Stuarts

228 THE STUARTS
popular support forthcoming as they advanced southwards, though "the people
flocked to see his march as if to see a show," they did not know that
London was plunged into a state of wild alarm by the news that the young
Stuart Prince was at Derby. They knew nothing of the run upon the
bank : of the shutting of the shops : of the suspension of business : and all
the other evidences of panic : nor of the Guards marching to Finchley (in
what manner they went, Hogarth has shown us in the picture that so offended
George II., and which may be seen at the Foundling).
We will not stop to inquire which was the better policy ; the backward
step was taken, the retreat was begun which, despite some successes here
and there, never ceased till Prince Charles Edward found himself, the following
September, in France again, after months of wanderings and hairbreadth
escapes. Culloden, of course, was " the cruel day that quelled the fortunes
of the hapless Stuarts," when the bodies of the Highlanders were left three
and four deep upon the field.
As to Charles's behaviour on the fatal 16th of April, we have the
testimony of an eye-witness, Sir John Strange, the eminent engraver ; he
records, in his very graphic account of the battle, that he met the Prince
"endeavouring to rally the soldiers, who, annoyed with the enemy's fire,
were beginning to quit the field. . . . The scene of confusion was great,"
he tells us, " nor can the imagination figure it. The men in general were
betaking themselves precipitately to flight . . . horror and dismay were
painted in every countenance, the scene was indeed tremendous. Never was
so total a rout, a most thorough discomfiture of an army . . . the whole
was over in about twenty-five minutes ... of towards six thousand men
of which the Prince's army at this period consisted, about one thousand
were asleep in Culloden Park who knew nothing of the action till awaked
by the noise of the cannon. The Prince had his cheeks bedewed with tears.'
"Que les hommes prives qui se croyent malheureux, jettent les yeux sur
ce prince."
There is extant a plate of the Battle of Culloden (given in the Mitions
de luxe) which is, I think, contemporary, and is at any rate curious. It
is inscribed as follows: "This View of the Glorious Victory obtained over
the Rebels Shows his Majesties army commanded by his Royal Highness
the Duke of Cumberland drawn up in three lines, the front consisting of six
battalions of foot, the second of five, the third was a body of reserve com-
posed of four. Part of the Highland army is here represented as furiously
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