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AT  THE 


1° 


"  He  rescued  a  child." — p.  20 


BC, 


THE 

SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS 

OF  FORTUNE     ; 

THEIR  ADVENTURES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS  IN 
THE  ARMIES  OF  EUROPE 


JAMES    GRANT 

AUTHOR   OF    "THE   ROMANCE   OF   WA 


WITH     ILLUSTRATIONS     BY     F.     A.     FRASER 


LONDON 

GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  AND  SONS 

BROADWAY,    LUDGATE   HILL 
GLASGOW    AND    NEW   Y.ORK 

1889 


14 


INTRODUCTION. 


IT  is  intended  to  give,  in  this  work,  as  far  as  possible, 
a  faithful  record  of  the  worth  and  valour  of  those 
military  adventurers,  the  "  Quentin  Durwards"  and 
"Dugald  Dalgettys"  of  other  days,  who  carried  the  name 
of  Scotland  with  honour  under  every  European  banner, 
from  the  earliest  period  ;  but  more  particularly  of  those 
who,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances— such,  for  instance,  as  the  union  of  the  Crowns, 
which  brought  temporary  peace  at  home — were  enabled  to 
offer  their  swords  and  services  to  the  monarchs  of  other 
countries. 

The  number  of  these  Scottish  Soldiers  of  Fortune  was 
very  great,  and  in  detailing  their  adventures  and  achieve- 
ments during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  not 
only  individuals,  but  in  some  instances  entire  regiments, 
almost  armies  of  them,  will  have  to  be  dealt  with ;  as 
there  were  fully  13,000  under  Gustavus  Adolphus,  "  the 
Lion  of  the  North"  (as  Dugald  Dalgetty  has  it).  About 
the  same  number  went  at  various  times  to  Denmark,  3,000 
were  in  Russia,  some  6,000  in  Holland,  3,000  in  France  at 
least,  and  others  in  Prussia,  Spain,  and  Italy,  making  more 
than  40,000  Scottish  soldiers  on  the  Continent,  exclusive 
of  3,000  sent  to  the  Isle  Rhe  under  the  Earl  of  Morton. 


iv  INTRODUCTION. 

Their  achievements  will  form,  \r  is  hoped,  a  stirring 
addition  to  our  military  annals,  omitted  in  Scottish  history, 
and  will  further  show  how  our  people,  in  whatever  land 
they  are  cast,  rise  above  those  by  whom  they  are  surrounded, 
as  surely  as  oil  rises  above  water,  to  quote  a  writer  who 
certainly  was  no  friend  to  Scotland  or  her  fame ;  and  how 
many  of  them  won  the  highest  honours,  civil  and  military 
— honours  which  many  of  their  lineal  descendants  hold  in 
the  lands  of  their  adoption. 

It  will  be  shown  how  Scotsmen  trained  the  armies  and 
founded  the  fleets  of  Russia ;  how  for  generations  the  old 
Scots  Brigade  of  immortal  memory  was  the  boasted 
"  Bulwark  of  Holland" ;  while  second  to  none  in  war  and 
glory  were  the  Scottish  Guard  of  the  French  Kings — that 
Guard  of  which  only  four  were  left  alive  when  Francis  I 
gave  up  his  sword  on  the  field  of  Pavia. 

Moreover,  in  this  new  mine  of  Scottish  history,  many, 
it  is  hoped,  may  discover  the  names  of  ancestors,  relatives, 
and  clansmen  hitherto  unknown  to  them. 


THE 

SCOTTISH    SOLDIERS    OF   FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE    SCOTS    IN    EUSSIA. 

Carmichael  of  Howgate — Dalziel  of  Binns — Generals  Drutn- 
mond  and  Bruce,  the  Founder  of  the  Eussian  Artillery 
and  Engineers — Col.  Whiteford — Geijer's  Report. 

AMONG  the  earliest  Scottish  adventurers  in  Russia  was 
John  Carmichael,  son  of  the  Laird  of  Howgate,  and  grand- 
son of  James  Carmichael  of  Hyndford  and  that  Ilk,  who 
took  service  under  the  Czar  Ivan  Basilowitz,  a  prince 
who  did  much  to  promote  the  civilisation  of  his  subjects, 
by  inviting  artisans  from  Liibeck  and  elsewhere,  and  who 
first  formed  a  standing  army — the  Strelitz,  or  Body  Guard 
of  Archers — at  the  head  of  which  he  conquered  Kazan  in 
1552,  and  two  years  subsequently  Astrakan. 

John  Carmichael,  at  the  head  of  5,000  men,  greatly 
distinguished  himself  at  the  siege  of  Pleskov,  in  the  district 
of  Kiev,  then  invested  by  Stephen,  King  of  Poland,  when 
its  garrison  was  said  to  consist  of  70,000  foot  and  7,000 
horse  (which  seems  barely  probable)  ;  and  of  this  city, 


2  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

then  the  only  walled   one   in  Muscovy  (Atlas   Geo.,  1711), 
John  Carmichael  was  made  Governor. 

Feodor,  the  successor  of  Ivan,  in  1595  gave  up  to  Sweden 
the  province  of  Esthonia,  where  at  some  early  period  the 
Douglases  must  have  acquired  lands,  as  there  is  a  place 
there  still  named  the  Douglasberg  ;  but  the  last  heiress  of 
that  line  (says  Murray,  in  his  letters  from  the  Baltic,  1841), 
the  Countess  of  Douglas,  was  married  to  Count  Ingelstrom. 
According  to  ^Relations  of  the  most  Famous  Kingdomes, 
published  in  1630,  the  number  of  Scotch  and  Dutch  in  the 
Czar's  service  is  given  at  only  150  "  all  in  one  band." 

General  Baron  Manstein,  in  his  Memoirs  of  Russia, 
(1773),  tells  us  that  during  the  war  with  Poland  the  Czar 
Alexis  Michailowitz,  grandson  of  Feodor,  who  succeeded 
to  the  throne  in  1645,  formed  his  regiments  of  infantry  on 
the  European  plan,  and  gave  the  command  of  them  to 
foreign  officers.  "  The  Regiment  of  Boutinsky  had  sub- 
sisted ever  since  1642;  one  Dalziel  commanded  it,"  he 
records  ;  "  this  regiment  was  composed  of  fifty- two  com- 
panies, each  of  a  hundred  men.  There  are  also  to  be  seen 
ancient  lists  of  the  regiment  of  the  First  Moskowsky  of  the 
year  1648 :  a  General  Drummond  was  the  commander." 

The  name  of  the  former  is  pretty  familiar  to  the  Scots 
as  that  of  the  terrible  old  "  Persecutor,"  Sir  Thomas 
Dalziel  of  the  Binns,  whose  spirit  is  yet  averred  to  haunt 
the  fields  where  he  slew  the  children  of  the  Covenant,  who 
was  supposed  to  be  shot-proof,  and  whose  spectre,  with  a 
voluminous  white  "  vow-beard,"  still  haunts  the  house  in 
which  he  was  born  and  the  tomb  in  which  he  was  laid  at 
Binns,  in  1685. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  3 

After  serving  as  Colonel  in  the  Scottish  contingcnb  of 
eight  battalions  sent  in  1641  to  protect  our  Ulster  colonists, 
being  Governor  of  Carrickfergus,  and  fighting  at  Benburb 
and  leading  a  brigade  at  Worcester,  he  was  committed  to 
the  Tower  of  London  ;  but  escaped  to  reach  Russia,  where 
a  letter  from  Charles  II,  then  at  Cologne,  at  once  procured 
him  rank  in  the  Russian  service  when  in  his  53rd  year  ; 
but  some  obscurity  involves  his  movements  in  that  country, 
as  the  wars  in  which  he  was  engaged  but  little  interested 
the  rest  of  Europe. 

The  other  officer,  Lieutenant- General  Drummond,  was 
afterwards  Governor  of  Smolensko,  a  city  even  then  of  great 
strength ;  and  was  the  same  officer  who  brought  into 
Scotland  the  use  of  the  thumb-screw  as  an  instrument  of 
torture. 

Finding  them  skilful  and  brave,  Alexis  invited  other 
Scots  to  join  his  army ;  and  erelong,  says  General 
Manstein,  three  thousand  of  them  arrived  in  Russia  "  after 
the  defeat  and  imprisonment  of  Charles  I.  These  were 
very  well  received ;  they  had  a  place  assigned  them  con- 
tiguous to  the  town  of  Moscow,  where  they  built  good  houses 
and  formed  that  part  of  this  great  city  which  is  distinguished 
to  this  day  by  the  name  of  Inostranaya  Sloboda,  or  the 
habitation  of  strangers." 

One  of  these  adventurers  was  very  probably  Christopher 
Galloway,  the  Scottish  horologer,  who  constructed  the 
great  clock  in  the  ancient  tower  of  the  Spaski  at  Moscow, 
stated  to  have  been  done  about  this  time. 

Among  these  was  certainly  James  Bruce,  who  became  a 
General,  attained  the  highest  honours,  and  whose  successor 


4  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

was  afterwards  the  plenipotentiary  of  the  C/ar  at  the  Treaty 
of  Neistadt.  Two  of  this  name  won  distinction  on  the 
Continent.  In  the  German  memoirs  of  Henry  James 
Bruce  (whom  we  shall  ere  long  meet  in  the  Prussian 
service)  he  begins  thus  : — 

"  James  Bruce  and  John  Bruce,  cousins,  and  descendants 
of  the  family  of  Airth,  in  the  county  of  Stirling,  a  branch 
of  the  family  of  Clackmannan),  formed  a  resolution,  during 
the  troubles  by  Oliver  Cromwell,  to  leave  their  native 
country  and  push  their  fortunes  abroad  ;  and  as  there  were 
some  ships  in  the  port  of  Leith  ready  to  sail  for  the  Baltic, 
they  agreed  to  go  to  that  part  of  the  world  ;  but  as  there 
happened  to  be  two  of  these  ships'  masters  of  the 
same  name,  by  an  odd  mistake  the  cousins  embarked  in 
different  vessels — one  bound  to  Prussia,  the  other  to 
Russia — by  which  accident  they  never  again  saw  each 
other.  John  Bruce,  my  grandfather,  landed  at  Koningsberg, 
went  to  Berlin,  and  entered  the  service  of  the  Elector  of 
Brandenburg." 

His  brother  James,  in  the  Russian  service,  was  the  first 
officer  to  render  the  artillery  of  that  country  efficient,  and 
this  was  perfected  by  his  grandson,  under  Peter,  by  whom 
the  latter  was  made  Master- General  of  the  Ordnance. 
"  Artillery  was  known  in  Russia,"  says  Baron  Mansteiu, 
"  so  long  ago  as  the  reign  of  Ivan  Basilowitz  II ;  but  the 
pieces  were  of  enormous  size,  and  quite  unserviceable." 

Under  the  Master-General  Bruce  it  was  soon  made  equal 
to  any  artillery  in  Europe,  and  by  1714  it  numbered 
13,000  pieces.  Bruce  had  foundries  at  Moscow,  St. 
Petersburg,  Woronitz,  Catharinenburg,  and  other  places, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSS[A.  5 

and  to  each  regiment  of  horse  and  foot  two  3-lb.  field-pieces 
were  attached.  Bruce  invited  his  kinsman,  Henry  James 
(whose  memoirs  we  have  quoted),  to  join  him  in  Russia, 
which  he  did  about  1710  with  the  rank  of  Captain  of 
Engineers  and  Artillery.  Manstein  also  records  that  the 
elder  Bruce  "  took  care  to  form  a  body  of  engineers. 
He  instituted  schools  at  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg, 
where  youth  were  taught  practical  geometry,  engineer- 
ing, and  gunnery."  And  this  at  a  time  when  the 
Muscovites  despised  all  science,  looked  upon  a  mathema- 
tician as  a  sorcerer,  and  nearly  slew  a  Dutch  surgeon  for 
having  a  skeleton  in  his  study.  (Earl  of  Carlisle,  etc.) 

The  Scots  had  much  to  do  in  developing  discipline 
among  the  half-barbarous  hordes  of  the  Russian  army. 
The  Atlas  Geographus,  an  old  topographical  work  pub- 
lished at  the  Savoy  in  London  in  1711,  says  that  the 
Russians,  in  endeavouring  to  bring  their  soldiers  under 
better  discipline,  "  make  use  of  a  great  many  Scots  and 
German  officers,  who  instruct  them  in  all  the  warlike  ex- 
ercises that  are  practised  by  other  European  nations." 

For  a  long  period,  says  Manstein,  Russia  had  no  other 
troops  than  the  Strelitzes,  ill-disciplined,  ill-clothed,  and 
armed  with  whatever  came  to  hand  ;  few  had  firearms,  but 
many  had  a  battle-axe  called  a  berdash  ;  the  rest  had  only 
wooden  clubs. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  their  infantry 
were  armed  with  a  musket,  sword,  and  hatchet,  the  latter 
slung  behind.  Their  cavalry  wore  steel  caps  and  corselets, 
and  were  armed  with  bows,  sabres,  spears,  mauls,  and 
round  targets  ;  and  during  the  epoch  of  Dalziel,  Drummond, 


0  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Bruce,  and  the  Gordons  the  army  had  a  monster  battle- 
drum,  braced  on  the  backs  of  four  horses  abreast,  with 
four  drummers  at  each  end  to  beat  it. 

The  scene  of  their  first  active  service  was  against  the 
Poles,  with  whom  Alexis  Michailowitz  had  gone  to  war  in 
1653,  and  from  whom  he  captured  Smolensko,  the  govern- 
ment of  which  was  given  to  General  Drummond,  and 
dreadful  devastations  followed  in  Livonia  at  the  storming 
of  Dorpt,  Kokenhousen,  and  many  other  places. 

Dalziel,  now  raised  to  the  rank  of  full  General,  com- 
manded against  the  Tartars  and  the  Turkish  armies  of 
Mohammed  IV  (1654-5),  and  in  these  contests,  waged  at 
the  head  of  barbarous  hordes  against  hordes  equally  bar- 
barous, the  wanderer  must  have  acquired  much  of  that 
unyielding  sternness,  if  not  ferocity,  which  characterised 
his  future  proceedings  in  his  own  country.  In  these  cam- 
paigns quarter  was  never  asked  nor  given  ;  prisoners  were 
shot,  beheaded,  impaled,  or  put  to  death  by  slow  fires,  and 
by  every  species  of  torture  that  Muscovite  brutality  or  the 
nust  refined  cruelty  the  Oriental  mind  could  suggest ;  and 
in  this  terrible  arena  of  foreign  service  was  schooled  the 
future  Colonel  of  the  Scots  Greys  and  commander  of  the 
Scottish  troops — the  scourge  of  the  Covenanters. 

After  eleven  years  of  this  wild  work,  Sir  Thomas  Dalziel 
and  General  Drummond  were  invited  home  by  Charles  II, 
whose  restoration  was  accomplished.  The  first-named 
officer  requested  from  the  Czar  a  certificate  of  his  faithful 
service  in  Russia.  It  was  given  under  the  great  seal  of  the 
Empire,  and  a  part  of  it  states  : 

"  That    he   formerly   came   hither   to   serve   our  Great 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  7 

Czarish  Majesty :  whilst  with  us,  he  stood  against  our 
enemies  and  fought  valiantly.  The  military  men  under  his 
command  he  regulated  and  disciplined,  and  himself  led 
them  to  battle,  and  he  did  and  performed  everything  faith- 
fully as  a  noble  commander." 

From  Russia  he  was  accompanied  by  his  comrade,  General 
William  Drummond  of  Cromlix,  who  had  also  fought  at 
Worcester,  and  who  in  1686  was  created  Lord  Drummond 
and  Viscount  Strathallan,  and  was  ultimately  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,  and  on  the  death  of  Dalziel  became  Commander- 
iu-(Jhief  of  the  Scottish  army.  He  died  in  1688.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  these  two  officers,  who,  Burnett 
says,  were  "  not  without  difficulty  sent  back  by  the  Czar," 
returned  to  Scotland  with  hearts  boiling  with  rancour 
against  the  party  which  had  sold  the  king  and  driven 
themselves  into  long  exile. 

After  the  defeat  of  Montrose  at  the  battle  of  Philiphaugh. 
there  came  into  the  service  of  Russia  Colonel  Walter  White- 
ford — son  of  Walter  Whiteford,  Bishop  of  Brechin  in  1634, 
and  previously  Rector  of  Mo  Sat,  but  who  was  deposed  by 
the  General  Assembly  of  1638 — an  officer  who  figured  in  a 
very  dark  and  terrible  episode. 

While  he  was  at  The  Hague  with  Montrose  there  came 
thither  a  Dr.  Dorislaus,  a  D.C.L.,  a  native  of  Delft,  but 
who  had  been  a  Professor  in  Gresham  College,  was  Judge- 
Advocate  to  the  Army  of  Essex,  and  as  such  had  assisted 
at  the  trial  of  Charles  I.  While  he  was  at  dinner  in  an  inn, 
Colonel  Whiteford,  with  eleven  English  cavaliers,  entered 
the  room  with  their  swords  drawn,  and  telling  all  who 
were  present  "  not  to  be  alarmed,"  added  sternly  "  that 


8  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

their  only  object  was  the  agent  of  the  rebel  Cromwell"  ;  and 
crying,  "  Thus  dies  one  of  our  king's  judges,"  they  stabbed 
Dorislaus  to  death.  "  The  first  thrust  was  given  by  White- 
ford,  who  thereafter  clave  his  skull  by  one  blow  of  his 
broadsword." 

From  The  Hague,  Whiteford  joined  the  Russian  army, 
-with  which  he  served  for  several  years,  and  with  which  he 
remained  until  the  accession  of  James  VII,  when  he 
returned  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  was  resident  in  1691. 
(Dodd's  Hist.,  fol.,  Brussels  ;  Echard,  Tindal's  Rapin,  etc.) 
His  father,  the  Bishop,  was  a  daring  prelate,  who  never 
ascended  the  pulpit  without  a  brace  of  pistols  under  his 
cassock. 

The  Russia  to  which  the  Scots  of  those  days  went  was  a 
barbarous  land  indeed.  In  Geijer's  history  of  the  Swedes 
a  state  of  Russia  was  drawn  up  for  Gustavus  Adolphus — 
"  There  are  two  causes  of  weakness  in  Russia,"  says 
Geijer ;  "  one,  corruption  of  the  clergy,  whence  the  educa- 
tion of  the  people  was  wretched,  so  that  gluttony  and 
bloodshed  were  not  vices,  but  matters  of  boast ;  the  other 
was  the  foreign  (Scots  and  German)  soldiery.  For  the 
Muscovites,  though  hating  everything  outlandish  (or 
foreign),  could  effect  nothing  without  foreign  aid.  All 
they  accomplished  was  done  by  treachery  and  force  of 
numbers.  The  indigenous  soldier  received  no  pay,  there- 
fo -e  he  robbed.  .  .  .  With  respect  to  taxes  there  was  no 
law,  but  the  lieutenants  extorted  what  they  could,  and 
took  bribes  for  remissness.  The  condition  of  the  lower 
class  of  the  Russians  was  miserable  from  four  causes — 
slavery ;  from  the  multiplicity  of  races ;  through  the  weight 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  9 

of  imposts ;  the  number  of  festival  days,  which  are  consumed 
in  debauchery.  Laws  are  unknown,  and  the  peasants,  who 
must  labour  five  days  of  the  week  for  their  lords,  have 
only  the  sixth  and  seventh  to  themselves." 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    SCOTS    IN    RUSSIA.— (Continued). 

The  Gordons  of  Auchintoul  and  Auchleuchries —  Marshal 
Ogilvie — Goron  and  Mazeppa,  etc. — The  Battle  of  Pultowa 
— Marshal  Keith  and  his  Scottish  comrades. 

THE  arrival  in  Russia  of  the  two  Generals  Gordon,  of 
Marshal  Ogilvie  and  others,  tended  still  further  to 
develop  in  the  army  the  seeds  of  good  discipline  sown  by 
their  Scottish  predecessors. 

The  principal  of  these,  General  Alexander  Gordon  of 
Auchintoul,  wrote  a  life  of  the  Czar  Peter  the  Great,  to 
which  he  prefixed  a  memoir  of  himself.  It  was  published  at 
Aberdeen  in  1755,  and  (according  to  the  Nouvelle  Biographic 
Generate)  in  German  at  Leipzig  ten  years  subsequently. 

This  officer  was  the  son  of  Lewis  Gordon  of  Auchintoul, 
Lord  of  Session  in  1688  (whose  predecessor  was  Lord 
Edmondston),  by  his  wife  Isobel  Gray  of  Braik.  He  was 
born  in  1669,  and  in  1688  entered,  as  a  cadet,  one  of  the 
ill-fated  Scottish  companies  raised  by  desire  of  James  VII 
to  assist  the  French  in  the  war  in  Catalonia. 

In  these  companies  were  Major  Buchan  of  Auchmacoy, 
Irvine  of  Cults,  Colonel  Wauchop  of  Niddry,  Graham  of 
Braco  (afterwards  a  Capuchin  friar),  and  many  other 
Scottish  gentlemen  of  good  family. 

In  that  service  young  Gordon  carried  a  musket  for  two 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  u 

severe  campaigns,  and  eventually  was  made  a  captain  by 
Louis  XIV. 

In  1693  lie  went  to  Russia  to  push  his  fortune,  and  there 
met — already  high  in  position  and  rank — his  clansman, 
General  Patrick  Gordon  of  Auchleuchries,  in  Aberdeen- 
shire,  the  General-in-Chief  of  the  whole  Russian  army, 
through  whom  he  obtained  his  first  commission  therein  as 
captain,  we  believe  from  the  subsequent  incident. 

He  had  been  invited  to  a  festive  gathering,  where  several 
young  Russian  nobles  were  present,  and  as  these  were 
rather  prone  to  insult  all  strangers  (but  more  especially 
Scots),  "  when  in  liquor,"  he  states,  he  soon  heard  dis- 
respectful language  applied  to  foreigners,  and  particularly 
to  his  own  countrymen.  Gordon's  blood  took  fire  at  once. 
The  sword  was  not  much  used  in  Russian  quarrels.  With 
one  blow  of  his  clenched  fist  he  levelled  the  most  imper- 
tinent of  these  lords  on  the  floor,  and,  in  the  general  row 
that  ensued,  severely  wounded  five  others.  The  affair 
reached  the  ears  of  Peter  I,  who  sent  for  Captain  Gordon, 
who  went  into  his  presence  with  vague  fears  of  the  knout 
or  Siberia  ;  but  his  bearing  so  won  the  favour  of  the  prince 
that  the  latter  said  : 

"  Well,  sir,  your  accusers  have  done  you  justice  in  ad- 
mitting that  you  soundly  beat  six  of  them,  so  I  will  also  do 
you  justice." 

A  few  minutes  after  he  put  in  Gordon's  hand  his  com- 
mission as  Major — a  rank  speedily  followed  by  that  of 
Lieutenant-Colonel. 

In  1696,  when  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  he  was 
despatched  to  Azak,  or  Azoflf,  as  it  is  now  named,  a  city  on 


12  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

the  left  bank  of  the  Don,  to  relieve  the  first  siege  of  that 
place  by  the  Turks.  He  had  under  his  orders  4,000  horse, 
20,000  infantry,  and  a  strong  body  of  Cossacks  and 
Calmacks.  He  fulfilled  his  instructions  ;  levelled  the 
fortifications,  and  inarched  back  to  Moscow.  (Life  of 
Peter  I.) 

In  1697  he  married  the  daughter  of  General  Patrick 
Gordon,  the  widow  of  Colonel  Strasburg,  a  German.  The 
General,  who  was  a  cadet  of  the  Haddo  family  (now  Lords 
of  Aberdeen),  had  first  entered  the  Swedish  service  in  his 
eighteenth  year,  and  was  taken  prisoner  at  the  great  battle 
and  cnpture  of  Warsaw  in  1055,  and  at  the  peace  entered 
the  Russian  service.  On  the  30th  of  November,  1699,  he 
died  in  his  66th  year,  as  his  son-in-law  records,  "much 
regretted  by  the  £zar  and  the  whole  nation.  His  Majesty 
visited  him  five  times  during  his  illness,  was  present  at  the 
moment  he  expired,  and  shut  his  eyes  with  his  own  hand  ; 
he  was  buried  in  great  state." 

Marshal  Baron  Ogilvie  now  began  to  take  a  prominent 
part  in  militaiy  matters,  and  to  him,  says  Baron  Manstein, 
"  the  Russians  are  indebted  for  the  first  establishment  of 
order  and  discipline  in  their  army,  especially  in  the  infantry. 
As  to  the  dragoons,  it  was  General  Ronne,  a  Courlander, 
who  had  charge  of  them. 

Ogilvie's  grandfather  had  been  in  the  Austrian  service, 
under  the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  by  whom  he  was  created, 
for  his  bravery,  a  Baron  of  the  Empire.  From  his  youth 
he  had  served  on  the  Rhine  and  in  Hungary  against  the 
Turks.  He  was  in  his  sixtieth  year  when  he  entered  the 
service  of  Peter  the  Great,  and  commanded  at  Narva; 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  13 

"but,"  says  Gordon,  "  he  never  could  hit  it  off  with  Prince 
Mentschikoff,  nor  bear  his  insolence." 

