Lord Lewis now collected all his available forces and marched to Stirling to join Prince Charles, who had returned from his English expedition; and by the first week in January 1746 Aberdeen was left without Jacobite troops. The battle of Falkirk was fought on January 17th, and on February 1st the army of Prince Charles began its retreat to the north. One column under Lord George Murray, taking the coast road, marched through Aberdeen and on to Elgin; another proceeded by Glenshee and Braemar, occupying for a time the northern districts of the county; the main body of the Highlanders went by Blair Atholl and Badenoch to Inverness. Two small French contingents landed at Aberdeenshire ports on February 21st and 22nd, but on the 23rd the last of the Jacobite army had left the town of Aberdeen. Meantime, Cumberland’s army was in full pursuit. It left Perth on February 20th, and the van reached Aberdeen on the 25th, the Duke himself following two days later. The Earl of Albemarle and General Bland, along with Brigadier Mordaunt, occupied Strathbogie, the Jacobites retiring before them. Lord John Drummond was entrusted with the defence of the passage of the Spey, but some troops were left under John Roy Stewart and Major Glascoe to carry on a guerrilla warfare. Glascoe, on March 20th, surprised a detachment of Campbell’s and Kingston’s horse at Keith, and captured nearly the whole garrison. Hitherto the loyal inhabitants of Aberdeen had murmured at the excesses of the Jacobite troops, but their complaints were more bitter at the excesses of those of the Government.[73] Houses were plundered and burned, the chapels and meeting-houses of Roman Catholics and Episcopalian non-jurors were destroyed, and the inhabitants were more or less terrorised. In the General Order Book of the Duke of Cumberland, an instance is given of the kind of punishment that was meted out. There was a certain loyal schoolmaster in the parish of Glass, who, having learned that John Roy Stewart intended to spring a surprise similar to that at Keith, warned Lord Albemarle of the intention. This warning had the effect of keeping the Government troops on the watch for several nights. No attack was made on them, however, and the General, believing that the intelligence had been given for the purpose of harassing the troops by depriving them of sleep (although in reality he had been saved by the vigilance he had exercised as the result of the schoolmaster’s information), sent the unfortunate informer to headquarters at Aberdeen. The punishment was very severe. In the Order Book, it is stated ‘that Peter Maconachy of Glass, convicted of spreading false intelligence in order to allarm our defence post, to be tied to a cart and whipped and drum’d through the cantoonments of Aberdeen, Old Meldrum, and Strathbogey, with a labell on his breast mentioning his crime. From Strathbogey he is to be turn’d out towards the rebells with orders never to come near where the army