gloriously before
Quebec. It may be true; we may hope that it is, as it adds another
ornament to the historic decoration of a brave man--but history does
not, so far as we are aware, record the answer that Cumberland made to
this unexpected display of audacious humanity.

The cruelties of Culloden field were only the preface to the red reign
of terror that Cumberland set up in the Highlands. The savage temper
of the Royal general found excellent instruments in the savage tempers
of his soldiery. Murder, rape, torture, held high carnival; men were
hanged or shot on the slightest suspicion or on no suspicion; women
were insulted, outraged, killed; even children were not safe from the
blood-lust of Cumberland's murderers.

The pacification of the Highlands was accomplished on much the same
methods as were afterwards employed to bring about the pacification of
Poland. Perhaps the most dramatically tragic of all the events after
the defeat of Charles Stuart are connected with the fate of those of
his adherents who were taken prisoners, and who were of too grave an
importance to be put to the sword at once or hanged out of hand. Some,
unhappily, of the followers of the young prince proved themselves to be
unworthy of any cause of any monarch. Aeneas Macdonald, John Murray of
Broughton, Lord Elcho, and Macdonald of Barrisdale have left behind
them the infamous memory that always adheres to traitors. The
revelations which John Murray made to save his own life were the means
of sending many a gallant gentleman to Tower Hill.

In the end of July (of 1746) Westminster Hall was {228} brilliant with
scarlet hangings, and crowded with an illustrious company, to witness
the trial of the three most important of the captured rebels, Lord
Kilmarnock, Lord Cromarty, and Lord Balmerino. Walpole, who went to
that ceremony with the same amused interest that he took in the first
performance of a new play, has left a very living account of the scene:
Lord Kilmarnock, tall, slender, refined, faultlessly dressed, looking
less than his years, which were a little over forty, and inspiring a
most astonishing passion in the inflammable heart of Lady Townshend;
Lord Cromarty, of much the same age, but of less gallant bearing,
dejected, sullen, and even tearful; Balmerino, the very type and model
of a gallant, careless old soldier.

There was no question of the prisoners' guilt; they were tried, were
found guilty, were sentenced to death.