In the flight of the Prince's army, most of the left wing took the road
to Inverness; the right wing crossed the water of Nairn, and went to
Ruthven of Badenoch; the rest, to the number of five hundred, mostly
officers, followed the Prince into Stratherick, where he had stopped
about four miles from the field of Culloden. Of the Prince's conduct
after the battle, a very painful impression is given by Lord Elcho. "As
he had taken it into his head he had been betrayed, and particularly by
Lord George Murray, he seemed very diffident of everybody except the
Irish officers; and he appeared very anxious to know whether he had
given them all higher commissions than they had at their arrival, on
purpose that they might get them confirmed to them upon their return to
France. He neither spoke to any of the Scots' officers present, nor
inquired after any of the absent. Nor, indeed, at any of the preceding
battles did he ever inquire after any of the wounded officers. He
appeared very uneasy as long as the Scots were about him; and in a short
time ordered them all to go to Ruthven of Badenoch, where he would send
them orders; but before they had rode a mile, he sent Mr. Sheridan after
them, to tell them that they might disperse, and everybody shift for
himself the best way he could. Lord George Murray and Lord John Drummond
repeated the same orders to all the body of the army that had assembled
at Ruthven. The Prince kept with him some of Fitzjames's Horse, and went
that night to a house in the head of Stratherick, where he met Lord
Lovat and a great many other Scots' gentlemen, who advised him not to
quit the country, but to stay and gather together his scattered forces.
But he was so prejudiced against the Scots, that he was afraid they
would give him up to make their peace with the Government; for some of
the Irish were at pains to relate to him, in very strong terms, how the
Scots had already sold his great-grandfather to the English: and, as he
was naturally of a suspicious temper, it was not a difficult matter to
persuade him of it. And he always believed it until the fidelity of the
Highlanders shown to him during the long time he was hid in their
country, convinced him and everybody else of the contrary."[198]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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