summons (said Sir Walter Scott, in the Quarter@
Revkw,) instead of rousing the hearts of the
volunteers, like the sound of a trumpet, rather
reminded them of a passing knell. Most pitiful
was the bearing of the volunteers, according to Dr.
Carlyle of Inveresk, who was one of them on this
occasion. ? The ladies in the windows treated us
very variously; many with lamentation, and even
with tears, and some with scorn and derision. In
one house on the south side of the street there was
a row of windows
full of ladies, who
appeared to enjoy
our march to danger
with much mirth and
levity.? He adds
that these civic warriors
were about to
fire on these ladies;
but they pulled their
windows down.
Summoned from
Leith, the 14th Dragoons
came spurring
up the street, huzzaing
and clashing their
swords in silly bravado
; the volunteers
began their march,
with wives and children
clinging to them,
imploring them not
to risk their lives
against wild Highland
savages ; but resolutely
enough their
The preposterous idea of meeting the Highlanders
in the open field was abandoned; the
remains of the force were led to the College yards
and dismissed for the evening ; but the City Guard,
the men of the Edinburgh Regiment, and the
cavalry, went out to reconnoitre as far as Corstorphine.
Seeing nothing of the enemy, the famous
~ and pious Colonel Gardiner of the 13th Dragoons,
who commanded the whole, halted in the fields
between Edinburgh and Leith, leaving a small party
OLD HOUSES, WEST now.
(From a MeawredDrazuing by T. Hamilton, pirUiskd in 1830.)
commander ex-Provost Drummond led the way,
till the most ludicrous cowardice was exhibited by
all. ?? In descending the famous West Bow, they
disappeared by scores under doorways or down
wynds, till, when their commander halted at the
West Port and looked behind him, he found, to his
surprise and mortification, that nearly the whole of
his valiant followers had disappeared, and that
only a few of his personal friends remained. The
author of a contemporary pamphlet-alleged to be
David Hume-afterwards compared their march to
the course of the Rhine, which at one place is a
majestic river, rolling its waves through fertile
fields, but being continually drawn off by little
canals, dwindles into a small streamlet, and is
almost lost in the sands before reaching the ocean.*
It was said that the volunteers rushed about in the
sorest tribulation, bribing with sixpences every
soldier they met to take their arms to the Castle.
to watch the west
road, while fresh
volunteers came into
the city from Musselburgh
and Dalkeith.
That night Brigadier
Fowkes arrived from
London to assume the
command, and he at
once led the cavalry
towards Coltbridge,
which spans the Leith,
about two miles distant
from the then
city.
Here a few Highland
gentlemen, forming
the Prince?s van,
fired their pistols, on
which adreadful panic
at once seized the
13th and 14th Dragoons,
who went
?threes about,? and,
laden with all the property
they could
?? loot ? from Corstorphine and Bell?s Mills, were
seen from the Castle and the city, flying in wild
disorder eastward by the Lang Gate. At Leith
they halted for a few minutes till a cry was raised, in
mockery, that the Highlanders were at hand, when
again they resumed their flight as far as Preston
Pans. Then a cry from one of their comrades, who
fell into a disused coalpit, filled these cravens with
such ungovernable terror, that they fled to North
Berwick. The road by which they galloped was
strewn, according to Dr. Carlyle, with their swords,
pistols, carbines, and skull-caps, which the mortified
Colonel Gardiner, who had passed the night at his
own house at Bankton, caused to be gleaned up
and sent in covered carts to Dunbar.
General Guest sent a detachment into the
city to spike the cannon, which in his heart he
had no wish should be used against the Prince,
tG save them for whom the Provost declined all
?745.1 DEFENCE ABANDONED. 325 .
abandoned; but still the gates were kept closed
and guarded. The Whigs were utterly depressed,
while the Jacobites were in a state of elation which
they were at no pains to conceal, and from the
permission that they should either be touched or
removed ; thus eventually the whole, with 1,200
stand of arms, became the prize of the Highlanders.
Meanwhile the whole of the volunteers, ?riffraff?
as the General stigmatised them, vanished. The
Dalkeith men stole ladders, scaled the walls, and
fled in the night; and the Seceders, who were the
last to abandon their colours, eventually followed
them Then all hope of defending the city was
of what passed at that conference little is known,
save that at ten at night they returned with a letter
from Charles, demanding a peaceable admittance
into his father?s capital; but, aware that prompt
? But to wanton me, to wanton me,
0 ken ye what maist would wanton me ?-
To see King James at Edinburgh Cross,
With fifty thousand foot and horse,
And the vile usurper forced to flee,
Oh, this is what maist would wanton me ! ?
Certain commissioners were sent to Gray?s Mill
to treat with the Highland chiefs for the deliverance
of the keys of the city on the best terms; but
PROVOST STEWART?S LAND, WEST BOW.
(From a Mcasurcd Drawing Sy T. Hamilton,jzuBl~hed in 1830.)
ladies at their spinets, and the gallants in the street,
was heard that song which Dr. Charles Mackay tells
us was themost popular or fashionableone in the city
during 1745-6, and of which two verses will suffice :
? To daunton me, and me sae young,
And gude King James?s eldest son !
Oh that?s the thing that never can be,
For the man?s unborn that?ll daunton me !
Oh, set me ance on Scottish land,
With my gude broadsword in my hand,
And the bonnet blue aboon my bree,
Then show me the man that?ll daunton me ! ?1
measures were necessary, as Cope?s army in a fleet
of transports was already at Dunbar, he detailed a
detachment of go0 men under Lochiel, Ardsheil,
and Keppoch, to advance upon the city, carrying
with them powder to blow in one of the gates.
Crossing the Burghmuu by moonlight, they
reached the vicinity of the Nether Bow Port, by
entering under the archway near St. John?s Street ;
and the narrative of Provost Stewart?s trial records
what followed then. The sentry at the gate stopped
a hackney coach that approached it from the inside
