Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/388

 380 THE HIGHLAND FORTS July naked '. Nevertheless he was soon out again and during August patrolled Appin. 1 The vigour which Scott showed during these months (or the disappointment which he had caused the rebels at Fort William) made him the most hated of English officers by the supporters of the Jacobite cause. That harsh things were done by Scott and others we need not doubt, though Mr. Fortescue's judgement that the highlanders were not likely to have been brought to reason without some harsh lesson is no less undoubtedly sound. Nor must it be forgotten that the highlanders themselves, when they got the opportunity, had not been backward in pillage and oppression. The terror which they excited amongst those who were peaceably disposed was not the least of the difficulties with which King George's officers in Scotland had to deal, and there were few on the spot who did not believe that some degree of severity was unavoidable. Yet misconduct when brought home was severely punished. Cumberland ordered four privates, who had been found guilty of marauding, to receive 1,500 lashes apiece, and cashiered an ensign for robbing a poor family of six guineas under pretence of authority to seize their effects. 2 Against Caroline Scott the most circumstantial charges were that he hanged three men who had surrendered ; and that, when after the siege of Fort William some of his men roughly pillaged a house in Glen Nevis, he did not punish them, though he restored such of the property as he could recover. These and other stories come from the Jacobite source The Lyon in Mourning? and we have not got Scott's own version. How little reliance can be placed on the tales in The Lyon in Mourning is illustrated by the allegation that Captain Miller of Guise's had been a prize-fighter : whereas in point of fact he was an officer in the Life Guards for eighteen years before he joined the Sixth Foot in 174 1. 4 But there were those with whom any trumped- up tale from a prejudiced quarter and any scurvy scandal were good enough for the disparagement of a loyal officer whether Englishman or Scot. Caroline Scott, like other brave soldiers before and since who have not feared to act in the hour of danger, has had to pay penalty by the unjust besmirching of his reputation. He is only Lang, 5 who has not a word to say of his share in the gallant 1 State Papers, Scotland, ii. 32, nos. 4, 9, 53 ; Lyon in Mourning, i. 93 ; Albemarle Papers, i. 16, 25, 332. 2 State Papers, Scotland, ii. 29, no. 27. 3 i. 93-5, 310 ; iii. 16, 72. 4 The Lyon in Mourning, i. 94 ; Dalton, George Vs Army, ii. 192. 8 History of Scotland, iv. 520 ; in the Life of Prince Charles Edward, p. 296, he becomes by an ornate epithet ' The cruel Captain Carolina Scott '. His real name was certainly ' Caroline ' and not ' Carolina '.
 * the much-detested Captain Carolina Scott ' to Mr. Andrew