On  having  1,000  men  added  to  his  regiment,  Alexander 
Gordon  was  sent  to  Tevere,  150  miles  from  Moscow,  to 
have  them  disciplined,  which  he  achieved  personally  and 
perfectly.  He  was  then  despatched — in  the  course  of  the 
war  against  Charles  XII — on  the  expedition  to  Narva, 
which  Ogilvie  besieged  on  the  24th  of  May,  1700,  and  took 
by  a  remarkable  ruse.  Having  taken  prisoners  a  number 
of  Swedes,  he  stripped  them  of  their  uniforms,  which  were 
dark  blue  faced  with  bright  yellow.  In  these  he  clad  2,000 
of  his  Russian  troops,  and  drew  the  Swedes  thereby  into 
an  ambush  where  the  river  of  Narva  is  broad  and  deep, 
and  has  a  fall  of  eighteen  feet  over  a  ledge  of  rocks.  There 
he  cut  to  pieces  1,200  horse  and  foot,  after  which  the  city 
fell  into  his  hands,  and  many  more  were  put  hors  de  combat, 
Gordon  was  detached  to  Piahagie  with  orders  to  build  and 
garrison  a  fort  there. 

Ogilvie  next  captured  Ivanogorod,  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Narva,  90  miles  from  St.  Petersburg,  and  commanded 
the  whole  army  in  the  Grodno,  a  province  forming  part  of 
Lithuania ;  he  sent  a  detachment  to  capture  the  King  of 
Sweden's  baggage  at  Haza,  en  route  to  Wilna,  and  did  so, 
killing  100  of  the  convoy  and  taking  40  prisoners ;  but 
in  November,  1700,  near  Narva,  Charles  XII,  at  the  head 
of  only  9,000  Swedes,  obtained  a  victory  over  39,000 
Russians,  led,  as  some  wrongly  state,  by  Peter  in 
person. 

Alexander  Gordon  was  taken  prisoner,  but  was  ex- 
changed for  the  Swedish  Colonel,  Einshild ;  after  which  he 


14  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

was   made   Brigadier-General     and    despatched    upon   all 
hazardous  exploits. 

In  January,  1708,  he  forced  the  Pass  of  Zeipts  without 
the  loss  of  a  man,  and  blocked  up  the  strong  castle  there. 
He  then  attacked  the  Swedes  near  Kysmark,  routed  them, 
and  on  the  13th  June  "marched  into  Royal  Prussia,  there 
to  take  orders  fnm  King  Augustus." 

When  Charles  XII  was  about  to  cross  the  Disna,  which 
issues  from  a  lake  in  the  district  of  Wilna,  to  form  a  junction 
with  the  troops  of  the  Hetmann  Mazeppa  (whose  name 
has  been  made  so  familiar  to  us  by  Byron),  Peter  the 
Great  sent  Brigadier  Gordon  with  a  battalion  of 
Grenadiers,  four  columns  of  dragoons,  and  eight  pieces 
of  cannon  to  oppose  the  passage  on  the  21st  October, 
1708. 

At  six  o'clock,  in  the  gloom  of  the  evening,  the  Swedes 
made  an  attempt  to  cross  the  river  on  floats  or  rafts 
constructed  of  freshly  felled  trees;  but  Gordon's  guns 
opened  upon  them,  flashing  redly  out  of  the  gloom  of  the 
dark  pine  forest,  and  they  were  repulsed,  their  exultant 
shouts  of  triumph  giving  place  to  shrieks  of  drowning  and 
despair.  The  firing  lasted  till  eleven  P.M.,  when  the 
ammunition  of  the  Russians  became  expended,  and  Gordon 
reluctantly  had  to  retire,  in  obedience  to  an  order  from 
Marshal  Schermatoff,  with  the  loss  of  800  killed  and  900 
wounded — a  strange  disproportion  ;  but  2,000  Swedes  were 
slain  or  drowned  in  the  river.  The  passage  of  the  latter 
was  nevertheless  effected,  leaving  Mazeppa  free  to  pursue 
his  march,  "  with  a  remnant  of  6,000  Cossacks,  being  all 
that  had  escaped  the  swords  of  the  Muscovites."  Bad 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  15 

ammunition  had  been  purposely  and  scantily  sent  to 
Gordon  by  his  private  enemy,  Prince  Mentschikoff. 

Gordon's  next  service  was  his  expedition  to  oppose  the 
Swedes  under  General  Crassow,  and  the  Poles  and  Lithua- 
nians in  the  interest  of  King  Stanislaus. 

The  battle  of  Pultowa  soon  followed — 

"  Dread  Pultowa's  day, 

When  fortune  left  the  royal  Swede, 
Around  a  slaughtered  army  lay, 

No  more  to  combat  or  to  bleed. 
The  power  and  glory  of  the  war, 

Faithless  as  their  vain  votaries,  men, 
Had  passed  to  the  triumphant  jDzar, 

And  Moscow's  walls  were  safe  again  !" 

By  that  defeat,  Chai'les,  so  long  the  terror  of  Europe, 
became  a  fugitive  in  Turkey,  while  the  Czar  restored 
Augustus  to  the  throne  of  Poland,  deposed  Stanislaus, 
expelled  the  Swedes,  and  made  himself  master  of  Livonia, 
Ingria,  and  Carelia.  (Voltaire,  History  of  Russia.} 

Old  Marshal  Ogilvie  now  took  service  under  Augustus, 
and,  dying  "in  harness,"  in  1712,  was  solemnly  interred  at 
Dresden. 

But,  prior  to  that  event,  Gordon  tells  us  that  the 
Russians,  10,000  strong,  came  up  with  the  Poles  at 
Podkamian,  in  Black  Prussia,  defeated  and  pursued  them 
to  Limberg.  He  led  the  infantry  on  this  occasion,  and 
sent  home  to  Scotland  several  Polish  standards  and  other 
trophies. 

Next  we  find  him  in  Transylvania  with  a  powerful 
Russian  column,  assisting  Prince  Ragotzky  against  the 
Austrians,  from  whom  he  tells  us  he  captured  several  tons 
of  Tokay,  which  he  also  sent  to  Scotland — we  presume  to 


i6  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

his  old  ancestral  house  of  Auchintoul,  in  the  parish  of 
Aberchirder,  where  it  still  stands. 

In  1711  he  heard  of  his  father's  death,  and  returned 
home  via  Dantzig,  Holland,  and  England,  where  he 
landed  at  Harwich.  In  the  September  of  the  same  year 
he  made  additions  to  the  house  of  Auchintoul,  and  pur- 
chased the  barony  of  Laithers  in  the  same  country. 

In  1715  (according  to  Smollett's  Hist.)  he  joined  the 
Earl  of  Mar  at  Sheriffmuir,  where  he  led  the  Western 
clans  in  battle,  and,  escaping  with  him  after  the  conflict* 
was  offered  the  rank  of  Lieutenant- General  in  the  Spanish 
army  ;  but  he  declined,  and,  returning  to  Scotland,  died  in 
1751,  in  the  eighty-second  year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried 
near  Marnock  Kirk,  where  "  no  memorial  marks  the  spot." 
(New  Stat.  Acct.) 

The  portrait  prefixed  to  his  history  shows  him  a  long- 
faced  yet  handsome  man,  with  a  high  wig,  the  ends  of 
which  curl  down  on  his  breast-plate  and  coat,  which  is 
worn  open. 

The  most  distinguished  engineer  oflicer  in  the  army  of 
the  Czar  Peter  was  Captain  Bruce  of  Buzion,  a  native  of 
Fifeshire,  who  had  been  trained  in  the  Prussian  service. 
He  served  under  Peter  till  1 724,  and  was  with  him  on  his 
memorable  Prussian  expedition,  and  was  at  the  battle  of 
the  Pruth.  He  died  at  his  seat  near  Cupar  (after  having 
served  in  the  campaign  of  1745-6)  in  1758.  (Scots  Mag.) 

Peter  the  Great  died  on  the  8th  February,  1727,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Peter  II,  son  of  Prince  Alexis,  his  grandson 
by  his  first  wife. 

It  was  in  the  year  1728  that  James   Francis  Edward 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  17 

Keith,  the  future  Field-Marshal,  and  ill-fated  hero  of 
Hochkirchen,  entered  the  Russian  service.  The  younger 
sou  of  William,  ninth  Earl  Marischal,  he  was  born  in  1696 
in  the  now  ruined  Castle  of  Inverugie,  a  once  splendid 
edifice  at  St.  Fergus  in  Aberdeenshire.  Destined  for  the 
law,  he  preferred  the  profession  of  arms,  anil  in  the  rising 
for  King  James  in  1715  he  was  wounded  at  Sheriffmuir  in 
his  nineteenth  year  and  had  to  fly  to  France,  before  which 
he  had  made  great  progress  in  the  classics  under  the 
tutelage  of  the  famous  Bishop  Keith.  After  joining  in  a 
futile  attempt  for  the  Stuarts  in  1718,  with  other  Scottish 
Cavaliers  he  entered  the  Spanish  service,  in  which  he 
remained  till  1728,  with  a  regiment  of  the  Irish  Brigade, 
commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  in  which  he  had 
been  placed  by  the  Duke  of  Leria,  when,  seeing  advance- 
ment hopeless  unless  he  turned  Catholic,  he  came  with  a 
letter  to  the  King,  and  in  attendance  upon  Leria,  the 
Ambassador  to  the  Czarina,  by  whom  he  was  appointed 
Lieutenant- Colonel  of  a  newly  raised  corps  of  three 
battalions,  called  the  Regiment  of  Ishmaelow  (from  a 
palace  near  Moscow,  says  Manstein),  and  was  invested  at 
the  same  time  with  the  Order  of  the  Black  Eagle.  Of 
this  regiment  Count  Lowenwalde  was  Colonel,  and 
Gustavus  Biron,  Major.  It  was  in  augmentation  of  the 
Foot  Guards;  and  the  author  of  Letters  from  Scandi- 
navia says  that  in  Keith's  battalion  "the  illustrious 
Romonzow  served  as  a  private  soldier,"  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  his  military  duties.  "  The  greatest  part  of 
the  officers,"  adds  Manstein,  "  were  chosen  among  foreigners 
and  the  Livonian  nobility.  These  regiments  of  Guards 

0 


1 8  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

were  raised  as  checks  upon  the  old  ones,  and  to  overawe 
the  people  from  sedition  or  insurrection." 

During  all  the  twenty  years  of  his  service  in  Russia, 
James  Keith  was  uniformly  distinguished  by  his  valour, 
good  conduct,  and  humanity — the  latter  being  one  of  the 
most  striking  features  of  his  character. 

Ocher  Scotsmen  came  prominently  forward  about  the 
same  time — among  them  Admiral  Thomas  Gordon  and  the 
Count  de  Balmaine. 

In  1738,  when  the  Russian  and  Saxon  armies  invested 
Dantzig,  in  hope  of  securing  the  person  of  King  Stanislaus, 
the  town  was  strong,  the  garrison  numerous,  and,  inspired 
by  the  presence  of  the  French  and  Poles,  made  an 
obstinate  defence  ;  and  on  the  arrival  of  the  Russian  fleet 
under  Admiral  Gordon  the  siege  was  pressed  with  greater 
fury.  Under  its  fire  the  city  submitted  to  Augustus  III 
as  King  of  Poland  ;  Stanislaus  fled  to  Prussia  in  the  dis- 
guise of  a  peasant ;  an  amnesty  was  proclaimed,  and  the 
French  prisoners  of  war  were  taken  away  in  Gordon's 
ships.  (Smollet's  History.} 

In  1735  Colonel  Ramsay  was  one  of  those  officers  who, 
with  the  Count  de  Bounival  in  the  Turkish  service,  had 
been  diciplining  the  Osmanli  troops,  thus  causing  much 
uneasiness  in  St.  Petersburg.  Catharine  gave  Ramsay 
and  others  such  assurances  of  promotion  in  Russia  that  they 
joined  her  army,  by  the  way  of  Holland,  and  Ramsay  was 
commissioned  as  Major.  "  He  took  the  name  of  Count  de  Bal- 
maine," says  Manstein,  "and  distinguished  himself  on  many 
occasions,  insomuch  that  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  Colonel,  and 
was  killed  in  the  action  of  Wilmanstrand."  This  was  in  1 741. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  19 

A  writer  in  the  Times,  in  1857,  stated  that  "he  was  a 
son  of  Viscount  Balmaine,  whose  adherence  to  the  Stuarts 
compelled  him  to  quit  Scotland"  ;  but  gave  no  authority 
for  this. 

In  1735,  when  the  Empress  sent  10,000  men  to  the 
Rhine  to  succour  the  Emperor  Charles  VI,  Keith 
commanded  as  Lieutenant- General  under  the  Irish  veteran 
Marshal  Lacy.  They  crossed  Bohemia  and  reached  the 
great  river  in  June,  and  Europe  generally  was  astonished 
at  the  good  order  and  discipline  these  Muscovites  ex- 
hibited. 

War  was  now  resolved  upon  with  the  Turks,  and  in  the 
army  which  began  and  accomplished  the  conquest  of  the 
Crimea  were  Generals  Count  Douglas,  Leslie,  Forman, 
Bruce,  Stuart,  Colonel  Kamsay,  Count  de  Balmaine, 
Johnston,  and  Lieutenant  Innes  (who  distinguished  himself 
at  the  capture  of  Otchakow),  all  Scotsmen — of  whom  in 
their  places. 

It  was  agreed  that  a  Russian  army,  under  Lac^,  should 
march  against  the  city  of  Azoff  to  punish  the  Tartars  of  the 
Crimea  for  their  outrages,  while  another,  under  the  Count 
de  Munich,  should  penetrate  to  the  Ukraine,  and  Secken- 
dorf  with  the  Austrians  should  enter  Se  rvia. 

In  those  days  the  Crimean  Khan,  a  powerful  prince, 
paid  tribute  to  the  Sultan,  and  his  territory,  besides  the 
noble  monuments  of  the  Genoese,  contained  many  great 
cities. 

Lacy  came  in  sight  of  Azoff  on  the  15th  May,  1736. 
Situated  on  an  eminence,  it  is  in  a  district  of  dangerous 
swamps,  bleak  and  barren ;  but  had  a  castle  of  great 

o  2 


20  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

strength.  In  the  attack  Lacy  was  nobly  seconded  by  the 
column  of  Count  Douglas,  particularly  on  the  14th  June, 
when  a  frightful  encounter  took  place  at  the  palisades, 
which  the  Tartars  and  Turks  defended  by  bullets,  arrows, 
tlarts,  and  stones  for  twelve  consecutive  days,  after  which 
the  town  was  taken,  and  the  Bashaw  marched  out  with 
3,400  men  and  2,233  women,  surrendering  167  pieces  of 
cannon  and  291  Christian  slaves. 

Lacy  next  forced  the  Lines  of  Perecop,  till  then  deemed 
impregnable,  and  Count  Balmaine  stormed  Kaffa,  where 
the  beautiful  mosques  and  minarets  were  converted  into 
magazines  or  torn  down,  and  the  stately  fountains  and 
aqueducts  destroyed  for  the  sake  of  their  leaden  pipes. 

Bakhtchissari,  within  22  miles  of  Sebastopol,  next  fell, 
and  Ockzakow,  where  Innes  led  the  stormers,  and  where 
11,000  Russian  regulars  and  3,000  Cossacks  were  killed, 
and  Keith  was  highly  complimented  for  his  valour  by 
Count  Munich  (Manstein,  p.  157),  but  received  a  dreadful 
wound  in  the  thigh.  It  was  by  his  valour  chiefly  that  the 
place  was  captured,  and  then  his  humanity  was  grandly 
conspicuous,  for  while  the  furious  Muscovites  were  san- 
guinary in  their  ferocity,  he  sought  to  check  it.  He 
rescued  a  child,  six  years  of  age,  from  the  hands  of  one 
whose  sabre  was  uplifted  to  cleave  the  helpless  creature  as 
she  endeavoured  to  creep  out  from  the  rubbish  and  dead  that 
had  fallen  over  her.  Her  father,  a  Turkish  Pasha  of  high 
position,  had  fallen  in  the  siege,  and  she  was  now  an 
orphan.  Unable  to  protect  her  himself,  Keith  sent  her  to 
his  bi-other,  the  loyal,  yet  attainted,  Earl  Marischal,  who 
brought  her  up  as  a  Christian,  treated  her  as  a  daughter 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA. 


21 


of  his  own,  "  and,  as  she  grew  up,"  says  Lord  de  Bos, 
"  gave  her  charge  of  his  household,  where  she  did  the 
honours  of  the  table,  and  behaved  herself  with  great  pro* 
pi-iety  and  discretion." 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA..— (Continued.) 

Keith  in  the  Ukraine — Leslie  slain — Keith  and  Prince 
Cantemier — Made  Governor  of  the  Ukraine — Bahnaine 
slain — Keith  in  Finland — Quells  a  mutiny  at  Wybourg. 

BEFORE  referring  again  to  Keith  we  may  state  that  during 
its  stay  in  the  Crimea  the  Russian  army  ravaged  the 
whole  country.  During  the  winters  of  1736  and  1737  the 
Tartars,  thirsting  for  vengeance,  burst  into  the  Ukraine, 
despite  all  the  precautions  of  Munich,  giving  towns  to  the 
flames,  and  carrying  off  above  1,000  Christian  slaves. 

The  defence  of  the  Ukraine  was  assigned  to  General 
Keith,  with  the  column  of  troops  that  had  served  with  him 
on  the  Rhine.  It  had  recrossed  Bohemia  and  Poland,  and 
in  September,  1736,  was  in  winter  quarters  in  Kiow. 

In  the  February  of  the  next  year,  on  the  24th,  some 
thousand  Tartars  crossed  the  Dnieper  on  the  ice,  near 
the  small  town  of  Kilberdna,  where  a  brigade  of  Keith's, 
under  Major- General  Leslie,  was  posted.  Finding  that 
the  Tartars  had  passed  his  outposts,  he  gathered  200 
bayonets  to  attack  them.  The  Tartars,  supposing  this  was 
the  advanced  guard  of  a  large  body,  fell  back,  but  on 
learning  their  mistake  they  returned ;  a  conflict  ensued, 
and  Leslie,  with  nearly  his  whole  detachment,  perished.  No 
prisoners  were  taken  but  his  son,  Captain  Leslie,  who 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  23 

served  as  his  aide-de-camp,  and  twenty  men.  Penetrating 
further  now,  the  Tartars  gave  all  to  fire  and  sword  for 
forty-eight  hours,  till  overtaken  by  a  column  of  2,000 
cavalry  sent  by  Keith,  who  cut  down  300  and  retook  all 
their  booty. 

On  the  25th  of  July,  1737,  in  the  engagement  near 
Karasu-Bazaar,  in  a  valley  36  miles  from  Kaffa — now  the 
great  mart  of  the  Crimea  for  fruit  and  wine — Lieutenant- 
General  Count  Douglas,  who  led  the  advanced  guard,  con- 
sisting of  6,000  dragoons  and  infantry,  had  orders  to  seize 
the  town,  while  Marshal  Lacy  followed  with  the  main  body. 
Douglas  was  repulsed  by  15,000  Turks,  who  held  an  en- 
trenched camp  above  the  town ;  but,  on  being  reinforced  by 
only  two  regiments  of  cavalry,  he  returned  to  the  attack 
again  and  captured  it,  sabre  a  la  main,  after  an  hour's  con- 
flict, and  won  a  vast  amount  of  plunder. 

In  the  army  which  opened  the  campaign  of  April,  1738, 
against  the  Turks,  the  Quartermaster  General,  Fermor,  a 
Scotsman,  led  the  vanguard,  consisting  of  seven  regiments 
of  infantry,  one  of  hussars,  and  2,000  Cossacks,  which  he 
marched  in  hollow  square  to  examine  the  position  of  the 
enemy  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Dniester,  where  the 
Osmanli  troops  were  defeated;  and  now  everywhere  the 
rapid  successes  of  the  Russian  arms  roused  the  Court  of 
Vienna,  which  was  bound  by  treaty  to  assist  the  Porte. 
But  the  Russians  still  pressed  on  towards  the  shores  of  the 
Black  Sea,  and  prophecies  were  as  usual  propagated  that 
the  period  fatal  to  the  Crescent  had  arrived.  (Mem.  de 
Brandenburg.) 

In  1738  Major  William  M'Kenzie  of  Conansby  entered 


24  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

the  Russian  army  as  Colonel  under  the  Empress  Anne,  but 
returned  to  the  British  service  on  the  war  breaking  out 
with  Spain,  and  died  in  1770. 

In  the  year  1739  occurred  what  was  termed  "the  affair 
of  LDrince  Caritemier,"  in  which  Keith  was  concerned. 

The  Count  de  Munich  having  formed  a  regiment  of 
Wallachians  when  the  new  campaign  opened,  gave  com- 
mand of  it  to  Prince  Cantemier,  a  near  relation  of  one  of 
the  same  name,  who  had  joined  Peter  I  in  1711.  The 
Prince,  en  route  to  Russia,  passed  by  the  way  of  Brody,  a 
town  of  Galicia,  the  residence  of  Count  Potosky,  Crown- 
General  of  Poland,  and  consequently  averse  to  Russian 
interests.  He  threw  the  Prince  into  a  loathsome  vault, 
and  offered  to  deliver  him  up  to  the  Porte — tidings  of 
•which  the  Prince  contrived  to  send  to  Kiow,  where  Keith 
commanded.  The  latter  instantly  sent  an  officer  to  demand 
the  release  of  the  Prince ;  but  Potosky  denied  all  know- 
ledge of  the  matter. 

Keith  threatened  to  enforce  his  demands  with  the  sword, 
on  which  he  was  set  at  liberty  and  escorted  to  the  frontier 
of  the  Ukraine :  and  soon  after  took  vengeance  upon  his 
enemy,  whose  possessions  he  ravaged  with  fire  and  sword 
at  the  head  of  his  Wallachian  regiment.  "  He  committed 
the  most  horrid  cruelties,"  says  Manstein,  "  and  could  he 
have  got  hold  of  Count  Potosky,  there  is  no  doubt  but 
that  he  would  have  made  him  undergo  the  same  punish- 
ment to  which  the  Count  had  meant  to  expose  him." 

The  general  progress  of  these  wars  lies  apart  from  our 
narrative,  and  before  the  end  of  1709,  by  the  pacific 
disposition  of  their  Christian  allies,  the  Turks,  so  re- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  25 

cently  devoted  to  destruction,  obtained  an  advantageous 
peace. 

The  following  year  saw  General  Keith  made  Governor 
of  the  Ukraine — that  vast  region  which  lies  south-east  of 
Russian  Poland.  "  He  had  just  returned  from  France," 
says  Manstein,  "  where  he  had  been  for  the  cure  of  his 
wounds.  He  had  orders  to  repair  to  Glogan  as  Governor, 
where  he  did  not  reside  one  year;  but  in  that  time  he 
despatched  more  business  than  his  predecessors  had  done 
in  ten.  The  Ukraine  received  great  benefit  from  the  mild- 
ness of  his  government  and  the  order  which  he  established 
in  the  administration  of  affairs.  He  began  to  introduce, 
even  among  the  Cossacks,  a  sort  of  discipline,  which  till 
then  had  been  unknown;  but  he  had  not  time  to  complete 
that  work,  for,  the  war  coming  on  with  Sweden,  he  was 
recalled.  When  he  quitted  Glogan  the  whole  country 
regretted  him." 

In  April,  1741,  there  died  at  Cronstadt,  Thomas  Gordon, 
Admiral  of  all  Russia.  (Scots  Magazine,  1741.) 

In  1741,  when  the  preparations  for  war  began,  the 
Grand  Duchess  Anne  removed  Lacy  and  Keith  to  St. 
Petersburg,  and  it  was  in  Finland  they  were  to  act 
offensively,  as  soon  as  the  field  was  taken. 

The  second  column,  to  be  commanded  by  the  Prince  of 
Hesse-Homburg,  was  to  remain  in  Ingria.  Others  were  to 
be  formed  in  Livonia  and  Esthonia,  to  cover  the  coasts 
under  Count  Lowendal,  as  the  Russian  fleet  had  been  in  a 
different  condition  since  Gordon  sailed  from  Dantzig. 

Under  General  Keith  the  first  camp  was  formed  on  the 
22nd  July,  1741,  four  miles  from  St.  Petersburg.  It  consisted 


26  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

of  five  regiments  of  infantry,  three  of  dragoons,  and  several 
independent  companies  of  grenadiers,  all  of  which  were 
reviewed  four  days  after  by  Marshal  Lacy.  During  this 
ceremony  the  sound  of  cannon  was  heard  in  St.  Petersburg, 
announcing  the  birth  of  a  princess,  who  was  named 
Catherine.  Keith,  accompanied  by  the  Count  de  Balmaine, 
now  began  his  march,  and  on  the  24th  August  declared  the 
war  against  Sweden  was  then  inaugurated,  as  it  was  the 
birthday  of  the  Emperor.  At  the  head  of  each  great 
battalion  he  made  a  harangue,  exhorting  the  soldiers  to  do 
their  duty  and  uphold  the  glory  of  the  Russian  arms. 

Sweden  was  at  that  time  rent  by  political  schism.  One 
party,  called  the  Hats,  was  ever  for  war,  but  remained  at 
peace  when  Russia  was  pressed  by  other  Powers  ;  and 
now,  when  the  latter  was  at  peace  and  Sweden  had  but 
few  troops  in  Finland,  that  power  was  ready  and  ripe  for 
war,  and  scorned  the  pacific  advice  of  what  was  named  the 
Nightcap  party. 

The  day  after  war  was  declared,  Keith  again  marched 
through  Wybourg  and  encamped  near  the  bridge  of  Abo. 
All  the  troops  had  fifteen  days'  rations,  and,  on  a  junction 
being  formed  with  the  column  of  General  Uxkul,  three 
regiments  were  left  to  hold  Abo,  an  important  town  in 
Finland,  and  the  advance  began  again,  Lacy  commanding 
the  whole,  towards  Wilmanstrand,  a  fortified  village  on  the 
south  bank  of  Lake  Saima,  where  Major- General  Wrangel 
was  in  position  at  the  head  of  4,000  Swedes,  while  4,000 
more,  under  General  Buddenbrog,  were  six  miles  distant. 

