlefield, the confederacy of France, Prussia, and Bavaria. With the army, the present Scots Fusilier Guards landed in Holland in 1742, under the Earl of Dunmore. They were present at the battle of Dettingen in 1743, where the French were signally defeated. In the following year Marshal Wade assumed the command of the allies. Nothing of importance was undertaken until 1745, when the Duke of Cumberland was appointed to the command;—the Guards were at this period brigaded with the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, (then making their first campaign as the Forty-third Regiment, or “Black Watch,” which latter title has recently been confirmed to them.) At the battle of Fontenoy, fought for the relief of Tournay, this brigade was charged with the attack upon the village of Veson. Here the French, strongly entrenched, made a gallant defence, but were forced to yield to the fierce onset of such a chosen body of troops. The ill success of the Dutch auxiliaries in other parts of the field, and the last and desperate charge of Marshal Saxe at the head of the French Guards, with the Irish and Scottish brigades in the French service, led on by the young Chevalier, speedily changed the fortunes of the day, compelled the allies to retreat, and our brave Guards reluctantly to relinquish the important post their valour had won.

Meantime, Prince Charles Edward having landed in Scotland, set up the standard of rebellion, and summoned the tumultuous and fierce array of the clans to do battle for his pretensions to the throne. The war on the Continent having occasioned the withdrawal of a large body of the regular army, the rebels succeeded in driving before them the few troops which had been left at home. Their progress southward into England promised the speedy downfall of the House of Brunswick, and the restoration of that of Stuart. The timely return of the major part of the army, including the Scots Fusilier Guards, from Holland, at this juncture, arrested the advance of the rebels upon London, and occasioned their precipitate retreat into Scotland. A strong force of the king’s troops, including a portion of the Guards, advanced in pursuit of the prince, whilst the remainder, grouped in positions in and around London, prepared to defend the country from the threatened descent of the French. The bloody defeat of Culloden, as it utterly ruined the rebel army, so it terminated the war, by the dispersion or submission of the clans and the flight of the prince.

Culloden’s moor! a darker scene

Of civil strife thy sons have seen,

When for an exiled Prince ye bled,

Now mourn alas! your “mighty dead,”

The brave o’ bonnie Scotland.

Peace having been restored at home, the Scots Fusilier Guards, with other regiments, returned to Holland in 1747, where the French, in their absence, had made considerable progress. The only event of importance which occurred in the campaign was the battle of Val, in which the immense superiority of the French compelled the retreat of the British, under the Duke of Cumberland. In 1748 peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle.

Disputes arising as to the boundary line of the British and French colonies, and neither party accepting a peaceful solution, war was declared in 1756. Whilst the reputation of the British arms was being gloriously sustained on the distant continent of America and in Lower Germany, the Guards were engaged in frequent descents upon the French coast. At St Cas they specially distinguished themselves. The peace of 1763 secured to our colonists the quiet possession of the fruits of their own industry against the cupidity of the French. Scarcely had this result been attained when difficulties arose with the colonists themselves, by their refusal to be taxed by the home government without an equivalent representation. Our armies were accordingly recalled in 1775 to the American continent, whilst the colonists, preparing for a vigorous defence, allied themselves with their late enemies, the French. The Scots Fusilier Guards formed a part of the British expedition, and under Clinton, Howe, and Cornwallis, upheld their ancient reputation for discipline and valour in the fresh and difficult warfare to which, in the desolate wilds of the New World, they were called. This unfortunate war, fraught with disastrous results, and waged with great fury and bitter hate on both sides, was concluded in 1783, and secured the independence of the colonists, who formed themselves into a Republic, under the designation of the United States.

In 1782 the Duke of Argyll had been promoted to the colonelcy of the Scots Fusilier Guards.

France, too long enslaved but now suddenly emancipated from the galling tyranny of “the privileged orders,” writhing under all the miseries of Revolution, had ruined every vestige of righteous government, and consigned the nation to the more cruel bondage of a despot mob. At length these evil influences were incarnated in the demon rule of the “Reign of Terror.” Bankrupt in every sense, to feed the starving crowd who daily clamoured for bread, proved a task too hard for the wretched creatures who had been elevated to power through the blood of their predecessors, and who called themselves the Government, whilst the whim of the people continued them in favour. As they were but the Government of a day, so they cared little for the consequences beyond their own time. To maintain their popularity, and if possible avert the fate which ever threatened them from the blind fury and unbridled passion of the mob, they gladly entered upon a universal crusade against the governments and liberties of neighbouring nations, hoping thereby to direct the merciless wrath of the people into this new channel, and so save themselves. Soon the ranks of the armies were recruited by a fierce and undisciplined multitude. But the very magnitude of these armaments proved their ruin, and but for the spasmodic efforts of the Revolutionary tyrants in the national defence, which achieved marvels, the Revolution must have been crushed at this early stage. A small British force, including the Coldstream and Scots Fusilier Guards, was sent over to the Netherlands, under the Duke of York, who vainly endeavoured to stem the torrent of aggression in that direction. Equally fruitless were the attempts of the British Cabinet to patch up an alliance amongst the nations, so as effectually to unite them in defending the liberties of Europe. Although the victory of Lincelles graced our arms, still, alone, our troops could not hope for success against the immense armaments that continued to emerge from France. The British were therefore compelled to recede before the advancing tide, and postpone “the day of reckoning.”

Amongst the many ruthless and reckless, yet bold and able men which the Revolution produced, none claims such a space in history, none so suited his times, none was so equal to the crisis, as Napoleon Bonaparte. His brilliant achievements in Italy under the Consulate had already taken the public mind by storm, when in 1801 he invaded Egypt, crossed the sterile desert, overthrew the feeble cohorts of the Sultan, and threatened to add Syria to the empire of the French. At Acre his legions were for the first time arrested by the firmness of British valour. In 1801 a British army, including the present Coldstream and Scots Fusilier Guards, was sent to Egypt, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, to expel the invader. Thirsting for some new field of conquest to feed his ambition, Napoleon had returned to France, leaving General Menou to make good the defence. The defeats of Mandora and Alexandria effectually broke the already sinking spirit of the French, and resulted in their abandonment of Egypt. In consideration of their efforts in this service, the Coldstream and Scots Fusilier Guards have been allowed the distinction of “the Sphinx,” with the word “Egypt.”

NAPOLEON

The cloud which for a moment dimmed the lustre of his arms, as this province was wrested from his sway, was soon dispelled in the glories that elsewhere crowned his efforts, especially in Spain, which, by the foulest perfidy, he had virtually made a portion of his vast empire. Frequent expeditions had been contemplated—some had sailed, two at least had landed on the shores of the Peninsula—still nothing decisive had been accomplished towards aiding the Spanish and Portuguese in the expulsion of the French. In 1809, however, a powerful British force under Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards “the Great Duke,” was sent out, including the Coldstream and Scots Fusilier Guards. It is unnecessary at present to follow them throughout the glories of the war, as we shall have occasion to do so in after chapters; enough for our purpose to mention the battles of Talavera (1809) and Barrosa (1811), in which they specially distinguished themselves.

Having delivered Spain, Sir Arthur Wellesley, now Lord Wellington, advanced into France, and sorely pressed the retiring foe. It needed all the ability of Marshal Soult to hold together the shattered remnant of his broken and disspirited army. With masterly tact and skill he preserved a seeming order in his retreat, so as to save the army from the ignominy of a flight. Meanwhile, France having exhausted her resources, her people became tired of the yoke of the Emperor, who, whilst fortune smiled upon his arms, had been to them a very god, but now that the spell of victory was broken, was revealed in truer colours as the ambitious yet mighty despot. Martial glory, as the ruling passion of the nation, had bewitched the people, and received in ready sacrifice the best blood of the land. Long, too long, had the power of Napoleon, like a dark shadow, rested upon one-half of the known world, whilst the empty vanity of unhappy France was charmed by delusive visions of victory. The times were sadly changed. With a melancholy joy Europe had witnessed the utter ruin of the splendid and countless host which the fiat of the mighty chief had pressed into his service. Buried beneath the snows of a Russian winter—hurled in confusion back upon his own land—

“The might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.”

This appalling catastrophe, combined with British successes in the Peninsula, had revived the spirit of the nations, allied them in a holy crusade, and marshalled the might of Europe in array to crush the tyrant. One by one, they wrested from his sway the kingdoms he had engulfed, and which groaned beneath a cruel bondage. Step by step, their hosts converged, as the tide of war rolled, towards France. All but alone, with his brave and devoted Guard driven to bay, he made a desperate but unavailing stand on the plains of France. In vain he addressed the patriotism of the people; already the fountain had been dried up by his incessant wars and the unremitting demands he had made upon the blood and treasure of the land. Surrendering, at length, the hopeless contest, abdicating the throne, he passed into honourable exile in Elba.

