however, till about eight o'clock in the evening of Thursday, 19th May, that any certain intelligence of them was obtained, and they had then proceeded as far as Northampton, and were supposed to be shaping their course towards Nottinghamshire. General Blakeney, who commanded at Northampton, immediately dispatched Captain Ball of General Wade's regiment of horse, an officer well acquainted with that part of the country, to search after them. They had now entered Lady Wood, between Brig Stock and Dean Thorp, about four miles from Oundle, when they were discovered. Captain Ball was joined in the evening by the general himself, and about nine all the troops were drawn up in order near the wood where the Highlanders Jay. Seeing themselves in this situation, and unwilling to aggravate their offence by the crime of shedding the blood of his Majesty's troops, they sent one of their guides to inform the general that he might, without fear, send an officer to treat of the terms on which they should be expected to surrender. Captain Ball was accordingly delegated, and, on coming to a conference, the captain demanded that they should instantly lay down their arms, and surrender as prisoners at discretion. This they positively refused, declaring that they would rather be cut to pieces than submit, unless the general should send them a written promise, signed by his own hand, that their arms should not be taken from them, and that they should have a free pardon. Upon this the captain delivered the conditions proposed by General Blakeney, viz. that if they would peaceably lay down their arms, and surrender themselves prisoners, the most favourable report should be made of them to the Lords-Justices. When they again protested that they would be cut in pieces rather than surrender, except on the conditions of retaining their arms, and receiving a free pardon :

Hitherto,' exclaimed the captain, I have been your friend, and am still anxious to do all I can to save you ; but, if you continue obstinate an hour longer, surrounded as you are by the King's forces, not a man of you shall be

left alive, and, for my own part, I assure you, that I shall give quarter to none.' He then demanded that two of their number should be ordered to conduct him out of the wood. Two brothers were accordingly ordered to accompany him. Finding that they were inclined to submit, he promised them both a free pardon, and, taking one of them along with him, he sent back the other to endeavour, by every means, to overcome the obstinacy of the rest. He soon returned with thirteen more. Having marched these to a short distance from the wood, the captain again sent one of them back to his comrades to inform them how many had submitted, and in a short time seventeen more followed the example. These were all marched away with their arms, (the powder being blown out of their pans,) and when they came before the general they laid down their arms. On returning to the wood they found the whole body disposed to submit to the general's troops.

"While this was doing in the country," says the intelligent writer to whom we are indebted for the foregoing facts, "there was nothing but the flight of the Highlanders talked of in town. The wiser sort blamed it, but some of their hot-headed countrymen were for comparing it to the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks through Persia; by which, for the honour of the ancient kingdom of Scotland, Corporal McPherson was erected into a Xenophon. But, amongst these idle dreams, the most injurious were those that reflected on their officers, and, by a strange kind of innuendo, would have fixed the crime of these people's desertion upon those who did their duty and staid here.

"As to the rest of the regiment, they were ordered immediately to Kent, whither they marched very cheerfully, and were from thence transported to Flanders, and are by this time with the army, where, I dare say, it will quickly appear they were not afraid of fighting the French. In King William's war, there was a Highland regiment that, to avoid going to Flanders, had formed a design of flying into the mountains. This was discovered before they could

put it into execution; and General M'Kay, who then commanded in Scotland, caused them to be immediately surrounded and disarmed, and afterwards shipped them for Holland. When they came to the Confederate Army, they behaved very briskly upon all occasions; but, as pick-thanks are never wanting in courts, some wise people were pleased to tell King William that the Highlanders drank King James's health,-a report which was probably very true. The King, whose good sense taught him to despise such dirty informations, asked General Talmash, who was near him, how they behaved in the field? As well as any troops in the army,' answered the general, like a soldier and a man of honour. Why, then,' replied the King, if they fight for me, let them drink my father's health as often as they please.' On the road, and even after they entered to London, they kept up their spirits, and marched very cheerfully; nor did they show any marks of terror when they were brought into the Tower."

To the preceding account of this very unfortunate affair, I shall only add an extract from another pamphlet of the day, detailing a short examination of two of the deserters, which shews the feelings by which they were influenced, their suspicions of an attempt to entrap them, and the horror with which they were impressed of the country and climate to which they believed themselves destined.