The  march  lay  through  thick  woods,  deep  marshes,  and 
rocky  defiles,  when  a  false  alarm  was  given  one  night  that 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  27 

nearly  proved  disastrous.  The  Russians  fired  on  each 
other  in  the  dark,  and  many  officers  and  men  were 
killed.  "  The  Generals,  Lacy  and  Keith,  ran  a  great  risk  of 
being  slain  in  this  false  alarm,"  says  Baron  Manstein. 
"  They  had  small  tents  pitched  for  them  between  the  lines 
which  several  balls  had  quite  gone  through,  and  about  200 
of  the  dragoon  horses,  taking  fright  at  the  fire,  broke 
loose  from  the  picquets  and  ran  through  the  highroad  to 
Wilmanstrand. " 

Buddenbrog's  column,  on  hearing  the  firing,  pushed  on 
to  the  latter  place,  believing  it  was  attacked,  and  by  4  a.m. 
on  the  2nd  September  the  Russians  were  in  front  of  the 
position,  which  was  defended  by  palisades,  earthworks,  and 
fascines. 

When  the  conflict  began  on  the  3rd,  the  Swedish  artillery 
did  much  execution  among  the  attacking  Russian  grena- 
diers, on  which  Keith  ordered  two  fresh  battalions,  those 
of  Ingermaland  and  Astrakan,  under  General  Manheim, 
to  support  them,  and,  on  receiving  a  volley  from  them  at 
sixty  paces,  the  Swedes  gave  way.  The  position  was 
Carried  by  5  p.m.,  the  Swedes  routed,  and  their  own  guns 
turned  on  them  and  Wilmanstrand. 

Nearly  the  whole  of  the  Swedes  were  taken  prisoners, 
with  all  their  cannon  and  colours.  The  Russian  losses  were 
529  killed  and  1,837  wounded.  Among  the  former  there 
fell,  gallantly  leading  their  columns,  Colonels  Lockman  and 
the  Count  de  Balmaine. 

The  descendants  of  the  latter  are  still  in  Russia.  When 
Napoleon  was  at  St.  Helena  in  1817,  the  then  Count  de 
Balmaine  was  there  as  a  Russian  commissioner — the 


23  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

descendant  of  the  captor  of  Kaffa.      (See  O'Mcara's  Napo- 
leon in  Exile,  2  vols.) 

The  command  of  Wilmanstrand  was  assigned  to  General 
Fermor  (or  Farmer),  with  two  regiments  of  infantry,  till 
the  place  was  razed  to  the  ground,  and  its  inhabitants  were 
marched  into  Russia. 

The  army  now  returned  into  Russian  Finland,  and  Lacy 
returned  to  St.  Petersburg,  leaving  Keith  in  full  com- 
mand, and  he  carried  on  the  close  of  the  campaign  b}- 
skirmishes,  in  which  his  troops  were  always  victorious,  till 
the  8th  November,  when  he  went  into  winter  quarters. 

Intelligence,  however,  was  soon  sent  to  him  that  the 
Swedes  were  about  to  invade  Russian  Finland,  and  after 
repairing  to  St.  Petersburg  for  special  orders  and  to  attend 
a  Council  of  War,  he  left  it  on  the  4th  December  to  have 
his  troops  in  readiness,  and  on  the  night  of  the  5th  the 
great  revolution  took  place  which  placed  on  the  throne  the 
Princess  Elizabeth,  youngest  daughter  of  Peter  the  Great. 

In  the  execution  of  the  plot  which  brought  that  startling 
event  to  pass,  Manstein  states  that  the  first  step  of  the 
conspirators  was  to  seize  the  officer  commanding  the 
grenadiers  in  the  imperial  barracks,  adding  that  "  his 
name  was  Grows,  a  Scotsman,  after  which  they  took  an 
oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Princess."  The  name  given  is 
perhaps  "  Grieve,"  misspelt. 

In  1742,  when  hostilities  began  again  with  Sweden,  in 
the  army  assembled  at  Wybourg  in  the  end  of  May,  con- 
sisting of  36,000  men  of  all  arms  (including  10,000  in 
the  galleys),  two  brigades  were  led  by  Scotsmen — Count 
Bruce  and  Major- General  Brown.  A  dangerous  mutiny 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  29 

broke  out  in  the  Guards,  and  a  cry  was  set  up  that  they 
would  massacre  all  foreign  officers  and  be  led  by  none  but 
Russians. 

Finding  that  no  officer  would  ventur:  near  them,  Keith, 
without  a  moment's  hesitation,  drew  his  sword  and  flung 
himself  among  the  mutineers,  and,  seizing  a  leader  with  his 
left  hand,  ordered  a  priest  to  confess  him,  that  he  might 
shoot  him  on  the  spot  at  the  time,  commanding  his  aide-de- 
camp and  some  officers  to  seize  or  cut  down  others.     On 
this,  the  mob  of  soldiery  dispersed  and  rushed  to  their 
tents.     "  Keith,"  we  are  told,  "ordered  a  call  of  the  rolls 
at  the  head  of  the  camp,  that  the  absent  should  be  taken 
into  custody  and  information  issued  against  all  who  were 
present  at  the  meeting.     As  neither  the  Horse  Guards  nor 
the  country  regiments  were  concerned  in  this  rising,  they 
had  taken  arms  to  repel  the  insolence  of  the  two  regiments 
of  Foot  Guards,  if  they  could  not  be  otherwise  appeased.  If 
it  had  not  been  for  the  spirited  resolution  of  General  Keith 
this  revolt  would  have  spread  far,  as  no  Russian  officer 
would  have  undertaken  to  oppose  the  rage  of  the  soldiery." 
The  complaints  of  the  latter  were  not  without  justice,  and 
their  hatred  of  foreigners  rose  from  the  fact  that  all  the 
best    posts   were   given    to    Scots,    Germans,   and    other 
strangers;    but   now    the   knout,   mutilation,    and    Siberia 
were  the  doom  of  all  that  were  brought  before  the  court- 
martial  of  General  Romanzow. 

After  the  final  reduction  of  Finland,  General  Keith  was 
appointed  Governor,  and  held  Abo,  the  capital,  with  a 
strong  force,  while  twenty-one  galleys  and  two  prahms 
guarded  the  coast. 


30  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

In  the  war  that  broke  out  in  1743,  in  connection  with 
the  Duke  of  Holstein's  succession  to  the  crown  of  Sweden, 
Major- General  Stuart  had  a  brigade  under  Lacy  on  board 
the  sea  squadron.  It  consisted  of  three  regiments  of 
infantry  and  three  companies  of  grenadiers,  and  Stuart's 
vessels  carried  a  red  ensign. 

The  Swedes  continued  to  burn  all  the  timber  which 
Keith  had  amassed  on  the  Isle  of  Aland  to  build  war- 
galleys,  and,  after  many  operations,  Marshal  Lacy  effected 
a  junction  with  the  former,  after  he  had  beaten  the  Swedish 
galleys  in  a  sea-fight  in  July. 

Keith,  in  his  new  rdle  of  a  naval  commander,  had  left 
Haugow  on  the  18th  of  May,  his  galleys  towed  by  prahms, 
as  the  wind  was  light,  and  on  the  22rid  came  in  sight  of  the 
Swedish  squadron  in  Yungfern  Sound,  but  could  not  give 
orders  for  engaging  till  the  29th,  owing  to  the  contrary 
winds  that  set  in.  Then  the  Swedes  bore  away,  and 
Keith's  galleys  took  up  the  station  they  had  quitted. 

Several  minor  engagements  between  Keith's  galleys  and 
those  of  the  Swedes  and  the  land  batteries  of  the  latter 
took  place  till  the  1st  of  June,  when  the  Swedes,  whom  he 
had  always  worsted,  bore  away  and  vanished  in  the  night. 

Peace  followed  in  1 743,  and  Keith  resumed  his  command 
at  Abo,  and  to  bring  off  the  Russian  troops  under  Stuart, 
Lapouchin,  and  others. 


CHAPTEK  IV. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  EUSSIA.— (Continued.} 

Keith  at  Stockholm — His  Embassies — Joins  the  Prussian  Army 
— The  Gottorp  Globe — General  Fermor — Greig,  "  the 
Father  of  the  Russian  Navy" — Admiral  Mackenzie,  and 
Sebastopol. 

A  QUARREL  having  ensued  with  the  Dalecarlians,  and 
when  Keith,  on  duty  at  Stockholm,  had  one  of  his  aide- 
de-camps  insulted  (as  a  Danish  officer)  because  he  wore  a 
scarlet  uniform,  Keith  received  orders  to  repair  to  Sweden, 
at  the  head  of  11,000  men,  to  support  the  interests  of  the 
Prince  of  Holstein  and  act  as  ambassador. 

"  He  suffered  much  in  his  passage  with  the  troops  under 
his  orders  from  the  cold  and  storms  he  had  to  undergo 
before  he  reached  the  coast  of  Sweden,"  says  his  comrade 
Manstein  ;  "  and  the  Russian  galleys,  which  never  used  to 
keep  the  sea  later  than  the  beginning  of  September,  were 
obliged  to  remain  on  it  till  the  latter  end  of  November." 
Any  other  man  than  Keith  would  hardly  have  been  able 
to  execute  this  expedition.  He  had  not  only  to  struggle 
with  the  violence  of  the  storms  and  the  piercing  cold,  but 
with  the  officers  of  the  marine,  who  were  often  representing 
the  impossibility  of  proceeding  in  so  severe  a  season. 
But  Keith,  who  had  served  a  long  time  in  Spain,  where  he 
had  seen  the  galleys  keep  the  sea  in  all  weathers,  and  who, 


32  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

besides,  knew  better  than  any  of  the  officers  that  served  in 
the  squadron  how  much  could  be  done  with  this  part  of 
the  fleet  in  any  climate  with  a  good  will,  continued  to  be 
single  in  his  opinion  for  proceeding. 

He  remained  with  his  column  in  Sweden  until  1744, 
when,  matters  being  amicably  adjusted,  he  returned  with 
the  fleet  and  troops  to  Revel  on  the  13th  of  August. 

Keith  served  the  Russian  Crown  in  many  important 
embassies,  and  a  pretty  well-known  anecdote  in  connection 
with  one  of  his  last,  on  the  termination  of  a  war  between 
the  Russians  and  the  Turks,  is  recorded  in  the  Memoirs 
and  Papers  of  Sir  Andrew  Mitchell. 

The  commisioners  to  treat  of  a  peace  were  General 
Keith  and  the  Turkish  Grand  Vizier.  These  two  person- 
ages, he  relates,  met,  with  the  interpreters  of  the  Russ  and 
Turkish  between  them.  When  all  was  concluded,  they 
arose  to  separate.  The  General  made  his  bow,  hat  in  hand, 
and  the  turbanned  Vizier  his  salaam  ;  but  the  latter,  when 
the  ceremonies  were  over,  turned  suddenly,  and  coming  up 
to  Keith,  took  him  warmly  by  the  hand,  and  with  a  broad 
Scottish  accent,  declared  that  "  it  made  him  unco  happy, 
noo  that  they  were  sae  far  frae  haine,  to  meet  wi'  a 
countryman  in  his  exalted  station." 

Keith  stared  with  astonishment,  and,  in  answer  to  his 
exclamation  of  surprise,  the  Grand  Vizier  gave  this  ex- 
planation : 

"  My  faither  was  the  bellman  o'  Kirkcaldy,  in  Fife,  and  I 
remember  to  have  seen  you  and  your  brother  the  Earl 
occasionally  passing." 

But,  with  all  the  honours  he  had   won  in  Russia,  Keith 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  .  33 

began  to  deem  service  then  only  a  species  of  splendid 
slavery,  and,  leaving  the  Muscovite  court  in  1747,  he  en- 
tered the  army  of  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  where  we 
shall  meet  him  again. 

Such  was  the  career  of  one  of  the  many  brilliant  soldiers 
of  whose  services  loyalty  to  their  native  kings  and  the 
rnal -influence  of  England  deprived  their  mother  country. 

In  1748  we  read  of  a  Scottish  artisan  named  Scott  being 
more  peacefully  employed  in  repairing  the  famous  globe  of 
Gottorp  after  it  was  burnt  in  that  year.  He  made  the 
skeleton  of  another,  on  which  he  was  seven  years  at  work^ 
It  was  deemed  the  largest  globe  in  the  world,  and  had 
been  first  made  for  the  Duke  of  Holstein  in  1664.  The 
Castle  of  Gottorp,  though  in  Denmark,  belonged  to  Duke 
Carl-Peter,  Emperor  of  Russia  in  1762,  and  when  bestowed 
on  Russia,  the  enormous  globe  was  conveyed  on  sledges  to 
St.  Petersburg  through  the  woods  of  Esthonia  and  Finland, 
where  trees  were  felled  to  facilitate  its  passage.  (Stcehlin's 
Monuments  of  Peter  the  Great.) 

During  the  war  in  Silesia,  in  1758,  the  Russian  army  wag 
commanded  by  General  Fermor,  who  was  wounded  at  the 
battle  of  Zorndorf,  fought  with  the  Prussians,  and  sent  to 
General  Dohna  a  trumpeter  asking  a  three  days'  armistice 
to  bury  the  dead  and  take  care  of  the  wounded,  "  presenting 
to  his  Prussian  Majesty,"  says  Smollett,  "the  humble 
request  of  General  Brown,  who  was  much  weakened  with 
loss  of  blood,  that  he  might  have  a  passport  to  a  place 
where  he  could  find  such  accommodation  as  his  situation 
required." 

In  answer  to  this  Count  Dohna  gave  General  Fermor  to 

D 


34  TI  *E  SCO  TTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

understand  that,  as  the  King  of  Prussia  remained  master 
of  the  field,  he  would  bury  the  dead  and  protect  the 
wounded  ;  but  granted  the  request  of  General  Brown. 
"  Fermor  was  of  Scottish  extraction,"  adds  Smollett,  "but 
General  Brown  was  actually  a  native  of  North  Britain." 
(Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  vi.) 

In  the  preceding  June  General  Fermor  had  been  created 
a  prince  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

In  the  Caledonian  Mercury  of  the  same  year,  under  date 
of  Versailles,  5th  March,  we  read  that  "  the  Sieur  M'Kenzie- 
Douglas,  to  whom  we  owe  the  restoration  of  a  good  un- 
derstanding between  our  court  and  that  of  Russia,  has 
obtained  a  warrant  for  60,000  livres  and  a  pension  of  4,000 
more." 

And,  as  the  Scots  were  not  behind  in  the  arts  of  peace 
in  Russia,  we  find  in  1 764  that  when  the  Empress  Catherine 
II  invited  several  foreigners  of  skill  and  talent  to  prepare 
plans  for  the  improvement  of  St.  Petersburg,  those  received 
most  favourably  by  her  were  presented  by  "  Mr.  Gilchrist, 
a  Scotsman,  in  consequence  of  which  a  valuable  present  has 
been  ordered  him  by  the  Empress ;  and  several  wharves, 
docks,  storehouses,  and  public  streets  approved  of  in  his 
plans  are  to  be  carried  out  under  the  aforesaid  gentleman's 
direction."  (Edinburgh  Advert.,  vol.  ii.) 

In  the  same  year  we  find  that  John  Ochterlony  (a  name 
familiar  in  recent  Russian  annals),  a  native  of  Montrose, 
was  an  eminent  merchant  at  Rigi. 

In  1764,  Sir  Samuel  Greig,  who  was  Governor  of  Cron- 
stadt,  Admiral  of  all  the  Russias,  and  became  known  as 
the  father  and  founder  of  the  Russian  navy,  entered  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  35 

service  of  the  Empress  Catherine  II  with  many  other 
Scotsmen,  among  whom  was  one  from  the  same  native 
place,  Iverkeithing,  the  famous  old  Commodore  Roxburgh. 
In  Russia  he  bore  the  name  of  Samuel  Carlovitch  Greig, 
as  his  father  Charles  Greig  was  skipper  of  a  small  ship, 
the  Thistle,  of  Inverkeithing,  trading  with  St.  Petersburg. 
(Edinburgh  Courant,  1761.) 

In  that  ancient  Fifeshire  seaport  Samuel  Greig  was  born 
in  1 735,  and  was  educated  by  the  parish  dominie,  who  was 
alive  in  ]  794.  Entering  the  British  navy,  *he  was  a 
lieutenant  in  the  fleet  of  Hawke,  when  blockading  Brest 
in  1759  ;  and,  subaltern  though  his  rank,  he  distinguished 
himself  in  the  great  battle  off  Cape  Quiberon,  and  in  that 
war,  during  which  we  took  or  destroyed  64  sail  of  French 
ships,  including  27  of  the  line. 

He  next  served  at  the  capture  of  several  of  the  West 
India  Islands,  but  the  provincial  prejudices  of  the  English 
rendered  the  time  unfavourable  for  Scotsmen  or  Irishmen 
rising  in  the  British  service.  Thus,  when,  during  Lord 
Bute's  administration,  the  court  of  St.  Petersburg  re- 
quested that  a  few  of  our  naval  officers,  who  were  dis- 
tinguished for  ability,  might  be  sent  to  improve  the 
Russian  fleet,  Greig,  with  several  others,  gladly  volunteered, 
and  had  his  rank  as  lieutenant  confirmed,  his  only  stipula- 
tion being  that  he  might  return  as  such  to  the  British 
service  when  he  chose ;  and  we  are  told  that  he  rapidly 
raised  the  Russian  naval  service  to  a  degree  of  respect- 
ability it  had  never  attained  before. 

In  the  same  year  he  joined,  Captain  Douglas  was  ap- 
pointed commodore  of  the  Russian  fleet  and  senior  rear- 

D2 


36  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

admiral ;  and  in  1768  we  note  the  death  at  Cronstadt, 
in  his  23rd  year  only,  of  Captain  William  Gordon  of 
Cowbairdie,  Aberdeenshire,  commodore  of  a  ship  in  the 
Russian  navy. 

When  war  broke  out  between  the  Empress  and  the 
Sultan,  the  partial  breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  the  Baltic 
enabled  a  Russian  fleet  to  put  to  sea  for  the  Mediterranean. 
Of  that  fleet  Greig  was  commodore,  under  Alexis,  Count 
OrlofF,  and  his  zeal  soon  led  to  his  promotion  to  the  rank 
of  flag-officer.  In  1770,  Mr.  Gordon  was  Director-General 
of  the  Imperial  dockyard  at  Rigi  and  Knight  of  St. 
Alexander  Newsoki.  In  1776  he  was  presented  with  1,000 
Livonian  peasants  and  30,000  roubles.  On  the  14th 
January,  1770,  one  squadron  of  the  armament  under  the 
Admiral,  John  Elphinstone,  consisting  of  a  70-gun  ship, 
two  of  60  guns  each,  and  70  others  arrived  at  Spithead  on 
its  way  to  the  Archipelago.  This  officer,  a  cadet  of  the 
Scottish  house  of  Elphinstone,  was  then  a  captain  of  the 
British  navy.  He  had  a  claim  to  the  attainted  title  of 
Balmerino,  which  was  also  advanced  by  his  grandson, 
Captain  Alexander  Elphinstone,  R.N.,  and  noble  of  Livonia. 
(Burke.) 

The  other  squadron,  consisting  of  22  sail  of  the  line,  had 
reached  Minorca  so  early  as  the  4th  January,  and  before 
the  end  of  July  the  Russian  fleet  had  twice  defeated  the 
Turkish — on  one  occasion  Elphinstone  encountering  thrice 
his  force,  sinking  eight  ships ;  on  the  other,  with  nineteen, 
overcoming  Giafar  Bey  with  twenty-three. 

A  curious,  gossipy  anecdote  is  connected  with  this  war. 
Dr.  Lauchlan  Taylor,  minister  of  Larbert,  who  in  those 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  37 

days  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  a  prophet,  published 
in  1770  a  book,  in  which  he  stated  the  strife  then  waging 
would  end  in  the  total  destruction  of  Turkey ;  and  the 
Empress,  under  whose  notice  the  work  was  brought  by 
some  of  the  many  Scots  in  her  service,  had  the  prophecy 
translated,  freely  circulated  among  her  troops,  and  great 
bets  were  laid  on  the  fulfilment  of  it. 

In  the  great  battle  of  the  6th  July,  Greig,  Admiral 
Mackenzie,  and  other  Scottish  officers  in  the  flee.t  rendered 
good  and  gallant  service  ;  and  in  the  Scots  Magazine  for  that 
year  the  carnage  of  the  scene  is  well  depicted  by  the  pen 
of  a  Lieutenant  Mackenzie,  then  serving  on  board  Her 
Imperial  Majesty's  ship  Switostoff.  Orloff  was  not  much 
of  a  sailor,  so  the  mauling  of  the  Turks  fell  chiefly  to  the 
share  of  Admiral  Elphinstone  and  Commodore  Greig,  who 
compelled  them  to  slip  their  cables  and  run  under  their 
batteries  between  Scio  and  the  coast  of  Anadoli.  Under 
the  care  of  the  two  Scottish  commanders  two  fire-ships 
were  prepared  to  enter  the  harbour,  covered  by  a  part  of 
the  squadron ;  but  leaders  were  required  for  this  perilous 
service,  and  at  once  three  officers,  all  Scotsmen — Com- 
mander Greig,  Lieutenant  Mackenzie,  and  Captain-Lieu- 
tenant Drysdale  (sometimes  called  Dugdale) — volunteered. 
Though  the  latter  was  abandoned  by  his  crew  at  the 
supreme  crisis,  the  service  was  achieved.  The  fire-ships 
were  exploded  with  dreadful  effect,  and  the  whole  Turkish 
fleet,  including  twelve  ships  of  the  line,  armed  with  566 
guns,  was  destroyed  by  Grieg,  while  6,000  Turks  were 
shot,  burned,  or  drowned. 

By  his  boats  he  towed  out  La  JBarbarocine,  of  64  guns, 


38  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

bombarded  the  town,  and  rescued  400  Christian  slaves. 
For  these  services  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  rear- 
admiral,  with  2,160  roubles  per  annum,  and  his  two 
brother  officers  were  made  captains.  His  ship  was  named 
the  Three  Primates. 

The  Sienr  Eutherford,  another  Scottish  adventurer,  who 
was  commissary  of  the  Russian  court,  sold  at  Leghorn  all 
the  prizes  which  were  taken  by  the  fleet.  (Scots  Mag,} 

From  the  volume  quoted  we  learn  that  a  dispute  took 
place  between  Count  OrlofF,  the  nominal  commander-in- 
chief,  and  Admiral  Elphinstone,  whom  he  ordered  to  go  on 
a  secret  expedition,  "which  the  latter  thought  proper  to 
decline ;  in  consequence  of  this  a  great  altercation  ensued 
between  them.  Count  Orloff  put  him  under  arrest,  and 
sent  an  express  to  inform  the  Empress  of  what  he  had  done." 
She  recalled  him,  and  he  left  the  Russian  service  in  disgust, 
taking  a  farewell  of  Catherine,  clad  in  his  uniform  as  a 
captain  of  the  British  navy. 

The  fleet  meanwhile  was  sweeping  the  shores  of  the 
Archipelago,  under  Greig,  Mackenzie,  Drysdale,  Brodie,  and 
others,  led  by  Admiral  Spirifcoff.  Sinope,  Giurgevo,  and 
other  places  on  the  Turkish  coast  were  bombarded  or 
taken  ;  and  in  a  conflict  at  the  latter  on  31st  October,  1771, 
among  the  slain  appears  the  name  of  David  Gordon,  a 
landed  proprietor  of  Galloway  and  lieutenant  of  our  67th 
Foot,  a  volunteer  on  board  the  fleet. 

Greig  destroyed  the  magazines  formed  for  the  supply 
of  Constantinople,  bombarded  Negroponte,  swept  the 
coast  of  Macedonia,  beat  down  Cavallo  in  Roumelia, 
and  destroyed  all  the  stores  at  Salonica ;  and  in  a  ten 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  39 

hours'  fight  off  Scio,  10th  October,  1775,  he  routed  or 
took  a  whole  Turkish  squadron,  but  had  a  narrow  es- 
cape, as  a  ball  struck  one  of  the  points  from  St.  George's 
cross  on  his  left  breast.  His  sailors  were  repulsed,  how- 
ever, at  Cyprus,  and  four  sacks  of  their  scalps,  salted,  were 
sent  to  the  Sultan  from  Stanchio,  the  ancient  Cos. 

"In  the  preceding  month  Rear- Admiral  Mackenzie 
commanded  the  Russian  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea  {Edinburgh 
Advt.,  vol.  xl.),  and  from  him  the  place  in  the  Crimea 
called  Khouter  Mackenzie  takes  its  name,  as  it  was  a 
plantation  of  timber  he  formed  to  furnish  the  dockyards 
at  Actiare,  now  Sebastopol,  which  he  first  fortified.  The 
•place  then  "  consisted  of  two  houses,  a  wooden  barrack,  a 
military  storehouse,"  says  Slade,  in  his  Travels  in  Turkey, 
etc.  "  Our  countrymen,"  he  adds,  "  Admirals  Mackenzie, 
Priestman,  Mason,  Mercer,  and  three  Greigs  have  all 
hoisted  their  flags  in  the  Black  Sea."  There  were  also 
Admiral  Tait  and  four  captains — Denniston,  whose  head 
was  shot  off ;  Marshall,  drowned  when  leading  his  board- 
ers ;  Miller  and  Aikin,  who  each  lost  a  leg  in  action. 
It  lies  on  the  highroad  from  Simpheropol,  and  our  troops 
passed  through  it  on  their  march  to  Balaclava  after  the 
battle  on  the  Alma. 

