Her appearance, if we are to accredit contemporary statements, must have
been extremely singular. Having collected a troop of two hundred and
fifty men, she marched at the head of it to the camp at Glenfinnin. She
was dressed in a sea-green riding-habit, with a scarlet lappet, laced
with gold; her hair was tied behind in loose curls, and surmounted with
a velvet cap, and a scarlet feather. She rode a bay gelding, with green
furniture, richly trimmed with gold; in her hand she carried a naked
sword instead of a riding-whip. Her countenance is described as being
agreeable, and her figure handsome;[279] her eyes were fine, and her
hair as black as jet. In conversation she was full of intelligence and
vivacity.[280] The Prince, it is said, rode out of the lines to receive
her, and to welcome the addition to his army, and conducted her to a
tent with much ceremony. It was reported that Mrs. Cameron continued in
the camp as the commander of her troop, and accompanied the Prince into
England. But this account is contradicted by Bishop Forbes. "She was so
far," he says, "from accompanying the Prince's army, that she went off
with the rest of the spectators as soon as the army marched; neither did
she ever follow the camp, nor was ever with the Prince but in
public,[281] when he had his Court in Edinburgh."[282]
The Prince remained at Glenfinnin two days, and was observed to be in
high spirits. Here he was presented by Major Macdonell with the first
good horse that he had mounted in Scotland. Charles Edward then marched
his little army to Lochiel, which is about five miles from Glenfinnin,
resting first at Fassefern, the seat of Lochiel's brother, and then
proceeded to a village called Moidh, belonging to Lochiel.
From this time the fate of Lochiel was inevitably bound up with that of
the Prince. At the siege of Edinburgh he distinguished himself at the
head of his Camerons in the following manner:--When the deputies who
were appointed by the town council to request a further delay from
Charles set out in a hackney coach for Gray's Mill to prevail upon Lord
George Murray to second their application, as the Netherbow Port was
opened to let out their coach, the Camerons, headed by Lochiel, rushed
in and took possession of the city. The brave chief afterwards obtained
from Prince Charles the guard of the city, as he was more acquainted
with Edinburgh than the rest of the Highland chiefs; and his discipline
was so exact that the city guns, persons, and effects were as secure
under his care as in the time of peace. There was indeed some pilfering
in the country, but not more than was to be expected in the
neighbourhood of an army of undisciplined Highlanders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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