t was therefore determined to abandon it;
and it was decided that the time of the army would be more profitably
employed in driving Lord Loudon from Inverness, and in taking the forts
in the north, than in a rash engagement, or a hopeless siege. The spirit
of the enterprise was, indeed, gone; otherwise such a retreat could
never have been proposed and entertained. It was, however, fully
determined on. The deepest dejection prevailed among the army when it
was announced.

The Prince still remained at Bannockburn. On the thirty-first of the
month it was determined to have a general review of the troops; the
retreat was not to begin until ten o'clock. Early in the morning Charles
Edward, still hoping that the desertions were not so numerous as had
been represented, and that the "odious retreat" might be prevented, came
out to view his troops. There was hardly the appearance of an army to
receive him. On hearing the decision of the Prince, the men had risen at
day-break and had gone off to the Frews, many of them having arrived by
that time at that ford. There was nothing to be done; Lord George
Murray, who had now joined the Prince from Falkirk, and who was
quartered with some troops in the town of Stirling, was summoned. The
Prince marched off with some of the chiefs and the few troops he had
with him, and Lord George brought up the rear. A great portion of the
artillery was left behind; the heaviest pieces being nailed up and
abandoned. The retreat was thus precipitately commenced, and presented a
very different aspect to the withdrawal of the Prince's troops from
Derby.

Of this disorderly and disreputable march, Lord George Murray knew
nothing until it was begun. The very morning on which it took place, the
church of St. Ninian's, where the powder was lodged, was blown up. Lord
George Murray was in his quarters when he heard the great noise of the
explosion, and thought it was a firing from the Castle. "My surprise,"
he thus writes, "is not to be expressed.[168] I knew no enemy was even
come the length of Falkirk; so that, except the garrison of Stirling
Castle, nothing could hurt us. I imagined they had sallied, and made the
confusion I observed. I shall say no more about this; a particular
account of it is wrote. I believe the like of it never was heard of."

The destruction of St. Ninian's tower is attributed by most historians
to the awkwardness of the Highlanders, in attempting to destroy their
ammunition. "I a