Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/273

PRINCE CHARLES STUART 183 George proposed, and Charles eagerly seconded, a night surprise at Nairn. But the delays on the march, and the arrival of dawn, made Murray command a re- treat, and Charles's faith in him was irretrievably gone for the time, though he later expressed in writing a more worthy opinion. With 10,000 well-fed men against 5,000 who were starving, Cumberland had every chance of victory at Culloden. The Macdonalds, placed on the left wing, would not charge. Kep- poch's men were discontented because they were not allowed to have a Catholic chaplain. Crying out, "The children of my clan have forsaken me," Keppoch charged alone, and died the death of renown. Beaten and blinded by a storm of snow in their faces, the Highland right clove the ranks of Monro and Burrell, only to fall, in layers three or four deep, before the fire of Sempill's regiment in the second line. The whole English force advanced ; Charles rode to his second line, and offered to charge with them. His officers told him that it was in vain ; Highlanders once beaten would not rally. (MS. "Lyon in Mourning," and MS. of Stuart Threipland at Abbotsford.) Charles was hurried off the field by his Irish tutor, and fled to Lord Lovat's, at Gortuleg. A story of his lack of courage, told by Sir Walter Scott on the authority of Sir James Stewart Denham's recol- lections of Lord Elcho's MS., is erroneous. Lord Elcho's MS. does not contain the statement. What he objects to is Charles's refusal to meet the fragments of his army at Ruthven, in Badenoch, whence they hoped to wage a guerilla warfare. Lord George Murray himself admits that the project was impossible. Charles, however, should have gone to Ruthven, but he distrusted Lord George ; and his hope of a speedy voyage to France, where he expected to receive aid in men and money, was frustrated. It is needless to repeat the tale of Cumberland's almost incredible butcheries, cruelties, and robberies, or to tell of the executions accompanied by the torture of disembowelling the living man. The story of Charles's wanderings and dis- tresses is narrated best in the MS. "Lyon in Mourning," partly printed by Robert Chambers, in "Jacobite Memoirs." No words can overpraise the loyalty of the starving Highlanders ; neither English tortures, nor the promise of ,30,000, ever moved one man or woman from their constant faith. Only one hungry boy whom Charles had fed, attempted to betray him, but was not believed. As for the prince, he is briefly described by a companion as " the most prudent man not to be a coward, the most daring not to be foolhardy, whom he had ever known." He showed a constant gayety. singing and telling tales to hearten his followers. His resource was endless ; he was by far the best cook and the least fastidious eater of his company. He could cook a dish of cow's brains, or swallow raw oat- meal and salt-water. Surrounded by English cordons, through which he slipped at night up the bed of a burn, when the sentinels had reached their furthest point apart, Charles led a little expedition which cut off the cattle intended for the proven- der of his enemies. (MS. " Lyon in Mourning.") He would not even let a com- panion carry his great-coat. He knew every extremity of hunger, thirst, and cold ; and perhaps his most miserable experience was to lurk for many hours, devoured bv midges, under a wet rock. Unshorn, unwashed, in a filthy shirt, his last, he was