on
abandoned to the fury of an enemy, whose brutal thirst for vengeance
increased as the danger and opposition diminished. Some may consider
that the day of Culloden was a day of disgrace to the Highlanders; but
to them it was an event of honour, compared with the discredit which it
brought upon their foes. To England was the disgrace. It was, at all
events, even if we measure the standard of honour by the degree of
military success, an inglorious victory. Independent of the inequality
of numbers, was the inequality of circumstances; but greater, in many
senses, on this occasion, were the conquered, than their conquerors.

The Prince, seeing his army entirely routed, was at length prevailed
upon to retire. Most of his horse soldiers assembled round his person;
and he rode leisurely, and in good order, for the enemy advanced very
leisurely over the ground. "They made," observes Maxwell, "no attack
where there was any body of the Prince's men together, but contented
themselves with sabering such unfortunate people as fell in their way,
single and disarmed." "As the Duke's corps," Lord Elcho relates,
"continued to pursue in order of battle, always firing their cannon and
platoons in advancing, there were not so many people taken or killed as
there would have been had they detached corps to pursue; but every body
that fell into their hands got no quarter, except a few whom they
reserved for public punishment."

In the flight of the Prince's army, most of the left wing took the road
to Inverness; the right wing crossed the water of Nairn, and went to
Ruthven of Badenoch; the rest, to the number of five hundred, mostly
officers, followed the Prince into Stratherick, where he had stopped
about four miles from the field of Culloden. Of the Prince's conduct
after the battle, a very painful impression is given by Lord Elcho. "As
he had taken it into his head he had been betrayed, and particularly by
Lord George Murray, he seemed very diffident of everybody except the
Irish officers; and he appeared very anxious to know whether he had
given them all higher commissions than they had at their arrival, on
purpose that they might get them confirmed to them upon their return to
France. He neither spoke to any of the Scots' officers present, nor
inquired after any of the absent. Nor, indeed, at any of the preceding
battles did he ever inquire after any of the wounded officers. He
appeared very uneasy as long as the Scots were about him