From  the  scarce  memoirs  of  a  military  adventurer  of 
dubious  character,  a  native  of  Dumbarton,  named  Major 
Semple  Lisle,  who  once  served  in  our  15th  Foot — was 
wounded  at  Rhode  Island — and  joined  the  Russian  service 
under  Catherine,  we  may  make  two  extracts  with  reference 
to  1784. 

"  At  Moscow  I  met  several  cartloads  of  English  mid- 


40  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

shipmen,  who,  being  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the 
conclusion  of  the  American  war,  had  entered  the  Russian 
service.  They  were  under  the  care  of  a  sergeant  and  two 
marines,  and  were  going  to  join  Admiral  Mackenzie  on  the 
Black  Sea," 

"  From  Karasu-bazaar  I  was  sent  on  military  duty  to 
Actiare,  where  I  met  my  old  friend  Admiral  Mackenzie 
with  his  fleet.  While  I  was  at  Actiare,  Mackenzie  and 
myself  received  the  compliments  of  some  of  the  Tartar 
chiefs  of  that  country,  together  with  the  present  each  of  a 
horse.  Mine  was  richly  caparisoned,  but  his  was  almost 
covered  with  silver.  The  saddle  was  of  purple  cloth, 
studded  over  with  silver  nails  ;  from  each  side  depended  a 
stirrup  of  the  same  metal  made  in  the  fashion  of  the 
country,  the  size  and  shape  of  the  sole  of  the  foot." 

In  this  year,  1784,  another  Captain  Mackenzie  joined 
the  Russian  service — the  laird  of  Redcastle,  in  Forfar- 
shire.  He  had  been  tried  at  the  Old  Bailey  for  illegally 
executing  a  convict  at  Black  Town ;  and,  after  serving 
fc  r  some  time  in  Russia,  was  killed  in  a  duel  near  Constan- 
tinople. (Kay's  Portraits.) 

Other  Scots  of  higher  position  came  to  Russia  about  this 
period.  Among  them  John  Robison,  LL.D.,  the  distin- 
guished mechanical  philosopher,  a  native  of  Stirlingshire 
(Nimmo's  Hist.),  recommended  as  a  fit  person  to  superin- 
tend the  navy,  in  1770  was  appointed  Inspector- General 
of  the  Marine  Cadet  Corps  of  Nobles  at  Cronstadt,  with  the 
rank  of  colonel,  an  office  which  he  relinquished  in  1773 
on  becoming  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh  ;  Dr.  Rogerson,  who  was  appointed 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  41 

counsellor  of  state  and  court  physician  in  1 776,  with  a 
pension  of  4,000  roubles  yearly,  and  returned  in  1815  to  hia 
native  district,  where  he  purchased  property  to  the  value 
of  £130,000;  and  Dr.  Guthrie,  a  cadet,  of  the  family  of 
Halkerton,  in  Fifeshire  (and  nephew  of  William  Guthrie, 
a  well-known  miscellaneous  writer  employed  by  Cave), 
who  was  appointed  personal  physician  to  the  empress. 

Dr.  Rogerson's  father  was  tenant  of  the  half  of  Loch- 
broom,  Dumfriesshire,  and  there  he  was  born.  The  other 
half  was  rented  by  William  Haliday,  whose  son  *  Matthew 
was  also  one  of  her  Imperial  Majesty's  physicians.  (Old 
Stat.  Account  Scot.) 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  "RUSSIA.— (Continued.) 

The   Greig  family — The  Scots   colony  in  the  Caucasus — The 
Baron  M.  Von  Macleay  and  his  writings. 

To  Major  Semple  Lisle,  who  -was  A.  D.  C.  to  Prince 
Potemkin,  and  who,  when  in  Russia,  was  mixed  up  in  a 
disreputable  way  with  the  famous  Duchess  of  Kingston, 
was  assigned  at  this  time  the  training  and  command  of  a 
Corsican  corps,  250  strong,  with  which  he  went  to  the 
Crimea  in  1783  ;  and  in  his  memoirs  he  gives  himself  the 
credit  of  inaugurating  useful  changes  in  the  Russian 
uniform,  which  he  describes  as  being  green,  lined  and  faced 
with  red  ;  the  coat  long  and  reaching  to  the  calf  of  the  leg, 
with  long  boots  and  small  hats,  to  which  the  soldiers  added 
flannel  ear-covers  in  cold  weather.  He  suggested  also  the 
cropping  of  the  hair,  and  the  fixing  of  the  bayonet  only 
when  about  to  charge. 

In  the  winter  of  1773  Admiral  Greig  returned  to 
St.  Petersburg,  and  made  every  exertion  to  fit  out  a  more 
efficient  squadron  for  the  Dardanelles  ;  and,  sailing  with  it 
from  Cronstadt,  took  with  him  his  wife  on  board  his  ship, 
the  Issidorum,  of  74  guns.  In  the  spring  of  1774  the 
rendezvous  of  the  squadrons  of  Greig  and  Spiritoff  was  at 
Port  Naussa,  in  the  channel  between  Paros  and  the  rocky 
coast  of  Naxos ;  but  now  Catherine  made  peace  with  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA,  43 

Turks,  stipulating  that  the  Crimea  was  to  be  ceded  for  ever 
to  the  rule  of  its  own  Khans  or  Sultans. 

Greig  returned  to  Russia  with  the  fleet,  and  spent  all  the 
last  years  of  his  life  in  remodelling  its  discipline,  training 
cadets,  and  earning  for  himself  the  endearing  sobriquet  of 
the  "  Father  of  the  Russian  Navy."  For  these  and  his  other 
services  he  was  made  Governor  of  Cronstadt,  Admiral  of 
the  whole  Empire,  with  the  orders  of  St.  Andrew,  St. 
George,  and,  in  1782,  St.  Anne  of  Holstein,  with.  7,000 
roubles  per  annum.  His  great  assistant  was  his  country- 
man Gordon,  Director-General  of  the  Dockyards,  who  at 
that  time  was  constructing  two  100-gunships,  three  of  90, 
six  of  70,  and  ten  40-gun  frigates — all  of  a  form  and 
beauty  hitherto  unknown  in  Russia.  The  chief  engineer 
and  naval  architect  was  then  another  Scotsman,  Andrew 
Watson,  who  died  in  1799. 

The  Empress  dined  with  Greig  on  board  his  ship  in 
July,  1786,  accompanied  by  Counts  Bruce  and  Galitzin ; 
and  when  he  hoisted  the  Imperial  standard  nine  hundred 
guns  thundered  at  once  from  the  ramparts  of  Cronstadt, 

He  once  more  prepared  a  great  fleet  to  sail  for  the  Black 
Sea,  against  the  Crimea,  but  its  Khan — the  last  descendant 
of  Gengiz — submitted,  and  his  territories  became  an  in- 
tegral portion  of  Russia. 

In  1788  Greig  put  to  sea  against  the  Swedes,  after  great 
discontent  and  threatened  resignation  had  occurred  among 
the  Scottish  officers  of  his  fleet,  owing  to  a  false  rumour 
that  Paul  Jones  was  to  be  taken  into  the  Imperial  service ; 
and  he  fought  his  great  battle  with  the  fleet  of  the  Duke 
of  Sudermania  and  Count  Wachdmeister  on  the  17th  of 


44  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

July  in  the  Narrows  of  Kalkboder.  He  had  thirty-three 
sail  in  all,  while  the  enemy  had  fifteen  of  the  line  carrying 
from  sixty  to  seventy  guns,  eight  frigates  armed  with 
twenty -four  pounders,  and  eight  others.  The  Swedes  were 
defeated;  Greig's  loss  was  319  killed  and  666  wounded. 
"  I  must  say,  on  this  occasion,"  contains  his  despatch  to 
the  Empress,  "  that  I  never  saw  a  battle  maintained  with 
more  spirit  and  courage  on  both  sides."  He  signed  it 
"  Sam.  Carlovitch  Greig." 

On  Count  Wachdmeister  yielding  up  his  sword,  Greig 
returned  it,  saying  : 

"  I  will  never  be  the  man  to  deprive  so  brave  and 
worthy  an  officer  of  his  sword ,  I  beseech  you  to  receive 
it." 

He  next  blockaded  the  Duke  of  Sudermania  in  Sveaborg; 
but  his  health  became  impaired  now,  and  on  the  15th  of 
October,  1788,  he  expired  on  board  the  ship  Rotislaw, 
which  had  1<  st  200  men  in  the  late  battle. 

His  funeral  was  (ondacted  with  a  pomp  and  splendour 
never  Lefor  j  teen  in  Russia ;  every  officer  attending  it 
received  a  gold  ring  from  the  Empress,  and  his  monument 
records,  with  truth,  that  "he  was  a  man  no  less  illustrious 
for  courage  and  naval  skill  than  for  piety,  benevolence,  and 
every  private  virtue. 

The  estate  in  Livonia  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  is  still  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants, 
whose  names  have  often  appeared  in  the  public  prints. 

His  son  John  died  in  China  in  1793.  Another  son 
became  Sir  Alexis  Greig,  admiral  of  the  Russian  fleet, 
privy  councillor,  and  Knight  of  all  the  Imperial  Orders. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  45 

He  studied  at  the  High  School  of  Edinburgh  under  tho 
Rector  Adam  from  1783  to  1785,  and  then  served  as  a 
volunteer  on  board  H.M.S.  Culloden,  under  Admiral 
Trowbridge. 

When  a  captain,  he  and  another  Scotsman,  Captain 
Brown,  were  involved  in  some  trouble  by  the  wreck  of  the 
Imperial  frigate  Archangel,  commanded  by  the  latter  in 
1797.  In  the  following  year,  in  the  squadron  off  the  Texel, 
he  commanded  the  Ratisvan,  64  guns  ;  and  Captain  Robert 
Crown,  said  to  be  a  Scot,  had  the  Utislaw,  74.  (Edinburgh 
Herald.}  In  1801  he  was  banished  to  Siberia  for  a  time, 
in  consequence  of  boldly  remonstrating  with  the  Emperor 
Paul  for  his  severity  to  some  British  naval  prisoners ;  but 
in  1828  he  was  in  full  command  of  the  Russian  fleet  at  the 
sieges  of  Varna  and  Anapa,  whither  he  had  sailed  from 
Sebastopol  with  forty  vessels — eight  being  of  the  line — 
acting  in  conjunction  with  the  troops  under  Prince 
Mentschicoff  for  three  months  by  sea  and  land.  During 
these  operations  the  Emperor  was  his  guest  on  board  the 
Ville  de  Paris,  which  had  the  Diplomatic  Chancery  and 
1,300  persons  under  her  flag.  (Slade's  Travels.}  He  founded 
the  great  astronomical  observatory  at  Nicolaeff,  where 
Captain  Samuel  Moffat,  of  the  Imperial  navy,  died  in  1821. 
In  1837  (according  to  Spencer's  Travels'),  on  being  made  a 
privy  councillor,  he  was  requested  for  state  reasons  to 
reside  at  St.  Petersburg. 

His  son,  Woronzow  Greig,  also  educated  at  the  High 
School  of  Edinburgh,  was  A.D.C.  to  Prince  Mentschicoff 
during  the  Crimean^war  in  1854;  and,  when  sent  to  our  lines 
with  a  flag  of  truce,  the  purity  of  his  English  excited 


46  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

surprise.  He  was  killed  by  a  mortal  wound  on  the  desperate 
field  of  Inkermann. 

Two  other  members  of  the  same  family  figured  promi- 
nently in  1877,  when  Adjutant- General  Greig  was  sent  from 
St.  Petersburg  to  the  Danube  in  August,  to  investigate 
the  alleged  frauds  in  the  commissariat  department ;  and 
Admiral  Greig,  comptroller -general  of  the  Russian 
Empire,  arrived  at  Bucharest  in  October  to  inspect  the 
accounts  of  the  army  contractors. 

Since  then  he,  or  another  of  the  same  name,  has  com- 
manded (1886)  the  first  squadron  of  the  fleet  in  the  Black 
Sea. 

Among  the  prominent  Scots  in  the  Russian  army 
towards  the  end  of  the  last  century  were  Lieutenant- 
General  Robert  Fullarton,  Knight  of  St.  Catherine,  who 
died  at  his  house  of  Dud  wick,  near  Edinburgh,  in  1786  ; 
and  Sir  Alexander  Hay,  Bart.,  Knight  of  St.  George,  who 
died  in  1 792,  as  colonel  at  the  head  of  his  regiment.  His 
family  is  now  extinct. 

In  1790,  Sir  James  Wylie,  a  native  of  Kincardineshire, 
entered  the  Russian  service  as  a  physician,  and  eight  years 
after  was  appointed  surgeon-in-ordinary  to  the  Emperor 
Paul  and  heir-apparent.  In  1812  he  was  director  of 
the  medical  department  of  the  Minister  of  Marine, 
Inspector- General  of  the  Board  of  Health  for  the  Russian 
army,  and  privy  councillor.  He  was  knighted  by 
George  IV  at  Ascot  Races  in  1814 — an  honour  conferred 
by  the  sword  of  the  Hetman  Count  Platoff — and  was  made 
a  Baronet  of  Great  Britain  in  the  same  year,  on  his 
return  to  Russia,  where  he  died  in  1854,  bequeathing  a  vast 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA,  47 

fortune  to  the  Czar,  greatly  to  the  astonishment  of  his 
Scottish  relations.  "  Many  years  ago,"  says  a  local  print 
of  that  year,  "  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Alexander, 
a  shrewd  Scotswoman  of  the  old  school,  without  either 
rank  or  education  to  recommend  her,  left  the  shores  of 
the  Forth  for  those  of  the  Baltic  on  a  visit  to  her  son. 
She  was  received  by  the  Russian  government  with  all  the 
pomp  accorded  by  one  monarch  to  another.  The  cannon 
fired  a  salute,  and  the  Emperor  touched  the  hand^  of  the 
old  Scottish  matron  and  bade  her  welcome  to  the  coast  of 
Russia.  This  good  lady  was  the  mother  of  Sir  James 
Wylie ;  and  while  her  heart  would  doubtless  beat  with 
gratitude  for  the  gift  of  a  son  who  was  so  much  respected 
by  the  Emperor,  such  a  welcome  to  his  mother  would 
strengthen  the  affection  of  Sir  James  for  his  master,  and 
make  him  anxious  to  show  his  appreciation  of  such  delicate 
kindness  by  every  means  in  his  power." 

The  Scots  colony  in  the  Caucasus,  so  prominently 
referred  to  in  Mackenzie  Wallace's  recent  work  on  Russia, 
is  first  mentioned  in  the  Scots  Magazine  for  November,  1807, 
thus : — "  His  Imperial  Majesty  has  been  pleased  to  grant 
a  very  remarkable  charter  to  the  colony  of  Scotsmen  who 
have  been  settled  for  the  last  four  years  in  the  mountains 
of  the  Caucasus.  The  rights  and  privileges  accorded  to 
these  Scotsmen,  who  form  a  detached  settlement  in  a 
district  so  thinly  populated,  and  bordering  on  the  terri- 
tories of  so  many  uncivilised  tribes  of  Mahometans  and 
heathens,  are  intended  to  increase  their  activity  in  extend- 
ing trade  and  manufactures,  and  to  place  them  in  respect 
to  their  immunities  on  the  same  footing  with  the  Evangeli- 
cal Society  of  Sarepta." 


48  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

To  this  colony  the  Tartars,  whose  lands  they  occupied, 
were  long  hostile,  and  the  Russian  government,  suspicious 
of  these  Scots,  had  previously,  we  are  told,  put  opposition  in 
their  way.  One  way  in  which  these  Scots  sought  to  extend 
Christianity  was  by  the  purchase  of  Tartar  children,  whom 
they  educated,  and  at  a  certain  age  set  free.  One  of  them, 
named  John  Abercrombie,  became  of  some  note ;  and  a 
Dr.  Glen  was  author  of  three  forgotten  pamphlets  on  this 
colony.  It  was,  no  doubt,  some  of  these  people  that 
Spencer  referred  to  in  his  Travels  in  1837,  when  he  says 
that  among  the  bravest  of  Circassian  warriors  were  the 
Marrs,  sons  of  Mr.  Marr,  a  Scottish  merchant  of  Redoubt- 
Kaleh,  and  subject  of  Prince  Dabion  of  Miugrelia.  After 
returning  from  Scotland,  where  he  had  sent  them  for 
education,  "  these  young  Scots  may  now  (1837)  be  reckoned 
among  the  most  daring  hunters  in  the  wilds  of  Mingrelia." 

Mr.  Wallace,  in  his  work  published  in  1877,  says  that 
when  travelling  on  the  great  plain  that  lies  between  the 
Sea  of  Azoff  and  the  Caspian  he  was  surprised  to  see  on 
his  map  a  place  indicated  as  the  Schotlandskaya  Koloneya, 
or  Scottish  Colony ;  and  in  pursuing  his  inquiries  about  it 
at  Stavropol  he  found  a  venerable  man,  "  with  fine  regular 
features  of  the  Circassian  type,  coal-black,  sparkling 
eyes,  and  a  long  beard  that  would  have  done  honour  to  a 
patriarch,"  who  asked  him  in  turn  what  he  wanted  to 
know  about  the  colony. 

" '  Because  I  am  myself  a  Scotsman,'  said  Wallace, '  and 
hoped  to  find  fellow-countrymen  here.'  Let  the  reader 
imagine  my  astonishment  when  he  answered,  in  genuine 
broad  Scots: 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA  49 

"  '  Oh,  man,  I  am  a  Scotsman  tae — my  name,  my  name 
is  John  Abercrombie.  Did  ye  ever  hear  tell  o'  John  Aber- 
crombie,  the  famous  Edinburgh  doctor  ?'  " 

"  In  the  first  years  of  the  present  century,"  continues 
Mr.  Wallace,  who  is  a  native  of  Paisley,  "  a  band  of 
Scottish  missionaries  came  to  Russia,  for  the  purpose  of 
converting  the  Circassian  tribes,  and  received  from  the 
Emperor  Alexander  I  a  large  grant  of  land  in  this  place, 
then  on  the  frontier  of  the  empire.  Here  they  founded  a 
mission  and  began  the  work,  but  soon  discovered  that  the 
population  were  not  idolaters  but  Mussulmans,  and  con- 
sequently impervious  to  Christianity.  In  this  difficulty 
they  fell  on  the  idea  of  buying  Circassian  children  from 
their  parents  and  bringing  them  up  as  Christians.  One  of 
these  children,  purchased  about  the  year  1806,  was  a  little 
boy  named  Teoona.  As  he  had  been  purchased  with 
money  subscribed  by  Dr.  Abercrombie,  he  had  received 
in  baptism  that  gentleman's  name,  and  considered  himself 
the  foster-son  of  his  benefactor.  Here  was  the  explanation 
of  the  mystery.  Teoona,  alias  Mr.  Abercrombie,  was  a 
man  of  more  than  average  intelligence.  Besides  his  native 
language,  he  spoke  English,  German,  and  Russian  fluently  ; 
and  he  assured  me  that  he  knew  several  other  languages 
equally  well.  His  life  had  been  devoted  to  missionary 
work,  especially  to  translating  and  printing  the  Scriptures. 
The  Scottish  mission  was  suppressed  by  the  Emperor 
Nicholas  in  1835,  and  all  the  missionaries  except  two 
returned  home.  The  son  of  one  of  these  two  (Galloway) 
is  the  only  genuine  Scotsman  remaining.  Of  the  '  Cir- 
cassian Scotsmen'  there  are  several,  most  of  whom  have 

E 


50  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

married  Germans.  The  other  inhabitants  are  German 
colonists  from  the  province  of  Saratof ;  and  German  is  the 
language  now  spoken  in  the  village  of  the  Scottish  colony." 

The  present  eminent  Russian  explorer  and  savant,  Baron 
and  Dr.  Miclucho  Macleay,  is  of  Scottish  descent,  and  his 
scientific  researches  in  New  Guinea  from  1870  to  1883 
were  published  at  St.  Petersburg  in  1886. 

His  fit i he  ,  Colonel  Duncan  Macleay,  of  the  Russian 
army,  died  iu  1828,  at  Colpina,  near  St.  Petersburg,  and, 
according  to  the  Edinburgh  Weekly  Journal  for  that  year, 
was  the  nearest  heir  to  Lord  Balmerino,  who  was  attainted 
in  1746.  (See  also  Blackwood1  s  Magazine,  1828.) 

Concerning  Baron  M.  von  Macleay,  Nature,  in  1874 
(Macmillan  and  Co.)  states  :  "  Contrary  to  the  advice  of 
every  one,  this  intrepid  traveller  and  true  devotee  of 
science  is  determined  again  upon  visiting  the  east  coast  of 
Papua.  When  his  researches  here  are  complete  he  intends 
to  visit  the  islands  of  Polynesia  and  certain  parts  of  the 
coast  of  Australia.  This  he  calculates  will  take  up  five  or 
six  years.  The  Governor  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  like  a 
true  man  of  science,  had  given  to  Dr.  Macleay  for  the  last 
six  months  roomy  and  comfortable  quarters  in  his  palace 
at  Buitonrovg.  It  would  be  well  if  all  in  high  position 
would  imitate  this  kind  of  '  patronage.'  " 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA— (Concluded). 

Sir  Archibald  Orichton — The  Sultana  of  the  Crimea— Generals 
Stuart,  Ochterlony,  Ramsay,  Wilson,  Read,  Armstrong, 
Nicholas  Baird. 

ONE  of  the  most  distinguished  Scotsmen  who  took 
service  in  Russia  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century-  was 
Sir  Archibald  William  Crichton,  a  native  of  Edinburgh, 
where  he  was  born  in  1763,  and  who  became  physician  to 
the  Emperor  Alexander  and  to  the  Imperial  Guard. 
Descended  from  the  Crichtons  of  Woodhouse  and  Newing- 
ton,  his  father  was  Patrick  Crichton,  long  well  known 
in  Edinburgh  as  a  coach-builder,  and  colonel  of  the  2nd 
Local  Militia,  though  originally  a  captain  in  the  57th 
Regiment. 

Archibald  became  a  member  of  the  Imperial  Academy 
of  St.  Petersburg,  and  that  of  Natural  History  at  Moscow. 
He  was  K.G.C.  of  the  Orders  of  St.  Anne  and  St.  Vladimir, 
and  of  the  Red  Eagle  of  Prussia.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Royal  Institute  of  Paris,  and  author  of  various  valuable 
works.  He  accompanied  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  and 
Count  Kutusof  to  Edinburgh  in  1817,  and  was  knighted, 
and  became  F.R.S.,  F.L.S.,  and  F.G.S.  He  died  in  Russia 
in  his  93rd  year,  on  the  4th  June,  1856. 

In  September,  1820,  there  was  celebrated  in  Edinburgh 

B2 


52  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

a  marriage  which  made  some  noise  at  the  time,  that  of 
"  Alexander  Ivanovitch,  Sultan  Katte  Ghery  Krirn  Ghery, 
to  Anne,  daughter  of  James  Neilson,  Esq.,  of  Millbank,"a 
secluded  house  near  the  Grange  Loan. 

A  writer  in  Notes  and  Queries  in  1855  states  that  this 
personage,  the  lawful  Sultan  of  the  Crimea,  had  fled  from 
that  province  in  consequence  of  his  religion,  and  was 
educated  in  Edinburgh  at  the  expense  of  the  Emperor 
Alexander  of  Russia,  with  a  view  to  his  becoming  a  Chris- 
tian, "  and  that  his  wife  was  hardly  ever  known  by  any 
other  appellation  than  that  of  Sultana." 

Spencer,  in  his  Travels,  in  1837,  says  the  "  Sultana, 
Miss  Neilson,  of  Edinburgh,  whose  excellent  conduct  I 
found  the  theme  of  universal  praise,"  had  a  husband  who 
embraced  the  Russian  interest,  secured  himself  a  hand- 
some pension,  and  after  residing  several  years  in  Scotland, 
preached  Christianity  to  the  Tartars,  who  despised  a  para- 
dise without  houris,  and  to  that  year  had  not  made  a 
single  convert.  His  residence  in  Scotland  must  have  been 
short,  as  Dr.  Lyall  visited  him  and  his  Sultana  in  the 
Crimea  in  1822,  and  Clarke,  in  his  Travels,  mentions 
visiting  him  at  Simpheropol.  He  was  dead  before  1855, 
when  his  mother  was  living  near  the  field  of  Alma.  He 
had  a  son  in  the  Russian  army,  and  a  daughter  who  was 
maid-of-honour  to  the  wife  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine. 
In  the  obituaries  for  1855  we  find  the  following  : — 

"At  Simpheropol  in  the  Crimea,  in  June,  H.H.  the  Sul- 
tana Anne  Katte  Ghery  Krim  Ghery,  daughter  of  the  late 
J.  Neilson,  Esq.,  of  Millbank";  and  at  Simpheropol,  in  the 
same  month,  Alexandrina  Baroness  Gersdorf,  her  eldest 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  53 

daughter ;  and  at  Ekatermoslav,  ^.he  following  week,  her 
younger  daughter,  Margaret  Anne,  wife  of  Thomas  Upton, 
an  Englishman  in  the  Russian  service. 