Ambition, still the tempter, assailing, soon prevailed. Eluding the vigilance of the British fleet, he succeeded in escaping into France, accompanied by a few of his old Guard, who had shared his exile. The mind of the people, which for more than twenty years had lived amid a wild delirium of excitement, still lingering upon the threshold of the mighty past, had not yet learned to submit to the more benignant rule of peace. The army, unwisely disbanded, or despoiled of those symbols of glory which their valour had so nobly won—trophies which, to a soldier, must ever be dear as life itself—were being consumed by the ennui of idleness, longed for new employment. Hence the return of Napoleon paralysed resistance as recalling the military glory of the Empire; awakening new hopes, promising revenge for the past, employment for the present, and glory for the future, it stirred within the bosom of the soldier and the lower classes of the people a reverence and adoration, almost amounting to idolatry. Rapidly advancing from stage to stage, as on a triumphal march, Napoleon found himself once more at Paris—hailed Emperor—it is true, doubted by the better classes of the people, but worshipped by the army. His desperate efforts soon enabled him to take the field, at the head of a powerful and well-appointed army, with which he proposed to meet in detail, and so destroy, his numerous and returning enemies. Unfortunately for him, he chose the Netherlands to be the scene, and Britain and Prussia the objects, of his first, and, as the result proved, his last attack. For a moment a gleam of sunshine shone upon his path, as he attained the victory of Ligny, over the Prussians under Marshal Blucher. Luring him to destruction, this flash of success was only the precursor to the dread thunder of Waterloo. Alarmed by the disastrous intelligence of the Prussian defeat and the rapid advance of the French, Wellington, who commanded the British and other auxiliaries, quickly concentrated his army near the village of Waterloo. But ere he could accomplish this, Marshal Ney, at the head of the second French division, had surprised and fallen upon, with great fury, the British, as they advanced upon Quatre Bras, on the same day that Ligny was won. The action was honourably sustained by a few British Regiments, especially the Twenty-eighth, and the Forty-second, Seventy-ninth and Ninety-second Highland Regiments. The heroic stand made by these gave time for the arrival of other corps, including the Guards—the Scots Fusilier Guards—who succeeded, after a desperate struggle, in effectually checking the progress of the French Marshal, and thus depriving him of a most favourable opportunity of cutting to pieces in detail our army. Two days later, on the 18th of June, the Duke had successfully accomplished the concentration of his forces, which, drawn up in battle array at Waterloo, waited the arrival of the Prussians, to begin the fight. But Napoleon, perceiving his advantage in the absence of such an important succour, rushed eagerly to battle, put forth every effort to achieve victory, ere Blucher, impeded by the disorders of recent defeat, could afford any assistance. The Scots Fusilier Guards, with the Grenadiers and Coldstreams, were stationed in the chateau and grounds of Hougomont, where they were soon fiercely assailed by the French, who repeatedly forcing the gateway, drove the British into the house. Again and again the enemy were repulsed, but still anew they returned to the assault. The combat was resolutely maintained, and it was not until the close of this eventful day, when the French, repulsed at every point, and gradually relaxing their efforts, were ultimately driven from the field, that our Guards found a release from the incessant toils of the fight. The victory achieved by the British was now completed by the Prussians, who continued the pursuit—a pursuit which may be said only to have ceased at the gates of Paris, when, Napoleon abdicating, the war was terminated by the restoration of the old Monarchy.

From Mr Carter’s interesting work on “The Medals of the British Army,” we, by permission, quote the following refutation in regard to an alleged sum of £500 having been accorded to a Waterloo veteran:—“A statement has frequently appeared in the newspapers, which was repeated after the decease of General Sir James Macdonell, G.C.B., on the 15th of May, 1857, that five hundred pounds had been bequeathed to the bravest man in the British army, and that the two executors called upon the late Duke of Wellington, to give him a cheque for the money. As the story went, the Duke proposed that it should be given to Sir James for the defence of Hougomont, and that upon the money being tendered to him, he at first declined to receive it, but that ultimately he shared it with Sergeant-Major Fraser of the 3d Foot Guards, now the Scots Fusilier Guards.

“Having recently seen this statement again in print while these pages were in preparation, and Sir James Macdonell having about ten years ago mentioned to me that he had never received the money, I made further inquiries, from which I ascertained that Sergeant-Major Ralph Fraser is now a bedesman in Westminster Abbey. Considering that the above legacy might possibly have been since received, I called upon the sergeant-major, who lives at 18 West Street, Pimlico, and is now in his 79th year, in order to ascertain the fact, and found that it had not. This gallant and intelligent veteran is in the full possession of his faculties, and, in addition to his having aided in closing the gate at Hougomont, can look with becoming pride on his having shared in the following services:—He was enlisted in the 3d Foot Guards in 1799, and was embarked for Egypt in 1801. In the landing at Aboukir Bay, on the 8th of March of that year, the boat in which Corporal Fraser was contained sixty persons, officers included; all except fifteen were destroyed by the resistance of the enemy. He was present at the battles of the 13th and 21st March; and in the expedition to Hanover, 1805; bombardment of Copenhagen, 1807; and from 1809 to 1814 in the Peninsula, being present at the capture of Oporto, battles of Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d’Onor (wounded in the leg and thigh), sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo, Burgos (again wounded in the leg), Badajoz, and St Sebastian; battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, passage of the Nivelle and Nive. He received, in addition to the Waterloo medal, that for the Peninsular war, with bars for Egypt, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, Nivelle, and Nive. Sergeant-Major Fraser was discharged in December, 1818.”

This account, doubtless, may be traced to the following circumstance mentioned by Colonel Siborne in his valuable History of the Waterloo Campaign:—“Early in August of that year, and while the Anglo-allied army was at Paris, the Duke of Wellington received a letter from the Rev. Mr Norcross, rector of Framlingham, in Suffolk, expressing his wish to confer a pension of ten pounds a year, for life, on some Waterloo soldier, to be named by his Grace. The Duke requested Sir John Byng (the late Lord Stafford) to choose a man from the second brigade of Guards, which had so highly distinguished itself in the defence of Hougomont. Out of numerous instances of good conduct evinced by several individuals of each battalion, Sergeant James Graham, of the light company of the Coldstreams, was selected to receive the proffered annuity, as notified in brigade orders of the 9th of August, 1815. This was paid to him during two years, at the expiration of which period it ceased, in consequence of the bankruptcy of the benevolent donor.”

From the heroic character of the battle, our people have been prevailed on to credit many incidents, which, savouring of the romantic, suited their tastes, have been accepted as truisms, but which facts fail to corroborate. “One very prevailing idea that Wellington gave out the words, ‘Up, Guards, and at them!’ is not borne out by fact, for it was afterwards ascertained from the Duke himself that he did not; and another, the meeting of his Grace and Marshal Blucher at La Belle Alliance, after the battle, is equally apocryphal. This, however, is to be one of the designs of the House of Lords, and will therefore be handed down to posterity as a fact.” For nearly forty years the Scots Fusilier Guards had been retained at home, in or around London.

In 1853, the storm which had been long gathering in the north—presaging wrath to Liberty and to Man—at length burst forth, and descending with rapacious might upon the dominions of the Turkish Sultan, threatened to overwhelm in utter ruin the crumbling remnant of the empire of Constantine. The impatient covetousness of the Czar of Russia had put forth the hand of the spoiler, intending to appropriate the realms of the Sultan, and make Constantinople the southern gate of his colossal empire. Justly alarmed at the already gigantic power of Russia, which promised further to enlarge itself at the expense of the feebler Powers around, France and Britain took up arms, and threw the weight of their potent influence into the contest on behalf of the oppressed Turks, whose single arm had hitherto proved equal to the struggle. Accordingly, France, Turkey, and Britain, ultimately aided by Sardinia, entered the lists of war, to sustain the liberty of Europe against the despotism of the North, adopting as their watchword the memorable words of Lord John Russell, “May God defend the right.”

DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. COLONEL Of THE SCOTS FUSILIER GUARDS.

The first battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards, brigaded with a battalion of the Grenadiers, and another of the Coldstreams, were embarked for the scene of action, which ultimately proved to be the Crimea. They sailed from Portsmouth, in H.M.S. the “Simoom;” and passing successively from Malta, Gallipoli, and Varna, arrived at length in the Crimea. The brigade of Guards, and that of the Highlanders, consisting of the Forty-second, Seventy-ninth, and Ninety-third, under their favourite chieftain, Sir Colin Campbell, were closely allied in all the dangers and glories of the war in the First Infantry division, commanded by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge. The long peace which had preceded the outbreak of hostilities, and the cry for “greater public economy,” which it had induced from a people long accustomed to look only at the arithmetic of pounds, shillings, and pence, in such vital questions, had in consequence brought all that magnificent machinery of war, possessed by our country, to a standstill. It followed, as a necessary result, when our Cabinet failed to achieve a peaceful solution of the matters at issue, as had been fondly anticipated, and we were unexpectedly called to a declaration of war, it was found impossible at once to set in motion the vast machinery of war, which had so long been “laid up in ordinary.” Hence our gallant troops were doomed to pay the penalty of our ill-judged economy, and endure many and sore privations—privations which were the more keenly felt, inasmuch as they were to be endured, amid the snows of a Crimean winter, by men, too, whose previous life had been comparatively one of comfort, in no way calculated to fit the soldier to encounter the pitiless horrors and fatigues of war. Disease and want, like armed men, entered the camp, closely followed by their master, the grim King of Terrors—Death; and thus we have been called to lament, with a truly bitter sorrow, the loss of our brave countrymen, who, alike in the hospital as in the battle-field, displayed all the grand and noble qualities of the soldier and the virtues of the true man. The conduct of the Guards in their first engagement at the battle of the Alma is described by Marshal St Arnaud as altogether “superb.” Lieutenants Lindsay and Thistlethwayte, were especially distinguished for their heroic defence of the colours of the Scots Fusilier Guards. At the battle of Inkermann, the Guards, having driven the Russians out of a battery, named the Sandbag Battery, of which they had early possessed themselves, sustained with desperate gallantry the impetuous assaults of the enemy, and, although forced for a moment to give way, were soon again enabled to retrieve themselves, and maintain possession of the battery, around which and for which they so bravely contended. Although stunned by these repeated disasters in the field, yet with that “dogged obstinacy,” which has characterised the Russians, conceiving themselves secure behind the battlements of Sebastopol, they still held out. Strengthened in the idea of impregnability, from the fact that this vast citadel of Southern Russia had already withstood six successive bombardments, defied the combined efforts of the Allies by sea and land, and yet no sensible impression had been made, or aught of decided success attained by the besiegers, they hoped that what their valour could not achieve in the battle-field, the snows of winter or the stroke of the pestilence would effect—the destruction of our armies, and their consequent deliverance. The successive fall of the Mamelon, the Malakoff, and the Redan, dispelled this illusion, and prudence, rightly esteemed the better part of valour, induced a timely evacuation ere our Highland Brigade returned to the assault. Sebastopol no longer defensible, the enemy sued for peace, which was granted, and this stronghold of tyranny, dismantled and abandoned, was assumed to be converted into a haven for fishermen and traders, rather than the mighty arsenal, whence had so long issued the formidable fleets which had inspired terror among weaker and neighbouring states—at least so the treaty required. Meanwhile our gallant Guards, returning to England, were welcomed by a grateful country.

MONUMENT TO THE GUARDS, LONDON.

