army outflanked the left of Argyll's forces, and drove them in headlong flight to Dunblane, but the left was in turn outflanked, and the attack being met with a steady fire of musketry, the highlanders before coming to close quarters wavered and faltered, whereupon Argyll, not permitting them to reform, charged them opportunely with his cavalry, chasing them for a mile and a half over the river Allan. The other portion of Mar's troops were almost as completely disorganised by victory as their comrades were by defeat, and on their return from the pursuit, though flushed with triumph, showed no disposition to renew the conflict. Argyll and Wightman, having chased the rebel left from the field, now found behind them the victorious right posted inactively on the top of the hill of Kippendavie, but, as Wightman explains (Wightman's account of the battle in Patten), they resolved to put the best face on the matter, and marched straight to the enemy in line of battle. The ruse was quite successful, for Mar kept his ‘front towards the enemy to the north of us, who seemed at first as if they intended to march towards us’ (account by Mar in Patten). When the troops of Argyll, after coming within half a mile of the enemy, inclined to their left towards Dunblane, ‘the enemy,’ says Wightman, with quiet sarcasm, ‘behaved like civil gentlemen, and let us do what we pleased, so that we passed the Bridge of Dunblain, posted ourselves very securely, and lay on our arms all night.’ Mar withdrew to Ardoch, ‘whither,’ he complacently remarked, ‘we marched in very good order.’ He then fell back on Auchterarder, and as the highlanders began to disperse, the retreat was continued to Perth. By striking coincidences the day of Sheriffmuir saw also the capture of the town and castle of Inverness and the defeat at Preston. Mar now began to sound Argyll as to what terms he would be prepared to make. Argyll was not, however, empowered to treat, and when he made application to the government for an enlargement of his commission no answer was returned. Soon afterwards, on 22 Dec., the chevalier landed at Peterhead, and Mar having met him at Feteresso, and been created duke, accompanied him to the historical village of Scone, whence the chevalier issued several royal proclamations, one of which appointed his coronation to take place on 23 Jan. Mar also sent forth an address in which he described the prince ‘as really the finest gentleman I ever knew,’ and asserted that to have ‘him peaceably settled on his throne is what these kingdoms do not deserve; but he deserves it so much that I hope there is a good fate attending him’ (Patten, p. 76). To delay the march of Argyll northwards, orders were given by Mar on 17 Jan. in name of the king to burn Auchterarder and the other villages in his line of march, and also all corn and forage lest they might be ‘useful to the enemy.’ Such cruel expedients might have been justifiable in a great extremity, but Mar was now merely clutching at straws, without the least hope of being ultimately successful. Even a month before the chevalier landed he had resolved, he states in his ‘Journal,’ to abandon Perth as soon as the enemy marched against it. The orders for the devastation were carried out in the midst of a snowstorm, the cries of the women and children drawing tears from the eyes ‘even of the barbarous highlanders’ (accounts of the burning of the villages Auchterarder, Muthill, &c., in Miscellany of the Maitland Club, iii. 461). The highland chiefs, on learning of Argyll's approach, made every effort to persuade Mar to risk a battle, but in fact many days before this he had made arrangements for retreat and escape as soon as the advance of Argyll should furnish him with an excuse for doing so. When Argyll was at Tullibardine, eight miles from Perth, the city was abandoned by the rebels, the bulk of whom had crossed the Tay on the ice by ten o'clock on the morning of 31 Jan., Mar and the chevalier following in the rear about noon. The retreat, it must be admitted, was conducted with skill as well as expedition. So rapid was it that when Montrose was reached, Argyll was two days' march behind them. On the evening that they arrived there orders were given to the clans to be ready to march at eight in the morning to Aberdeen, where they were told reinforcements were expected to arrive immediately from France; but before the march began the chevalier had slipped privately out of the house where he lodged, and joined the Earl of Mar, who accompanied him by a bye-lane to the waterside, where a boat waited to convey them on board a French ship. They were subsequently joined by other leaders, and on 11 Feb. they were landed at Walden, near Gravelines. The clans meanwhile, after reaching Aberdeen under General Gordon, dispersed to their homes.
Mar accompanied the prince to St. Germain, where he busied himself with a variety of intrigues, the chief purpose of which was rather to obtain his own restoration than that of the Stuart family. One of these schemes was to secure the assistance of Charles XII of Sweden, whose favour he recommended the Jacobites in Scotland to procure by a present of oatmeal for his troops. Mar next, through Lockhart, made proposals to his late opponent Argyll, when he supposed the latter to be still