Private Gregor Grant being asked several questions, answered through an interpreter, as follows:

"I am neither Whig nor Papist, but I will serve the

• The term wHIG was not applied by the Highlanders in a political sense. It extended generally to their neighbours on the plains, and a "Lowland Whig" comprehended the Puritan, Covenanter, and all those whose "dark domineering spirit" and fanatical gloom were in essential opposition to the more striking traits of their own character and feelings. According to Mrs Grant, it "was by no means among them a term appropriated to political differences. It might, perhaps, mean, in a confined sense, the adherents of King William, by far the greatest caitiff in High

King for all that. I am not afraid; I never saw the man I was afraid of.

"I will not be cheated, nor do any thing by trick.

"I will not be transported to the Plantations, like a thief and a rogue.

"They told me I was to be sent out to work with black slaves that was not my bargain, and I won't be cheated." John Stewart of Captain Campbell of Carrick's company being interrogated, answered as follows:

"I did not desert: I only wanted to go back to my own country, because they abused me, and said I was to be transported.

"I had no leader or commander; we had not one man over the rest.

"We were all determined not to be tricked. We will all fight the French and Spaniards, but will not go like rogues to the Plantations.

"I am not a Presbyterian; no, nor a Catholic."

After the deserters were taken back to London, they were tried by a general court-martial on the 8th of June, found guilty, and condemned to be shot; but the capital part of the punishment was remitted to all but three,Corporals Malcolm and Samuel M'Pherson, (brothers,) and

land delinquency. But it meant more; it was used to designate a character made up of negatives, who had neither ear for music nor taste for poetry, no pride of ancestry, no heart for attachment, no soul for honour; one who merely studied comfort and conveniency, and was more anxious for the absence of positive evil, than the presence of relative good. A Whig, in short, was, what all Highlanders cordially hated, a cold, selfish, formal character." +

• The Highlanders never forgave King William for Glenco; and for placing troops and garrisons in their country, and turning his arms against his father-in-law. I have already noticed the strength of parental affection among the Highlanders. Living at a distance from the seat of government, they were ignorant of the political and religious distractions which occasioned the Revolution; and looking, therefore, to the single circumstance of King William and Queen Mary depriving their father of his kingdom, and driving him into exile and poverty, they considered them as monsters of filial ingratitude.

+ Mrs Grant's Superstitions of the Highlanders.

Farquhar Shaw, who were ordered for execution, and shot accordingly on Towerhill. The following account appeared in the St James's Chronicle, of the 20th July 1743.

"On Monday the 12th, at six o'clock in the morning, Samuel and Malcolm M'Pherson, corporals, and Farquhar Shaw, a private man, three of the Highland deserters, were shot upon the parade within the Tower, pursuant to the sentence of the court-martial. The rest of the Highland prisoners were drawn out to see the execution, and joined in their prayers with great earnestness. They behaved with perfect resolution and propriety. Their bodies were put into three coffins by three of the prisoners, their clansmen and namesakes, and buried in one grave, near the place of execution."

There must have been something more than common in the case or character of these unfortunate men, as Lord John Murray, who was afterwards colonel of the regiment, had portraits of them hung up in his dining-room. I have not at present the means of ascertaining whether this proceeded from an impression on his Lordship's mind that they had been victims to the designs of others, and ignorantly misled, rather than wilfully culpable, or merely from a desire of preserving the resemblances of men who were re markable for their size and handsome figure.

Two hundred of the deserters were ordered to serve in different corps abroad, the distribution being as follows; viz. 50 sent to Gibraltar, 50 to Minorca, 40 to the Leeward Islands, 30 to Jamaica, and 30 to Georgia.

• It is impossible to reflect on this unfortunate affair without feelings of regret, whether we view it as an open violation of military discipline on the part of brave, honourable, and well-meaning men, or as betraying an apparent want of faith on the part of Government. The indelible impres sion which it made on the minds of the whole population of the Highlands, laid the foundation of that distrust in their superiors, which was afterwards so much increased by various circumstances to be detailed in the article on the Mutinies of Highland Regiments, and latterly still more confirmed by the mode of treatment pursued by northern landholders towards their people.