It is only now, when the audacious impudence of “Brother Jonathan” had dared to insult our time-honoured flag—

“Which braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze,”

and thought to bully us out of the glorious charter which has conferred upon us the “dominion of the seas,” that our Scots Fusilier Guards were once more called to prepare for action; and, having gone across the Atlantic as the van of our army, anxiously waited the signal to avenge, if need be, such unprovoked insult and aggression. Happily our firm demeanour has effectually quelled the storm, and impressed wiser and more wholesome measures, whereby peace has hitherto been continued.

One sentence only shall express our feelings, as we look back upon the history of our Scots Fusilier Guards, which we have here attempted to sketch—Every man has nobly done his duty.

THE FIRST ROYAL REGIMENT OF FOOT;
or,
ROYAL SCOTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

Heroes, in your ancestral line,

Hallow the shades of “Auld Langsyne;”

Men who in their country’s story

Shine brightly on the page of glory,

Noo sleep in bonnie Scotland.

ANCIENT HISTORY—882–1660.

As we approach the history of this venerable regiment we cannot help feeling all those sentiments of reverence and respect which are the becoming tribute to an honoured old age—a history which well nigh embraces, as it awakens,

“The stirring memories of a thousand years.”

Consistent with the bold and adventurous spirit of the Scotsman, we find him pushing his fortune in almost every land under the sun; with a brave and manly heart going down to the battle of life; blessing, by his industry and enterprise, many a clime wherein he has settled, and so climbing the loftiest pinnacles of greatness; or, by “diligence in business,” earning the kingdom of a merchant prince. Of all the many and varied departments of life in which the Scotsman has been distinguished, he is most pre-eminent in the honourable profession of a soldier. Driven from his beloved country by the cruel tyrannies which from time to time oppressed her, or exiled by the hard necessities of a pinching poverty—wandering in many lands, the Scotsman nevertheless gratefully retains the recollection of his fatherland, and, in spirit, returns with fondness to the endeared associations of home—

“The bonnie blithe blink o’ his ain fireside.”

Such is the ruling passion which lives in his soul. “Home, sweet home,” exerting a hallowed, chastening influence upon his daily life, has nerved the soldier’s arm, and, by its magic charm, awakened the energies of the man. As a “guiding star,” it has pointed out the path of honour—like a “ministering angel,” its soothing influence has at other times calmed the troubled sea of life, and, though it be but for a moment, has given something of peace to the weary, as it is intended to be a foretaste of the blessedness—

“A something here of heaven above.”

Already volumes have been written on the martial achievements of the Scottish nation, and we are fully impressed with the magnitude of our undertaking when, in these brief pages, we propose to illustrate the heroic tale of our ancient glory. Nowhere is there a more perfect representative of our exiles who have been soldiers, amongst “the bravest of the brave,” in many lands, than is afforded us in our present sketch of the First or Royal Scots Regiment of Foot. Many and conflicting have been the accounts given of their early history. Some have imagined the present regiment to be the representative of the Archers of the Scottish Guard, which, in the days of Bruce, had been associated with Royalty and the defence of the Scottish throne; others have given their origin to the Scottish Guard, which had for many years been the Body Guard of the French kings; but the most complete and authentic account, derived from many sources, is that given by Richard Cannon, Esq. of the Adjutant General’s Office, in the admirable Historical Records of the Royals, wherein the origin of the regiment is traced to the ingathering of our exiles, who had hitherto served with great credit as soldiers, nay as Royal Guards, in the armies of France, Denmark, Sweden, and the States of Holland, to be formed into one, the present regiment of First Royal Scots Foot. As early as the year 882 A.D. Charles III., king of France, had selected from among the exiles a body of Scottish gentlemen, conspicuous for their fidelity and valour, who enjoyed his special favour, and were incorporated as a Royal Guard. During the Crusades these followed Louis IX. into Egypt. They were of infinite value to France, at a time when the disastrous battle of Agincourt, fought in 1415, had prostrated her power, and all but reduced her proud and haughty people to be the vassals and subjects of triumphant England. The Scots Guards were retained in the service of Charles VII., and a few years later were joined by a body of 7000 of their countrymen under the Earl of Buchan, whose abilities as an officer and valour as a soldier won for him the thanks of a grateful country, who at the same time conferred the highest compliment and most splendid military distinction it was in their power to award, in creating him Constable of France. The Scottish army in France was subsequently largely increased by farther instalments of adventurous exiles from “the fatherland.” These helped to break the yoke of England upon the Continent, and specially distinguished themselves at the battles of Baugé, 1421, Crevan, 1423, and Verneuille, 1424: so much so, that Charles, appreciating their worth, selected from their ranks, first in 1422, a corps of Scots Gendarmes, and thereafter, in 1440, a corps of Scots Guards. On the fair plains of Italy, so cruelly desolated by the rude hand of war, and so long the favourite battle-field of princes, whom the poet fitly styles

“Ambition’s honoured fools”—

was afforded the scene where, during the wars of Francis I., our Scottish Guards, by brilliant exploits, earned a great renown. The story of their fidelity and devotion is written in their blood, and illustrated in the fatal defeat of Pavia, 1524, where, in defence of their master, the chivalric Sovereign of France, whose exclamation of, “We have lost all, save honour,” has become a household word,—they nearly all perished, and honourably rest in “a soldier’s grave.” The relics of this old Scots Guard returning to France, remained the nucleus, the root, upon which was formed and ingrafted a new corps of Scots Guardsmen, whose character and history have been aptly described by Sir Walter Scott in “Quentin Durward;” whilst in his “Legend of Montrose” we trace the yearnings of the mighty soul of the patriot, conjuring into life, by the magic of his pen and his rare gifts, the story of our exiled brave, represented in the gallant veteran of Gustavus Adolphus, “Dugald Dalgetty.” The martial qualities and gallant bearing of our countrymen had attracted the notice of Gustavus Adolphus, the warlike King of Sweden, and induced him to invite to his standard our adventurous soldiers, who, under so renowned a leader, were destined to add new lustre to our military annals. On no occasion did the Scots respond more heartily, or muster so strongly in the foreign service of any country, as in the present instance. The army of this “Lion of the North” at one time comprised eighteen British regiments, of whom thirteen were Scottish; moreover, his principal officers were Scotsmen.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.

In the marvellous feats of arms which distinguish the masterly campaigns of Gustavus, our countrymen had ever a prominent place. Having humbled the pride of Poland, and crippled the power of Russia by successive defeats, on the restoration of peace, Gustavus, declaring himself the champion of the Protestants, turned his arms against the formidable coalition of the Roman Catholic princes of Germany, headed by the Emperor. The campaign of 1620 proved unfortunate, by the total defeat of the Protestant army at Prague, their consequent retreat, and ultimate disbandment in Holland—

“O sacred Truth! thy triumph ceased a while,

And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile.”

Undaunted by these disasters, Gustavus refused to quit the field, although, for the present, he changed the theatre of war into Pomerania. From the wreck of the Protestant army, he carefully selected a chosen body of his favourite Scotsmen, which, in 1625, he constituted a regiment, conferring the command on Sir John Hepburn. In the war with Poland which ensued, the Scots enjoyed, as their gallant demeanour in every instance well merited, the unbounded confidence of the King. Subsequently, the King of Denmark sent two Scots regiments, which had been in his service, to aid the Swedish monarch; and, in 1628, he further received the very welcome reinforcement of 9000 Scots and English. The following incident, occurring about this time, serves to illustrate the cordial relationship subsisting between this renowned prince and our adventurous countrymen:—“In a partial action between the advance-guards, a few miles from Thorn, Gustavus’s hat was knocked off in a personal encounter with one of the enemy’s officers named Sirot, who afterwards wore the hat without knowing to whom it belonged. On the succeeding day, two prisoners (one a Scots officer named Hume) seeing Sirot wearing the King, their master’s, hat, wept exceedingly, and with exclamations of sorrow, desired to be informed if the King was dead. Sirot, being thus made acquainted with the quality of his antagonist in the preceding day’s skirmish, related the manner in which he became possessed of the hat, upon which they recovered a little from their anxiety and surprise.” The success of the Swedish arms at length achieved a favourable peace, which enabled the King, espousing the cause of the persecuted Reformers of Germany, once more to try the issues of war with the Imperialists, and so, if possible, redeem the disasters of a former campaign. At this period no fewer than 10,000 Scots and English exiles were in the Swedish army, and the King had just concluded a treaty with the Marquis of Hamilton, who had undertaken to enlist an additional force of 8000 in these Isles.

Next in seniority to the old Scots regiment of Hepburn is that of Monro, who has written an interesting account of the achievements of our countrymen in these wars. This last narrowly escaped an untimely end—a watery grave—having been shipwrecked near the enemy’s fortress of Rugenwald, on their passage to Pomerania. Lurking in concealment among the brushwood on the shore during the day, Monro’s soldiers at nightfall boldly assaulted the defences of the enemy, and, by this unexpected attack, succeeded in capturing the fortress, where, by great efforts, they maintained themselves against a vastly superior foe until the arrival of Hepburn’s Scots Regiment relieved them. These two regiments, along with other two Scots regiments—those of Stargate and Lumsdell—were at this time brigaded together, and styled the Green Brigade, so celebrated in the military history of the period. In 1631, at the siege of Frankfort, this bold brigade accomplished one of the most daring feats of arms upon record; where—charged with the assault upon this all but impregnable fortress, defended by the best troops of the empire—they undauntedly entered the breach, and—despite the repeated attacks of the foe, especially of an Irish regiment, who, amongst the bravest defenders of the place, twice repulsed the assailants, and fought with the greatest heroism until nearly all were either killed or wounded—they, by their valour, effected a lodgment within the walls. Furiously charged by the splendid cavalry of the Imperial cuirassiers, our Green Brigade resolutely maintained the ground they had won. The trophies of this conquest were immense. The Green Brigade, after having aided in the reduction of the many strongholds of Germany, had penetrated with the army into the very heart of the empire, where they were destined to play a very conspicuous part in the memorable and momentous battle of Leipsic. On this occasion, kept in reserve, the Green Brigade was only brought into action at the eleventh hour, when the ignoble and cowardly flight of the Saxons, who had been impressed into the Swedish army, rendered the position of the army perilously critical. Then our brave Scots, sustained on either flank by Swedish horse, advanced, speedily checked the progress of the enemy, retrieved what the Saxons had lost, and throwing the enemy into confusion, changed the fortunes of the day. The Imperialists, no longer able to withstand the repeated and impetuous attacks of our Scottish brigade, and charged by the Swedish horse, who completed their ruin, broke and fled. Thus their mighty army, lately so confident of victory, which a momentary success had promised, was utterly cut to pieces or dispersed. A variety of sieges and minor engagements followed this great battle, in nearly all of which the Swedes and Scots proved triumphant. Yet, notwithstanding these series of successes, and the several and sore defeats of the enemy, the position of Gustavus was becoming daily, by every new advance, more critical; away from his arsenals, whilst the enemy, within his own territory, had ample resources at hand with which to repair defeat, and thus was becoming hourly more formidable. At Oxenford, the heroic monarch had only an army of 10,000 men around him, whilst the Duke of Lorraine was at hand with a well-equipped force of full 50,000. Still, such was the terror inspired by the marvellous deeds and the known resolution of this little band of veterans, that, although the enemy was in the midst of many advantages, he durst not venture an attack, and feared to arrest the King in his career of conquest.

