Volume III Part 24 (1/2)
The e was not, it was said by those ere disposed to scandalize the Earl of Kil Countess was possessed, indeed, of beauty, wit, and good sense: but her husband, if we ave her much cause to complain of his conduct They lived, however, as the same doubtful authority states, ”if not happily, at least civilly together” Such is the statement of a contemporary writer; it ive to similar reports raised by party writers in the present day: and it will be shown[324] not to accord with the dying declarations of Lord Kilent, ”in Lady Kilmarnock, what is dearest to e, Lord Kilmarnock's necessities and the additional burden of a falish Government for a pension, founded, as it is probable, on his father's services to Government in 1715 But this stateiven are left in obscurity ”Whether,” says the anonyrapher of Lord Kilmarnock, ”my Lord Kilmarnock's pension was a ministerial bribe, or a royal bounty, is a question I cannot determine with any certainty; but I have reason to suspect the forranted by a certain administration, that of Sir Robert Walpole, deserved the latter” The same writer truly observes, that little or no dependance is to be placed on that loyalty which wants the support of bribes and pensions ”The practice,” he adds, ”is too general, and a defection of this kind of men may be fatal to the state”[326] The pension, as it appears from Horace Walpole's letters, was taken froton ”Lord Kilmarnock,” he writes to Sir Horace Mann, ”is a Presbyterian, with four earldo a pension that iven him, that he often wanted a dinner”[327]
In the last days of his existence the Earl, indeed, acknowledged that the state of his affairs was, in part, the reason of his defection froh, it uion who considered what he terreat and pressing difficulties into which he had brought hiance and dissipation: and declared, according to the account of his spiritual guide, that the ”exigency of his affairs was very pressing at the tieneral hope he had ofhis fortune by the success of it, he was also te his circumstances if he followed the Pretender's standard”[328]
Until the commencement of the insurrection of 1745, Lord Kilmarnock enjoyed the possession of Dean Castle, a very ancient edifice, situated about half a mile north east of the town of Kilmarnock, in Ayrshi+re ”It is,” says Grose in his Antiquities of Scotland, ”at a s froe vaulted square tohich see of the fifteenth century: this is surrounded by a court and other buildings more modern”[329] Such is the description of Dean Castle before the year 1735; when, to add to Lord Kilmarnock's other necessities, it was partially destroyed by fire, leaving only a ruin which he was too much impoverished even to restore to its forreat square tower,” referred to by Grose, and of which a view is preserved in his work on Scotland, the Boyd fareatness, when one of their race was created Earl of Arran In that tower had the Earl iaret, sister of Ja, as some say, a prior contract with the Lord Ha to him the Isle of Arran as her dower
It does not appear that the Earl of Kilinally in the confidence of the Jacobite party: and their designs were not only matured, but far in full operation before he took an open or active part in the Stuart cause It happened, however, that when Charles Edward resided at Holyrood, the Countess of Kilaiety of herPrince, who bestowed no shter of one of his father's adherents Lady Kil and beautiful usually are: she delighted in public diversions, and led the way to all parties of amusement Her ambition, no less than her early prepossessions conspired, it is said, to make her a Jacobite; and she hoped, by the favour of Charles Edward, to obtain the restoration of her father's title Her entreaties to the Earl of Kilmarnock to join the standard of the Prince were stienerous and romantic mind, there required neither the induceratified vanity, to espouse that part which seemed most natural to the Scotch After the battle of Preston Pans, Lady Kilmarnock's persuasions took effect: her husband presented hi Chevalier, who received him with every mark of esteem and distinction, declared hieneral, and appointed hiuards[330]
Another occurrence is, however, stated to have had a considerable influence in for the course of the conflict, he ow, that incomparable man, and excellent officer, Colonel Gardiner This individual, whose character forms so fine a relief to the party-spirited and debased condition of the British arowshi+re, having been born at Carriden, in the year of the Revolution, 1688 His life co in that important era, had been one of events He had first entered the Dutch service; then had served in Marlborough's ar soldier, then only nineteen, had run a course of dissolute pleasure, and had obtained, froaiety of his disposition, the na in the Forlorn hope, he ounded, and left in a state hovering between life and death, on the field, and in state of partial insensibility, from which he was aroused at times to perfect consciousness
The ball which had struck Gardiner, had entered histhe forepart of his tongue, had passed through his neck, co out above an inch and a half on the left side of the vertebrae He was abandoned by Marlborough's troops, who, according to their custom, left the wounded to their fate, while they pursued their advantages against the French
