Perhaps the right course now was to advance on Edinburgh, but the hopeless siege of Stirling Castle was continued—­Charles perhaps hoping much from Hawley’s captured guns.

The accidental shooting of young AEneas Macdonnell, second son of Glengarry, by a Clanranald man, begat a kind of blood feud between the clans, and the unhappy cause of the accident had to be shot.  Lochgarry, writing to young Glengarry after Culloden, says that “there was a general desertion in the whole army,” and this was the view of the chiefs, who, on news of Cumberland’s approach, told Charles (January 29) that the army was depleted and resistance impossible.

The chiefs were mistaken in point of fact:  a review at Crieff later showed that even then only 1000 men were missing.  As at Derby, and with right on his side, Charles insisted on meeting Cumberland.  He did well, his men were flushed with victory, had sufficient supplies, were to encounter an army not yet encouraged by a refusal to face it, and, if defeated had the gates of the hills open behind them.  In a very temperately written memorial Charles placed these ideas before the chiefs.  “Having told you my thoughts, I am too sensible of what you have already ventured and done for me, not to yield to your unanimous resolution if you persist.”

Lord George, Lovat, Lochgarry, Keppoch, Ardshiel, and Cluny did persist; the fatal die was cast; and the men who—­well fed and confident—­might have routed Cumberland, fled in confusion rather than retreated,—­to be ruined later, when, starving, out-wearied, and with many of their best forces absent, they staggered his army at Culloden.  Charles had told the chiefs, “I can see nothing but ruin and destruction to us in case we should retreat.” {287}

This retreat embittered Charles’s feelings against Lord George, who may have been mistaken—­who, indeed, at Crieff, seems to have recognised his error (February 5); but he had taken his part, and during the campaign, henceforth, as at Culloden, distinguished himself by every virtue of a soldier.

After the retreat Lord George moved on Aberdeen; Charles to Blair in Atholl; thence to Moy, the house of Lady Mackintosh, where a blacksmith and four or five men ingeniously scattered Loudoun and the Macleods, advancing to take him by a night surprise.  This was the famous Rout of Moy.

Charles next (February 20) took Inverness Castle, and Loudoun was driven into Sutherland, and cut off by Lord George’s dispositions from any chance of joining hands with Cumberland.  The Duke had now 5000 Hessian soldiers at his disposal:  these he would not have commanded had the Prince’s army met him near Stirling.