Bavaria had now become the scene of the contest. Soon that important kingdom was over-run, and—with Munich, its gorgeous capital—surrendered to the northern army. The death of Gustavus Adolphus, at the fatal battle of Lutzen, ruined the hopes of his gallant little army, now sadly reduced in numbers. The Green Brigade was not present on this disastrous day. By a process of transfer, not at all uncommon in those times, the remnant of Swedes and Scots were taken into the pay of France, and, under the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, laboured to maintain the cause of the Protestant princes, which had, for ends of her own, been adopted as the cause of France. Colonel Hepburn, some time previously, had, by permission of the King of Sweden, returned to Scotland with the Marquis of Hamilton. His parting with his countrymen in his own regiment is thus quaintly described by Monro:—“The separation was like the separation which death makes betwixt friends and the soul of man, being sorry that those who had lived so long together in amity and friendship, also in mutual dangers, in weal and in woe, the splendour of our former mirth was overshadowed with a cloud of grief and sorrows, which dissolved in mutual tears.”

Returning to France in 1633, Hepburn was appointed colonel to a new regiment of Scotsmen. By a combination of events, he at length met with his old regiment in the same army, and the relics of the Old Scots Brigade. These were subsequently merged into one large regiment, whose history is hereafter one with that of France, and whose representative is now the First Royal Scots Regiment of Foot. By this union, which occurred in 1635, the regiment so constituted attained the extraordinary strength of 8316 officers and men. In the following year they had to lament the loss of their gallant Colonel, who was killed at the siege of Saverne; he “died extremely regretted in the army and by the Court of France.” He was succeeded in the command by Lieut.-Colonel Sir James Hepburn, who survived his illustrious relative only one year. Lord James Douglas, son of William, Marquis of Douglas, was promoted to the vacant Colonelcy, and thereafter the regiment is known as “Douglas’s Regiment.” In the service of Louis XIII. of France, the regiment had entered upon a new theatre of action in the Netherlands, destined to combat the Spaniards, who then were esteemed to form as soldiers the finest infantry in the world. Against this redoubtable foe our Scotsmen conducted themselves with credit, being present at the siege of St Omer, the captures of Renty, Catelet, and at Hesden, under the eye of the monarch himself. During the minority and reign of Louis XIV., known as “Louis le Grand,” the regiment was destined to share the glories of a splendid series of triumphs, successively won by the illustrious chiefs that then commanded the armies of France. In 1643, led by Louis le Bourbon, afterwards Prince of Condé, a leader possessed of all the heroic qualities of the good soldier, and at the same time graced by all the rarer virtues of the true man—under him the regiment served with great distinction in the Netherlands and Italy. Nine years later, when the factions of “the Court” and “the Parliament” had stirred up among the people a civil war, we find the Douglas Regiment, with characteristic loyalty, on the side of “the Court,” serving their royal master under that great adept in the art of war, Marshal Turenne, whose abilities sustained the sinking State; and although opposed to that justly celebrated soldier, the Prince of Condé, at length, out-manœuvring the foe, accomplished the salvation of “the Court,” and, by an honourable peace, secured their restoration to power. Meanwhile a somewhat analogous civil strife in England had wholly overturned the old monarchy of the Stuarts, and inaugurated a new order of things in the Commonwealth, under Oliver Cromwell, the Protector. Charles II., and his royal brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II., as the surviving heads of their ancient, unfortunate, and infatuated house, had sought and found an asylum at the French Court. In those times of war, employment was readily found in the French armies for their many adherents, who had been driven into exile with them. They were formed into several regiments, who bore an honourable part in the contest then raging between France and the allied might of Spain and Austria. In 1656, the fickle Louis, deserting his old friends, the royalists of England, concluded an alliance with the more powerful Cromwell—the exiles, in consequence, changing sides, threw the weight of their arms and influence, or such as they might still be said to retain, into the scale with Spain. Many of the British royalist regiments, hitherto in the service of France, on the command of Charles, exchanged with their prince, into the service of their late foe, now their friend. Louis, who could ill afford such a serious desertion of troops, which had hitherto proved themselves to be the flower of his army, had taken the precaution to remove, into the interior, the older Scots regiments, and amongst others, that of Douglas, which he had justly learned to value very highly, lest they might be induced to follow their royalist brethren.

PRINCE DE CONDÉ.

In 1661, immediately after the Restoration, Charles II., with a view to strengthen his unstable position on the British Throne, strove to establish an army, and Louis being then at peace, and, moreover, on good terms with our King, the regiment of Douglas was called home to these isles, where it has since been generally known as the First or the Royal Regiment of Foot, although for a time it was popularly styled the “Royal Scots.”

MARSHAL TURENNE.

CHAPTER IX.

... “He lifts on high

The dauntless brow and spirit-speaking eye,

Hails in his heart the triumphs yet to come,

And hears thy stormy music in the drum!”

FRENCH CAMPAIGNS—TANGIER—CIVIL WARS—CONTINENTAL\

WARS—1660–1757.

The regiment, now commanded by Lord George Douglas, afterwards the Earl of Dumbarton, returned to France in 1662, where it was largely recruited by the incorporation of General Rutherford’s (Earl of Teviot) regiment of Scots Guards, and another old Scots regiment, also known as a “Douglas Regiment,” from its colonel, Lord James Douglas. The muster-roll thus presented a force of more than 2500 men and officers, embraced in twenty-three companies. In 1666, it was recalled to suppress a threatened rebellion in Ireland; but soon returning, with other British troops, was engaged in the wars with Holland and the German Empire. Under the great Turenne they acquired new glory. After his death, in 1675, the foe advanced upon Treves, where the French troops—dispirited by the loss of their favourite chief, and discouraged by the retreat which had since been forced upon them, when his great name was no longer present to infuse courage in the evil hour and inspire a wholesome terror in the ranks of the enemy—mutinying, insisted that their commander, Marshal de Crequi, should deliver up the fortress to the enemy. But the regiment of Douglas, with characteristic fidelity, sustained the gallant Marshal in his resolution to exhaust every means of defence before submitting to the dire necessity of surrender. Although the issues of the siege were disastrous, despite the desperate valour which defended the city—which at length capitulated—still our countrymen, although prisoners liberated on condition that they should not again serve in the war for three months, preserved that priceless jewel, their honour, which, out of the fiery trial, shone forth only the more conspicuously, both to friend and foe. Their conduct on this occasion received the thanks of the King. For a little while, about this period, the regiment was privileged to serve under another of France’s great captains—the Marshal Luxembourg. In 1678 the regiment was finally recalled from the French service, and shortly thereafter sent out to reinforce the garrison of Tangier, in Africa, the profitless marriage dowry of the Princess Catherina of Portugal, who had become the Queen of Charles II. This earliest of our foreign possessions had involved the nation in an expensive and cruel war, which it was very difficult adequately to sustain in those days, when the transport-service was one of imminent cost and danger; and moreover, news travelling slowly, we could not, as in the present instance, learn the straitened circumstances of our armies abroad, so as to afford that prompt assistance which they urgently needed. Assailed fiercely by the Moors, who evinced great bravery and resolution, the contest proved one of uncommon severity, requiring every effort of our garrison to maintain even their own. We extract the following announcement of the arrival of the Douglas, or, as it was then called, Dumbarton’s Regiment, on this new and distant scene of conflict, from Ross’ “Tangier’s Rescue:”—“After this landed the valorous Major Hackett with the renowned regiment of the Earl of Dumbarton; all of them men of approved valour, fame having echoed the sound of their glorious actions and achievements in France and other nations; having left behind them a report of their glorious victories wherever they came; every place witnessing and giving large testimony of their renown: so that the arrival of this illustrious regiment more and more increased the resolutions and united the courage of the inhabitants, and added confidence to their valour.” Also, as further interesting, we record, from the same author, the stirring address which the Lieut.-Governor, Sir Palmes Fairborne, is reported to have made to Dumbarton’s Scots on the eve of battle:—“Countrymen and fellow-soldiers, let not your approved valour and fame in foreign nations be derogated at this time, neither degenerate from your ancient and former glory abroad; and as you are looked upon here to be brave and experienced soldiers (constant and successive victories having attended your conquering swords hitherto), do not come short of the great hopes we have in you, and the propitious procedures we expect from you at this time. For the glory of your nation, if you cannot surpass, you may imitate the bravest, and be emulous of their praises and renown.”