In this state, the first serious eratitude, the first convictions of a peculiar Providence suggested theh they did not, for some years, produce an absolute amendment of life, they laid the foundation of his future conversion, and of that exemplary piety and purity which extorted ad present at every battle that Marlborough had fought in Flanders, Colonel Gardiner had signalized his courage in the Insurrection of 1715; and in 1745 he was again ordered to the north to h[331]
It was during this, his last cae, for this brave and good man despaired of the restoration of peace to his country, that he supped in coow Colonel Gardiner's prognostications had long been e, ”many years before the Scottish Insurrection, that a few thousands h to London, uncontrolled, and throw the whole kingdom into an astonishe of the defenceless state of the country, and the general prevailing disaffection And the pious, but son yet more solemn reasons for his anticipations of evil ”Forfor loo the deplorable prevalency of al us; the natural consequences of the conte up my prayers to God for this sinful land of ours, over which His judgth is so cries and tears, which I pour out before God upon this occasion, that I am hardly able to stand when I arise from my knees”[332]
Imbued with these convictions, Colonel Gardiner, when he was retreating at Linlithgoith the troops under his couardedly to Lord Killish ar inclination of that ill-fated nobleman to follow Charles Edward[333] The decisive step was not, it appears, taken until after the battle of Preston Pans, in which Colonel Gardiner, who had a ement, fell, after a deportment truly worthy of the British soldier, and of the Christian
This brave officer, after having received tounds, fought on, his feeble fra determination As he headed a party of foot who had lost their leader, and cried out, ”Fire on, hlander who advanced with a scythe, fastened to a pole He was dragged from his horse; and the work of butchery was cohlander, who struck him on the head with a broadsword: Gardiner had only power to say to his servant, ”Take care of yourself”
The faithful creature hastened to an adjoining mill for a cart to convey his master to a place of safety It was not until two hours had elapsed, that he was able to return The led body, all stripped and plundered, was, even then, still breathing; and the agony of that gallant spirit was protracted until the next day, when he expired in the house of theas it does, one of the _real_ heroes of thisto the evidence on his trial, Lord Kilmarnock first joined the standard of Charles Edward on the ”banks of the river which divides England from Scotland;”[334] but Maxwell of Kirkconnel h on the thirty-first of October, 1745, at the head of a little squadron of horse grenadiers, ere soentlemen, who, in the absence of their own commander, were placed under the conduct of Lord Kilmarnock[335] After this decisive step, Lord Kil the whole of that ill-fated ca the various events of that disastrous undertaking, his character, like that of many other commanders in the Chevalier's army, suffered from imputations of cruelty That this vice was not accordant with his general disposition of mind, the minister who attended him on his death-bed sufficiently attests ”For myself,” declares Mr Foster, ”I must do this unhappy cri the course of my attendance upon him, to be of any other than a soft, benevolent disposition His behaviour was always mild and teitation in hirowth of a day; and if ever Lord Kilmarnock were betrayed into actions of violence, it must have been under circues which were specified against hi up of the church of St Ninian's, in the retreat fro But when, in the retirement of his prison chamber, the unfortunate nobleman reviewed his conduct, and confessed the errors of his life, he fully and satisfactorily cleared himself from the heinous imputation implied in this work of destruction When the ar he was confined to his bed ill of a fever The first inti up of the tower of St Ninian's was the noise, of which he never could obtain a clear account By the insurgents it was represented as accidental: ”this can I certainly say, as to e before hand, nor any concurrence in a designed act of cruelty” Such was Lord Kilmarnock's declaration to Mr Foster
Another instance of barbarity also laid to the charge of the Earl was, his alleged treatment of certain prisoners of ere intrusted to his care in the church of Inverness He was accused of stripping these unfortunate persons of their clothes Upon this point he adarhlanders was issued by Charles Edward: that the warrant for executing this order was sent to him He did not, as he declared, enter the church in person, but committed the office of execution to an inferior officer
The prisoners, as nity; upon which a second order was issued, and their clothes were taken frouilles, who had been sent by the court of France in the character of Ambassador to Charles Edward, arrested, however, the act of cruelty, which not even extreme necessity can excuse This noble in the shi+p in which he sailed, arms and a small sum of money,[337] and his influence, which was exerted in behalf of the captives, was happily considerable He represented to the Earl of Kile which was contemplated Lord Kilmarnock, convinced by his re heaps of the clothes lying in the streets of Inverness, with sentinels standing to guard thearreat stain on the memory both of Charles and of his adherent was thus partially effaced
Of such a nature were those ied upon Lord Kilmarnock; but they appear to have eneral iret for his fate endured as long as the ical termination, dwelt in the recollection of those itnessed those mournful times
