If you read A Dance Called
America by James Hunter, you will not want to miss his latest
book, Culloden and the Last Clansman. If you missed the
first dance, do yourself a favor and not miss this one. A wonderful tune
it is!
James Hunter writes about the murder
of Colin Campbell, a government agent and staunch Hanoverian. We are led
to believe the accused murderer may be James Stewart, a supporter of
Bonnie Prince Charlie and a staunch Jacobite. The author has lived his
entire life in the same community where the murder took place 250 years
ago. In this book, Hunter rivals Sir Walter Scott, the greatest writer of
his time and father of the historical novel. The tale that the author
weaves in this case with his use of historical facts is nothing short of
brilliant. You cannot compare Hunter to Robert Burns because he does not
write poetry and Burns did not write stories like Hunter. Scott did both,
and although Scott has not been in vogue for many years, there are signs
that is he "starting to come back into fashion again after long neglect,"
according to Stewart Lamont in his book, When Scotland Ruled the
World.
Now, back to the story. This murder
shook all of Great Britain, from the man in the street to the man on the
throne, George II. Someone had to pay for the murder of Colin Campbell.
The most likely suspect, Alan Breck Stewart, had quietly slipped out of
the country, leaving James Stewart guilty by association. The Duke of
Cumberland (yes, the "Butcher" himself) thought the Scottish authorities
were treating this matter too lightly.
Thus, both the policies and
loyalties of the Scottish authorities were called into question, and the
King’s younger son, the British hero of the ’45 (he of the flower named
after him, "Sweet William" in England but forever known as "Stinking
Willie" in Scotland) "thought it prudent to ensure that James Stewart was
hanged."
Scotland’s Lord Justice General and
Lord Advocate both tired the case, one as judge and the other as
prosecutor. History records that the former was a Campbell and the latter
was a Grant. Both were on the hot seat almost as much as the man fighting
for his life. Even though a panel of three judges was used, no one wanted
London to feel anything but their loyalty and obedience. To make sure the
verdict was a "guilty" one (a verdict authorities wanted and had to have
to maintain good relations with the Hanoverian government), a jury of
fifteen men was selected, eleven of them Campbells. How about them
numbers! A better jury could not have been found, bribed or paid for on
behalf of the Scottish authorities.
The trial began at five o’clock in
the morning and did not break until fifty hours later. Why so long? During
those days, Scottish criminal courts required evidence to be heard in a
single sitting, and sixty witnesses, a mockery if there ever was one, were
heard during that time. No wonder it took three judges! Adding to the
government’s case was the fact that a recently fired gun that belonged to
James had been dug up along with some broadswords. James helped set the
noose around his own neck with his loose whisky talk and threats about and
toward Colin Campbell. Some testified that James had planned the ambush of
Colin Campbell that was carried out by Alan Breck, and James did not
refute that testimony. The handwriting was on the wall, and it was as if
James was reconciled to meeting his fate. The only question left for us to
ask since it was proven that James sent Alan money after the
assassination, is why it took five hours of deliberation to come up with
the "guilty as charged" verdict.
He was sentenced to hang…in chains.
Months later, while on the scaffold, he said, "I die a worthy member of
the Episcopal Church of Scotland…may the same God pardon and forgive all
that ever did or wished me evil, as I do from my heart forgive them…Come,
Lord Jesus, come quickly." As he climbed the steps to meet his
executioner, it is said he quoted verses from Psalm 35 ending with "Lord,
rescue my soul from their destructions."
Cnap a’ Chaolais, the location where
Stewart was hanged, was well traveled by Highlanders and chosen by the
government to send a message of intimidation to all who passed by. The
Hanoverians wanted all to see the "gruesome spectacle of James Stewart’s
chained-up and slowly rotting corpse." A detachment of officers, including
seventeen soldiers, watched over his body day and night. More than two
years after the hanging, portions of his still remaining skeleton fell to
the ground. Edinburgh immediately smelled a conspiracy by Highlanders and
launched an investigation, only to find that a winter gale had caused the
bones to fall. In an effort to keep James hanging around a little longer,
soldiers from Fort William came to put the bones back on the gibbet since
local people would have no part of such a gruesome chore. Even the
soldiers had to be induced by whisky to replace Stewart’s bones on the
gibbet!
More years passed and down came
James again, a bone at a time. This time, however, a Culloden veteran,
John Stewart, gathered up each one. This Stewart eventually pieced
together enough of the skeletal remains of James to arrange for a burial
inside the crumbling walls of the auld Keil church at Duror. I believe
James Hunter proves his point "that, when they hanged James Stewart on the
afternoon of Wednesday, 8 November 1752, the Hanoverian authorities also
hanged the last clansman" since by this time the Clan system (as a lot of
us want to believe was still possible) was no more. All that was left of
the old Clan system was memories. Or, should I say, the romance of the old
Clan system is all that was left, then and today.
Hunter’s style of writing makes you
want to stay up all night to finish the book. His reputation is such that
you want him to hurry and get his next book to the marketplace. If I was
to score this book like I did my students at Roseboro High School in North
Carolina too many years ago to tell, James Hunter would get an A+. I think
Sir Walter Scott might give him the same!