The excessive cost of maintaining this distant and profitless possession at length induced King Charles to abandon it; accordingly the troops were withdrawn and the fortress destroyed. The “Royal Scots” landed at Gravesend in 1683. Nothing of importance falls to be narrated during the interval of peace which followed—the first, and until our day almost the only, rest which this veteran regiment has been permitted to enjoy at home. The accession of the Duke of York, as James II., to the throne, on the death of his brother Charles, awakened the well-grounded alarm of the Protestants, stirred up discontents, which were quickened into rebellion by the landing of the Marquis of Argyll in the West Highlands, and of a powerful rival—the Duke of Monmouth—in the South of England. Favoured by a considerable rising of the people, and encouraged by the fair promises of many of the old Puritan nobility and gentry—who undertook to join his standard with their followers, enamoured more of the cause speciously set forth upon his banner—“Fear none but God”—than of the man, Monmouth had advanced at the head of a considerable force to Bridgewater. His vacillating policy ruined his cause, as it gave time for the assembling of the King’s forces, under the Earl of Feversham and Lord Churchill, afterwards so celebrated as the Duke of Marlborough. Amongst these forces were five companies of the “Royal Scots.” At the battle of Sedgemoor which ensued, the rebels, deeming to surprise the royal camp in the night, suddenly descended in great force, but, arrested by a ditch immediately in front of the position occupied by the companies of our “Royal Scots,” which attempting to cross, they were so hotly received, although they fought with great fury, that they were driven back in confusion, and ultimately dispersed or destroyed by the royal cavalry in the morning. Thus the glory of the fight belongs chiefly to our countrymen, whose firmness proved the salvation of the royal army, and, in the end, the destruction of the rebels and the overthrow of their cause—completed in the after execution of their leaders, the Duke of Monmouth in England, and his fellow-conspirator, the Marquis of Argyll, in Scotland. So highly did James esteem the services of the “Royal Scots” on this perilous occasion, that, by special warrant, he ordered that the sum of £397 should be distributed among the wounded of the regiment. Sergeant Weems was particularly distinguished in the action, and received accordingly a gratuity of “Forty pounds for good service in the action of Sedgemoor, in firing the great guns against the rebels.”

DUKE OF SCHOMBERG, COLONEL OF THE FIRST ROYALS.

When the Revolution of 1688 promised the downfall of the house of Stuart, whose power had been so long built upon the suppressed liberty of the people, the exclusion of James II.—the degenerate representative of an ancient and once beloved race—from the throne, as the minion of the Papacy and the dawn of a better state of things, under the more healthy rule of the Prince of Orange, the champion of Protestantism, as monarch of these realms, it might have been deemed excusable had our “Royal Scots,” from their antecedents on behalf of the Protestant cause, sided with the Prince. The result, however, was far otherwise, and affords us another splendid illustration of the firm fidelity of the soldier in the sterling devotion of this regiment. The “Royal Scots” had been James’s favourite regiment, and well they merited that monarch’s trust. Whilst other troops exhibited a shameful defection, the “Royal Scots,” with unshaken constancy, adhered to the desperate fortunes of their infatuated King. Nor when all else had submitted, save Claverhouse’s Dragoons, and resistance had been rendered fruitless by the pusillanimous flight of James, did they see it their duty to exchange into the service of the new Sovereign. The term “mutiny” is wrongly applied when given to express their conduct on this trying occasion. By lenient measures the 500 men and officers who had refused to tender their submission were at length induced to make their peace with the new king, who, appreciating their ancient name for valour, could admire their unshaken fidelity to one who was even forsaken by his own children; and therefore gladly retained the regiment to grace our military annals. Their conduct was at the same time most exemplary in those days of military license and excess; faithfully they remained at the post of duty, when other regiments, breaking from their ranks, shamefully disgraced themselves by the riot and disorder they everywhere committed. The Earl of Dumbarton, following King James into France, the vacant colonelcy was conferred on one of the oldest, ablest, and most distinguished officers of the age—the veteran Marshal Frederick de Schomberg.

The arrival of the dethroned James at the Court of France, whilst it awakened mingled feelings of commiseration and contempt in the mind of the crafty Louis, the bitterness of disappointed ambition roused a spirit of revenge, and was to be regarded as the signal for war. Accordingly, a powerful army was advanced towards the frontier, ostensibly to co-operate in the cause of the exiled monarch, but really to take advantage of the absence of the Stadtholder, for the annexation, by way of compensation for his increased power elsewhere, of his continental dominions in Holland. To divide attention, and direct the efforts of William away from his own more immediate designs, the French King, by paltry succours, helped to bolster up James in his ricketty Irish kingdom. To meet this combined assault, William, whilst himself was present with his army in the reduction of Ireland, sent the Earl of Marlborough with a British army, including the “Royals,” to co-operate with the Dutch in the defence of their fatherland. In 1692 he joined the allied army, and himself assumed the command. In an attempt to surprise the powerful fortress of Mons, Sir Robert Douglas, who, on the death of the Duke de Schomberg at the battle of the Boyne, had been promoted to the colonelcy of the “Royals,” was taken prisoner by the French cavalry. Released, on payment of the regulated ransom, he was reserved for a sadder but more glorious fate at the battle of Steenkirk, where he fell at the head of his regiment, gallantly fighting for and defending the colours he had rescued from the foe. General Cannon writes:—“Sir Robert Douglas, seeing the colour on the other side of the hedge, leaped through a gap, slew the French officer who bore the colour, and cast it over the hedge to his own men; but this act of gallantry cost him his life, a French marksman having shot him dead on the spot while in the act of repassing the hedge.” The able dispositions of the French commander, the Marshal de Luxembourg, sustained by the valour of his troops, compelled the retreat of the Allied army. Still pressed by the French at Neer-Landen, notwithstanding the most desperate resistance of our Infantry, especially the Royals, and Second, or Queen’s Royals, our army continued to retire. These disasters were somewhat redeemed by the successes of subsequent campaigns, crowned in the siege and fall of Namur, a powerful fortress, long and bravely defended by Marshal Boufflers. The peace of Ryswick, subscribed in 1697, put an end to the war, and our army in consequence returned home.

During the war of the Spanish Succession, which commenced in 1701, the Royals were destined to play an important part. They were present under the great Marlborough at the several victories of Schellenberg, Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenarde, Wynendale, and Malplaquet, which, distinguishing the war, we have elsewhere already alluded to. In many of these battles their gallant colonel, Lord George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, who had succeeded Sir Robert Douglas, was present, and led the regiment to the fight. Their conduct at Wynendale was specially remarkable, where, in defence of a large and important train of stores, etc., a British front of 8000 men resisted the combined and repeated efforts of 22,000 French to capture the stores and treasure. The war was terminated by the peace of Utrecht, in 1713.

During the thirty succeeding years the regiment was employed garrisoning various towns, etc., at home, except in 1742, when the second battalion was sent to do duty in the West Indies. In the following year, disputes arising as to the Austrian Succession, and our country inclining to the side of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, whilst France, on the other hand, had, for political reasons, espoused the cause of its old ally, the Elector of Bavaria, an appeal was made to arms. A British force, under our own chivalric King, George II., had already appeared in Germany, and achieved the signal victory of Dettingen, when the Royals joined the army in time to share the disasters of Fontenoy. The rebellion of Prince Charles Edward subsequently occasioned their recall. Whilst the first battalion remained in camp under Marshal Wade, in the south of England, prepared to defend our shores from the threatened invasion and co-operation of France, the second battalion, stationed at York, proceeded in pursuit of the rebels, who, after having penetrated to Derby, finding that the expected aid from England was not realised, returned to Scotland, where, joined by a body of recruits, they undertook the siege of Stirling Castle. In this they were interrupted by the advance of the King’s army, towards Falkirk, under Lieut.-General Hawley. Encountering the enemy in the vicinity, a sanguinary battle ensued, but devoid of any decisive result, both parties claiming the victory. Whilst some of the King’s troops were broken by the combined assaults of the elements and the enemy, the Royals stood fast. The dissensions which had but lately prevailed to distract the counsels of the rebels had been hushed by the preponderating eminence of a coming struggle, and the promise of plunder as the reward of victory. Now that the excitement of battle had ceased, the Royal army retired, and the hopes of booty disappointed, these evil feelings, more fatal than the sword, burst forth with renewed virulence, to ruin the interests of the Jacobites, occasioning the retreat of their broken-hearted Prince, with a diminished, and disspirited, yet brave and faithful army. Meanwhile the King’s forces, greatly strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops, a second time advanced upon the enemy. Led by the Duke of Cumberland, the advance soon assumed the character of a pursuit. At length the rebels, overtaken and driven to bay, made a stand in the neighbourhood of Inverness, on Culloden Moor, where, notwithstanding the fiery valour of the clans, they sustained a total defeat, and were never afterwards able to rally.

“For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight;

And the clans of Culloden are scattered in fight.

They rally, they bleed, for their kingdom and crown:

Woe, woe, to the riders that trample them down!

. . . . . . . . . .

’Tis finish’d. Their thunders are hushed on the moors!

Culloden is lost, and my country deplores.

. . . . . . . . . .

Culloden that reeks with the blood of the brave.”

Their Prince—

“Like a limb from his country cast bleeding and torn,”

for long lurked a wandering fugitive amongst our Western Islands, until, through many dangers, he effected his escape to France. The Duke of Cumberland, visiting with a cruel revenge the rebellious clans, nay, in some cases, with barbarous heedlessness, mingling the innocent with the guilty in a common ruin, tarnished the lustre of his success, and left behind a most unenviable memory in these northern provinces.

The Rebellion being thus at an end, several of the regiments which had been withdrawn from the Continent for its suppression now returned, whilst the first battalion of the Royals was employed in several descents upon the French coast with various success. At L’Orient the attempt proved fruitless; but at Quiberon, sustained by the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, the destruction of the enemy’s arsenal, stores, and shipping, was attained. Subsequently the battalion joined the British army in the Netherlands, and, in 1747, was greatly distinguished in the heroic defence of Fort Sandberg. The attack on the part of the French, was made late in the evening, with more than their wonted impetuosity. The Dutch garrison, unable to withstand the shock, was signally routed, and the conquest seemed complete, when the progress of the enemy was unexpectedly arrested by the Royals, who, with unflinching obstinacy, maintained the conflict, which proved of the most sanguinary and desperate character. The horrors of the fight were deepened by the sable pall of night. “The morning light had already dawned upon this scene of conflict and carnage,—between three and four hundred officers and men of the Royals were hors de combat; yet the survivors,—though standing amidst the dying and the dead, and being unable to take one step without treading on a killed or wounded man,—maintained their ground with resolution, and continued to pour their fatal volleys upon their opponents, who had sustained an equal or greater loss, until five o’clock, when the Royals were relieved by the Highlanders; and the French, dismayed by the sanguinary tenacity of the defence, retreated.” Ultimately the fort, rendered untenable, was abandoned. In 1749, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the war, when the battalion returning home, was stationed in Ireland.