In  the  Crimea  in  those  days,  James  Sinclair,  a  Scottish 
gardener,  resided  for  thirteen  years  on  the  estate  of  Prince 
Woronzoff,  laying  out  the  gardens ;  and  Hunt,  a  Scottish 
architect,  prepared  plans  for  the  unfinished  Imperial 
Palace  at  Great  Orlanda. 

Besides  those  of  the  Greigs,  several  Scottish  names 
came  prominently  forward  in  the  Russian  service  about 
the  time  of  the  Crimean  war.  Among  these  we  may  note 
the  names  of  Generals  Stuart,  Ochterlony,  Ramsay,  Wilson, 
Read,  the  Armstrongs,  and  Nicholas  Baird. 

General  Stuart,  a  very  aged  officer,  shortly  before  his 
death  was  at  Inverness  in  1853,  making  the  last  of  his 
periodical  pilgrimages  to  the  scenes  of  the  "  Forty-five," 
and,  according  to  the  Courier,  "  was  connected  with  the 
Royal  family  of  Stuart  through  Prince  Charles'  daughter, 
the  Duchess  of  Albany.  He  was  probably  a  relation  of 
Baron  Stuart,  Russian  agent-general  at  Bucharest  in 
May,  1877. 

General  Ochterlony  was  a  son  of  John  Ochterlony,  Esq., 
of  Montrose,  and  of  the  line,  we  believe,  of  Guynde. 
His  father  settled  in  Russia  about  80  years  before  the 
Crimean  war.  An  Alexander  Ochterlony,  merchant,  late 
of  Narva,  died  in  1805  at  Novo  Mirgorod  in  the  Ukraine. 

The  General's  great-grandfather  was  Laird  of  Kintro- 
chat,  and  his  great-grandmother  was  Miss  Young  of 
Auldbar. 

He    commanded  a  Russian   brigade    at   the   battle   of 


54  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Oltenitza,  in  November,  1853,  and  fell,  mortally  wounded, 
on  the  field  of  Inkerman,  according  to  Prince  Mentshicoff's 
despatch. 

In  1854,  General  Ramsay  (probably  of  the  Balmaine 
line)  was  appointed  governor  of  Finland. 

General  Wilson,  a  Scottish  engineer  officer,  who,  on 
the  1st  August,  1856,  "completed  his  half  century  of 
military  service  under  the  double-headed  eagle,"  stipulated 
that  he  should  not  be  called  upon  to  fight  with  British 
troops.  When  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  service  was  con- 
cluded, he  held  his  jubilee  at  Alexanderoffski,  twelve 
miles  from  St.  Petersburg,  which  became  a  scene  of 
boisterous  merry-making.  The  village  ran  with  vodka,  and 
was  ablaze  with  fireworks.  Next  day  the  Emperor  sent 
the  veteran  a  splendid  diamond  cross,  with  the  highest 
Order  to  which  he  was  eligible. 

He  was  in  his  80th  year  when  the  war  broke  out,  and 
he  was  still  at  the  head  of  millwright  and  other  engineer- 
ing establishments  at  Colpina.  By  his  mediation  pass- 
ports were  given  to  all  British  citizens  desirous  of  returning 
home. 

General  Read,  who  fought  at  the  battle  of  Tchernaia,  was 
the  son  of  a  civil  engineer,  a  native  of  Montrose,  who 
settled  in  Russia  early  in  life.  The  general  rose  to  be 
Imperial  lieutenant  of  the  Caucasian  provinces  in  absence 
of  Prince  Woronzow. 

He  was  slain  at  the  head  of  the  Russian  column,  and 
on  his  body  was  found  the  orders  signed  by  Prince 
Gortchakoff  for  fighting  the  battle.  From  them  it  would 
appear  that  a  most  determined  attempt  was  to  be  made  to 


THE  SCOTS  IN  RUSSIA.  55 

raise  the  siege  of  Sebastopol.  Had  he  succeeded,  Balaclava 
was  to  be  attacked  and  the  heights  stormed,  while  a  sortie 
was  to  have  been  made  from  the  city. 

The  gallant  Marshal  Pelissier  sent  in  some  relics  of  the 
general,  and  ordered  a  search  to  be  made  for  his  body  till 
found.  On  this,  Prince  Gortchakoff  wrote  him  thus :  — 
"Sebastopol,  August  19th. — M.  le  Commandant-in-Chief, 
— I  have  the  honour  to  receive  your  communication  of  16th 
inst.,  as  well  as  the  portfolios,  containing  property  and 
a  letter  of  General  Read.  I  acknowledge  gladly  all  the 
worth  of  so  noble  an  act,  as  well  as  the  generous  solicitude 
which  has  led  your  Excellency  to  order  a  search  for  the 
body  of  this  gallant  General.  Accept  the  sincere  expres- 
sion of  my  feelings  on  this  subject,  and  the  assurance  of 
my  highest  esteem. — MICHAEL  GORTCHAKOFF." 

General  Armstrong  we  only  know  to  have  been  originally 
from  Jedburgh,  where  his  son,  Colonel  Armstrong,  also 
of  the  Russian  army,  had  possession  in  1867  of  what  is 
known  as  Queen  Mary's  House,  in  that  ancient  Border 
burgh. 

In  1854,  Nicholas  Baird,  a  Scotsman  born,  but  naturalised 
Russian  subject,  was,  and  had  been  since  1820,  a  naval 
and  mechanical  engineer  of  the  highest  class  at  Cronstadt 
(Journal  de  St.  Petersbourg,  May,  1854)  ;  and  he  was 
vigorously  assailed  in  all  the  English  newspapers  as  "a 
disgrace  to  his  country." 

In  the  mobilisation  of  the  Russian  army  in  November* 
1876,  Prince  Barclay  de  Towie  (or  Tolly)  Weiman 
appeared  as  commander  of  the  7th  Corps,  representative 
of  that  "  Sir  Valter  Barclay  of  Tollie,  miles,"  who 


56  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

founded  in  1210  the  old  castle  bearing  that  inscription 
on  the  Banff  Road  near  Turriff,  and  was  progenitor  of  the 
great  Russian  Field-Marshal,  Prince  Barclay  de  Tolly, 
whose  name  is  imperishable  as  one  of  the  heroes  that 
shook  the  power  of  Napoleon. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  PKUSSIA. 

Douglas,  Prince  of  Danesvick — Scots  regiments  about  1640 — 
Colonel  Bruce — H.  P.  Bruce  of  Lord  Leven's  Scots  Regi- 
ment— Marshal  Keith — His  death — Funeral— Monuments. 

So  far  back  as  the  year  1389  we  find  a  train  of  Scottish 
knights  and  men-at-arms  fighting  under  Waldenrodt, 
Grand  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  in  defence  of  Dantzig, 
or  Danesvick,  as  it  was  then  named,  when  besieged  by  the 
Pagans  of  Prussia  under  Udislaus  Jagello  during  that  fifty 
years'  war  which  ended  in  nearly  extirpating  the  ancient 
inhabitants,  who  seemed  incapable  of  receiving  the  Christian 
faith. 

The  Scots  were  led  by  William  Douglas,  Lord  of  Niths- 
dale,  known  as  the  "  Black  Douglas"  from  his  swarthy 
complexion,  who  made  such  havoc  on  the  English  borders 
— where  his  name  became  so  terrible  that  nurses,  as  Gods- 
croft  tells  us,  scared  their  children  "  when  they  would  not 
be  quiet,  by  saying,  '  The  Black  Douglas  comes  !  The 
Black  Douglas  will  get  thee  !'  "  (fol.  ed.,  1643).  He  married 
a  daughter  of  Robert  II  before  setting  out  for  Dantzig,  in 
making  a  furious  sally  from  which  he  and  his  Scottish 
knights  cut  the  besiegers  to  pieces  and  cleared  the  district. 
For  this  he  was  created  Prince  of  Danesvick,  Duke  of 
Spruce,  and  Admiral  of  the  Fleet,  while  all  Scots  were  for 


58  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

ever  made  free  men  of  the  town  ;  and  in  token  thereof  the 
Royal  arms  of  Scotland,  with  those  of  Douglas,  were  placed 
over  the  great  gate,  where  they  remained  "  until  it  was  lately 
rebuilt,"  says  the  Atlas  Geographicus  for  1711.  A  part  of 
the  suburbs  is  still  called  Little  Scotland,  and  near  it  was 
the  ancient  bridge  on  which  Douglas  was  foully  murdered 
by  a  band  of  English  assassins  employed  by  Lord  Clifford, 
who  had  insulted  him,  and  yet  dreaded  to  meet  him  in 
mortal  combat.  By  his  wife  he  left  a  daughter,  known  in 
the  encomiastic  language  of  the  age  as  "  The  Fair  Maid  of 
Nithsdale." 

In  1639-40  "Colonels  William  Cunninghame,  Drummond, 
and  Mill,  who  had  commanded  Scottish  regiments  in 
Prussia,  Lusatia,  and  Silesia,  introduced  great  improvements 
into  the  army  of  the  Covenant."  (Memoirs  of  Montrose, 
London,  1858.) 

We  have  elsewhere  referred  to  John  Bruce,  of  the  Airth 
family,  who  about  1650  landed  by  mistake  at  Konigsberg 
in  Prussia,  and  entered  the  service  of  the  Elector  of  Bran- 
denburg, as  that  province  comprising  the  ancestral  domains 
of  the  reigning  family  is  still  named,  and  was  very  soon 
appointed  to  the  command  of  a  regiment,  which  was  the 
highest  rank  he  ever  obtained,  though  he  stood  well  in  the 
regards  of  the  Elector,  as  the  following  anecdote,  related  in 
the  same  memoir  of  his  grandson,  proves  :  — 

"  My  grandfather  one  day  was  hunting  with  the  Elector, 
when  his  Highness,  in  eager  pursuit  of  the  chase,  entered 
a  large  wood,  and  was  separated  from  all  his  attendants 
except  my  grandfather  (Colonel  Bruce),  who  kept  up  with 
him.  Night  overtaking  them  in  the  wood,  they  were 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  59 

obliged   to   dismount  and  lead  their  horses,  when,  after 
groping  their  way  for  a  considerable  time  in  the  dark,  they 
perceived  a  light  in  the  distance,  and  found  themselves  at 
the  miserable  hut  of  a  poor  tar-burner  (sic),  who  lived  a 
great  way  into  the  forest.     Being  informed  that  they  were  a 
long  way  from  any  village  or  habitation,  the  prince,  being 
tired  and  hungry,  asked  what  they  could  get  to  eat,  upon 
which  the  poor  man  produced  a  loaf  of  coarse  black  bread, 
of  which  the  Elector  ate  heartily,  with  a  draught-  of  pure 
water,  declaring  that  he  had  never  eaten  with  so  good  an 
appetite  before.     On  asking  how  large  the  forest  was,  he 
was   told   that  it  was   of  vast   extent,  and   bordered   on 
Mecklenburg- Strelitz.     My  grandfather   observed   that  it 
was  a  pity  such  a  tract  should  lie  useless,  and  asked  a 
grant  of  it,  offering  to  build  a  village  on  the  spot  where  they 
then  stood.    To  this  the  Elector  agreed,  confirmed  the  gift 
by  charter,  with  a  great  privilege  annexed ;  so  my  grand- 
father built  the  village  in  the  middle  of  the  forest,  which 
he  called  Srucewald,  or  '  Bruce  Wood,'  and  another  at  the 
peasant's  hut,  which   he    called    Jetzkendorf,  its    ancient 
name   from    some   ruins  there  visible.     The  Elector  slept 
upon  some  straw  till  daybreak,  when  he  was  awakened  by  Ins 
attendants,  who  had  been  searching  for  him  all  night,  and 
with  whom  he  returned  to  Berlin."     (Memoirs  of  P.  If. 
Bruce,  £Jsq.) 

Colonel  John  Bruce  married  then  a  lady  of  the  Arensdorf 
family,  with  whom  he  got  several  estates,  and  by  whom  ho 
had  two  sons  and  three  daughters.  One  of  the  latter  was 
married  to  the  governor  of  Pom  crania ;  the  second  became 
Abbess  of  a  Protestant  convent,  but  afterwards  married 


60  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE, 

Colonel  Rebeur,  who  got  Bruce  Wood  with  her.  Colonel 
Bruce's  eldest  son  Charles  was  killed,  a  lie  tenant  of 
infantry,  at  the  siege  of  Namur ;  his  youngest  son  James 
married  Catherina  Detring,  of  a  noble  family  in  West- 
phalia, when  lieutenant  of  a  Scottish  regiment,  commanded 
by  David  Earl  of  Leven,  who,  according  to  Douglas, 
brought  that  regiment  over  with  him  to  Britain  in  1688, 
and  was  made  governor  of  Edinburgh  Caatle  after  the 
great  ?iege  in  1689.  H.  P.  Bruce  was  born  in  the  castle 
of  Detring  in  1692.  Bruce  says :  "  This  regiment  was 
ordered  to  Flanders,  and  my  father  carried  my  mother 
with  him,  where  he  remained  till  1698,  when  the  regiment 
returned  to  Scotland,  whither  we  accompanied  him.  The 
regiment  was  then  put  in  garrison  at  Fort  William." 

After  being  educated  at  Cupar-Fife,  young  Henry  P. 
Bruce  joined  his  uncle,  Colonel  Bebeur's  Prussian  regi- 
ment, as  a  volunteer,  carrying  a  firelock,  and  served  four 
campaigns  under  the  Duke  of  Maryborough,  the  first  being  in 
1707.  In  the  winter  of  1710  he  was  quartered  at  Tournay, 
and  while  there  received  an  invitation — as  elsewhere  re- 
corded— to  join  his  cousin,  the  master  of  the  ordnance  in 
Russia,  with  the  rank  of  captain,  which  he  accepted. 

After  serving  in  various  parts  of  the  Russian  empire, 
in  1716  he  was  ordered  to  discipline  thirty  grenadiers,  men 
of  enormous  stature,  for  the  King  of  Prussia,  who  had  a 
craze  for  tall  soldiers.  Some  of  these  men,  one  of  whom 
was  an  Indian,  one  a  Turk,  two  Persians,  and  two  Tartars, 
the  rest  being  Muscovites,  were  six  feet  nine  inches  in 
height,  without  shoes;  and  to  the  king  they  were  sent  as 
a  present  from  the  Czar.  By  inarching  and  sledging  he 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  61 

conveyed  these  to  Prussia,  halting  at  Riga  on  the  12th 
April,  and  there  they  were  "  regaled"  by  seeing  twelve  men 
broken  alive  on  the  wheel  for  a  robbery  and  murder,  which 
he  details  at  great  length.  He  arrived  at  Berlin  and 
received  a  purse  of  200  ducats  for  "  his  giants,  who  were 
all  in  good  health  and  spirits,"  and  whom  the  king 
declared  to  be  "  the  handsomest  men  he  had  ever  Been." 

In  1721  he  received  intelligence  that  by  the  death  of  his 
grandfather  certain  Scotch  estates  had  devolved-  on  him ; 
but  he  failed  to  get  leave  from  the  Czar,  with  whom  he 
went  on  the  Persian  expedition  in  1723,  and,  after  making 
a  survey  of  the  Caspian  coasts  and  performing  other 
services,  he  ultimately  returned  to  Scotland,  was  employed 
in  the  fortification  of  Berwick  in  1745,  and  died  in  his 
ancestral  house  in  the  year  1757. 

In  1724  (according  to  the  Evening  Courant  of  9th  April) 
the  puople  of  Edinburgh  had  the  spectacle  of  "  a  band  of 
drums  beating  through  the  city,  by  permission  of  King 
George,"  for  recruits  for  the  King  of  Prussia's  tall  Grenadier 
Regiment ;  and  again  a  levy  in  Edinburgh  was  made  for 
the  same  corps  in  1728 — each  recruit  getting  two  guineas 
as  arles. 

In  1747,  General  James  Keith,  leaving  the  Russian 
service,  entered  that  of  Frederick  the  Great,  who,  aware 
of  his  high  attainments  in  war  and  diplomacy,  at  once 
made  him  a  field-marshal  of  the  Prussian  armies,  and  so 
far  distinguished  him  by  his  confidence  as  to  travel  in 
disguise  with  him  over  a  great  part  of  Poland,  Hungary, 
and  Germany.  In  public  business  Frederick  made  him  his 
chief  counsellor,  and  in  diversions  his  chief  companion. 


62  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

He  was  greatly  delighted  with  a  war  game  which  Keith 
invented — something  suggested  by  chess.  The  latter 
ordered  some  thousand  tiny  statuettes  of  men  in  armour  to 
be  cast  by  a  founder,  and  these  were  massed  opposite  each 
other  in  battle  array ;  then  parties  would  be  ordered  from 
the  wings  or  centre  to  show  the  advantages  of  such  move- 
ments ;  and  in  this  way  the  king  and  the  marshal  would 
amuse  themselves  for  hours  together,  to  the  improvement 
of  their  military  knowledge. 

It  is  recorded  of  Keith  that  when  he  went  to  Paris  to  be 
treated  for  the  terrible  wound  he  received  at  Ochachof, 
Folard  was  writing  his  Polt/bius.  As  a  military  author 
was  rare  then,  the  marshal's  chief  desire  was  to  make  his 
acquaintance,  and  Folard  readily  showed  him  some  of  his 
writings — among  others,  his  remarks  on  the  battle  of 
Telemone,  where  the  Gauls,  when  attacked  by  two  double 
Roman  armies,  had  to  present  a  double  front.  Keith  told 
him  there  was  a  similar  case  in  the  Bible  :  when  David  in 
the  same  order  fought  the  Amorites  and  Syrians.  Folard, 
on  making  good  the  discovery,  embraced  Keith,  and  said  : 
"  My  dear  sir,  could  you  not  procure  that  book  for  me  ?  it 
is  not  to  be  found  in  Paris !" 

When  Keith  expressed  his  astonishment  at  this  remark, 
the  chevalier  excused  himself  by  saying  "  he  knew  the 
book  only  by  the  name  of  the  Holy  Writings,  and  not  by 
that  of  the  Bible ;  and  that,  as  he  never  believed  it  con- 
tained such  excellent  things,  he  had  never  taken  the  trouble 
to  read  it." 

In  1750,  we  find  (Scots  Mag.,  1750)  that  there  was 
married,  at  Berlin,  the  chevalier  Keith,  eldest  son  of  Sir 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  63 

William  Keith  of  Ludquharne,  Aberdeenshire,  deceased, 
and  nephew  of  Marshal  Keith,  to  the  only  daughter  of  M. 
de  Suhm,  one  of  the  King  of  Prussia's  privy  councillors. 
He  was  previously  a  captain  in  the  Russian  service,  but 
left  it  with  his  kinsman,  and  was  made  lieutenant-colonel 
and  A.D.C.  to  the  King  of  Prussia. 

In  1751  the  King  of  Prussia  sent  the  marshal's  brother, 
George,  the  attainted  earl  marshal,  as  his  ambassador  to 
the  court  of  France,  and  three  years  after  he  was  appointed 
governor  of  Neufchatel. 

Frederick,  in  his  history  of  the  Seven  Years'  War, 
refers  to  a  famous  political  intriguante,  "  Madame  Ogilvie," 
who  in  1756-7  was  first  lady-in-waiting  to  the  queen,  and 
had  extensive  estates  near  Leutzneritz,  and  to  whom  letters 
of  great  importance  were  sent  from  Balumia  containing 
secret  intelligence,  concealed  in  boxes  supposed  to  contain 
puddings — a  discovery  "  which  rendered  the  court  more 
circumspect  in  its  correspondence." 

Other  Scotch  names  crop  up  about  the  same  time  in 
Prussia. 

The  London  Gazette  of  31st  January,  1758,  records  that 
Major  John  Grant,  of  the  Prussian  Regiment  of  Guards, 
and  A.D.C.  to  the  King  Frederick,  returned  to  Berlin  from 
London,  and  passed  on  to  Silesia  "  to  give  his  Majesty  an 
account  of  the  commission  he  has  executed  at  the  Court  of 
England.  This  officer  has  received  several  handsome  pre- 
sents from  the  King  of  Great  Britain." 

The  Caledonian  Mercury  of  the  following  year  mentions 
the  death  of  Patrick  Grant  of  Dunlugus,  in  Banffshire ; 
adding  that  he  died  a  bachelor.  He  is  succeeded  in  his 


64  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

estate  by  his  brother,  Major  John  Grant,  A.D.C.  to  the 
King  of  Prussia,  and  that  he  had  been  twice  on  missions 
"  to  the  court  of  Britain  since  the  present  war."  He  was 
major-general  in  1759.  He  had  formerly  been  in  the 
Russian  service,  and,  like  Ludquharne,  accompanied 
Marshal  Keith  to  Prussia,  where  he  died  in  1764,  Baron 
Le  Grant  and  governor  of  Neisse,  in  Prussian  Siberia. 
(Edinburgh  Advert.,  vol.  iii.) 

In  1758,  when  Frederick  the  Great  inaugurated  a  new 
campaign  by  entering  Moravia,  he  invested  Olmutz,  and 
after  the  siege  was  raised  the  Prussian  army,  led  by 
Marshal  Keith,  then  governor  of  Berlin,  had  several 
skirmishes  with  the  Austrians,  whom  he  either  defeated  or 
foiled  by  the  skill  of  his  movements,  till  at  length  he  found 
means  to  effect  a  junction  with  the  column  of  the  king, 
who  was  impatient  to  engage  the  Austrians  under  Count 
Daun. 

With  coolness  and  ability  the  latter  affected  to  decline 
an  engagement,  and  seemed  even  to  retire  before  the  king ; 
but  he  never  halted  two  days  in  the  same  place  till  the 
10th  of  October,  when  he  took  post  in  a  strongly  entrenched 
camp  in  front  of  the  well-trained  Prussian  army,  which 
was  full  of  ardour  to  engage.  A  courier  was  then  de- 
spatched to  Marshal  Keith,  who  was  scouring  the  country 
with  a  body  of  cavalry,  which  encountered  a  column  of  the 
enemy  on  the  12th  and  dispersed  it,  taking  the  leader 
prisoner. 

At  five  in  the  afternoon  of  the  13th  the  marshal  marched 
into  camp,  when  he  found  the  whole  army  in  order  of 
battle  opposite  to  the  Austrians.  With  his  friend  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  65 

king  he  concerted  a  plan  of  operations,  and  had  assigned 
to  him  the  command  of  the  right  wing. 

"  But  take  a  little  rest,"  said  Frederick  ;  "  you  will  need 
all  your  vigour  for  the  morrow." 

This  was  at  Hochkirken,  a  village  of  Saxony,  in  the 
Lusatian  circle,  and  situated,  as  the  name  implies,  on  a 
height. 

Count  Daun,  however,  precluded  the  execution  of  this 
purpose  by  surprising  the  Prussian  trenches  at  four  A.M. 
on  the  14th  October.  In  order  to  draw  the  king,  he  sent 
a  detachment  into  an  adjacent  wood,  with  orders  to  fell 
the  timber  as  noisily  as  possible,  and  meanwhile  got  his 
main  body  in  motion,  leaving  all  their  tents  standing. 
The  Saxons  in  his  army  were  clothed  in  the  Prussian 
uniform,  and  some  of  these  he  sent  forward  to  reconnoitre 
the  outposts  of  Frederick.  Unluckily  for  this  artful 
scheme,  two  sentinels  who  were  advanced  at  the  extremity 
of  the  Prussian  lines  had  gone  beyond  the  limits  of  their 
post,  and  were  made  prisoners,  thereby  causing  some  alarm 
at  the  very  time  when  the  Austrians  were  extending  their 
front. 

The  Prussian  uniform,  the  darkness  of  the  morning,  and 
the  prevalence  of  a  thick  fog,  deceived  the  army  of 
Frederick ;  thus,  when  the  other  sentinels,  who  were  next 
the  two  who  had  been  seized,  said,  "  Is  all  well  ?"  the 
answer  came,  "  All's  well." 

This  was  exactly  at  4  A.M.,  when  the  Austrian  grena- 
diers, after  pouring  in  a  volley,  slung  their  muskets  and 
assailed  the  trenches  sword  in  hand.  In  the  camp  of 
Frederick  the  most  dreadful  confusion  now  ensued ;  the 

F 


66  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

officers  rushed  to  their  posts.  Marshal  Keith  sprang  up 
in  his  tent,  and  was  in  the  act  of  stooping  to  draw  on  a 
boot  when  a  ball  passed  through  his  heart  and  he  fell  dead 
without  uttering  a  word. 

The  right  wing,  deprived  thus  of  a  leader,  was  nearly 
cut  to  pieces  by  the  Austrians,  though  the  king,  when  in- 
formed that  Keith  had  fallen,  assumed  the  command  in 
that  quarter,  and  got  as  many  regiments  as  possible  to  close 
up  and  present  a  front  to  the  enemy,  while  he  began  to 
retire  with  the  rest,  unfollowed  by  Count  Daun,  who  was 
too  wary  to  pursue. 

One  account  has  it  that  Marshal  Keith's  body  was  dis- 
gracefully stripped  by  the  retreating  Prussians.  Another 
(in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine)  states  that  the  king  sent  to 
Count  Daun,  earnestly  recommending  the  wounded  to  his 
care,  and  the  interment  of  the  dead  in  accordance  with  their 
rank.  The  count  went  immediately  to  the  tent  of  Marshal 
Keith,  "  when  he  found  'he  corpse  not  yet  stripped,  and 
lying  on  the  spot  where  he  fell.  Orders  were  immediately 
given  for  carrying  him  to  a  church  within  two  miles  of 
Hochkirken,  where  his  lordship  surveyed  the  body,  but, 
unable  to  stand  unmoved  in  view  of  such  a  spectacle,  he 
embraced  him  and  kissed  him  amid  a  flood  of  tears.  Every- 
one in  the  army  pressed  forward  to  gaze  on  him  ;  all  the 
general  officers  lamented  his  misfortune  and  joined  in  high 
encomiums  on  his  valour  and  virtues." 

