Note 1185 — Chapter XXXVI

Mr. John Hay’s account of the Retreat, No. 43 of Appendix to Home’s Rebellion. This statement has been hitherto supposed to rest upon the single authority of Hay; and Mr. Home has been blamed for making it, as it was not confirmed by others. The same statement, however, is also made by Mr. Maxwell of Kirkconnel, a much more respectable authority than Hay. Mr. Home had the Kirkconnel MS. in his possession when writing his history, but seldom refers to it. Mr. Maxwell’s words are: “The prince was incensed beyond expression at a retreat, begun in direct contradiction to his inclination and express orders. In the first moments he was convinced he was betrayed, and expressed himself to that purpose. He was confirmed in this opinion by those who never missed an opportunity of loading Lord George Murray, but when he knew that this step had been taken in concert with Lochiel and others, whom he had never distrusted, he did not know what to think or what to do: thus perplexed he arrived with the army at Culloden.” See also narrative by the Rev. George Innes in Jacobite Memoirs, who says, (p. 289,) that some persons positively said, that when the prince met the Duke of Perth’s regiment returning, he cried out, “I am betrayed; what need I give orders, when my orders are disobeyed.”