CHAPTER X.

“For pleas of right let statesmen vex their head,

Battle’s my business, and my guerdon bread;

And with the sworded Switzer I can say,

‘The best of causes is the best of pay.’”

AMERICAN WARS—WEST INDIES—FRENCH REVOLUTION—1755–1804.

The ancient rivalries subsisting between Britain and France, and which had begotten so many fierce and sanguinary wars upon the European continent, were now about to be displayed with even a more exceeding bitterness among the colonists of the two nations in the New World of America. Disputes arising as to the boundary line of what they severally claimed as their territory, the might of France assumed to decide the right. To maintain and defend British interests, an army, comprising the second battalion of the Royals, and the two newly-raised regiments of Fraser’s and Montgomery’s Highlanders, was sent across the Atlantic in 1757. The first attack of this expedition was made upon the French island of Cape Breton, which, with its capital, Louisburg, was speedily reduced. In the following year the Royals were engaged upon the American continent in a series of actions around the shores of Lake Champlain, which resulted in the capture of the strong forts of Ticonderago, Crown Point, and ultimately the Isle aux Noix. Several of the Indian tribes taking advantage of our apparent embarrassments at this period, instigated by, and in some cases allied with, the French, threw off the British yoke, strove to recover their fatherland, or were encouraged, by hope of plunder, to assail our colonial settlements. Against the most powerful of these foes—the Cherokees—a few companies of the Royals, with Montgomery’s Highlanders and other corps, were detached from the army, and proceeded to South Carolina. After repeated incursions into the country of the Cherokees, in which the foe was rarely seen, or when the Indian army of sable warriors did appear, our troops achieved an easy and ofttimes a bloodless victory. Still was our advance characterised by cruel and uncalled-for severities, and marked by the melancholy spectacle of burning villages, in which lay “the little all” of these poor creatures. Unable to withstand our onset, with ruined homesteads, and threatened with all the miseries of want, their necessities impelled the Cherokees to sue for peace, which was readily granted.

The conquest of French Canada having been completed in the surrender of Montreal, several detachments of the Royals were employed in various expeditions against the French West Indian Islands, especially Dominica and Martinique, in which our efforts were successful. But the crowning achievement of these expeditions was the capture of the Havannah from the Spaniards, with immense spoil, on the 30th July, 1762. Meanwhile two companies of the Royals, which had remained on the American continent, contributed by their gallantry to repulse a new attempt of the French to recover their lost footing in these provinces.

In 1763 the second battalion returning home, the regiment was afterwards employed garrisoning our Mediterranean possessions, Minorca and Gibraltar. During the American Rebellion a secret treaty having been discovered between the rebels and Holland, France and Spain, promising aid to, and otherwise abetting the colonists in their rebellion, the Royals, with other troops, in 1781, were sent out to assail the West Indian possessions of these several States. Having possessed themselves of the island of St Christopher, they were here attacked by a powerful French expeditionary force which had landed from the fleet for the recovery of the island. Stationed on Brimstone Hill with scarce 500 men, without the adequate matériel to make good the defence, these brave men nevertheless resisted for nearly a month the repeated assaults of 8000 French, aided by a powerful artillery, which played continually and effectually upon the crumbling defences and the worn-out defenders. It was not until every means of resistance had been destroyed, and every hope of relief exhausted, that our gallant Royals were compelled to surrender.

In 1782, both battalions were at home, and the Duke of Argyll having been removed to the Colonelcy of the Third, or Scots Foot Guards, the Colonelcy of the First Royal Regiment, or Royal Scots, was conferred upon Lord Adam Gordon.

Britain, ever recognised as the guardian of true liberty, had viewed, with mingled feelings of horror, pity, and alarm, the crimes which alike stained and inaugurated the French Revolution. Our Government, unhappily, mistaking the real nature and critical importance of the contest, granted a feeble and tardy aid to the few remaining friends of order, chiefly represented in the Royalists, who still struggled for existence in France. Had these succours been commensurate with the ability of the nation, and afforded promptly and liberally, France might have been saved from many of those dire calamities which, like the judgments of Heaven, gathering in her political horizon, were so soon to visit her in the fury of the tempest, to cast a blight upon her people and a curse upon her fair plains. Europe, moreover, might have escaped the military tyranny of Napoleon, with all its accompanying evils. Toulon, the principal station for the French Navy on the shores of the Mediterranean, possessed of large arsenals and extensive dockyards, and strongly fortified—its citizens had hitherto regarded with aversion the excesses of blood and rapine in which the Revolutionists had indulged, and fully sensible of the evils which must arise from the rule of the democracy, resolved to declare for the restoration of the old monarchy. In the impending contest in which they were soon involved by their resistance to the iron will of the Committee of Public Salvation, who then assumed to rule France, they invoked, and not altogether in vain, the aid of the constitutional Governments around. Accordingly, a mixed force of British, Spaniards, and Italians, was thrown into the city for its defence. The second battalion of the Royals formed part of the British contingent on this occasion. Lieutenant-General O’Hara commanding, with 12,000 men, for awhile succeeded in making good the defence, and had well nigh baffled the utmost efforts of the besiegers, who, under General Dugommier, had assembled an army of nearly 40,000 Revolutionists. But the appearance of a young officer in the ranks of the enemy speedily changed the aspect of affairs. As chief of the artillery, by a series of bold and judicious movements, effecting the reduction of the city, he early displayed that aptness for military combination which revealed the genius of Napoleon Bonaparte. Dugommier, writing to the Convention, said—“Reward and promote that young man, for, if you are ungrateful towards him, he will raise himself alone.” The following incident, narrated by Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., in his interesting account of the siege, introduces us to another of those great military chiefs who were so soon to glitter in the firmament of the Empire: “Napoleon asked him what he could do for him. ‘Everything,’ replied the young private, blushing with emotion, and touching his left shoulder with his hand—‘you can turn this worsted into an epaulet.’ A few days after, Napoleon sent for the same soldier to order him to reconnoitre in the enemy’s trenches, and recommended that he should disguise himself, for fear of his being discovered. ‘Never,’ replied he. ‘Do you take me for a spy? I will go in my uniform, though I should never return.’ And, in effect, he set out instantly, dressed as he was, and had the good fortune to come back unhurt. Napoleon immediately recommended him for promotion, and never lost sight of his courageous secretary. He was Junot, afterwards Marshal of France, and Duke of Abrantes.” Notwithstanding the utmost bravery on the part of the defenders, and of the Royals in particular, the fortress had become no longer tenable from the alarming successes of the enemy. Accordingly, on the night of the 19th December, 1794, the army, with as many of the citizens as could be crowded into the fleet, were embarked, all that might be useful to the foe was destroyed or committed to the flames, and the city abandoned. The scene which ensued is one of the most touchingly interesting and afflicting in the dark story of the Revolution, especially when considered in the light of the cruel fate which awaited the unfortunates who could not find room in the fleet, and who, left behind, must meet the merciless wrath of the Parisian demagogues. Alison thus pictures the sad episode:—

“No words can do justice to the horrors of the scene which ensued, when the last columns of the allied troops commenced their embarkation. Cries, screams, and lamentations arose in every quarter; the frantic clamour, heard even across the harbour, announced to the soldiers in the Republican camp that the last hope of the Royalists was giving way. The sad remnant of those who had favoured the royal cause, and who had neglected to go off in the first embarkation, came flying to the beach, and invoked, with tears and prayers, the aid of their British friends. Mothers, clasping their babes to their bosoms, helpless children, and decrepid old men, might be seen stretching their hands towards the harbour, shuddering at every sound behind them, and even rushing into the waves to escape the less merciful death which awaited them from their countrymen. Some had the generosity to throw themselves into the sea, to save, by their self-sacrifice, the lives of their parents, in danger of being swamped in the boats. Vast numbers perished from falling into the sea, or by the swamping of boats, into which multitudes crowded, loaded with their most valuable effects, or bearing their parents or children on their shoulders. Such as could seize upon boats, rushed into them with frantic vehemence, pushed from the beach without oars, and directed their unsteady and dangerous course towards their former protectors. The scene resembled those mournful catastrophes recorded by the historians of antiquity, when the inhabitants of whole cities in Asia Minor or Greece fled to the sea at the approach of their enemies, and steered away by the light of their burning habitations. Sir Sidney Smith, with a degree of humanity worthy of his high character, suspended his retreat till not a single individual who claimed his assistance remained on the strand, though the total number borne away amounted to fourteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.”

The Royals were shortly after engaged in a successful descent upon the island of Corsica. Associated with the Fifty-first Foot, under the command of our gallant countryman, the future hero of Corunna, Lieutenant-Colonel Moore, they were largely instrumental in the reduction of the island, which soon after acknowledged the British sway. The fortified town of Calvi, refusing to submit, was besieged, captured, and garrisoned by the Royals, where they remained until removed to the island of Elba, in 1796—Corsica being abandoned. In 1797 the corps was stationed at Cascaes, in Portugal, and in the following year returned to England.

Meanwhile the disorders which prevailed in France had induced a spirit of rebellion amongst the coloured population of her most valuable colony—the island of St Domingo—which, bursting forth in 1793, resulted in the establishment of the Black Empire of Hayti. The French colonists having no faith in, or doubting the ability to help of their home Government, had solicited the protection of Britain. Accordingly a British force, including the first battalion of the Royals from Jamaica (where for the past three years it had been stationed), was sent to their assistance. The expedition proved one of extreme difficulty and exceeding danger, and is replete with interesting incidents. On every occasion the good conduct of the Royals was most conspicuous, especially so in the defence of Fort Bizzeton, where Lieutenant Clunes, with 120 men, repulsed 2000 of the enemy. Major-General Sir Adam Williamson, in his despatch, stated—“Captain Grant and his two Lieutenants, Clunes, of the Royals, and Hamilton, of the Twenty-second Regiment, merit every attention that can be shown them. They were all three severely wounded early in the attack, but tied up their wounds, and continued to defend their posts. It has been a very gallant defence, and does them great honour.” But the sword was not the only or the worst enemy our brave countrymen had to encounter in this sultry and unhealthy clime. A malignant fever, invading the quarters of our men, slew in two months about 640. The remains of the battalion returned home in 1797.