And  of  the  many  who  stood  by  few  were  more  deeply 
moved  than  the  gallant  Irish  exile,  Count  Joseph  Lacy, 
under  whose  father,  the  conqueror  of  the  Crimea,  Keith  had 
served,  and  who  burst  into  tears  when  he  saw  the  old  wound 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  67 

won  at  the  storming  of  Okzokof.  On  the  day  of  his 
temporary  funeral  at  Hochkirken,  the  general  officers  of 
the  Austrian  army  offered  to  carry  the  coffin  on  their 
shoulders,  and,  as  it  was  lowered  down,  three  rounds 
were  fired  from  twelve  field-pieces,  with  three  rounds  of 
musketry. 

"  Such  was  the  end  of  the  great  Scottish  field-marshal, 
James  Keith,"  wrote  one  at  the  time,  "  in  whose  person 
were  united  the  virtues  of  a  man,  a  hero,  and  a  Christian 
He  was  a  friend  to  merit,  a  benefactor  to  the  indigent,  and 
a  well-wisher  to  mankind  in  general.  He  was  so  amiable 
in  his  temper  and  agreeable  in  his  conversation  that  he 
won  the  love  and  admiration  of  all  who  knew  him  with  any 
degree  of  intimacy.  .  .  .  Such  uncommon  desert  could  not 
fail  to  procure  him  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the 
Prussian  monarch,  who  is  so  sagacious  in  discovering  and 
so  generous  in  rewarding  merit." 

By  order  of  Frederick,  the  body  was  removed  to  Berlin, 
and  interred  with  great  pomp  in  a  vault  of  the  garrison 
church.  All  the  bells  in  the  city  tolled  while  the  vast 
funeral  cortege,  the  Hussars,  the  battalions  of  Leuderitz 
and  Langen,  with  arms  revei-sed  and  craped  colours,  the 
marshal's  helmet,  sword,  gloves,  and  baton,  and  a  mourning 
coach  containing  his  nephew,  Mr.  Keith,  and  Marshal 
Kulstein,  passed  through  Ross  Street,  King  Street,  and 
over  the  great  bridge  to  the  grand-parade. 

In  this  year  a  pardon  was  most  grudgingly  granted  by 
George  II  to  his  brother,  the  Earl  Marshal,  and  he  was 
permitted  to  succeed  to  the  estates  of  Kintore,  and  to  return 
home.  It  was  then  the  King  of  Prussia  wrote  that  letter 

F2 


68  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

which  we  find  in  Cordiner's  Antiquities,  etc.,  of  the  North  of 
Scotland  : — 

"  I  cannot  allow  the  Scots  the  happiness  of  possessing 
you  altogether.  Had  I  a  fleet  I  would  make  a  descent  on 
their  coast  and  carry  you  off.  I  must  therefore  have  re- 
course to  your  friendship  to  bring  you  to  him  who  esteems 
and  loves  you.  I  loved  your  brother  (James  Keith)  with 
all  my  heart  and  soul ;  I  was  indebted  to  him  for  great 
obligations !  This  is  my  right  to  you — this  is  my  title ! 
I  spend  my  time  as  formerly,  only  at  night  I  read  Virgil's 
Georgics,  and  go  to  my  garden  in  the  morning  to  make  my 
gardener  reduce  them  to  practice.  He  laughs  at  Virgil 
and  me,  and  thinks  us  both  fools. 

"  Come  to  ease,  to  friendship,  and  philosophy  ;  these  are 
what,  after  the  bustle  of  life,  we  must  all  have  recourse  to. 

"  FREDERICK. " 

Thus  urged,  the  Earl  Marshal  again  returned  to  his 
government  of  Neufchatel,  after  which  he  entered  the 
Spanish  service. 

To  the  memory  of  Marshal  Keith  a  monument  was 
erected  in  the  Wilhelm  Platz,  near  the  Potsdam  gate  of 
Berlin,  and,  on  the  recommendation  of  Prince  Bismarck,  a 
copy  thereof  was  sent  to  Peterhead,  and  erected  in  front  of 
the  town-house  there,  as  the  Emperor  of  Germany  in 
1868.  With  it  he  sent  a  Cabinet  order,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  translation  : — 

"  I  have  received  with  particular  satisfaction  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  provost,  magistrates,  and  town-council  of 
the  worthy  town  of  Peterhead,  that  the  memory  of  Field- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA,  69 

Marshal  J.  F.  E.  Keith  and  his  heroic  career  in  Prussia 
still  live  in  his  native  place.  I  therefore  willingly  grant 
the  town  of  Peterhead  the  wished-for  statue  of  the  Field- 
Marshal,  after  the  model  of  the  monument  which  my  great 
ancestor  ordered  to  be  placed  to  his  deserving  general  in 
Berlin,  and  hope  that  this  statue  may  contribute  to  main- 
tain a  lasting  connection  between  the  birthland  of  the 
Field-Marshal  and  his  adopted  home,  Prussia. 

"  With  the  execution  of  this  present  order  I  commission 
you,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
"  Coblenz,  23rd  August,  1868. 

(Signed)  "  WILHELM. 

"  For  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Grr.  Eulenburg." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE    SCOTS    IN    PRUSSIA.— (Concluded). 

Siege  of  Dantzig,  1807 — Scoto -Prussian  Officers  in  1869 — 
Admiral  Maclean — Baron  von  Craignish — Count  Douglas — 
The  Halketts  in  Hanover — Gordons  in  Poland — Lord 
Cranstoun's  Scottish  Regiment. 

DURING  the  siege  of  Dantzig  by  the  French  in  1807, 
Alexander  Gibson,  a  Scottish  merchant  there,  distinguished 
himself  on  the  walls  and  batteries  so  greatly  as  to  obtain 
personal  letters  of  thanks  from  the  King  of  Prussia  and 
the  officer  commanding,  General  Kalkrenth.  This  gentle- 
man was  a  fourth  son  of  William  Gibson,  a  merchant  of 
Edinburgh,  and  a  brother  of  the  well-known  Sir  James 
Gibson-Craig  of  Riccarton ;  but  during  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  of  1869-70  many  Scottish  names  came 
prominently  forward  in  the  service  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 
A  Major  Douglas,  commanding  a  regiment  in  garrison 
at  Pillau,  asserted  his  claim  to  the  dukedom  of  Douglas, 
in  right  of  a  seventh  son  of  that  house  (whose  name  is  not 
to  be  found  in  the  Douglas  Peerage),  born  to  William, 
ninth  Earl  of  Angus,  who  died  in  1591,  but  the  claim  was 
not  pressed ;  and  concerning  the  Scotsmen  "  who  have 
served  with  distinction  in  the  Prussian  army,"  the  North 
German  Correspondent  of  October,  1869,  stated  that  the 
families  of  most  of  these  had  left  Scotland  "  in  1657  to  escape 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  "Ji 

from  the  power  of  General  Monk.  Many  noblemen  then 
thought  it  advisable  to  seek  a  refuge  on  the  Continent,  or 
at  least  to  send  their  children  to  a  place  of  safety.  Among 
the  names  of  the  refugees  we  find  many  who  occupy  a 
high  place  in  Scottish  history,  as,  for  example,  Douglas, 
Bothwell  (of  the  Holyrood  House  family  ?),  Gordon,  Hamil- 
ton, Keith,  Morton,  Crichton,  and  Abernethy.  Prussia 
was  then  rising  into  importance  under  the  rule  of  the 
Great  Elector,  'and,'  as  one  of  them  wrote,  '  this  country 
being  fertile  and  well  situated  for  trade,  made  us  stay 
here.'  They  long  continued  to  maintain  friendly  and 
intimate  relations  with  the  country  of  their  birth  and  the 
branches  of  their  families  who  had  remained  at  home  ;  but 
the  losses  which  the  Scottish  nobility  suffered  by  the  Civil 
War  prevented  their  return.  Thus,  even  before  the 
Huguenot  emigration,  Prussia  formed  an  asylum  for  the 
exiled  Scots,  who,  as  we  have  lately  showed,  have  nobly 
repaid  her  hospitality.  Among  those  who  are  still  serving 
in  her  army  we  may  specially  mention  Lieutenant-General 
Hellmuth  von  Gordon,  who  fought  at  the  head  of  the 
Magdeburg  brigade  with  great  bravery  at  Kotiiggratz." 

In  1870,  Lord  Charles  Hamilton,  son  of  the  eleventh  Duke 
of  Hamilton,  served  in  the  German  army,  particularly  at 
the  siege  of  Strasbourg  ;  he  underwent  such  hardship  from 
exposure,  and  his  constitution  suffered  so  severely,  that  he 
died  of  it  in  after  years ;  and  in  the  summer  of  1880  the 
German  navy  in  the  Baltic  was  commanded  by  R  ear- 
Admiral  MacLean,  "tb">  descendant  of  a  noble  Scottish 
emigrant,  who  accompanied  Keith  to  Berlin  in  the  time  of 
Frederick  the  Great,"  according  to  the  Globe,  "  and  was 


72  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

the  first  Prussian  naval  cadet.  He  early  distinguished 
himself,  took  an  active  part  in  the  improvement  of  the 
German  navy,  anil  commanded  the  Prinz  Aldabert  on  her 
late  voyage  round  the  world.  His  resignation  is  generally 
deplored,  as  it  will  deprive  the  Imperial  service  of  one  of 
its  most  experienced  and  valuable  officers." 

In  1871,  when  the  Campbell  clan  presented  a  magnificent 
necklace  to  the  Princess  Louise  on  the  occasion  of  her 
marriage  with  the  Marquis  of  Lome,  among  the  subscribers 
appeared  the  name  of  Lieutenant  Ronald  Campbell,  of  the 
7th  or  Magdeburg  Cuirassiers,  who  had  won  the  Iron  Cross 
for  saving  his  colonel's  life  at  Yionville ;  and  further 
attention  was  drawn  to  him  when,  as  Captain,  as  Baron 
Craignish  and  A.D.C  to  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg  and 
Gotha,  he  was  in  Lcndo  i  in  1884  in  charge  of  the  band 
of  that  regiment,  clad  in  white  tunics  and  bright  steel 
helmets. 

The  7th,  or,  as  it  is  more  often  called,  Bismarck's  Cuiras- 
siers, played  a  very  important  part  in  the  desperate  battle 
of  Mars -la-Tour,  on  14th  August,  1870,  when  Prince 
Frederick  Charles  sacrificed  his  cavalry  to  save  his  infantry. 
On  that  memorable  day  the  Brandenburg  division  was 
thrown  forward  to  overlap  the  advance  quad  of  Marshal 
Bazaine's  army  on  the  Verdun  road.  For  a  long  time  it  was 
as  much  as  the  division  could  do  to  hold  its  own.  Suddenly 
on  its  right  flank  a  French  battery  galloped  into  position, 
and  began  to  decimate  its  ranks.  Then,  from  under  cover 
of  the  little  hamlet  called  La  Ferine,  the  Bismarck 
Cuirassiers,  in  column  of  squadrons,  and  led  by  Count 
Schmetto,  charged  up  the  slope  and  rushed  on  the  battery 
sword  in  hand. 


In  the  melee  that  ensued  a  French  infantry  officer  seized  the  staff." — p.  73 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  73 

"Beside  the  count,"  says  the  Army  and  Navy  Gazette, 
"rode  a  young  Scotch  lieutenant  named  Campbell,  who 
had  entered  the  German  army  and  won  his  commission 
on  the  field  of  Sadowa.  The  squadrons  reached  the 
guns  and  captured  them,  cutting  down  the  gunners  and 
striking  the  horses  as  the  guns  were  being  limbered  up. 
At  that  moment  the  cuirassiers  received  a  most  galling 
fire  from  the  regiments  of  French  infantry,  until  then 
invisible,  but  formed  in  square  on  the  Verdun  Road,  and 
without  a  moment's  hesitation  Count  Schmetto  led  his 
squadrons  at  these  squares." 

The  French  cast  away  their  arms  and  flung  themselves 
prone  on  the  earth  ci'ying  for  mercy  !  Then  appeared  on 
either  flanks  of  the  cuirassiers  bodies  of  French  cavalry, 
but,  wheeling  to  the  right  and  left  in  splendid  style,  the 
Germans  drove  both  the  7th  French  Cuirassiers  and  4th 
Chasseurs  d'Afrique  into  some  woods,  after  which  they  re- 
formed at  leisure,  though  volleys  were  poured  on  them. 
''  At  the  infantry  went  Count  Sclimetto  again,  this  time 
punishing  both  battalions  fearfully,"  says  the  writer 
before  quoted.  "  Lieutenant  Campbell  was  carrying  at  this 
time  the  colours  of  the  French  Cuirassiers,  which  he  had 
captured.  In  the  melee  that  ensued  a  French  infantry 
officer  seized  the  staff,  and,  placing  a  revolver  to  Lieutenant 
Campbell's  hand,  sent  a  bullet  clean  through  it,  thus 
forcing  him  to  drop  his  prize.  The  Frenchman  did  not 
live  long  to  tell  the  tale !  The  Bismarck  Cuirassiers  went 
into  this  action  800  strong,  and  came  out  of  it  numbering 
some  250  officers  and  men.  Lieutenant  Campbell  received 
the  Iron  Cross  from  the  hands  of  the  Crown  Prince  of 


74  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Germany,  the  Order  of  Saxe-Coburg  Gotha,  and  was 
further  made  Baron  von  Craignish  in  recognition  of  his 
gallant  conduct  throughout  the  war,  and  was  subsequently 
promoted." 

A  writer  in  Notes  and  Queries  stated  that  this  officer's 
great-grandfather,  Farquhar  Campbell,  married  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Dougald  Campbell  of  Craignish,  and  though 
removed  from  being  the  head  of  the  old  family,  is  sprung 
from  it  in  more  than  one  line  of  descent,  and  that  he  is 
"  simply  a  cadet  of  the  Clan  Dougal  Craignish." 

His  brother  officer,  Count  William  Douglas,  captain  of 
the  Garde  du  Corps  of  the  German  army,  was  presented 
at  the  Prince  of  Wales's  levee  in  June,  1886. 

A  few  Scotsmen  have  found  their  way  into  the  service 
of  Hanover,  that  petty  electorate  (kingdom  it  could  scarcely 
be  called)  which  is  now  an  integral  portion  of  the  Prussian 
empire — fortunately  for  Great  Britain,  that  was  so  often 
called  on  to  defend  it. 

There,  some  time  about  the  year  1640,  Major-General  Sir 
James  Lumsden  of  Invergollie  was  commandant  of  Osna- 
burg.  He  had  been  third  colonel  of  the  Green  Brigade  of 
Scots  in  Sweden,  and  was  afterwards  Scottish  governor 
of  Newcastle.  (Turner's  Memoirs,  etc.) 

Major  Drummond  Graham  of  Inchbraikie,  son  of  Captain 
Graham,  of  the  72nd  Highlanders,  who  was  wounded  at 
Gibraltar,  and  grandson  of  the  Laird  of  Inchbraikie,  who 
was  a  captain  in  the  Dutch  service,  served  in  the  Hanoverian 
Guards,  and  at  Waterloo  was  severely  wounded  in  the 
defence  of  La  Haye  Sainte,  falling  under  a  charge  of 
French  cuirassiers.  He  died  at  Tours  in  April,  1855. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  75 

Two  other  cadets  of  the  Pitfirran  family  were  in  the 
aume  service,  sons  of  General  Sir  Hugh  Halkett,  C.B.,  and 
G.C.H.,  a  Peninsula  and  Waterloo  officer  of  the  German 
Legion,  who  also  served  in  North  Germany,  and  at  the  siege 
of  Stralsund  in  1807. 

These  were  Colonel  James  Halkett  (once  of  the  Cold- 
stream  Guards),  who  died  at  Largs  in  1870,  a  baron  of 
the  kingdom  of  Hanover ;  and  Baron  Colin  Halkett,  who 
died  at  Celle  (or  Zell)  in  1879. 

A  few  Scots  also  are  to  be  traced  in  Poland,  or  Polish 
Prussia,  and  of  these  a  curious  collection  of  "  Birth  Brieves" 
will  be  found  in  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Spalding  Club 
Miscellany, 

In  1568  (according  to  the  Atlas  Geographicus,  vol.  i), 
George,  fifth  Earl  of  Huntly,  when  under  forfeiture, 
probably  for  his  father's  share  at  the  battle  of  Corrichie  in 
1562,  "  was  made  a  marquis  of  Poland,  and  is  the  only  one 
there." 

According  to  Letters  of  the  Reign  of  James  VI,  in  1624, 
Poland  is  described  as  being  literally  "  swarming  with 
Scots  pedlars" ;  but  in  Dantzig  many  of  these  so-called 
pedlars  were  very  opulent  merchants,  who  had  a  rule  of 
government  among  themselves,  and  lived  in  such  a  way  as 
to  secure  the  respect  and  esteem  of  the  people  there.  A 
great  tide  of  emigration  seems  to  have  gone  on,  "  exorbitant 
numbers  of  young  boys  and  maids  unfit  for  service,"  till,  in 
the  summer  of  the  year  named,  an  expulsion  of  he  Scots 
was  threatened,  and  seemingly  was  only  obviated  by  the 
influence  of  Patrick  Gordon,  agent  for  James  VI  in  the 
city  of  Dantzig. 


76  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

About  1648  we  find  two  of  the  Huntly  family  in  Poland. 

Lord  Henry  Gordon  and  his  sister,  Lady  Catherine,  were 
son  and  daughter  of  George,  the  second  marquis.  The 
former,  during  the  usurpation  of  Cromwell,  took  military 
service  in  Poland  under  John  Casimir,  and  won  high  dis- 
tinction by  his  bravery ;  and  the  latter,  who  accompanied 
him,  by  her  marriage  with  Count  Morstain,  high  treasurer 
of  Poland,  became  the  ancestress  of  Prince  Czartorinski, 
who  during  the  middle  of  the  last  century  was  one  of  the 
candidates  for  the  Polish  crown,  and  of  several  other 
families  of  distinction  (Sir  Robert  Douglas,  etc.). 

In  1656  Lord  Cranston  levied  a  Scottish  regiment  for 
the  King  of  Poland's  service  ;  "  the  Royalists,"  says  Fraser 
of  Kirkhill,  "choosing  rather  to  go  abroad,  though  in  a 
mean  condition,  than  live  at  home  in  slavery."  This  corps 
would  seem  to  have  been  chiefly  enlisted  at  Inverness,  where 
forty-three  Frasers  joined  it,  including  Lovat's  son  as  cap- 
tain, young  Clanvacky  as  a  lieutenant,  young  Phopachy  as 
an  ensign,  and  young  Foyers  as  a  corporal.  The  rest  came 
from  Stratherrick,  Strathglass,  etc.,  and  marched  out  of 
Inverness  in  the  face  of  Monk's  garrison.  This  levy 
proved  unfortunate.  Most  of  them  were  cut  off  in  Poland, 
and  we  shall  meet  with  the  survivors  elsewhere  fourteen 
years  after. 

In  a  Scottish  newspaper  called  The  North  Briton,  long 
since  defunct,  there  occurs  the  following  paragraph  : — 

"  It  is  a  circumstance  not  unworthy  of  remark  that  a 
great  number  of  persons  of  Scottish  lineage  are  now  to  be 
found  in  Poland.  Among  the  Polish  nobility  are  several 
names  very  common  in  this  country,  as  belonging  to  our 


THE  SCOTS  IN  PRUSSIA.  77 

oldest  and  best  families — such  as  Johnston,  Lindsay, 
Gordon,  and  Middleton.  These  individuals  are  in  general 
descended  from  Scottish  adventurers  who  sought  employ- 
ment in  Russian  armies  in  the  17th  century."  (North 
Briton,  January  5,  1831.) 

There  died  in  October,  1886,  at  Munich,  a  Scottish  lady, 
the  Countess  of  TJsedom  (in  Pomerania),  whose  husband 
was  deliverer  of  the  famous  "  Stab  in  the  Heart"  despatch. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Sir  John  Malcolm  of  Burnfoot 
(the  distinguished  soldier  and  Persian  diplomat),  and  his 
wife  Charlotte,  daughter  of  Sir  Alexander  Campbell, 
Bart.,  and  was  born  in  1818. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

• 

THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA. 

St.  Colman — The  Scottish  Bands  in  Bohemia — Colonels  Gray, 
Edmonds,  Hepburn,  etc. — The  four  Counts  Leslie. 

CURIOUSLY  enough,  an  ancient  Scottish  pilgrim,  called 
St.  Colman  in  the  Roman  Breviary,  is  the  apostle  of 
Austria.  When  proceeding  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem, 
he  reached  Stookheraw,  on  the  Danube,  six  miles  from 
Vienna,  where  the  inhabitants,  believing  him  to  be  a  spy, 
tortured  him  to  death  on  the  13th  October,  1012.  He  was 
canonised  by  Gregory  IX,  became  honoured  in  Austria 
as  the  tutelary  saint  of  the  country,  where  several  churches 
were  founded  in  his  honour,  and — according  to  the  Atlas 
Geograpkicus — in  Vienna  there  was  still  (in  1711)  a  Scottish 
house  or  convent,  "  founded  for  the  reception  of  Scotsmen 
in  their  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land" — a  fashion  surely 
past  at  that  period. 

The  Princess  Eleanor  Stuart,  second  daughter  of  the 
illustrious  James  I,  was  married  to  Sigismund,  Duke  of 
Austria,  who  came  again  to  Scotland  with  Mary  of  Gueldres, 
in  1449.  She  had  all  her  father's  love  of  literature,  and 
translated  the  romance  of  Ponthus  et  Sidoyne  into  German 
for  the  amusement  of  her  husband. 

In  May,  1620,  the  drums  of  Sir  Andrew  Gray 
(designed  sometimes  of  Broxmouth)  were  beating 


THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA.  79 

up  for  recruits  to  follow  him  to  the  Bohemian  wars 
against  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  he  formed  a  camp 
on  the  Monkrig  in  Haddingtonshire,  where  he  was  joined 
by  Sir  John  Hepburn  of  Athelstaneford  and  other  gallant 
soldiers  of  fortune.  Sir  Andrew  Gray  figures  frequently 
in  history  during  the  reign  of  James  VI.  Being  a 
Catholic,  he  was  obnoxious  to  the  Church,  and  in  1594, 
as  "  Captain  Andrew  Gray,"  was  classed  among  "  Papists 
and  traitors"  in  the  Book  of  the  Universall  Kirk ; 
and  at  the  battle  of  Glenlivet,  as  "colonel,"  he  com- 
manded the  Earl  of  Huntly's  artillery.  (Wodrow.)  A 
letter  of  Lady  Margaret  Setoun's,  dated  19th  May,  1620, 
states  that  "  Coronell  Gray,  his  captains  and  their  men  of 
weir,  are  all  going  to  Bohemia  the  xx.  of  this  instant." 
(Eglinton  Memorials.) 

On  being  recruited  by  150  moss-troopers,  captured  by 
the  Warden  of  the  Middle  Marches,  for  turbulence  on  the 
Border,  Sir  Andrew  Gray,  on  finding  that  his  force 
amounted  to  1,500  men,  embarked  at  Leith  and  sailed  for 
Holland,  en  route  for  Bohemia,  in  the  Protestant  cause, 
which  was  also  the  cause  of  the  son-in-law  of  the  King 
of  Scotland,  the  cowardly  Elector  Palatine,  and  they  were 
conducted,  by  way  of  Frankfort,  with  the  aid  of  Henry 
Frederick,  Prince  of  Nassau,  to  escape  the  Marquis  of 
Spinola,  who  was  hovering  on  another  route  to  cut  them 
off. 

Though  aware  that  the  Spaniards  and  Germans,  under 
the  Archduke,  tinder  Spinola,  and  others,  were  about  to 
invade  the  Palatinate,  James  VI  remained  strangely 
apathetic.  Thus  the  Protestants  of  Scotland  and  Eng- 


80  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

land  were  indignant  — of  the  former  kingdom  all  the  more 
so  as  the  people  considered  the  good  and  gentle  Princess 
Elizabeth  one  of  themselves.  Thus  Sir  Andrew  Gray, 
though  "  a  ranke  Papist,"  as  he  is  called  by  Calderwood, 
drew  his  sword  in  her  cause. 

Under  Sir  Horace  Vere,  who  had  served  with  distinc- 
tion in  that  desperate  affair  at  Sluys,  when  under  Count 
Wilhelm,  "  the  old  Scots  Regiment  led  the  van  of  battle," 
some  200  English  volunteers  sailed  from  Gravesend  two 
months  after  the  Scots  had  led  the  way,  and  these  com- 
bined British  auxiliaries  joined  a  part  of  the  Bohemian 
army,  consisting  of  10,000  men,  the  Margrave  of  Anspach 
not  having  mustered  his  entire  force. 

In  September  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  Spinola  took 
the  field  to  enforce  the  Imperial  authority ;  and,  in  the 
campaigns  which  ensued,  young  Hepburn,  by  his  own 
valour,  when  in  his  twentieth  year,  became  captain  of  a 
company  of  pikes  in  Sir  Andrew  Gray's  band,  and,  prior 
to  the  fatal  battle  of  Prague,  had  the  special  duty  of 
guarding  the  King  of  Bohemia. 

