Chapter 26
Doune - Saturday January 4th, 1746
Snow lay on the ground. Icicles hung from the trees. Doune was a cold damp place. Stone walls retained the damp which oozed through the fractured slates of the roof. Rob had taken Jean back to Stronachlachar some weeks earlier. The life of a country at war had become as much a monotony as it could be. There was the constant round of guarding the prisoners while preventing their reluctant guardians from desertion. The surrounding area had been subject to requisition for supplies until there was no more to be had. Foraging parties from Jacobite units at Alloa, Dunblane and even as far as Perth had been seen in the area. So far there had been no news of the army in England.
The Jacobite army had almost four thousand men under arms in the area from Dundee to the Lennox, sufficient to hold the country and forage at will. South of the Forth, matters were different. The Whig gentlemen had become brave during the absence of the Prince and his army in the South. The garrisons at Stirling and Edinburgh made periodic sweeps, rendering expeditions beyond the fords dangerous if not carried out in strength. Naval vessels in the Forth sailed upstream as far as Alloa, putting marines ashore where-ever they wished.
Food was in short supply. The countryside was hungry. Rob had led expeditions through the Lennox and Menteith, but the farmers were careful. Few beasts could be seen and stores of grain were well hidden. Rob knew the effect of dearth on families. Though he had no compunction about killing in battle or taking his enemies’ cattle, it was a different matter taking morsels from the mouths of women and children. Others had less compunction. Though he had not seen any evidence, tales circulated of Highlanders who raped, burned and pillaged. It was strange how this was invariably reported about the next village but not this one.
The garrons were hungry, but the hay was running short at Doune and no more could be found. Lord John Drummond’s messengers galloped in, day after day, on their fine chargers demanding the best of attention for their mounts before riding back to Perth.
It had been another such day, when the messenger arrived, with his horse in a lather despite the cold. He had arrived from the South over the fords. Rob remembered he had not visited the outposts today. He held the horse as the messenger dismounted, announcing, “the Prince and the army are at Bannockburn, in preparation for laying siege to Stirling Castle. You are required to provide as many men as you are able to join them there. Let me have another horse. I have to proceed to Perth, forthwith.”
Rob hurried upstairs to Glengyle’s quarters to inform him of the news. They had almost one hundred and fifty men in the area, thirty in Doune castle, twenty or so guarded the fords, and the remainder lodged around the village. In addition, MacKinnon had arrived with nearly a hundred who were also billeted on the householders of Doune.
It took little time for Glengyle to gather his company. He decided to remain behind with a handful of older men to guard the prisoners. His ague was troubling him. Foraging parties were out and further parties of recruits were expected. However, within the hour more than 200 men were splashing their way through the swollen icy waters of the ford, led by MacKinnon and Rob.
The situation at Cambusbarron, where Rob found the Prince’s army, was confused. Detachments were being sent to positions around the castle, then their orders countermanded and they were sent elsewhere. It did not seem clear who was giving orders. Rob met Duncan Macpharrie at Bannockburn. He told him that Glencarnaig was at Falkirk with Lord George and that he had been sent to Balquhidder to raise more men.
“What news of the clan?” Rob asked. “Were we defeated? How is it that the army has returned?”
“Well Rob, “MacPharrie answered. “We marched into England. We took Carlisle. Then Preston and Manchester. Then we marched to a place called Derby. We had no opposition tho’ Glencarnaig told me there were armies in the field against us. Then we turned around and marched back again. There was a skirmish at a place called Clifton. We inflicted losses on the dragoons, but we suffered a trifle ourselves. We dunned Dumfries and Glasgow for clothes and now we are here again.”
“Did the Prince find supporters? Would not the English rise against German George?” Rob interrupted.
“I saw little evidence of support and hardly a recruit did we find. Let me tell you a tale.” MacPharrie continued. “Glencarnaig and others of our regiment were billeted in the house of a English widow-woman. She had fed us tolerably well and then came into the room wherein we were seated. She said to us ‘Now that you gentleman have finished pillaging for the day, I should like to know when the ravishing will begin.’ Have you ever heard the like of it? I have a broadsheet here that we found. It contains nothing but lies and calumnies. The English have painted us savages and cannibals. They say we steal and destroy everything in our path, that we rape the women and dash out the brains of their children. The Prince wished to continue on to London. Lord George advised that lacking recruits in our advance, we could not prevail against Wade and Cumberland. He and the chiefs insisted that we return to Scotland. Glencarnaig says that Lord George is now ignored by the Prince. He listens only to O’Sullivan and the other Irish.”
The fifth of January passed in uncertainty and confusion. On the sixth, Rob was asked to provide his men to assist in the digging of trenches for the siege of the castle. Monsieur Mirabelle, the French siege engineer, proved less than able. No sooner had Rob communicated to his men M. Mirabelle’s requirement to commence trenches at a particular point, than the order was countermanded.
Rob sought out Major Evan at the staff headquarters. “Evan,” he said. “This man Mirabelle is deluded and affected. He tells us to do this, and we do it and it is wrong. The clan is here to fight, not dig holes for a cockatrice! We are under bombardment from the Castle and have lost some of our number to no useful purpose. Would you have us deployed elsewhere, forthwith, where we can be used to better utility? Where is the Prince? I have not seen him.”
“I shall ask the Prince to deploy your men elsewhere.” Evan agreed. “The Prince spends his time at Bannockburn House. Sir Hugh Patterson’s niece, Clementina Walkinshaw is there. By all accounts she has set her cap at him. He is infatuated with her.”
The days passed. Evan was as good as his word, but their alternative duty was foraging in force. The continuing necessity to find food was brutalising. No longer did the stock on the hill above Seton of Touch remain safe from the requisitions of the army.
General Hawley had arrived in Edinburgh. The forces under his command were increasing as the naval transports landed more and more men and supplies at Leith. So far, Hawley had not moved. Glencarnaig remained with Lord George Murray, holding the Edinburgh road at Falkirk.
On the 14th of January, the whole Jacobite army was drawn together leaving just twelve hundred in the trenches around Stirling. Lord George had retired from Falkirk to Bannockburn before Hawley’s advance. The Jacobite army, eight thousand strong, stood in line of battle. They stood and stood. Foraging had been suspended, supplies were short and yet Hawley did not move.
Rob was in despair. The men wanted movement and action, not this standing in line like so many kyloes for the flesher’s knife. Desertion had become a problem again. Clan Gregor suffered less than others, but when O’Sullivan ordered a recaptured deserter to be shot as an example, the feeling was ugly. The Highland officers of the staff protested. The order was countermanded.
Evan approached Rob at dawn on the seventeenth. “We are to advance on Hawley as he seems reluctant to move upon us. The order is to raise as many as possible from all our camps, excluding only those in the trenches. The Prince asked specifically about Glengyle and those presently at Doune. He appeared anxious that Glengyle should be present at the battle, following upon his great service at Gladsmuir.”
So it was that Rob returned to Doune where he found Glengyle with almost a hundred of the Clan together with Ludovic Cameron of Torcastle, who had arrived with almost two hundred recruits for Lochiel.
“Did you meet with
MacPharrie at the fords?” Glengyle asked Rob. “He came by here with seventeen men for Glencarnaig less than an hour since.
This time, they took almost every man with them, leaving just five to ward the prisoners.
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