Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/207

Rh they abandoned the place, leaving behind them six pieces of cannon, a number of small arms, and a large quantity of provisions. Several other small garrisons on the coast were abandoned about the same time, and a detachment of the Dutch and Swiss troops, crossing over at the Queensferry, took possession of Inverkeithing, Durifermline, and the neighbouring towns, in consequence of which Fife was entirely abandoned by the rebels. Some trifling skirmishes took place, but no one of such magnitude as to deserve a formal detail.

Cadogan, writing to the duke of Marlborough at this period, says, that he found the duke anxious to invent excuses for sitting still and endeavouring to discourage the troops, by exaggerating the numbers of the enemy, and the dangers and difficulties of the service. Now. however, having received from London, Berwick, and Edinburgh, a sufficient train of artillery, pontoons, engineers, &c. no excuse for inaction was left, but the inclemency of the weather; and this, in a council of war, it was determined to brave. Colonel Guest was accordingly sent out, on the 21st of January, 1716, with two hundred horse, to view the roads and reconnoitre the positions of the enemy. The colonel reported the roads impassable for carriages and heavy artillery, in consequence of which several thousands of the country people were called in and employed to clear them. A sudden thaw, on the 24th, followed by a heavy fall of snow, rendered the roads again impassable; but the march was determined upon, and the country men had to clear the roads a second time. But, besides the impassability of the roads, there were neither provisions, forage, nor shelter, (frozen rocks, and mountains of snow excepted,) to be found between Perth and Dunblane; the Chevalier, having ordered every village with all that could be of use either to man or beast, to be destroyed. Provisions and forage for the army were therefore to be provided, subsistence for twelve days being ordered to be carried along with them, and more to be in readiness to send after them when wanted. In the meantime, two regiments of dragoons and five hundred foot were sent forward to the broken bridge of Doune, in case the rebels might have attempted to secure the passage; and, on the 29th, the main army began its march, quartering that night in Dunblane. On the night of the 30th, the army quartered among the ruins of Auchterarder, without any covering save the canopy of heaven, the night being piercingly cold and the snow upwards of three feet deep. On this day's march the army was preceded by two thousand labourers clearing the roads. Next morning they surprised and made prisoners fifty men in the garrison of Tullibardine, Avhere the duke received, with visible concern, if we may credit Cadogan, the news of the Pretender having abandoned Perth on the preceding day, having thrown his artillery into the Tay, which he crossed on the ice. Taking four squadi*ons of dragoons, and two battalions of foot, whatever might be his feelings, Argyle hastened to take possession of that city, at which he arrived, with general Cadogan and the dragoons, about one o'clock on the morning of the 1st of February. The two colonels, Campbell of Finab, and Campbell of Lawers, who had been stationed at Finlarig, hearing of the retreat of the rebels, had entered the town the preceding day, and had made prisoners of a party of rebels who had got drunk upon a quantity of brandy, which they had not had the means otherwise to carry away. Eight hundred bolls of oat meal were found in Marr's magazine, which Argyle ordered to be, by the miller of the mill of Earn, divided among the sufferers of the different villages that had been burned by order of the Pretender. Finab was despatched instantly to Dundee in pursuit of the rebels; and entered it only a few hours after they had departed. On the 2d, his grace continued the pursuit, and lay that night at Errol. On the 3d, he came to Dundee, where he was joined by the main body of the army on the 4th. Here the intelligence from the rebel army led his grace to conclude that they meant to defend Montrose,