Among  his  comrades  was  one  named  Edmonds,  son  of  a 
baker  in  Stirling,  who  on  one  occasion,  with  his  sword  in 
his  teeth,  swam  the  Danube,  where  it  was  both  deep  and 
rapid,  stole  past  the  Austrian  lines,  and,  favoured  by  the 
gloom  of  a  dark  night,  penetrated  into  the  heart  of  the 
Imperial  camp.  There,  by  equal  strategy  and  personal 
strength,  he  gagged  and  brought  off  as  prisoner  Charles  de 
Longueville,  the  great  Count  de  Benguoi,  recrossed  the 
stream,  and  presented  him  as  a  prisoner  to  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  then  an  ally  of  the  Elector-King  of  Bohemia. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA.  81 

For  this  deed  he  was  at  once  made  colonel.  He  amassed 
great  wealth  in  these  wars,  and  in  the  decline  of  life 
returned  to  die  in  his  native  town,  where  he  built  a  hand- 
some manse  for  the  parish  minister,  and,  in  memory  of  his 
father,  placed  in  the  eastern  gable  thereof  the  bakers'  arms 
in  stone — three  piels — which  remained  there  till  1710  ;  and 
to  his  daughter,  who  married  Sir  Thomas  Livingstone, 
Bart.,  of  Westquarter,  he  left  a  magnificent  fortune. 
(Douglas  Peerage.} 

This  was,  no  doubt,  the  same  Colonel  Edmonds  who  is 
referred  to  as  serving  at  the  defence  of  Ostende,  eighteen 
years  before.  We  are  told  that  when  the  States-General 
reviewed  the  garrison  the  commands  were  assigned  to 
"  Colonel  Dorp,  a  Dutchman  ;  Colonel  Edmunds,  a  Scots- 
man ;  and  Hertoin,  a  Frenchman  ;  while  Sir  Francis  Vere, 
with  the  former  garrison,  joined  the  army  under  Prince 
Maurice."  (Russell's  Modern  Europe,  vol.  iii.) 

Three  Haigs — Robert,  George,  and  James — sons  of  John 
Haig  of  Beimerside,  served  in  these  wars.  Their  mother, 
Elizabeth  Macdougall  of  Stodrig,  had  been  nurse  to  the 
Princess  Elizabeth  in  Falkland;  and  all  died  in  their 
armour  fighting  for  her  on  the  plains  of  Bohemia. 

By  this  time  the  battle  of  Prague  had  been  fought  on  the 
8th  November,  1620.  There  Gray's  Scots  guarded  the 
King  of  Bohemia  ;  there  the  latter,  in  one  day,  by  his 
kinsman  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  was  stripped  of  the 
Bohemian  crown  and  Electoral  hat,  and  4,000  Bohemians 
were  slain.  Then,  in  grim  earnest,  began  the  terrible 
Thirty  Years'  War;  while  the  timid  Elector  fled  to 
Silesia,  and  finally  to  France — in  his  flight  and  terror 


82  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

leaving  behind  his  queen,  the  Scottish  princess,  who  was 
protected  and  carried  off  on  his  own  horse  by  Ensign 
Hopkin,  a  young  officer  of  pikes,  in  the  band  of  Sir 
Horace  Vere.  She  was  conveyed  by  him  to  Breslau. 
(Memoirs  of  the  Queen  of  Bohemia,  2  vols.) 

In  1622,  under  Colonels  Sir  Andrew  Gray,  Henderson, 
younger  of  Fordel,  Captains  Hepburn  and  Hume,  the 
Scottish  bands  transferred  the  scene  of  their  services  to 
Bergen-op-Zoom,  the  great  fortress  which  bars  the  way  to 
Spanish  Brabant,  and  which  they  defended  with  heroic 
valour  In  the  summer  of  that  year  it  was  invested  by 
Spinola,  who  left  30,000  men  to  keep  the  conquered 
Palatinate  in  awe.  Borgia  attacked  the  fortress  on  the 
north,  Baglioni  on  the  south,  but  the  Scottish  pikemen 
hurled  them  from  the  broaches.  There,  Colonel  Henderson 
was  slain,  and  then  "  old  Morgan  with  his  English  brigade 
gave  them  their  hands  full,  for  it  is  a  great  disadvantage 
for  living  bodies  to  fight  against  dead  walls."  (Atlas 
Ge  .,  1711.)  After  firing  above  200,000  cannon-shot, 
Spinola,  on  the  approach  of  Prince  Maurice,  abandoned 
a  siege  which  had  cost  him  12,000  men. 

The  Protestant  religion  was  now  crushed  in  Bohemia. 
The  Scottish  bands  had  joined  Count  Mansfeldt,  to  keep 
whose  army  out  of  Flanders  Spinola  met  it  in  battle  at 
Fleura,  in  Hainault,  in  August,  1622;  and  though  the  Scots, 
under  Gray,  Hepburn,  Hume,  and  Sir  James  Ramsay, 
evinced  the  greatest  bravery,  the  Spaniards  remained 
masters  of  the  field.  Mansfeldt's  army  fell  to  pieces  in 
the  following  year,  and  the  remnant  of  his  Scots  who  had 
survived  the  war  in  Bohemia  turned  to  seek  another  banner 


THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA.  83 

tinder  Hepburn  and  others.  The  veteran  Sir  Andrew  re- 
turned to  Scotland. 

In  1624  he  was  seeking  military  employment  in  London 
from  King  James  VI.  He  usually  wore  buff  and  armour, 
even  in  time  of  peace  ;  and  the  timid  monarch  never  saw 
the  grim  veteran  without  emotions  of  uneasiness,  for,  in 
addition  to  his  long  sword  and  formidable  dagger,  he 
always  wore  a  pair  of  iron  pistols  in  his  girdle.  On  one 
occasion  the  king,  seeing  him  thus  accoutred,  "  toM  him 
merrily  he  was  now  so  well  fortified  that  if  he  were  but 
well  victualled  he  would  be  impregnable." 

The  year  1634  saw  some  Scots  taking  a  prominent  part 
in  the  fall  of  the  great  Wallenstein.  When  the  daring 
ambition  of  the  latter  led  him  to  think  of  dismembering 
the  great  Empire,  it  was  crushed  when  he  was  spending 
his  Christmas  holidays  in  the  old  Castle  of  Egra,  in 
Bohemia — a  place  then  fortified  by  a  treble  wall.  The 
garrison  was  commanded  by  John  Gordon,  a  Presbyterian, 
a  native  of  Aberdeenshire,  who,  from  being  a  private 
soldier,  had  risen  to  the  colonelcy  of  Tzertzski's  regiment ; 
while  Wallenstein's  private  escort  consisted  of  250  men  of 
James  Butler's  Irish  Regiment,  commanded  by  that  officer 
in  person. 

The  latter,  with  Colonel  Gordon  and  Major  Walter  Leslie, 
son  of  the  laird  of  Balquhain,  in  the  Garioch,  on  receiving 
secret  orders  from  Vienna,  resolved  to  put  the  ambitious 
general  to  death.  The  Scots  were  both  Presbyterians . 
but  Butler,  a  Catholic,  made  some  remarks  expressive  of 
admiration  of  Wallenstein. 

"  You  may  do  as  you  please,"  said  Gordon,  grimly  ;  "  but 

G2 


«4  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

death  itself  can  alone  alienate  me  from  the  duty  and  affec- 
tion I  bear  his  Majesty  the  Emperor." 

Various  modes  of  removing  Wallenstein  were  suggested, 
and  the  last  adopted  was  a  resolution  to  slay  him  and  his 
friends  at  a  banquet  to  which  they  were  invited.  All  the 
avenues  were  blocked  up  by  troops.  The  feast  was  pro- 
tracted to  half-past  ten  at  night,  and  Wallenstein  had 
retired,  when  Colonel  Gordon  filled  a  goblet  with  wine,  and 
proposed  the  health  of  the  cunning  Elector  of  Saxony,  the 
chief  enemy  of  the  Emperor. 

Butler  affected  astonishment,  pretended  high  words 
ensued,  and  while  the  friends  of  the  fated  Wallenstein 
looked  about  them  in  perplexity  the  hall  doors  were 
dashed  in,  and  two  Irishmen,  Geraldine  and  Deveron, 
with  their  armed  soldiers,  rushed  in  with  shouts  of 
"Long  live  Ferdinand  the  Second!"  Then  Butler, 
Gordon,  and  Leslie  seized  up  each  a  candle  and  drew 
their  swords. 

Wallenstein  and  his  friends  snatched  their  weapons,  the 
tables  were  thrown  over,  and  a  deadly  combat  began. 
Defending  himself  in  a  corner,  Colonel  Tzertzski  slew 
three. 

"  Leave  me  for  a  moment,"  he  cried ;  "  leave  me  to  deal 
with  Leslie  and  Gordon  hand-to-hand,  and  then  kill  me; 
but  oh,  Gordon,  what  a  supper  is  this  for  your  friends  !" 

He  was  hew*n  to  pieces,  together  with  the  young  Duke 
of  Lerida  and  others ;  while  Deveron  and  thirty  soldiers 
rushed  to  the  bedchamber  of  Wallenstein,  Duke  of  Fried- 
land  and  Prince  of  the  Vandal  Isles,  who,  finding  escape 
by  the  lofty  window  impossible,  turned  to  face  his 


THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA.  S$ 

destroyers — in  his  shirt,  pale,  defenceless,  for  Schiller  asserts 
that  he  was  disturbed  in  the  study  of  astrology. 

By  one  thmst  of  his  partisan  into  his  heart  the  Irishman 
slew  him,  though  his  soldiers  shrunk  back  appalled ;  and 
then  his  naked  body,  with  those  of  Colonels  Kinkski,  Illo 
Niemann,  and  Tzertzski,  were  carried  through  the  streets 
of  Egra  and  flung  into  a  ditch.  So  perished  the  great 
dictator  of  Germany  ! 

Butler  was  made  a  count,  Deveron  a  colonel,  Gordon 
was  created  a  marquis  of  the  Empire,  colonel-general  of 
the  Imperial  army  and  high  chamberlain  of  Austria; 
while  Leslie,  who  was  then  a  captain  of  the  Bodyguard, 
was  created  Count  Leslie  and  Lord  of  Neustadt,  an  estate 
worth  200,000  florins.  He  died  at  Vienna,  field-marshal, 
governor  of  Sclavonia,  and  Knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece, 
in  1667-8.  There  is  an  engraving  of  him  by  Kilion,  dated 
1637,  which  states  that  he  was  ambassador  from  Austria 
to  the  Sultan  Mahomet  IV.  This  embassy  was  so  mag- 
nificent that  Father  Taffernier,  a  Jesuit,  wrote  a  particular 
account  of  it. 

Butler  bequeathed  £3>300  to  the  Scottish  and  Irish 
colleges  in  Prngue. 

The  famous  Marquis  of  Montrose  was  in  Austria  in  1647 
after  his  defeat  at  Philiphaugh.  In  summer  he  was  in 
Prague  with  the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  who  offered  him  a 
commission  as  marshal,  and  appointed  him  colonel  of  a 
regiment,  with  power  to  appoint  all  the  officers :  but  he 
sec  ms  to  have  declined  this  honour,  and  proceeded  to  the 
Netherlands,  prior  to  raising  the  king's  standard  once  more 
in  Scotland. 


86  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

The  Leslie  who  figured  in  the  Wallenstein  tragedy  on 
his  death  was  succeeded  in  his  titles  and  estates  by  a  son 
of  Count  Patrick  Leslie,  James,  who  gave  timely  succour 
to  Vienna  when  besieged  by  the  Turks,  and  gave  to  the 
flames  the  town  and  wooden  bridge  of  Essek  (amid  the 
marshes  of  Austrian  Slavonia)  when  defended  by  the  Turks, 
for  which  he  was  made  a  privy  councillor  and  president 
of  the  Imperial  Council  of  War. 

Patrick,  Count  Leslie,  twelfth  of  the  line  of  Balquhain, 
was  privy  councillor  to  James  VII,  and  entailed  his  estate 
in  1698.  (Shaw's  Index.) 

Four  counts  of  the  Empire  sprang  from  the  family  of 
Balquhain,  whose  old  castle  of  that  name,  a  noble  square 
keep,  erected  in  1 530,  to  replace  a  more  ancient  fortress 
burned  by  the  Fortresses  in  1526,  still  stands  in  the  Garioch. 
(Aberd.  Coll.,  4to.) 

Some  Scottish  adventurers  took  part  in  the  recapture  of 
Buda  from  the  Turks  in  1636 — among  them,  notably,  Sir 
Arthur  Forbes,  of  the  Corse  family,  first  Earl  Granard,  who 
so  zealously  espoused  the  royal  cause  in  Scotland  ;  George 
Hay,  from  Scotland,  and  "  Lord  Quberry  (sic),  from  Scot- 
land," whose  name  was  referred  to  in  the  recent  Buda  bi- 
centenary. The  last  given  is  some  strange  misspelling,  as 
sent  by  the  charge  d'affaires  to  the  Standard,in  August,  1886. 

In  1735,  John,  eighteenth  Earl  of  Crawford,  joined  the 
Imperial  army  at  Bruschal  on  the  Salzbach.  He  had  pre- 
viously been  in  the  Scots  Greys,  7th  Dragoons,  and  Scots 
Guards ;  but  finding  there  was  no  chance  of  distinction, 
when  the  provincial  prejudices  of  the  English  and  the 
enmity  of  the  court  were  so  high  against  Scotsmen,  he  le- 


THE  SCO  TS  IN  A  US  TRIA .  87 

signed  in  disgust,  and  was  received  with  every  mark  of 
honour  by  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy,  under  whom  Hugh, 
Viscount  Primrose  (of  Rosebery),  and  Captain  Dalrymple 
were  also  serving  as  volunteers.  The  three  served  in  that 
expedition  in  October,  in  which  their  force  was  assailed  by 
thrice  its  numbers,  and  when  the  Count  of  Nassau  was 
slain  and  Primrose  was  severely  wounded  in  the  head. 
The  same  afternoon  was  fought  the  battle  of  Claussen,  in 
which  Lord  Crawford  greatly  distinguished  himself,  and 
the  French  were  driven  across  the  Moselle. 

After  taking  a  term  of  service  with  the  Russian  army, 
under  Count  Munich,  and  shining  on  more  than  one 
occasion  in  single  combat  with  the  Tartar  horsemen,  he 
rejoined  the  Austrians  at  Belgrade,  and  went  to  winter 
quarters  with  Prince  Eugene's  regiment  at  Comorra,  where 
he  employed  himself  till  1739  in  drawing  military  plans. 

Under  Marshal  Wallace  he  was  at  the  battle  of  Krotzka, 
near  Belgrade,  where,  when  leading  a  charge  of  Count 
Palfi's  cuirassiers,  on  the  22nd  July,  1739,  his  favourite 
black  charger  was  shot  under  him,  and  his  left  thigh 
was  shattered  by  a  musket-ball.  General  Count  Luchesie 
now  ordered  some  grenadiers  to  place  him  on  horseback, 
but  they  were  compelled  to  leave  him,  and  the  gallant  earl 
was  found  next  morning  by  his  own  grooms  in  a  deplorable 
condition,  his  face  pale  as  death,  but  his  hands  still  grasp- 
ing the  mane  of  his  dead  charger. 

They  bore  him  to  Belgrade,  but  he  never  fully  recovered 
from  the  effect  of  his  wound,  though  the  bullet  was  ex- 
tracted at  Comorra  on  the  Danube,  to  which  place  he  sailed. 
This  was  in  February,  1740.  Proceeding  up  the  river,  he 


88  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

was  conveyed  to  Vienna,  where  he  arrived  on  the  7th  May, 
still  in  a  recumbent  position,  for  pieces  of  fractured  bone 
were  continually  coming  away. 

He  was  able  to  walk  on  crutches  for  the  first  time  in 
September,  and  removed  to  the  baths  at  Baden,  where  he 
remained  till  August,  1741.  Via  Vienna  and  Hanover  he 
reached  the  fortified  town  of  Hameln  on  the  Weser,  where 
he  chanced  to  have  an  interview  with  George  II,  who  was 
struck  with  his  military  enthusiasm,  and  prevailed 
upon  him  to  resume  his  duties  in  the  British  army,  in 
which,  in  the  July  of  1739,  he  had  been  gazetted  colonel 
and  captain  of  the  Scots  Horse  Grenadier  Guards,  and 
afterwards  to  the  Fourth  or  Scots  Troop  of  Life  Guards — 
all  of  which  he  commanded  in  brigade  at  Dettingen  and 
Fontenoy.  But  he  never  recovered  from  his  wounds 
received  at  Krotzka,  and  died  in  1749,  first  colonel  of  the 
Black  Watch. 


CHAPTER  X. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA— (Concluded.} 

Earl  of  Crawford — Field-Marshal  Baron  London — Generals 
Grant  and  Reid — Colonel  Caldvvell — Counts  Hamilton  and 
Lockhart — Colonels  Stuart  and  Fowler — Baron  Fyfe. 

IN  1742  the  famous  Baron  London  joired  the  Austrian 
service.  Born  in  1716  at  Tootzen,  in  Livonia,  he  was 
descended  from  the  Loudons  of  that  Ilk,  an  important  old 
Ayrshire  family,  a  member  of  whom  settled  in  the  vicinity 
of  Riga,  where  his  bravery  and  achievements  won  him  fiefs 
and  honours,  of  which  his  successors  were  dispossessed  by 
Charles  XII  of  Sweden,  after  the  peace  of  Oliva.  During 
the  reign  of  Charles  XII  the  forfeited  Loudons  betook 
them  again  to  the  sword  ;  one  became  a  captain  in  the 
Royal  Swedish  GuarJs,  and  his  nephew,  Gideon  Ernest 
London,  joined  first,  in  his  fifteenth  year,  the  Russian 
infantry  as  a  cadet,  and  made  his  first  essay  in  arms 
when  the  war  of  the  Double  Election  caused  such  a  stir  in 
Northern  Europe.  He  served  with  the  blockading  force  at 
Dantzig,  and  in  1734  his  regiment  formed  part  of  the  army 
sent  by  the  Empress  Anne  to  spread  terror  in  Germany, 
till  the  peace  of  Vienna  enabled  Count  Munich,  with  Lacy 
and  others,  to  engage  in  barbarous  wars  elsewhere,  and 
in  the  conquest  of  the  Crimea  as  already  detailed.  On  the 
reduction  of  the  army,  Lieutenant  London  offered  Ms 


90  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

services  to  Maria  Theresa,  the  empress- queen,  and  in 
passing  through  Berlin  met  several  Scots  with  whom  he 
had  served  under  Munich,  who  urged  him  to  join  the  King 
of  Prussia.  The  latter  affronted  him  by  some  slighting 
remark,  so  Loudon  took  service  in  Austria,  and  became  in 
future  wars  the  most  formidable  enemy  Prussia  had  met 
in  the  field,  and  to  attempt  to  detail  his  achievements 
would  far  exceed  our  limits. 

He  obtained  a  command  in  Baron  Trenck's  corps  of  Free 
Pandours,  and  was  at  the  storming  of  Rheinmark,  when 
they  put  the  garrison  to  the  sword,  and  the  invasion  of 
Lorraine,  where  terrible  deeds  were  done.  Loudon  in 
disgust  quitted  the  regiment  of  Trenck  and  was  ten  years 
on  garrison  duty  in  Croatia,  where  he  became  colonel  of 
Croats  in  1757,  and  distinguished  himself  at  Hirschfeld,  on 
the  frontiers  of  Bohemia. 

When  in  Croatia  he  spent  much  of  his  *i~ie  in  the  study 
of  geography  and  fortification.  Having  once  obtained  a 
great  map  of  Germany,  he  spread  it  on  the  floor,  and  was 
found  poring  over  it  by  his  wife,  Clara  de  Hagen,  a  Hun- 
garian lady. 

"  My  dear  Major,"  said  she,  "  still,  as  ever,  busy  with 
these  horrid  plans  and  maps." 

"  They  will  be  of  service  to  me,  my  dear  Clara,  when  I 
obtain  the  baton  of  a  field-marshal  of  Austria." 

Then  she  laughed,  for  Loudon  was  then  only  in  his  thirty- 
eighth  year,  and  the  baton  he  referred  to  seemed  remote 
indeed. 

He  served  at  the  battle  of  Rosbach,  and  in  all  the  opera- 
tions of  what  was  known  as  the  "  combined  army"  of  French 


THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA.  91 

and  Austrians,  to  clear  Saxony  of  the  Prussians.  Though 
daily  exposed  to  danger  for  years,  a  bullet-wound  received 
at  Zalern  was  the  only  one  suffered  by  London  in  his  long 
and  arduous  career. 

In  May,  Frederick  invested  Olmutz,  which  was  defended 
by  General  Marshal,  a  Scotsman,  while  Loudon  with 
Count  Daun  cut  off  the  Prussian  supplies.  The  siege  was 
pressed  by  Marshal  Keith,  and  Loudon  was  made 
lieutenant- field-marshal  and  Knight  of  Maria  Theresa; 
but  the  siege,  as  we  have  told  elsewhere,  was  abandoned, 
and  Frederick  had  to  oppose  the  Russians  under  Generals 
Brown  and  Fermor,  two  Scotsmen,  whom  he  ultimately 
drove  into  Poland. 

Loudon,  now  a  baron,  proved  one  of  the  most  famous 
leaders  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  the  Count  de  Wallace 
was  colonel  of  his  special  regiment,  the  Loudon  Fusiliers, 
which  they  both  led  at  the  storming  of  Schwednitz  in  1761. 
Previous  to  the  attack  he  promised  the  stormers  100,000 
florins  to  take  the  place  without  pillage. 

"No,  no!"  cried  the  Walloon  grenadiers;  "lead  on, 
Father  Loudon  ;  we  shall  follow  to  glory,  but  take  no 
money  from  you." 

Then  Count  Wallace,  colonel  of  the  Loudon  Fusiliers, 
after  being  twice  repulsed  by  two  battalions  of  the  regi- 
ment of  Treskow,  said  : 

"  I  must  win  or  die  !  /  promised  Loudon — remember  our 
regiment  bears  his  name,  and  must  conquer  or  perish  !" 

He  again  led  them  on,  and  the  place  was  won. 

In  this  war  one  Austrian  column  under  Loudon  was 
led  by  a  General  Grant,  another  of  Prussians  under  Fred- 


92  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

erick  was  led  by  General  Read,  also  a  Scotsman  (see 
Smollett's  Hist.,  vol.  vii,  etc.)-  At  Schwednitz  there  fell 
Colonel  Hume  Caldwell  (of  an  old  Ayrshire  stock)  in  his 
27th  year  Tn  1769  he  was  Aulic  Councillor  of  War  and 
general  c«  »mtnanding  in  Moravia. 

In  1778  London  was  full  marshal  of  the  Empire,  and 
ten  years  after  led  the  armies  along  the  frontiers  of 
Croatia  and  Bosnia  till  he  captured  Belgrade.  Tn  the 
Edinburgh  Advertiser  for  September  19,  1788,  we  have  the 
following  : 

"  On  the  16th  August  the  emperor  arrived  at  Panczova 
with  a  detachment  of  40,000  men  from  the  main  army. 
On  reaching  Jabuka  he  ordered  the  troops  to  halt,  and  made 
a  short  harangue,  exhorting  them  to  persevere  to  the  last 
in  the  glorious  cause  they  had  undertaken  to  defend.  On 
this  occasion  the  troops,  with  shouts  of  patriotic  joy, 
assured  his  Majesty  they  would  perish  to  a  man  rather 
than  lay  down  their  arms  till  the  House  of  Austria  was 
restored  to  its  just  rights.  On  the  17th  the  army  marched 
in  three  columns  for  Cubin. 

"  General  Loudon  took  command  of  the  Imperial  army 
from  General  de  Yins  on  the  18th  August,  and  on  the 
following  days  the  Turks  made  attempts  to  force  the  lines, 
but  were  saluted  with  so  heavy  a  fire  as  to  oblige  them  to 
desist,  leaving  behind  them  20  men  and  25  horses  killed." 

In  1790  he  died  in  the  midst  of  his  fame — the  greatest 
general  of  the  eighteenth  century — and  was  buried  at  his 
estate  of  Haderdorf  in  a  marble  sarcophagus  he  had  brought 
from  Belgrade. 

"  Therein  he  now  lies  in  peace,  shaded  by  some  stately 


THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA.  93 

old  trees,  in  tbe  centre  of  a  green  meadow.  His  funeral 
monument,  which  is  one  of  great  magnificence,  is  securely 
walled  round,  and  among  the  sculpture  with  which  the 
Austrian  government  adorned  it  can  still  re  traced  the 
shield  argent  charged  with  three  escutcheons  sable,  the  old 
heraldic  cognisance  which  the  Loudons  of  that  Ilk  bore  on 
their  pennons  in  the  wars  of  the  Scottish  kings." 

In  1746  an  Austrian  squadron,  consisting  of  eleven  sail, 
under  a  Scottish  Captain  Forbes,  was  active  in  the  opera- 
tions of  the  war  under  Maria  Theresa,  and  when  the  Irish 
Count  Brown  at  Nice  was  waiting  with  the  King  of  Sar- 
dinia in  consultation  as  to  their  combined  operations,  Forbes 
brought  over  the  whole  Austrian  artilleiy  from  Genoa  for 
the  bombardment  and  capture  of  Mont  Albano;  and  in 
these  wars  Sir  William  Gordon  of  Park,  in  Banfishire,  who 
had  escaped  after  Culloden,  and  been  lieutenant-colonel 
in  Lord  Ogilvie's  regiment,  for  his  services  to  the  Emperor 
of  Germany,  and  perhaps  influenced  by  the  fact  that  Sir 
William's  mother  was  the  widow  of  George,  Count  Leslie 
of  Balquhain — won  for  him  and  his  heirs  the  rank  of 
first-class  nobes  in  Hungary.  (BurTte.)  He  died  at  Douay, 
1751. 