Scarcely had our gallant Royals recruited their ranks, when the sound of war called them to win new glories on the field. In 1799 the second battalion, brigaded with the Ninety-second Gordon Highlanders, formed part of the British army, which, under that famous chieftain, Sir Ralph Abercromby, landed in the Netherlands, and strove to expel the French. The triumph of “Egmont-op-Zee” illustrated “the gallantry of these brave troops,” which “cannot have been surpassed by any former instance of British valour.” The Dutch, for whom these efforts had been made, unheeding to be free, were at length abandoned to their own infatuation, in which they soon experienced those bitter fruits which sprang from the military despotism of Napoleon to curse the land. On the withdrawal of the army, the second battalion was successfully employed in several descents upon the coast of Portugal. In brigade with their old comrades of the Ninety-second, and two battalions of the Fifty-fourth Foot, they were included in the British army which, landing at Aboukir, from one victory to another, vanquished the boasted “Invincibles” of Napoleon’s grand “Army of the East,” and were at length hailed as the deliverers of Egypt—having driven out the French. Whilst these desirable ends were being accomplished upon the African continent, the first battalion of the Royals, having embarked for the West Indies, was reaping a harvest of glory in the reduction of the enemy’s possessions in that quarter of the world. The most illustrious of these conquests was that of “St Lucia,” which, inscribed upon the colours of the regiment, remains to perpetuate the record of these brave deeds.

CHAPTER XI.

“His signal deeds and prowess high

Demand no pompous eulogy,—

Ye saw his deeds!

Why should their praise in verse be sung?

The name, that dwells on every tongue,

No minstrel needs.”

FRENCH REVOLUTION—CANADA—THE CRIMEA—INDIA—CHINA—1804–1862.

The gigantic proportions which the war in 1804 had assumed, the imminence of the danger which threatened ourselves from the overgrown power of Napoleon, and his still unsatisfied ambition, had thoroughly roused our Government more completely to arm our people, and occasioned the raising of many new corps. Aware of the favour in which our Royal Regiment was held by the people, from the ancient renown it had acquired, the Government, taking advantage of this good name, speedily raised and attached thereto a third and fourth battalion. Returning from the West Indies, where, for a short time, it had been engaged in capturing the French and Dutch possessions, the second battalion embarked for the East Indies, where, for upwards of five-and-twenty years—returning home in 1831—it remained actively on duty. Meanwhile, the third battalion, sharing the glories, was doomed to endure the disasters of the Spanish campaigns of 1808–9, under that gallant leader, Sir John Moore—glories which had their consummation in the victory of Corunna. On this occasion the Royals were brigaded with our countrymen of the Twenty-sixth Cameronians. The army, returning to England, was shortly thereafter employed in a new attempt to expel the French from the Netherlands. In this unfortunate effort, known as the Walcheren Expedition, our third battalion had a part. But the day of better things was now about to dawn, when these repeated disasters should be redeemed, and the eclipse of the world’s liberty be dissipated, through the triumphs which, rewarding the heroic endurance and persevering valour of our soldiers, should crown our arms. Trained by adversity, our troops had learned how to conquer. Under Sir Arthur Wellesley, the third battalion was, with the British army, which, from “Busaco” to the “Nive,” trod the path of uninterrupted victory, baffling successively the splendid efforts with which the genius of Massena, Marmont, Jourdan, and Soult, strove to preserve for their master the provinces of the Peninsula. Every attempt to arrest the onward march of British valour signally failed, entailing upon the foe a series of fatal defeats, until at length the Peninsula, delivered from the yoke of the tyrant, our army, in triumph, entered the French territory. At the siege of St Sebastian our Royals very specially distinguished themselves, and although suffering a loss of more than 500 men in the several assaults, nothing could quench the dauntless spirit which twice stirred them to enter the deadly breach; but the second time with most splendid success, when, overcoming every obstacle, this famous and gallantly defended fortress was captured.

ASSAULT
of
S^T. SEBASTIAN
31^st. August 1813.

“At a Scots corporation dinner, held in London on the 4th of May, 1811, on the health of the Duke of Kent, the father of our beloved Queen, then Colonel of the Royal Regiment, being drunk, his Royal Highness rose to return thanks, and, in the course of his speech, said:—‘My royal brother has been pleased to praise the regiment in which I have been employed, and have had the honour to command, and I too can bear testimony to the spirit and gallantry of the Scottish soldiers. From the earliest days, when I commenced my military life, it was always my utmost aim to arrive at the command of a Scots regiment, and to bring that regiment into action would have been the greatest glory I could have attained, as I am well convinced the officers and men would have justified my most sanguine expectations; their courage, perseverance, and activity, being undoubtedly such as may always be relied on; and they are always able and willing to do their duty, if not more than their duty.’ His Royal Highness took great interest in the welfare of the regiment; and he this year presented, by the hands of Lieutenant-Colonel MʻLeod, a gold medal to Serjeant Manns of the regiment for the very meritorious manner in which he had educated upwards of 800 soldiers and soldiers’ children.” His Royal Highness was the first to establish regimental schools,—a rich blessing, which will be ever associated with his memory, conferring as they have done such priceless benefits upon the army.

When all Europe had combined in a sacred crusade against the despotic rule of Napoleon, the fourth battalion of the Royals was selected to form part of a British force which should act with the Swedo-German army advancing from Pomerania, under Bernadotte, upon France. Thus, at the interval of nearly 300 years, did our Royal Scots revisit the scenes of their early glory; and, under the same Swedish banner, led on by the successor of Gustavus Adolphus, once more do battle for the cause of truth. No doubt, their souls roused within them, their arms must have been nerved, by the “stirring memories” of “auld langsyne.” The march of this battalion through Germany, when called to join the army of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch, in the Netherlands, about to attempt the reduction of the strong fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom, is marked by the extreme severity of the weather, which entailed sufferings of the most fatal kind upon our brave soldiers—upwards of 120 men being lost in the snow. To the survivors a darker and a sadder fate was near, whilst these trials served to school them to meet it with the heroic fortitude of the soldier. In the subsequent attack upon Bergen-op-Zoom the several companies of the battalion had struggled with determined yet unavailing valour to dislodge the French. Our troops could not prevail, as they could not destroy the strong natural defences of the place. They suffered a most serious loss from an unseen foe, who visited their temerity with a fatal fire from their powerful and numerous batteries. At length, overwhelmed and encompassed by foemen, and entangled amongst destructive batteries which vomited forth death upon our devoted Royals, they were compelled to surrender, having previously sunk the colours of the regiment in the river Zoom. Peace being accomplished by the abdication of Napoleon, the sword of war was for a moment sheathed. Alas! that it should have been but for a moment. Soon the dream of a fancied security was disturbed, as the captive of Elba once more appearing, the Emperor, idolised by the great army, forged thunderbolts of vengeance with which he threatened to annihilate his many foes. Happily, his ambitious career was speedily terminated, and Europe thereby saved the repetition of the bloody tragedy of protracted war, so lately and so fondly believed to be closed. The sudden irruption of the French army into the Netherlands was met by the bravery of the British and Prussians, and its progress for ever arrested by the total defeat of Waterloo. In this campaign the third battalion of the Royals was honoured to hold a conspicuous part; especially at Quatre Bras, where it was the first to check the advance of Marshal Ney, and sustain with great credit the brunt of his impetuous and repeated attacks. The following splendid testimony has been recorded to its valour:—“The third battalion of the Royal Scots distinguished itself in a particular manner. Being removed from the centre of the Fifth Division, it charged and routed a column of the enemy. It was then formed in a square to receive the cavalry, and though repeated attacks were made, not the slightest impression was produced. Wherever the lancers and cuirassiers presented themselves, they found a stern and undismayed front, which they vainly endeavoured to penetrate.”

It was not alone upon the continent of Europe that the dire effects of Napoleon’s sway were felt and regretted, but wherever the foot of civilisation had left its impress. Nor was it only the pulse of true liberty that beat quickly and faintly beneath the evil rule of his tyrant spirit, but commerce, by iniquitous decrees, lay groaning in chains, or eked out but a sorry existence. The intention of these ill-advised decrees was the destruction of the maritime and commercial might of Britain. Our Government sought to retaliate upon France the evils their imperial monarch had striven to inflict upon us, by barbarous enactments of a kindred character. Thus, between the two, the avenues of trade were all but hedged up—the channels of commercial intercourse dried up. America had hitherto grown rich upon the poverties which war had entailed upon the continental nations; and hence, when her merchants found their trade at an end, or, at all events, amounting to a thing of peril, her Government resented such decrees as a personal attack. Retaining an old grudge arising out of the nature of recent events, and, moreover, regarding Britain as the chief offender, having within herself alone the power to set at defiance the attempts of Napoleon, without adding a new evil to cure the old iniquity, America declared war against us, and her armies forthwith proceeded to take possession of Canada. To arrest the progress of the enemy in this quarter, the first battalion of the Royals was ordered from the West Indies to Canada. Although the forces engaged on either side were trifling in numbers when compared with the vast armaments which were then contending in Europe, still the contest was no less sanguinary and bitter, and equally developed the sterling qualities of our Royal Scots. Arrived in Canada in 1813, the battalion was present with credit at the successful attacks upon Sackett’s Harbour, Sodius, Niagara, Black Rock, and Buffalo; but it was not until 1814, that the preponderance of numbers on the side of the Americans rendering the contest more unequal, and when victory did not always smile on our arms—it was then we gather more striking evidence of the gallant demeanour of the Royals. At Longwood a superior force of Americans prevailed, and the battalion was reluctantly withdrawn, having suffered severely, principally in officers. At Chippewa 6000 Americans assailed a force of 1500 British, including 500 of the Royals. Although repulsed in the action which ensued, the General Order reports: “It was impossible for men to have done more, or to have sustained with greater courage the heavy and destructive fire with which the enemy, from his great superiority in numbers, was enabled to oppose them.” The Royals only yielded when upwards of 300 of their number had been disabled—sufficient proof of the fierceness of the conflict, and the desperate valour which sustained it. But a more deadly encounter—though happily a more successful one—took place at Lundy’s Lane, where 5000 Americans were opposed to 2800 British, including at first only three, latterly ten, companies of the Royals. We cannot do better than quote the description of the battle from Mr Cannon’s invaluable Records: “About nine in the evening there was an intermission of firing; but the Americans renewed the attack soon afterwards with fresh troops, and a fierce conflict of musketry and artillery followed in the dark. The Americans charged up the hill; the British gunners were bayoneted while in the act of loading, and the guns were in the possession of the enemy for a few moments; but the troops in the centre, where the three companies of the Royal Scots were fighting, soon drove back the Americans, and retook the guns. The storm of battle still raged along the heights; the muzzles of the British and American artillery were within a few yards of each other, and the fight was kept up with a sanguinary obstinacy seldom witnessed. In limbering up the guns, at one period an American six-pounder was put by mistake on a British limber, and a British six-pounder on an American limber. At one moment the Americans had the advantage; at the next the shout of victory rose from the British ranks; and about midnight the enemy retreated.” The troops were thanked for their distinguished bravery in general orders on the following day; and “the admirable steadiness of the Royal Scots, under Lieut.-Colonel Gordon, at several very critical points and movements,” claimed Lieut.-General Drummond’s particular notice. On this occasion the Royal Scots had to mourn the loss of many brave officers and gallant men, nearly 160 being killed, wounded, or prisoners. The siege and capture of Fort Erie is distinguished not merely for the gallantry of our Royals, but possesses, moreover, a melancholy interest, from the lamentable catastrophe—the explosion of a mine—which destroyed many of our brave soldiers, who, struggling on, had effected a footing in the breach.

