stood behind the squadron with a led horse in his hand, was killed." The patience of the Highlanders was by this time completely exhausted, and they were clamorous to be led on to the attack. Charles had already sent a message to lord George Murray to attack, but a cannon ball arrested his messenger; another was sent to Lochiel, whose regiment stood next to the Athol brigade, desiring that he would represent to lord George the necessity of attacking instantly, and, at the very moment Lochiel and lord George were consulting together, the Macintoshes broke out from the centre of the front line, and advanced upon the Scots Fusiliers, who stood opposite to them. But the heavy fire of that regiment, together with the fieldpieces, made the Macintoshes incline to the right, where all the regiments, with one to their left, were coming down to the charge. These regiments advanced under a heavy fire of cannon, which were now loaded with grape shot, and musketry in their front, besides a most destructive. flank fire from Wolfe's regiment, notwithstanding which, they broke through Burrel's and Monro's regiments, sword in hand. Sempill's, who were immediately behind Burrel's, had advanced during the attack fifty or sixty paces, and their front rank kneeling and presenting, waited till Burrel's men had got out of the way, when the clans, who had broke through the line, having got close together, advanced furiously upon them, and received a terrible fire, that brought many of them to the ground, and made the most of those who did not fall, turn back. A few, desperate and furious, still attempted to break into Sempill's, and fell lifeless at the end of the soldiers' bayonets. In advancing to this desperate charge, the Athol brigade lost thirtytwo officers, and was so terribly shattered, that it stopped short, and never attempted to close with the king's troops.

The rebel regiments on the left, the Farquharsons, and the Macdonalds, came so near the line, as to draw upon themselves the fire of the regiments that were opposite to them, which 'they returned by a general discharge, and the Macdonalds had drawn their swords for the attack, but the heavy fire against which they had to advance, and the sight of their broken and flying companions, with the chagrin they felt on account of

their being placed on the left of the line, determined them to save themselves by flight, and they also went off.*

The total overthrow of the rebel army was now certain, but the king's troops were not permitted as yet to commence the pursuit. The regiments of foot, from right to left, were ordered to keep their ground, and dress their ranks. The horse on the right of the king's army, were almost in the act of falling in on the Macdonalds, sword in hand, when the Irish piquets came down from their place in the second line, and fired upon the dragoons, who made a halt, and the Macdonalds fell back into that line. The two lines joined, made still a considerable body of men; but their spirits were broken, and their condition altogether irretrievable. During the rash attack they had made, and which had ended so fatally, two companies of the Argyleshire men, and one company of lord Loudon's regiment, pulled down the park wall that flanked their right, and entering, with Bland and the dragoons he commanded, put one hundred men to the sword, who had been placed in the park to defend the walls. They then proceeded to the west wall of the park, which they also threw down, in consequence of which, the dragoons had free access into the plain muir, and were already fully formed close on the rear of the rebels, and ready to fall upon them the moment the victorious infantry in their front should advance. No sooner did the duke begin to move, than the confusion that already prevailed among the rebels was completed, and they began to separate in all directions. The principal part of them, however, divided into two large bodies, one of which being mostly western Highlanders, took the road to Badenoch, and the hills of their own country-the other, consisting of the Frazers, lord John Drummond's regiment, the Irish piquets, &c. took the road for Inverness. The dragoons had already, from the right and left of the duke's army, met each other charging across the field of battle, and now did terrible execution upon the poor weary and dispirited stragglers, with whose mangled carcasses the fields and the roads were strewed till within a mile of Inverness.

Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 510. Home's History of the Rebellion, pp. 168, 169.

!

Charles, when he saw his army begin to give way, which, till he saw it, he seems to have thought an event that could never happen, talked, it is said, of advancing to rally them; but being told by Sir Thomas Sheridan that it was impossible, and Sullivan taking his horse by the bridle, and turning him about, he made his escape, attended by a few horse, and crossing the water of Nairn by the ford of Falie, about three miles from the field of battle, rested for some time in a cottage on the south side of the Nairn. Here he dismissed the horse, with most of his attendants, desiring them to go to Ruthven, where they would receive further orders. Having thus bid adieu to royalty, he, with a few of his particular favourites, among whom were Sir Thomas Sheridan, Sullivan, O'Niel, and Hay, set out for Frazer's of Gortuleg, where he arrived about sunset, and where he met for the first and last time with old Lovat, who, though on being informed of his approach as a fugitive he poured forth against him the bitterest execrations, as having brought inevitable ruin upon the house of Lovat, received him with great respect, kneeling and kissing his hands. Here Charles took supper, and two hours' sleep; then, after changing his clothes, set out for Invergarrie, which he made the first stage of a pilgrimage, that was long continued, perilous in the extreme, and which nothing but the sympathy of some who were his enemies, joined to the extraordinary fidelity of his friends, could have saved from a fatal termination.*

Marching on to Inverness, the duke of Cumberland was met by a drummer with a message from general Stapleton offering to surrender, and asking quarter. He was answered by a pencil note, assuring him of fair quarter and honourable treatment. Captain Campbell of Sempill's regiment, with a company of grenadiers, was then sent forward to take possession of Inverness, and the French and the Irish laid down their arms, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war.†

This victory, important and decisive as it proved to be, was gained with very little loss on the part of his majesty's troops. The killed and wounded did not much exceed three hundred,

officers included. The only person of distinction that was among the slain was lord Robert Ker, second son to the marquis of Lothian, captain of grenadiers in Burrel's regiment, who at the head of his men received the foremost man in the attack upon his spontoon, and, being rather in advance, before he could recover his weapon, was pierced with many wounds, and killed on the spot.* The number of killed on the part of the rebels has never been, perhaps could not be, ascertained. Newspapers and magazines published at that time made it very great, some of them three thousand. It has been stated so low as one thousand, which we cannot but think considerably beneath the truth. The Maclauchlins, the Macleans, the Macintoshes, the Frazers, the Stuarts, and the Camerons, being the division of the rebels that made the attack, had the most of their chiefs killed, and almost every man in each regiment who occupied the front rank. Maclauchlan, colonel of the Maclauchlans and the Macleans-for they made but one regiment-was killed by a cannon ball, and Maclean of Drimnin, who succeeded to the command, having brought off his shattered regiment, and missing two out of three sons that were along with him, turned back to look for them, and was killed by a random shot. The colonel of the Macintosh regiment, Macgillavray of Drumnaglass, was killed, with the lieutenant-colonel, the major, and all the officers except three. Young Inveralachie, Charles Frazer, who in the absence of the master of Lovat, commanded the Frazers, was among the slain. The master himself was bringing up a re-enforcement of three hundred men, with which he met the flying army half way between Inverness and Culloden. The Stuarts of Appin suffered severely both in officers and men; but Ardshiel, who commanded them, had the good fortune to escape. Macdonald of Keppoch, when the Macdonalds went off without attempting to charge, advanced with his drawn sword in one hand, and his pistol in the other; but scarcely had he left his men, when he received a shot, and fell. A friend kindly followed him, and conjured him not to throw away his life, but to retreat with his friends, and save himself for a more fortunate attempt.

* Scots Magazine for 1746.