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Charles, who, from the small eminence on
which he stood, had observed with the deepest concern the defeat and flight of the clan
regiments, was about proceeding forward to rally them, contrary to the earnest entreaties
of Sir Thomas Sheridan and others, who assured him that he would not succeed. All their
expostulations would, it is said, have been in vain, had not General O'Sullivan laid hold
of the bridle of Charles's horse, and led him off the field. It was, indeed, full time to
retire, as the whole army was now in full retreat, and was followed by the whole of
Cumberland's forces. To protect the prince and secure his retreat, most of his horse
assembled about his person; but there was little danger, as the victors advanced very
leisurely, and confined themselves to cutting down some defenceless stragglers who fell in
their way. After leaving the field, Charles put himself at the head of the right wing,
which retired in such order that the cavalry sent to pursue could make no impression upon
it.
At a short distance from the field of battle,
Charles separated his army into two parts. One of these divisions, consisting, with the
exception of the Frasers, of the whole of the Highlanders and the low country regiments,
crossed the water of Nairn, and proceeded fowards Badenoch; and the other, comprising the
Frasers, Lord John Drummond's regiment, and the French piquets, took the road to
Inverness. The first division passed within pistol-shot of the body of English cavalry,
which, before the action, had formed in the rear of the Highland army, without the least
interruption. An English officer, who had the temerity to advance a few paces to seize a
Highlander, was instantly cut down by him and killed on the spot. The Highlander, instead
of running away, deliberately stooped down, and pulling out a watch from the pocket of his
victim, rejoined his companions. From the plainness of the ground over which it had to
pass, the smaller body of the prince's army was less fortunate, as it suffered
considerably from the attacks of the duke's light horse before it reached Inverness.
Numerous small parties, which had detached themselves from the main body, fell under the
sabres of the cavalry; and many of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood, who,
from motives of curiosity, had come out to witness the battle, were slaughtered, without
mercy by the ferocious soldiery, who, from the similarity of their dress, were perhaps
unable to discriminate them from Charles's troops.
This indiscriminate massacre continued all the way from the
field of battle to a place called Mill-burn, within a mile of Inverness. Not content with
the profusion of bloodshed in the heat of action and during the pursuit, the infuriated
soldiery, provoked by their disgraces at Preston and Falkirk, traversed the field of
battle, and massacred in cold blood the miserable wretches who lay maimed and expiring.
Even some officers, whose station in society, apart altogether from the feeling of
humanity, to which they were utter strangers, should have made them superior to this
vulgar triumph of base and illiberal minds, joined in the work of assassination. To
extenuate the atrocities committed in the battle, and the subsequent slaughters, a forged
regimental order, bearing to be signed by Lord George Murray, by which the Highlanders
were enjoined to refuse quarters to the royal troops, was afterwards published, it is
said, under the auspices of the Duke of Cumberland; but the deception was easily seen
through. As no such order was alluded to in the official accounts of the battle, and as,
at the interview which took place between the Earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino, on
the morning of their execution, both these noblemen stated their entire ignorance of it,
no doubt whatever can exist of the forgery. The conduct of Charles and his followers, who
never indulged in any triumph over their vanquished foes, but always treated them with
humanity and kindness, high as it is, stands still higher when contrasted with that of the
royal troops and their commander. |
