e having proved impracticable, he returned to Inverness.

Meantime the county of Atholl suffered under the unparalleled cruelties
of the English soldiery. The Duke of Cumberland had visited that
interesting district; and it requires little more to be said, to
comprehend that beauty was turned to desolation; that crimes hitherto
unheard of among a British army reflected dishonour on the conquerors,
and brought misery to the conquered. On the sixth of February, 1746, the
Duke had arrived at Perth. His first orders were to seize the Duchess of
Perth, the mother of the Duke, and the Viscountess Strathallan, and to
carry them to a small, wretched prison in Edinburgh, where they remained
nearly a year. The Duke of Cumberland was succeeded at Edinburgh by his
brother-in-law, the Prince of Hesse, who had landed at Leith with five
thousand infantry and five hundred huzzars in the pay of England. These
were stationed in the capital, ready to swarm into the country to subdue
its brave inhabitants.

Whilst Lord George Murray was still at Inverness, he heard that his
cherished home, the territory of his proud forefathers, the scenes of
his youth, were ravaged by a detachment of Cumberland's army. The houses
of such gentlemen as had assisted Prince Charles were burned; and their
families, after receiving every species of indignity that could palliate
the guilt of a future revenge, and that could break honest hearts, were
turned out to perish on the hills with cold and hunger. The very nature
of Englishmen appears to have been changed during this most mournful,
most disgraceful warfare; and never did the British army sink so low in
morals, in humanity, as during the German yoke of a Prince whom one
rejects as a countryman.[173]

Lord George was instantly ordered to go to Atholl. Little could he
suspect the construction afterwards placed on his conduct, and the snare
which was laid for him by his enemies, in the events of the next few
weeks.

Lord George marched with unheard of dispatch towards Atholl. Already had
the Duke of Cumberland placed at different parts, in that district,
bands of the Argyleshire Campbells, to the amount of three hundred in
number. A thousand more, it was reported, were coming from the same
quarter; and it was Lord George's aim to intercept this reinforcement.
He set off, followed by his brave "Atholl-men," conducting his march
through byeways across the mountains; and in one march, day and night,
he trave