After the battle of Culloden, the prisoners were immediately set free
The Duke of cu his road amid the carcasses of the dead strewed in the way, called for the keys of the prisons, and with his own hands released the captives there, and, clapping them on the shoulders as they came down stairs, exclaimed, ”brother soldiers, you are free”[338] Unfortunately his compassion was of a party nature, and was only aroused for his own adherents
At Culloden, fatal to so many brave men, Lord Kils of death than if he had met it in battle His fate had, indeed, been anticipated by the superstitious; and it was considered a rash instance of hardihood in the unfortunate nobleman to resist an omen which, about a year before the rebellion had broken out, is said to have happened in his house
One day, as thesome linen in an upper room of Dean Castle, the door of the apartment suddenly opened of its own accord, and the view of a bloody head, resehted woazed in horror, the head rolled near her She endeavoured in vain to repel it with her foot She became powerless, but she was still able to screaht Lord Kilmarnock and his Countess to the chamber The apparition had vanished; but she related succinctly the story ”which, at that time,” says the historian who repeats it,[339] ”Lord Kilh it could have been wished that he had been forewarned by the onorance and credulity found such ready supporters”
At Culloden, this ill-fated nobleman occupied a post not far from the Prince, in the rear of as a line of reserve, consisting of three columns, the first of which, on the left, was commanded by Lord Kilmarnock; the centre coluht by the justly-celebrated Roy Stewart In the opposite ranks, an ensign in the royal regiht, when half-blinded by the smoke, the unhappy Lord Kilmarnock, as if fated to fulfil the ooons for FitzJaly taken prisoner He was led along the lines of the British infantry The vaunted beauty of his countenance, and the races of which so much has been said, were now obliterated by the disorder of his person, and his hu position His hat had been lost in the conflict, and his long hair fell about his face The soldiers as he was led along stood inthose who thus looked upon this unfortunate man was his son, Lord Boyd, as constrained to witness, without atte to alleviate, the distress of that moment When the Earl passed the place where his son stood, the youth, unable to bear that his father should be thus exposed bareheaded to the store, stepped out of the ranks and taking his own hat from his head, placed it on that of his father It was the work of an instant, and not a syllable escaped the lips of the agitated young man[340]
Lord Kilmarnock was carried from thethe Government troops, ”was covered with blood; thetheir feet in the blood, and splashi+ng it about one another, looked like so many butchers”[341] Never, did even their enemies declare, was a field of battle bestreith a finer, perhaps with a nobler race ”Every body allowed,” writes one of cuer limbs, and better proportioned, could not be found” The flower of their unhappy country; hundreds of these had not yet been blessed with the repose of death, but were left to languish in agony until the next day, when they were butchered by the orders of cumberland One of theiment, was rescued by Lord Boyd from destruction A soldier had struck hi to the orders given, to beat out his brains The poor wretch, his nose and cheek-bone broken, and one of his eyes pierced, still breathed when this young nobleman passed him He observed the poor creature, and ordered his servants to carry hi kiln, where, in time, his wounds were cured ”He lived,” observes Mr Chambers, ”many years afterwards, a dismalto one account, Lord Kilmarnock owed his escape froenerous Lord Ancrum, who delivered him to the Duke of cumberland; and the same narrative adds, that the Duke issued orders that no one should mention the Earl's imprisonence to the youngtrait in a man who had so many awful, and almost inexpiable sins to answer for at the last day, when not our professions of kindness, but our acts ofwill be placed before a solemn and final account
After his surrender at Culloden, the Earl of Kilmarnock was conveyed to London That metropolis, in some of its most attractive features, ell known to hi the year, and had associated with the friends of government ere near the court He was now to view it under a very different aspect; and during the period which elapsed between his surrender and his trial, he had ah the respective value of that society which had forhted him, and in which, it is said he ”had affected to talk freely of religion;” and of those great truths which were now his only source of support
Whateverdays of Lord Kilentleness to those ere placed in authority over him; forbearance to those who slandered him, and submission to God Unable to conquer a natural intense love of life, he assureater concern for his character, than for his fate Society in general, as well as the annalists of the times, mourned for him, and with him; and many who beheld his doom, would have sacrificed much of their own personal safety to avert the close of that tragic scene But these were not tiht venture to interfere with security[344]
Two noblereatly in character from Lord Kilmarnock, shared his imprisonment: Arthur, sixth Earl of Balmerinoch, or, as it is usually spelled Bale, Earl of Croh an uncultured soldier, has excited by far the greatest interest He was descended, like most of his associates froin,[345]