Waverley — Volume 2 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 328 pages of information about Waverley — Volume 2.

Waverley — Volume 2 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 328 pages of information about Waverley — Volume 2.
presence at Holyrood with unceremonious haste, without having attended to the duties of the toilet.  The Prince received him kindly, but not without a hint that a previous interview with the barber might not have been wholly unnecessary.  ’It is not beardless boys,’ answered the displeased Chief, ’who are to do your Royal Highness’s turn.’  The Chevalier took the rebuke in good part.

On the whole, if Prince Charles had concluded his life soon after his miraculous escape, his character in history must have stood very high.  As it was, his station is amongst those a certain brilliant portion of whose life forms a remarkable contrast to all which precedes and all which follows it.

Note 13, p. 195

The following account of the skirmish at Clifton is extracted from the manuscript Memoirs of Evan Macpherson of Cluny, Chief of the clan Macpherson, who had the merit of supporting the principal brunt of that spirited affair.  The Memoirs appear to have been composed about 1755, only ten years after the action had taken place.  They were written in France, where that gallant chief resided in exile, which accounts for some Gallicisms which occur in the narrative.

’In the Prince’s return from Derby back towards Scotland, my Lord George Murray, Lieutenant-General, cheerfully charg’d himself with the command of the rear, a post which, altho’ honourable, was attended with great danger, many difficulties, and no small fatigue; for the Prince, being apprehensive that his retreat to Scotland might be cut off by Marischall Wade, who lay to the northward of him with an armie much supperior to what H.R.H. had, while the Duke of Comberland with his whole cavalrie followed hard in the rear, was obliged to hasten his marches.  It was not, therefore, possible for the artilirie to march so fast as the Prince’s army, in the depth of winter, extremely bad weather, and the worst roads in England; so Lord George Murray was obliged often to continue his marches long after it was dark almost every night, while at the same time he had frequent allarms and disturbances from the Duke of Comberland’s advanc’d parties.

’Towards the evening of the twentie-eight December 1745 the Prince entered the town of Penrith, in the Province of Comberland.  But as Lord George Murray could not bring up the artilirie so fast as he wou’d have wish’d, he was oblig’d to pass the night six miles short of that town, together with the regiment of MacDonel of Glengarrie, which that day happened to have the arrear guard.  The Prince, in order to refresh his armie, and to give My Lord George and the artilirie time to come up, resolved to sejour the 29th at Penrith; so ordered his little army to appear in the morning under arms, in order to be reviewed, and to know in what manner the numbers stood from his haveing entered England.  It did not at that time amount to 5000 foot in all, with about 400 cavalrie, compos’d of the noblesse who serv’d as volunteers, part of whom form’d

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Waverley — Volume 2 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.