nd. Lord George
Murray, looking upon himself as responsible for the safety of the army,
had sent on the first division under the Prince, and himself brought up
the rear with the baggage and artillery. In the hilly country of the
North of England, it was no light task to travel with heavy baggage. The
big wagons could not be dragged up the steep ill-made roads, and the
country people were sullenly unwilling to lend their carts. The general
was reduced to paying sixpence for every cannon ball that could be
carried up the hills. The Prince was already at Penrith on the 17th, but
Lord George had been obliged to stop six miles short of that point.
Marching before daybreak on the 18th, he reached a village called
Clifton as the sun rose. A body of horsemen stood guarding the village;
the Highlanders, exhilarated at meeting a foe again, cast their plaids
and rushed forward. On this the Hanoverians--a mere body of local
yeomanry--fled. Among a few stragglers who were taken prisoner was a
footman of the Duke of Cumberland, who told his captors that his master
with 4,000 cavalry was following close behind them. Lord George resolved
to make a stand, knowing that nothing would be more fatal than allowing
the dragoons to fall suddenly on his troops when they had their backs
turned. He had a body of Macdonalds and another of Stuarts with him; he
found also some two hundred Macphersons, under their brave commander
Cluny, guarding a bridge close to the village. The high road here ran
between a wall on one side, and fields enclosed by high hedges and
ditches on the other. On either side he could thus place his soldiers
under cover. As evening fell he learned that the Hanoverian soldiers
were drawn up on the moor, about a mile distant. He sent some of his men
to a point where they should be partly visible to the enemy over a
hedge; these he caused to pass and repass, so as to give a delusive idea
of numbers. When the night fell the Highland soldiers were drawn up
along the wall on the road, and in the enclosures behind the hedges;
Lord George and Cluny stood with drawn swords on the highway. Every man
stood at his post on the alert, in the breathless silence. Though the
moon was up, the night was cloudy and dark, but in a fitful gleam the
watchful general saw dark forms approaching in a mass behind a hedge. In
a rapid whisper he asked Cluny what was to be done. 'I will charge sword
in hand if you order me,' came the reply, prompt and cheer