Chapter 18
Edinburgh - Tuesday 17th September, 1745
Silently the Highlanders moved forward. They advanced by Merchiston and Hope Park. They showed no lights. Dead silence was the order of the night. By two o’clock, the deadline for their reply, the Baillie emerged again. Once again, the postillions escorting the coach had torches burning brightly. The clansmen crouched low in the darkness. Their plaids merged into the background. On this occasion the Baillie returned very shortly afterwards.
The first glimmerings of dawn arrived. The MacGregors had scaled the walls of the Canongait with little difficulty. Lochiel and Ardshiel were close by with their men. More than a thousand Highlanders had hidden themselves among the gardens and kail yards of the houses outwith the walls between the Cowgate and Netherbow Port.
The gates opened. The coach emerged once more with Baillie Hamilton. Before the gates could close, Evan rushed forward. Lochiel and Rob were close at his heels. It took no more than a moment to prevent the men of the city guard from closing the gates behind the coach. Within minutes the Highlanders were inside the city. The few defenders of the Netherbow Port had been swept aside.
Rob and the other officers quickly formed their men into ranks extending the width of the High Street. Claymores were drawn and targets presented. Wth hideous yells and slogans, cried at the tops of the voices, in battle order the army marched up the Street. Outside the Kirk of St Giles the army halted. A few men of the Camerons forced the city tolbooth and took possession of it in the name of the Prince. The main body entered the Parliament Close and from there, Lochiel and Glengyle despatched detachments to all of the city gates, to take possession of them.
Later that day, at about ten o’clock, the main body of the army advanced by Duddingston. They kept out of range of the batteries at the castle, into the King’s Park by the Palace of Holyrood. Rob and Glengyle, having deployed many of their men along with Lochiel’s to guard the city, made their way down the Canongait to witness the Prince’s arrival at the Palace.
The Prince wore the Highland dress, as he had throughout the advance. He had a tartan short coat, a little kilt and a blue bonnet on his head. At his breast was the star of the Order of St Andrew. Most of the city’s population, encouraged by the mild and unexpected behaviour of the Highlanders, had come out of their homes and were congregating in the park. Charles mounted his horse to be more conspicuous, though his Irish aides had urged caution in case of an assassination attempt. Charles entered the Palace, escorted by a gentleman with a drawn sword.
Glengyle was close by Lord George Murray and asked him, “Who is the stranger with bared whinger in the presence of the Prince? I do not recognize him as an officer of the army.”
Lord George replied, “That sir, is James Hepburn of Keith, an old acquaintance. He was out as a young man in the ‘15, with yourself Glengyle, I may add. To use his words to me, he found the Union injurious and humiliating both to himself and to his country. The Union had made a Scotch gentleman of small fortune a nobody and he would rather die a thousand times than submit to it.”
A little later, Glengyle and Rob formed part of the Prince’s escort back up the Canongait to the Mercat Cross. The Heralds and Pursuivants of the Lyon Court stood awaiting them, escorted by armed Highlanders. At noon Mr Secretary Murray presented the chief Herald with a proclamation to read. They listened as the Herald reluctantly read the Commission of Regency in favour of Charles, dated Rome in December 1743. Then he read the Manifesto in the name of Charles as Prince Regent dated at Paris on the 16th of May 1745.
The huge crowds, mainly of the fairer sex, for few men - not belonging to the Highland army were to be seen - huzzaed and waved white cloths.
Glengyle with Glencarnaig and the other officers of the clan, withdrew themselves from the press. Rob found the close proximity of so many people oppressive. They made their way back down the High Street to the junction with the Canongait. From here, they could observe both the Netherbow Gait Port, and the Calton Gait Port. Thus they were well positioned to intercept the rider who entered the city in the late afternoon with the news of General Cope,
Tired from his gallop, the messenger failed to notice until it was too late that Highlanders guarded the Calton Gait that led to the Leith road. His message was for the Magistrates of the city, but it took but little persuasion to render it to Glengyle.
General Cope had landed his army at Dunbar. There he had met up with the dragoon squadrons of Colonel Gardiner and Colonel Hamilton, exhausted by their headlong dash from Edinburgh, during which they had left much of their equipage scattered on the road behind them.