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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II

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334 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. 11746. b ONE of the most important events in the annals of Edinburgh was the erection of the North Bridge, by means of which, in spite of years of opposition, the long-suggested plan for having a his just and honourable cause.?? His wife pleaded for his pardon at the feet of George 11. in vain, and, like the others, ?he died with his last breath imploring a blessing on Prince Charles.? Lord Arundel of Wardour relates the following anecdote :-? Many years after the Stuart rising, the Duke of Cumberland being present at a ball at Bath, indicated as a person with whom he would like to dance, a beautiful girl, the daughter of Major Macdonald who was executed at Carlisle, and the circumstances of whose last moments supplied Sir Walter Scott with the incidents of M?Ivor?s execution in ? Waverley.? The lady rose in deference to the prince, but replied in a tone which utterly discomfited his Royal Highness, ? NO, sir, I will never dance with the murderer yf my father/ ? ? The Duke, with an army overwhelming in numbers, as contrasted with that of Charles, passed through Edinburgh on the ~ 1 s t of February, 1746, not marching at the head of his troops, like the latter, but travelling in a coach-and-six presented to him by the Earl of Hopetoun; and on being joined by 6,000 Hessians, who landed under the Landgrave at Leith, he proceeded to obliterate ? all memory of the last disagreeable affair ? as the rout at Falkirk was named. As he passed up the Canongate and High Street he is said to have expressed great surprise at the .number of broken windows he saw ; but when informed that this was the result of a recent illumination in his honour, and that a shattered casement indicated the residence of a Jacobite, he laughed heartily, remarking, ?that he was better content with this explanation, ill as it omened to himself and his family, than he could have been with his first impression, which ascribed the circumstance to poverty or negligence.? A vast mob followed his coach, which passed through the Grassmarket, and quitted the city by new and enlarged city, beyond the walls an& barriers of the old one, was eventually and successfully developed to an extent far beyond what its enthusiastic and patriotic projectors caul$. the West Port, en route to Culloden, and ?at midnight on Saturday the 19th of April Viscount Bury, colonel of the 20th Regiment, aide-de-camp. to the Duke of Cumberland, reined up his jaded horse at the Castle gate, bearer of a despatch t e the Lieutenant-General, announcing the victory ;. and at two o?clock on the morning of Sunday a. salute from the batteries informed the startled and anxious citizens that, quenched in blood on the. Muir of Drummossie, the star of the Stuarts had sunk for ever.? The standard of Charles, which Tullybardine. unfurled in Glenfinnan, and thirteen others belonging to chiefs, with several pieces of artillery and a quantity of arms, were brought to the Castle and lodged in the arsenal, where some of the latter still remain; and one field-piece, which was placed on abattery to the westward, was long an object of interest to the people. With a spite that seems. childish now, by order of Cumberland those standards, whose insignia were all significant ot high descent and old achievement, were camed ia procession to the Cross. The common hangmall. bore that of Charles, thirteen Tronmen, or sweeps,. bore the rest, and all were flung into a fire, guarded by the 44th Regiment, while the heralds proclaimed the name of each chief to whom they belonged-hchiel, Clanranald, Keppoch, Glengarry, and so forth ; while the crowd looked on in silence. By this proceeding, so petty in its character, Cumberland failed alike to inflict an injuryon the character of the chiefs or their faithful followers, among whom, at that dire time, the bayonet, the gibbet, the torch, and the axe, were everywhere at work; and, when we consider his. blighted life and reputation in the long years that followed, it seems that it would have been well had the Young Chevalier, the ?bonnie Prince Charlie ? of so much idolatry, found his grave on the Moor of Culloden. . .
Volume 2 Page 334
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