ops, expecting that he should be strong enough to
venture a battle.

The Duke of Perth, who at that time commanded all the troops that were
to the eastward of Inverness, was planted near the river Spey. When the
enemy approached, he retired to Elgin. On the same day, the twelfth of
April 1746, the Duke of Cumberland passed the Spey, and encamped within
three or four miles of Elgin.

This retreat of the Duke of Perth has been severely condemned. It
appears, however, that he, and Lord John Drummond who was with him,
could not muster two thousand five hundred men. The river, which was
very low, was fordable in many places; so much so, that the enemy might
march a battalion in front. The Duke had no artillery, whilst the enemy
had a very good train. There was no possibility of sending
reinforcements from Inverness; above all, says Mr. Maxwell, "nothing was
to be risked that might dishearten the common soldiers on the eve of a
general and decisive action."

But the same candid and experienced soldier acknowledges that the Duke
of Perth remained too long at Nairn, whither he retired, and where the
Duke of Cumberland advanced within a mile of the town, and followed the
retiring army of Perth for a mile or two, though to no purpose, the
foot-soldiers being protected by Fitzjames's Horse. The delay at Nairn
has, it is true, been excused, on the grounds of a command from Prince
Charles to the Duke of Perth and his brother not to retire too hastily
before Cumberland, but to keep as near to him as was consistent with
their safety. This message "put them on their mettle, and well-nigh
occasioned their destruction." The Duke of Perth continued to retreat,
until he halted somewhat short of Culloden, where the Prince arrived
that evening, and took up his quarters at Culloden House.[256]

The following day was the fifteenth of April, the anniversary of that on
which the Duke of Cumberland, the disgrace of his family, the
hard-hearted conqueror of a brave and humane foe, first saw the light.
It was expected that he would choose his birth-day for the combat, but
the fatal engagement of Culloden was deferred until the following
morning.

The battle of Culloden was prefaced by a general sentiment of despair
among those who shared its perils.

"This," says Mr. Maxwell,[257] referring to the morning of the
engagement, "was the first time the Prince, ever thought his affairs
desperate. He saw his little army much reduced, and half-dead