Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/361

A.D. 1716.] already on the verge of despair; from such lugubrious harangues nothing but disaster could follow. One of the very first measures adopted by this council, held on the 16th of January, was of a character also to alienate the Highlanders from his cause. It was to burn Auchterarder and all the other villages on the way to Stirling, to render more difficult the advance of Argyll against them. If the country was to be laid waste, and the inhabitants turned adrift in the midst of a terrible winter without house or means of livelihood, and that by the power they were supporting, the poor people might well ask what could the most ruthless enemy do worse? It is said that the pretender most reluctantly consented to it. Had he been a politic, not to say humane man, he would not have consented to it at all. He would rather have retired to some more inaccessible place amongst the hills, till his army was increased and capable of defending itself. But this fatal measure was only the result of a total want of management in the army. After all the time that Mar had lain at Perth, it was only now that he began to see the necessity of fortifying the town. Those measures, too, of summoning the absent clans, and bringing in arms and money, which should have been actively in process long before, were now only really beginning, and the end of such a campaign it was not difficult to foresee. Their only safety altogether arose out of the fact that Argyll himself was in no haste to molest them.

What were the motives of Argyll for his present most apparent reluctance to drive the pretender's fortunes to an extremity, do not clearly appear. It has been supposed that he was unwilling to shut himself out from all grace in case the Stuarts should again regain the throne. But this appears a very futile reason, for though the pretender was at length on the ground, nothing could be more improbable than his ultimate success. It has again been alleged that he did not wish to ruin the Highland chiefs who were engaged on the other side, lest he should lose his own signori rights over them; but this surely could not be the cause, for in maintaining the rights of the reigning sovereign he had the best guarantee of his own. But he was well known to be open to the most selfish influences, and probably there were just now such operating, though they have not come to the light. The government, however, was so sensible of his affected delays, that they sent general Cadogan to accelerate his movements. There may be one cause still which operated with Argyll. He had applied for an enlargement of his commission, in order to treat with and pardon such of the rebels as he thought expedient, and so far from granting this, the government had not even returned his commission. This, operating on a proud and interested nature, appears the most probable cause of his sudden loss of zeal. The coming of Cadogan to assume, as it were, a dictatorial power, might greatly strengthen this feeling of dissatisfaction. At all events, he appeared only the more averse to action. He pleaded, in reply to Cadogan's stimulating suggestions, the extreme rigour of the season, the necessary want of shelter and provisions on the way, from the burning of the villages. He contended also that it was useless advancing without sufficient artillery, and to remove this objection, Cadogan himself hastened to Berwick, and forwarded with all diligence a sufficient train. Still the duke was in no haste to move, and greatly discouraged his men by painting the arduous nature of the service, and exaggerating the numbers of the enemy. But Cadogan would admit of no excuse, and on the 24th of January the country people were employed to clear the snow from the road, preparatory to the advance of the army.

This very first movement showed that the little army of Highlanders might have been dispersed long before; that they had continued in Perth entirely by the sufferance of Argyll. No sooner did the news of the preparations for advance reach that city, than there was no longer any intention of holding it. A council was called, which sate all night on the 28th, to decide on the necessary course of action. The prevailing opinion was that they should evacuate the town, and retreat into the Highlands, so soon as they had seen the pretender safely embarked again at Montrose. The moment that this conclusion got wind, the soldiers rushed into the streets in tumultuous crowds, surrounded the houses of the officers, and expressed their indignation. One of the officers asked them what they would have them do. "Do!" cried the Highlander; "what did you call us to arms for? — was it to run away? What did the king come hither for? — was it to see his people butchered by hangmen, and not strike one stroke for their lives? Let us die like men, and not like dogs!"

But the soldiers did not know what was well known to many of the chiefs, that there were no inconsiderable number of the chiefs who were by no means willing to stake their all in a very unequal battle, but who had been negotiating with Argyll for their coming in; and though this had failed, were prepared rather to steal off into the hills than insure their certain ruin by a battle, followed by the laying waste or the confiscation of their territories. In this difficulty another council was held, but could come to no decision, and on the approach of the army of Argyll there was nothing left for it but to retire. On the 30th of January the rebel army marched out of Perth, the Highland soldiers, some in sullen silence, others in loud curses, expressing their anger and mortification at this proceeding. The inhabitants looked in terror, and bade adieu to the troops in tears, expecting only a heavy visitation for having so long harboured them. Early the next morning they crossed the deep and rapid Tay, now, however, a sheet of solid ice, and directed their march along the Carse of Gowrie towards Dundee.

Argyll, who received the news of the retreat about four in the afternoon of that day, sent and occupied Perth by Dutch and English troops by ten o'clock the next morning. They had quitted Stirling on the 29th, and that night they encamped on the snow amid the burnt remains of the village of Auchterarder. Argyll and Cadogan followed the advanced guard and entered Perth on the evening of the 1st of February; but the remainder of the troops did not arrive till late at night, owing to the state of the roads and the weather. Some few of the rebels, who had got drunk and were left behind, were secured. The next day Argyll and Cadogan, with eight hundred light foot and six squadrons of dragoons, followed along the Carse of Gowrie to Dundee. Cadogan, in a letter to Marlborough, complained of the evident reluctance of Argyll to press on the rebels.