It is interesting to note, about this period, the several battalions of this ancient regiment, fighting our battles in so many different corners of the world at the same time, and each contributing to the national glory and their own marvellous fame. In 1814 the positions of the battalions were as follows:—

The war was brought to a termination in 1815, after the memorable battle of Waterloo, wherein the third battalion of the Royal Scots immortalised itself, when, peace being concluded, the Royals returned home, and the third and fourth battalions were disbanded.

Passing over a long interval of comparative peace which succeeded, like the calm, the storm that but lately raged, we have only time in our present sketch to note that the Royals formed part of the British army in the Crimea. The Crimean campaign gained for them the several distinctions of the “Alma,” “Inkermann,” and “Sevastopol.”

On the alarm occasioned by the recent Indian Mutiny, in 1857, the first battalion of the Royals was sent out to reinforce our army, destined to suppress the Sepoy Revolt. Afterwards the second battalion formed part of the Chinese Expedition, which, chastising the perfidy of the boasted “Celestials,” reduced the “Taku forts,” and occupied Pekin.

We close our narrative of the First Royal Regiment, or Royal Scots, with these lines from an old military ditty, the favourite apostrophe of that distinguished veteran and representative of our old Scots brigade in the Swedish service—Sir Dugald Dalgetty, the illustrious hero represented by Sir Walter Scott in his “Legend of Montrose.” Thus he sang when waiting in the guard-room of Inverary Castle:—

“When the cannons are roaring, lads, and the colours are flying,

The lads that seek honour must never fear dying:

Then stout cavaliers let us toil our brave trade in,

And fight for the Gospel and the bold King of Sweden.”

1862. TWENTY-FIRST, OR ROYAL NORTH BRITISH FUSILIERS. 1678.

THE TWENTY-FIRST FOOT,
OR,
ROYAL NORTH BRITISH FUSILIERS.

CHAPTER XII.

“The warrior boy to the field hath gone,

And left his home behind him;

His father’s sword he hath girded on—

In the ranks of death you’ll find him.”

ORIGIN—EARLY SERVICES—CIVIL WARS—WARS OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION—WARS OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION—1678–1748.

Success is too commonly esteemed, by a short-sighted public, to be the criterion of excellence. It remains, however, to each of us, an exercise of faith and duty to confute this popular fallacy, inasmuch as it has wronged, foully wronged, many a brave heart who, battling with several and powerful foes, struggling manfully, yet desperately, for the very life, has as yet failed to rise beyond the surface; and hence the man bowed down by adversity, as yet unrewarded by a better success—regarded as nothing beyond the common—this deceitful, false world cannot recognise the heroic soul in the martyr to circumstances. Thus it is that the gallant regiment, whose history we are now about to narrate, is in danger of being done injustice to, since its history is not always garnished with splendid success, nor its path to honour strewn with the glittering distinctions of victory, nor its heroism illustrated by a long series of triumphs, which gild many a page of our national history.

This regiment claims an origin co-eval with that of the Scots Greys and Scots Foot Guards. It was regimented and commanded by Charles, Earl of Mar, at a time when the rampant bigotry of the King—oppressing the consciences of the people, had exiled many of the bravest and best, or driven them to desperate measures—induced them to draw together for defence of their liberty and lives. Such was the state of things in Scotland in 1678 when our Fusiliers were raised to hunt down our covenanting forefathers, who, for conscience sake, branded as heretics, endured the cruel ban of the Church of Rome; who, “not ashamed to own their Lord,” freely resigned life and property for His sake. The history of the regiment is one with that of the Scots Greys and Scots Foot Guards, already in our previous chapters alluded to, where it may almost be traced page by page; it is therefore needless for us to repeat the incidents which marked their early history. They were present at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, where the Covenanters were signally defeated, and were afterwards engaged in repressing the Rebellion of Argyll in 1685. At length the day of retribution arrived, when the voice of the people declared the sovereignty of the House of Stuart to be an intolerant burden no longer to be submitted to,—by a general rising decreed its overthrow, and by an almost universal welcome hailed the advent of a better state of things under the healthier government of the House of Orange. Amid these changes our Fusiliers remained faithful to James II. Having marched into England with a strength of 744 men, under Colonel Buchan, they were stationed in the Tower Hamlets. The flight of the King rendering all resistance to the advancing forces of William futile and needless, the regiment submitted to the victorious party of William and Mary. Removed to Oxfordshire, the command was conferred on Colonel O’Farrell. Colonel Buchan, adhering to the fallen fortunes of James, followed him into exile. His name has acquired a melancholy interest as the chief who, a few years later, after the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie, headed the rebel forces in a vain attempt to restore the dominion of the Stuarts. Subsequently, in 1689, the regiment embarked at Gravesend for Flanders, where, under Marlborough, it formed part of the British division which, with the Dutch, strove to check the aggressions of the French. In the early part of the campaign they were associated with their countrymen of the Third, or Scots Foot Guards, and the First, or Royal Scots Regiment, besides other British troops. These shared the glory of the victory of Walcourt, where an attack of the French under D’Humieres was repulsed. In 1690 the ill success of the allied general, Prince Waldeck, yielded to the enemy many and important advantages, especially in the disastrous battle of Fleurus. In the following year the Scots brigade was further augmented by the addition of the regiments of Mackay and Ramsay, known to fame as the Old Scots Brigade in the Dutch service, or as the Ninety-Fourth in later times in the British service. To these were added the Earl of Angus’s regiment of Cameronians, now the Twenty-sixth, and subsequently the Earl of Leven’s regiment of King’s Own Borderers, the present Twenty-fifth. The arrival of King William, who in person assumed the command, as it set at rest the national jealousies which hitherto prevailed among the troops, and hushed the petty contests for precedence on the part of their leaders, infused at the same time new life and vigour into the movements of the Allies. In a vain attempt to surprise the fortress of Mons, Colonel Sir Robert Douglas of the Royals, and Colonel O’Farrell of our Fusiliers, were taken prisoners by the French, but released on payment of the customary ransom. Both were destined for very different fates. The former, as narrated in a previous chapter, fell, gallantly fighting at the head of his regiment, at the battle of Steenkirk; the latter, surviving that bloody day, was reserved to be the unlucky commander who surrendered the fortress of Deinse, garrisoned by his regiment, to the enemy without striking a blow in its defence. This denial of the courage of our Fusiliers under his command, who, with able hands and ready hearts, might have successfully challenged the attempts of a numerous foe—whilst they were delivered over to be prisoners of war—justly received the severe censure of the King; and, tried by court martial, Brigadier-General O’Farrell was cashiered, and his command conferred on Colonel Robert Mackay. Meanwhile, three years previously, the battle of Steenkirk had been fought, and the superior numbers of the French, directed by the ability of the Duke de Luxembourg, had triumphed, notwithstanding the desperate valour of the British. Our Fusiliers, with the Royals, formed part of the advanced guard of our army, and fiercely assailed the French, who, strongly posted behind a series of thick hedges, poured in a deadly fire into our ranks. Successively they were driven from their strong position, but only to take a new position, equally defensible, behind a second hedge. A third and a fourth position was assumed and bravely defended, yet nothing could withstand the onset of our troops. Every obstacle was overcome, and victory was within our grasp, when disasters in other parts of the field compelled the abandonment of all these hard-earned advantages. D’Auvergne says: “Our vanguard behaved in this engagement to such wonder and admiration, that though they received the charge of several battalions of the enemy, one after the other, yet they made them retreat almost to their very camp;” and the London Gazette records: “The bravery of our men was extraordinary, and admired by all; ten battalions of ours having engaged above thirty of the French at one time.” At the battle of Landen in 1693, brigaded with the Twenty-fifth, the Twenty-sixth, and the regiments of the Old Scots Brigade, separated from the army by the prevailing efforts of the French, they most heroically maintained themselves, until overwhelming numbers compelled them to retire. With difficulty they effected their retreat, without disorder, by fording the river Gheet, and so succeeded in rejoining the main army. The ignominious surrender of Deinse, and the consequent dismissal of Colonel O’Farrell, occurring in 1695, have been already alluded to. Nothing of importance falls to be recorded in the history of our Fusiliers during the remainder of the war, which was terminated in 1697 by the peace of Ryswick. Returning to Scotland, the rest they enjoyed was but of short duration. Once again the rude blast of war lashed into fury the ambition of princes. Would that princes acted out the words of the ballad writer—