war-cry was powerful enough to rally
many an English gentleman to his standard. Sir Walter Williams Wynn,
whom men called the King of Wales, was on his way to join the Prince of
Wales. So was Lord Barrymore, the member of Parliament; so was many
another gallant gentleman of name, of position, of wealth. Manchester
had given him the heroic, the ill-fated James Dawson, and a regiment
three hundred strong. Lord James Drummond had landed at Montrose with
men, money, and supplies. The young chevalier's troops were eager to
advance; they were flushed with victories; their hearts were high; they
believed, in the wild Gaelic way, in the sanctity of their cause; they
believed that the Lord of Hosts was on their side, and such a belief
strengthened their hands. For a prince seeking his principality it
would seem that there was one course, and one only, to pursue. He
might go on and take it, and win the great game he played for; or,
failing that, he might die as became a royal gentleman, sword in hand
and fighting for his rights. The might-have-beens are indeed for the
most part a vanity, but we can fairly venture to assert now that {222}
if Charles had pushed on he would, for the time at least, have restored
the throne of England to the House of Stuart. We may doubt, and doubt
with reason, whether any fortuitous succession of events could have
confirmed the Stuart hold upon the English crown; but we can scarcely
doubt that the hold would have been for the time established, that the
Old Pretender would have been King James the Third, and that George the
Elector would have been posting, bag and baggage, to the rococo shades
of Herrenhausen. But, as we have said, failing that, if Charles had
fallen in battle at the head of his defeated army, how much better that
end would have been than the miserable career which was yet to lend no
tragic dignity to the prolonged, pitiful, pitiable life of the Young
Pretender!

However, for good or evil, the insane decision was made. Charles's
council of war were persistent in their arguments for retreat. There
were thirty thousand men in the field against them. If they were
defeated they would be cut to pieces, and the prince, if he escaped
slaughter, would escape it only to die as a rebel on Tower Hill,
whereas, if they were once back in Scotland, they would find new
friends, new adherents, and even if they failed to win the English
crown, might at least count, with reasonable secur