Chapter 16
Linlithgow to Kirkliston - Sunday 15th September, 1745
Rob took the opportunity to sleep in Linlithgow palace. A dragoon’s paliasse filled with straw, seemed more attractive than the mud of the courtyard. He wakened on Sunday morning, scratching. The dragoon had left behind more than his paliasse; his fleas were in it. Rob emerged into the daylight. He heard the Clan Donald pipers in the distance as the army approached the town. The sun was up. He had slept for several hours, but these unwelcome lodgers would have to go. He was not alone. Verminous scum these troopers must be. Fully clothed Rob waded into Linlithgow loch. Slowly he immersed himself holding a piece of woollen fabric in his hand. He allowed plenty of time for the fleas to move away from the rising water. When his eyes and mouth were just clear of the water he lowered his right arm and the plaid, giving time for the insects to jump onto the rag. At last he let go of it and wriggled free of the plaid. Dragging the sodden garment behind him, he left the water. A convenient wall sufficed to beat the material. He wrung out his linen shirt and pulled it on. He squeezed as much water out of the plaid as he could, gathered it around his waist and tied his belt. Dripping water, he sprinted up the hillside to drive the chill out of his bones. Fleas were a dreadful pest! For this reason, clansmen usually preferred sleeping in the open to the doubtful pleasures of lodging houses.
“Come, Rob,” Evan called to him, as he armed himself. “Bring some of your lads, there are weapons at Borrowstounness, so I am told.”
Quickly they got together a band of a hundred or so of Clan Gregor and assorted Clan Donald men. It appeared that there was a magazine at Kinneil House, outside the little port of Borrowstounness.
The house was deserted when the reached it. The occupants had fled. The search did not require much time. They found one hundred stand of muskets in the house and army issue broadswords as well. They commandeered carts from the village and loaded the weapons with several barrels of powder to return to Linlithgow.
By now the Prince had come up and his staff had taken over the palace. Bonfires burned in the courtyard, piled high with some of the rubbish left by the dragoons. The Prince ordered that the bulk of the army should remain outwith the town. As it was Sunday he ordered that the Church bells rung and the minister commanded to conduct service for the town in the usual manner. However, though the congregation attended, the minister himself had fled.
Glengyle ordered a parade of the regiment. Although Captain Evan and Rob had been successful in obtaining militia ordnance, the Commissariat requisitioned most of it for the other regiments. The Clan Gregor regiment was among the better equipped in the army, thanks to Inversnaid and their other ventures, but not every one was properly armed. Some had old, unserviceable muskets, others carried pitchforks and scythes on poles as makeshift pikes. Apart from the older men left at Doune, most of the men who had mustered at Callander a week earlier still remained with them. Since leaving the Highlands there had been few incentives to desert.
In the evening, camp was pitched between Winchburgh and Kirkliston. The Prince slept in a farmhouse that night. The army took up battle positions, ready to face the dragoons in the morning. They slept where they lay.
MacGregor Page 18
