Origins of the 'Forty-five : $b and other papers relating to that rising
History
Origins of the 'Forty-five : $b and other papers relating to that rising
Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746
And now by this time we had almost conducted our prisoners to Falkirk;
and, after delivering them, we went thoroughly wet and cold, to repose
ourselves a little while on straw, and some in the open fields or air,
all places being by this time entirely filled, so that it was then
impossible to find any resource or ease for our excessive hunger, wet
and cold. So resting a few hours in that condition, they soon after
appeared; and when light, we went to see the field of the slain; and
number being made of them, we found near seven hundred of the enemy
slain, and about fifty of ours, which were immediately interred. But
this cheap-bought victory, you will say, merited a better exit! The
most distinguished among the slain were Colonel Whitney and Sir Robert
Monro, who was heard much to blaspheme during the engagement, and as
a punishment for which, his tongue was miraculously cut asunder by
a sword, that struck him directly across the mouth. His brother, a
physician, was likewise killed at his side.[423] There were likewise
found slain, some Presbyterian Parsons,[424] who, fired with holy zeal,
had quitted their Bibles and took their swords. It was said, that one
of these Parsons, seeing the danger he was in of losing his life as a
Soldier, had recourse to his dignity, supposing that would be a cloak
to save him. ‘Spare my life,’ said he to a Highlander, who was on the
point of taking it, ‘for I am a Minister of My Master Jesus Christ!’
To which the other ingeniously replied: ‘If you are a good one, your
Master has need of you; if not, it’s fitting that you go and take your
punishment elsewhere!’--which dilemma was immediately solved by the
Highlander’s sword. Another Minister, seeing the case his Brother was
in, and being in a fair way to share the same fate, begged his life
of another Highlander for Prince Charles’s sake, by which means he
preserved what he would otherwise inevitably have lost.
We now took possession of the enemy’s baggage, camp, and eight pieces
of cannon; which they had not time to carry off--besides a few
prisoners, the chief of whom was Major Lockhart, who, after having his
life given him, and his liberty upon his parole of honour, afterwards
spurned against gratitude itself, by not only being heinously perjured,
but more than ordinarily thirsty of those prisoners’ blood who just
before had spared his life.[425]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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