Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/71

Rh offered him in the army, he chose to return, and I believe, the more willingly, as he did not expect there would have been an action."

The latter years of his life were rendered gloomy by bad health, and for some time before his death he appeared to move constantly under a serious anticipation of that event. When the insurrection of 1745 commenced in the Highlands, his raw regiment of dragoons constituted an important part of the small military force with which Sir John Cope was required to meet the coming storm. Cope marched in August into the Highlands, leaving Gardiner's and Hamilton's dragoon regiments in the low country; and when the insurgents, by a strange manœuvre, eluded the government general and descended upon the Lowlands, these inexperienced troops were all that remained to oppose their course. After an ineffectual attempt to protect Edinburgh, the two regiments fled in a panic to Dunbar, where they were rejoined by the foot under the command of Sir John Cope, and the whole army then marched towards the capital in order to meet and give battle to the clans. The worthy colonel was much depressed by the conduct of his men, and anticipated that they would not behave better in the action about to take place : he said, however, that though he could not influence the conduct of others, he had one life to sacrifice for his country's safety, and he would not spare it.

"The two hostile bodies came into view of each other on the 20th of September in the neighbourhood of his own house near Prestonpans. The Colonel drew up his regiment in the afternoon, and rode through all their ranks, addressing them at once in the most respectful and animating manner, both as soldiers and as Christians, to engage them to exert themselves courageously in the service of their country, and to neglect nothing that might have a tendency to prepare them for whatever event might happen. They seemed much affected with the address, and expressed a very ardent desire of attacking the enemy immediately: a desire, in which he and another very gallant officer of distinguished rank, dignity, and character, both for bravery and conduct, would gladly have gratified them, if it had been in the power of either. He earnestly pressed it on the commanding officer, as the soldiers, were then in better spirits than it could be supposed they would be after having passed the night under arms. He also apprehended, that by marching to meet them, some advantage might have been secured with regard to the ground; with which, it is natural to imagine, he must have been perfectly acquainted. He was overruled in this advice, as also in the disposition of the cannon, which he would have planted in the centre of our small army, rather than just before his regiment, which was in the right wing. And when he found that he could not carry either of these points, nor some others, which, out of regard to the common safety, he insisted upon with unusual earnestness, he dropped some intimations of the consequences he apprehended, and which did in fact follow; and submitting to providence, spent the remainder of the day in making as good a disposition as circumstances would allow.

He continued all night under arms, wrapped up in his cloak, and generally sheltered under a rick of barley which happened to be in the field. About three in the morning, he called his domestic servants to him, of which there were four in waiting. He dismissed three of them, with most affectionate Christian advice, and such solemn charges relating to the performance of their duty and the care of their souls, as plainly seemed to intimate, I hit he apprehended it at least very probable he was taking his last farewell of them. There is great reason to believe, that he spent the little remainder of the time, which could not be much above an hour, in those devout exercises of soul, which had so long been habitual to him, and to which so many circumstances did thew