Regarding  the  count's  family,  the  Edinburgh  Courant  for 
1761  records  the  following: 

"The  appeal  of  Charles  Cajetan,  Count  Leslie,  and 
Antonio,  Count  Leslie,  his  son,  relative  to  the  estate  of 
Balquhain,  determined  by  the  House  (of  Peers)  in  favour 
of  Mr.  Grant,  complained  of  two  interlocutors  of  the  Court 
of  Session  repelling  certain  objections  on  the  part  of  these 
German  counts  against  the  proof  led  at  Vienna  by  the  said 


94  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Peter  Leslie  Grant,  of  the  place  of  their  birth  and  religion, 
importing  that,  being  aliens  and  Roman  Catholics,  they 
could  not  succeed  by  the  laws  of  this  country  to  any 
heritage,  but  that  the  same  does,  of  course,  descend  to  the 
next  Protestant  heir." 

In  the  middle  of  the  last  century  Anthony,  Count  Hamil- 
ton, was  lieutenant-general  and  captain-lieutenant  of  the 
noble  German  Guard  of  the  Empire,  grand  bailie,  minister 
plenipotentiary,  privy-councillor,  and  receiver  of  the 
Order  of  the  Knights  of  Malta.  He  died  at  Vienna,  24th 
March,  17P/6. 

Twenty-six  years  afterwards  there  died  an  Austrian-Scot 
of  great  note  in  those  days,  James  Lock  hart  Wishart  of 
Lee  and  Carnwath,  whose  monument,  erected  near  Mount 
Marl,  on  his  estate  of  Dryden,  at  Lasswade,  records  that 
he  was  "  Lord  of  the  Bedchamber  to  his  Imperial  Majesty 
Joseph  II,  Emperor  of  Germany,  Knight  of  the  Order  of 
Maria  Theresa,  Count  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  and 
General  of  the  Imperial,  Royal,  and  Apostolic  Armies. 
Died  at  Pisa,  6th  February  MDCCXC,  in  the  LXIV.  year  of  his 
age."  His  uncle,  Captain  Philip  Lockhart,  was  taken 
prisoner  at  Preston  in  1715,  and  barbarously  shot  in  coJd 
blood  by  the  troops  of  General  Willis.  Count  Lockhart 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  Charles,  a  minor ;  but  Dryden 
since  then  has  passed  to  other  families. 

In  1799,  when  Vienna  was  menaced  by  the  French,  but 
saved  from  impending  peril  by  the  Treaty  of  Leoben, 
the  citadel  was  garrisoned  by  two  strong  battalions  of  the 
regiment  of  Stuart,  of  whom  we  know  only  the  name, 
unless  we  can  connect  him  with  the  noble  family  of  Rohen- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  AUSTRIA.  95 

start.  There  died  at  Dunkeld  of  the  effects  of  a  mail- 
coach  accident,  28th  October,  1854,  Charles  Edward  Stuart, 
Count  Rohenstart,  a  general  in  the  Austrian  army,  in  his 
73rd  year. 

In  1809  a  Scottish  officer,  General  Fowler,  who  was 
equerry  to  the  empress,  was  wounded  severely  and  taken 
prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Wagram  by  the  French  on  the 
6th  of  July ;  and  in  1826  Baron  John  Fyfe,  a  native  of 
Edinburgh,  of  whom  we  know  only  the  name,  died  at  Vienna 
far  advanced  in  years. 

There  was  also  Colonel  Graham  (a  brother  of  Gartmore), 
who  lived — and,  we  believe,  died — in  St.  Bernard's  Crescent, 
Edinburgh,  who  in  1854  was  a  marshal-de-camp  in  the 
Austrian  army,  and  had  a  horse  shot  under  him  in  the  war 
against  Kossuth  and  other  Hungarian  patriots.  He  was 
a  Knight  of  the  Order  of  Maria  Theresa. 

In  1779  Joseph,  Count  Murray  of  Melgum  and  Bart,  of 
Nova  Scotia,  was  counsellor  of  state,  lieutenant-geneial 
of  the  armies  of  the  emperor,  general- commandant  and 
captain-general  of  the  Low  Countries. 

In  that  year  his  daughter  Theresa  was  married  at 
Brussels  to  James,  seventh  Earl  of  Findlater  and  fourth 
Earl  of  Seafield.  (Wood's  Douglas,  fol.) 

Count  Joseph's  son,  Albert,  born,  in  1774,  married 
the  Countess  Almeria  Esterhazy  von  Galantha,  and  the 
family  still  exists  in  Austria. 

All  these  instances  serve  to  show  how  our  people  won, 
by  their  worth,  their  probity,  and  valour,  high  honours, 
which,  by  adverse  influence  and  political  events,  were  deuied 
them  in  the  land  of  their  forefathers. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    SCOTS    IN    ITALY. 

Story  of  the  Scotti — James  Crich ton— Scots  in  Venice — Curious 
Charter — Graham  of  Buchlyvie — The  Wauchopes  and  Lord 
Drumlanrig  in  Sardinia,  etc. 

DIFFERENCE  of  religion  in  latter  times  doubtless  prevented 
the  Scottish  Soldier  of  Fortune  from  seeking  service  in 
Italy  as  elsewhere  ;  yet  in  the  States  thereof  a  few  rose  to 
eminence.  The  statement  made  by  Sir  Robert  Douglas 
in  his  Peerage,  on  the  authority  of  Fordoun  and  others, 
that  about  the  year  800  the  King  of  Scotland  sent  his 
brother  William,  with  a  William  Douglas,  to  aid  the 
Lombards — that  the  former  was  known  as  William  the 
Scot,  and  the  latter  founded  the  Scoti-Douglassi  in  Italy  ; 
and,  further,  the  statements  to  the  same  effect  by  Godscroft 
in  his  folio  History  of  the  Douglasses  that  they  became 
the  head  of  the  Guelphs  in  Placentia,  and  so  forth,  seem 
utterly  fabulous ;  and  yet  the  story  is  strangely  endorsed 
by  one  or  two  writers,  from  whom  we  give  quotations  for 
what  they  are  worth. 

Of  these  Scot?  are  also  said  to  be  descended  Francesco 
Scotto  or  Scotti,  an  Italian  engraver,  born  at  Florence 
about  1760;  Girolavao  Scotto  or  Scotti,  also  a  celebrated 
engraver,  born  in  1780;  Stephano  Scotto,  a  Milanese 
painter,  who  flourished  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  begin- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  ITAL  Y.  97 

ning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries.     (See  Bryant's  Diet,  of 
Painters,  etc.} 

Citing  a  work  called  Memoire  de  Piacenza,  the  author  of 
Italy  and  the  Italian  Island  (3  vols.,  1841)  tells  us  that 
"  Piacenza  presents  nothing  that  interests  us  so  much  as 
the  memoirs  of  that  family  of  Scotti,  who  from  the  position 
of  wealthy  citizens  rose  in  the  latter  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century  to  be  its  absolute  lords  by  a  cautious  progress 
which  one  is  almost  tempted  to  consider  nationally  charac- 
teristic. For  although  we  may  be  allowed  to  smile  at  the 
invented  genealogy  which  claimed  for  them  a  descent  from 
an  Earl  Douglas,  brother  of  the  Scottish  King  Achaius, 
and  companion  in  arms  of  Charlemagne,  yet  the  common 
opinion  here  is  that  their  founders  in  Italy  were  really 
adventurers  belonging  to  the  border  clan  of  Scott." 

Another  writer,  A.  F.  Drane,  writing  in  1880,  says  : — 
"In  Genoa,  St.  Catherine  of  Sienna  and  her  party  were 
entertained  for  a  month  by  a  noble  lady  named  Orietta 
Scotta,  one  of  Scottish  origin  settled  in  Italy,  temp,  of 
Charlemagne,  when  two  brothers,  Arnico  and  Gabriel,  sons 
of  William  Scott,  came  to  Genoa  in  1120,  and  were  given 
command  of  the  Genoese  troops.  From  Baldwin,  son  of 
Arnico,  descended  Barnabo,  the  husband  of  the  Saint's 
hostess.  The  Scotti  afterwards  assumed  the  name  and 
arms  of  the  Centurioni."  (Life  of  St.  Catherine.} 

The  story  of  these  Italian  Scotti  is  referred  to  by  Gods- 
croft  elsewhere,  when  he  states  that  in  1619  two  of  them, 
named  Peter  and  Corneilius,  who  had  settled  in  Antwerp, 
sent  in  that  year  (when  challenged  by  the  burgomaster  for 
putting  the  Douglas  arms  on  their  father's  tomb)  Alexander 

H 


98  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Seaton  to  William,  Earl  of  Angus,  "  acknowledging  their 
descent  from  his  house,  and  entreating  his  testimonial 
thereupon,"  with  a  great  deal  more  to  the  same  purpose, 
including  a  long  letter  in  old  Italian  from  Marc  Antonio 
Scoto,  Marquis  d'Agazono,  dated  1622,  to  the  same  earl, 
with  his  family  tree. 

Some  30  years  before  that  period  a  Captain  James  Scott 
is  recorded  to  have  fought  valiantly  in  the  wars  of  Lom- 
bardy,  particularly  at  the  battle  of  Marignano,  fought 
between  the  Swiss,  the  Duke  of  Milan,  and  Francis  I,  in 
1515.  (Lives  of  the  Queens  of  Scotland.) 

To  come  to  more  solid  ground,  we  find  John  Wemyss, 
second  son  of  Sir  John  XXI  of  Weymss  and  that  ilk,  went 
to  the  wars  in  Lombardy  about  1547,  and  married  a  lady 
of  rank  and  fortune  in  Brescia,  and  from  him  are  descended 
the  Counts  Wemyss  and  other  families  of  that  surname  in 
Italy  (Douglas  Peerage) ;  and  it  was  in  1583  that  James 
Crichton,  younger  of  Elliock,  so  well  known  as  "  The 
Admirable  Crichton,"  was  basely  murdered  at  Mantua. 

Born  in  Cluiiy  Castle,  Perthshire,  1560-1,  he  was  M.A. 
in  his  fourteenth  year,  and  rapidly  became  the  first  swords- 
man, tilter,  dancer,  and,  what  was  then  more  than  all,  the 
first  scholar  of  his  age,  with  a  knowledge  of  twelve 
languages.  His  history  is  too  well  known  to  need  rehearsal 
here.  Suffice  it  that,  dazzled  by  his  achievements  with 
sword  and  pen,  the  Duke  of  Mantua  appointed  him  tutor 
to  his  son,  Vincentio  di  Gonzago,  a  prince  of  turbulent  and 
licentious  character,  for  whose  amusement  he  composed  a 
comedy  containing  fifteen  characters,  all  personated  by 
himself.  But  one  night  during  the  carnival  in  1283,  while 


THE  SCOTS  IN  ITALY.  99 

rambling  through    the   streets  with    his    guitar,  he   was 
attacked  by  several  masked  and  armed  men. 

One  of  these  he  disarmed  with  his  characteristic  facility ; 
the  rest  he  put  to  flight.  On  discovering  that  their  captain, 
who  begged  for  life,  was  the  prince,  his  pupil,  he  knelt  and 
presented  him  with  his  sword,  which  the  villain  instantly 
plunged  into  Crichton's  body,  inflamed,  it  is  supposed,  by 
rage  and  jealousy,  slaying  him  upon  the  spot. 

Kipps,  an  Englishman,  was  the  first,  of  course,  to  call  in 
question  the  many  marvellous  stories  related  of  him ;  but 
his  life  by  Tytler  proved  the  truth  of  them  all ;  and  apar 
from  that,  a  book  printed  at  Venice  in  1580,  "  for  the 
Brothers  Dom.  and  Grio.  Batt  Oruerra,"  when  Crichton 
was  in  his  twentieth  year  (referred  to  in  the  Scottish 
Journal  of  Antiquities),  further  proves  all  that  has  been 
attributed  to  him,  and  adds  that,  "  a  soldier  at  all  points, 
he  served  two  years  with  distinction  in  the  French  wars ; 
unrivalled  in  the  dance  and  all  feats  of  activity  ;  most 
dexterous  in  the  use  of  arms  of  every  description,  in  horse- 
manship and  tilting  at  the  ring." 

In  Wishart's  translation  of  Castruccio  Bonamici's  Com- 
mentaries on  the  late  War  in  Italy,  an  unknown  Scottish 
recluse,  about  1640,  is  thus  referred  to  by  the  writer,  an 
officer  of  the  regiment  of  Catalonian  Horse.  "  That  part 
of  the  Appenines  lying  between  Modena  and  Lucca  goes  at 
present  by  the  name  of  Monte  di  San  Pelegrino,  or  the 
Foreigner's  Mountain,  a  Scottish  nobleman  of  the  first  rank 
having,  according  to  tradition,  lived  there  a  solitary  and 
austere  life  for  many  years." 

Sir  James  Scott  of  Rossie  gained,  about  1640,  a  high 

H  2 


i  oo  THE  SCO  TTISH  SO  L  DIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

reputation  in  the  service  of  the  Venetian  Republic,  when 
fighting  with  the  Capelliti  against  the  Germans,  and  was 
highly  esteemed  by  the  Doge  Nicola  Contarini.  In  1644 
he  was  in  the  army  of  Montrose,  and  led  the  left  wing  at 
the  battle  of  Tippermuir.  By  1650  his  chief  patrimony  of 
Rossie  was  the  property  of  the  laird  of  Inchture.  (Rentall 
Boole  of  Perthshire,  1654.) 

He  must  have  been  dead  before  1653,  as  Sir  Eobert 
Montgomerie,  Bart.,  of  Skelmorlie,  married  in  that  year 
Anne  his  "  second  daughter  and  co-heiress  by  Antonia 
Willobie  his  spouse."  (JEglinton  Memorials.) 

He  is  probably  one  of  the  same  family,  was  in  the  sea 
service  of  the  same  Republic  in  1645,  and  of  whom  we 
might  have  a  better  account  than  the  brief  one  given  in  a 
MS.  in  the  Advocates'  Library.  A  certain  James  Scott, 
it  appears,  built  a  vessel  in  the  north  of  Scotland,  described 
as  of  "  prodigious  bigness,"  and  sailed  with  her  to  the 
Straits.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  brother,  thus  men- 
tioned : — "  William  Scott  was  made  a  colonel  at  Venice, 
and  his  martial  achievements  in  defence  of  that  state 
against  the  Turks  may  well  admit  him  to  be  ranked  amongst 
our  worthies.  He  became  vice-admiral  of  the  Venetian 
fleet,  and  the  bane  and  terror  of  the  Mussulman  navigators. 
Whether  they  had  galleons,  galleys,  galliasses,  or  great 
warships,  it  was  all  one  to  him.  He  set  upon  them  all 
alike,  saying  the  more  there  were  the  more  he  would  kill, 
and  the  stronger  the  encounter  should  be,  the  greater  should 
be  his  honour  and  the  richer  his  prize.  He  oftentimes  so 
swept  the  Archipelago  of  the  Mussulmans  that  the  Otto- 
man Power  and  the  very  gates  of  Constantinople  would 


THE  SCOTS  IN  ITALY.  101 

quake  at  the  report  of  his  victories ;  and  he  did  so  ferret 
them  out  of  all  the  creeks  in  the  Adriatic  Gulf,  that  they 
hardly  knew  in  what  part  of  the  Mediterranean  they  should 
best  shelter  themselves  from  the  fury  of  his  blows.  He 
died  in  his  bed  of  a  fever  in  the  Isle  of  Candia  in  1652. 
He  was  truly  the  glory  of  his  nation  and  country,  and  was 
honoured  after  his  death  by  a  statue  of  marble,  which  I 
saw  near  the  Rialto  of  Venice  in  1659." 

Evelyn,  in  his  diary  about  1646,  gives  us  an  interesting 
account  of  a  Scottish  colonel,  who  had  a  high,  if  not  the 
chief,  command  in  Milan,  who,  hearing  him  and  a  friend 
speaking  English  near  the  cathedral,  sent  his  servant  to 
invite  them  to  dinner  next  day. 

Thither  they  went,  and  found  the  cavaliero  residing  in 
a  noble  palace,  where  he  had  other  guests,  "  all  soldiers, 
one  a  Scotsman,"  to  meet  them,  and  said  that,  discovering 
they  were  English,  he  invited  them  to  his  house  that  they 
might  be  free  from  suspicion  by  the  Inquisition.  They  had 
a  sumptuous  repast  and  plenty  of  tempting  wine,  after 
which  he  took  them  into  a  hall  hung  with  splendid  arms, 
many  of  them  trophies  taken  with  his  own  hand  from  the 
enemy.  He  bestowed  a  pair  of  fine  pistols  on  Captain 
Wray,  and  on  the  latter's  friend,  Evelyn,  "a  Turkish 
bridle,  woven  with  silk,  curiously  embossed  with  other  silk 
trappings,  to  which  hung  a  halfe-moone  finely  wrought, 
which  he  had  taken  from  a  basshaw  he  had  slain.  With 
this  glorious  spoil  I  rode  to  Paris,  and  after  brought  it  to 
England."  But  these  English  visitors  seemed  not  even  to 
have  asked  the  name  of  their  generous  host,  who  was 
killed  next  day,  being  thrown  against  a  wall  by  a  very 


102  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

spirited  horse  he  was  showing  off  for  their  amusement,  in 
defiance  of  the  advice  of  his  groom  and  page. 

"  This  sad  disaster,"  Evelyn  adds,  l<  made  us  consult 
about  our  departure  as  soon  as  we  could,  not  knowing  how 
soon  we  might  be  inquired  after,  or  engaged,  the  Inquisition 
being  so  cruelly  formidable  and  inevitable  on  the  least  sus- 
picion. The  next  morning,  therefore,  discharging  our 
lodgings,  we  agreed  for  a  coach  to  carry  us  to  the  foot  ot 
the  Alpes,  not  a  little  concerned  for  the  death  of  the  colonel 
who  had  so  courteously  entertained  us." 

Elsewhere  he  refers  to  a  now  unknown  Scottish  artist 
named  Wright,  "  esteemed  a  good  painter,"  and  long  resi- 
dent in  Rome,  and  from  whose  brush  came  some  pieces, 
afterwards  to  decorate  Whitehall,  etc.,  and  whose  best 
portraits  were  those  of  Lacy,  the  comedian,  as  a  cavalier  or 
Presbyterian  minister,  "  and  a  Scotch  Highlander  in  his 
plaid." 

In  1681  a  singularly  grave  and  yet  grotesque  warrant  at 
considerable  length  was  granted  by  Charles  II  in  favour  of 
Don  Rostaino  Cantelmi,  Duke  of  Populi  and  Prince  ot 
Pettorano,  a  Neapolitan  town  on  a  mountain  near  Sulmona, 
and  his  brother,  also  Duke  di  Populi,  proving  their  descent 
from  the  kings  and  queens  of  Scotland  "  by  a  continued 
pedigree  of  about  330  years  before  the  Incarnation  of  our 
blessed  Lord  to  this  time — given  at  our  Court  at  Windsor 
Castle  the  25th  day  of  August,  1681,  and  of  our  reign  the 
33rd  year.  By  his  Majesty's  command — MORRAY." 

This  is  the  signature  of  Alexander,  sixth  Earl  of  Moray, 
then  Secretary  of  State  for  Scotland  ;  but  no  trace  can  be 
found  of  any  parliamentary  ratification  at  Edinburgh  of 


THE  SCO  TS  IN  ITAL  Y.  103 

this  singular  document  deducing  the  prince's  pedigree 
from  Fergus  I,  but  it  is  fully  referred  to  by  Litta  in  his 
Genealogies  of  Illustrious  Italian  families,  "  and  is,"  says  a 
writer,  "  for  its  absurdity,  quite  unique-" 

In  1767  Genera]  Graham,  younger  of  Buchlyvie,  in 
Stirlingshire,  died  at  Venice  in  command  of  the  forces  of 
the  Republic.  He  was  a  kinsman  of  the  Duke  of  Montrose, 
and  brother  of  James  Graham  of  Buchlyvie,  one  of  the 
commissaries  of  Edinburgh.  He  had  been  formerly  in 
the  Dutch  service,  but  in  1755  entered  that  of  the  Venetians. 
On  the  day  after  his  death,  Sir  James  Wright,  our  Resi- 
dent, and  all  the  British  subjects  in  Venice  attended  his 
funeral.  The  senators  sent  "  a  complimentary  decree  to 
his  family,"  and  ordered  a  bust  of  him  to  be  placed  in  the 
arsenal.  (Scots  Mag.,  xxix.) 

In  that  useless  and  destructive  war  in  which  George  I 
involved  Britain  for  the  defence  of  his  beloved  Hanover, 
two  of  the  Wauchopes  of  Niddry-Marshal  figured  by  land 
and  sea  in  the  Sardinian  service. 

In  the  fight  off  Cape  Passaro,  in  Sicily,  in  1718,  in  the 
Spanish  fleet  which  encountered  that  of  Sir  George  Byng, 
the  St.  Francis  Arves  of  22  guns  and  100  men  was  com- 
manded by  one  of  the  family,  who,  in  Lediard's  list  (Naval 
Hist.,  1735],  is  simply  called  "  Andrew  Wacup,  a  Scotch- 
man" ;  but  he  fought  his  way  through  the  British  fleet, 
and  his  ship  was  one  of  the  very  few  that  escaped  an 
action  in  which  twelve  Spanish  ships  were  taken  or  burnt. 
(Schoraberg,  etc.] 

In  the  following  year  there  died  of  fever,  in  the  camp  of 
Raiidazzo,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Etna  in  Sicily,  Andrew, 


104          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

son  of  Sir  George  Seton  of  Garleton,  a  sub-lieutenant  in 
the  regiment  of  Irlanda,  lato  that  of  Wauchope  of  Niddry- 
Marshal.  (Salmon's  Chron.,  etc.) 

The  latter,  with  his  brother  John,  were  both  generals  in 
the  Spanish  army,  which  was  then  attempting  to  master 
the  Austrian  dominions  in  Italy,  and  he  was  governor  of 
Cagliari,  the  principal  town  in  Sardinia. 

Among  the  Scotsmen  in  the  army  of  Charles  Ema- 
nuel  III,  King  of  Sardinia,  were  General  Paterson,  who 
held  a  high  command  at  Turin,  and  Henry,  Earl  of  Drum- 
lanrig,  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  who  received 
,£20,000  for  his  share  in  achieving  the  Union. 

After  serving  two  campaigns  under  the  Earl  of  Stair,  he 
entered  the  Sardinian  army,  with  which  he  served  in  three 
campaigns  under  Charles  Emanuel  III,  who  was  enlarg- 
ing his  territories  by  alliances  with  France,  Spain,  and 
Austria.  The  earl  gave  proofs  of  a  high  military  genius, 
particularly  at  the  siege  of  Coni,  a  fortified  city  in  Pied- 
mont, in  consequence  of  which  his  Sardinian  Majesty 
desired  his  ambassador  at  the  British  court  to  wait  upon 
the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  and  return  him  thanks  for  the 
services  of  his  son  in  course  of  that  protracted  war. 

He  left  the  Sardinian  army  in  1747  for  that  of  the 
States  of  Holland,  for  whom  he  raised  a  Scottish  regiment ; 
and  seventeen  years  afterwards — in  1764 — General  Pater- 
son  qnitted  his  command  at  Turin  and  came  home  to  die 
in  Edinburgh. 

Here  it  may  not  be  without  interest  to  remark  that, 
when  Cardinal  York  died  in  1807,  the  representation  of  the 
royal  line  of  Stuart  became  vested  in  the  King  of  Sardinia, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  ITALY.  105 

eldest  son  of  Victor  Amadeus  III,  grandson  of  Victor 
Amadens,  King  of  Sardinia,  by  Anne  his  wife,  daughter  of 
Henrietta,  Duchess  of  Orleans,  daughter  of  Charles  I, 
King  of  Scotland  and  England,  as  the  nearest  heir  of  line 
to  the  British  throue. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   SCOTS  IN   THE  LAND   OF  THE 
TUKBAN. 

The  Thistle  at  Damascus— "  Bothwell  Bank"— Heart  of 
James  I — A  Campbell  among  the  Turks — Adventures  of 
Thomas  Keith,  Aga  of  the  Mamelukes — "  Osman "  the 
Drummer — Four  Scots  Pashas. 

IN  that  scarce  and  quaint  topographical  work,  the  Atlas  Geo- 
graphicus,  we  are  told  that  there  was  to  be  seen  in  1712,  in  a 
tower  of  the  city  wall  of  Damascus,  near  the  gate  of 
St.  Paul,  two  fleurs-de-lys  and  two  lions  carved  in  stone, 
"  and  near  each  of  them  a  great  thistle.  This  was  probably  in 
honour  of  some  Scottish  princes  who  went  with  the 
French  to  the  Holy  Land.  From  hence  some  think  the 
French  built  the  tower,  but  we  rather  believe  that  the 
Turks  brought  the  stones  from  some  other  place  once 
possessed  by  the  French." 

We  give  this  story  for  what  it  is  worth.  The  thistle 
may  have  been  a  relic  of  the  Scottish  crusaders  (of  whom 
we  may  be  tempted  to  take  note  at  another  time),  though 
Bowring  and  other  travellers  do  not  mention  it ;  but  a  more 
interesting  anecdote,  Scoto- Syrian,  is  one  connected  with 
the  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  related  by  Richard  Yerstegan, 
in  his  Restitution  of  Decayed  Intelligence,  Antwerp,  1673, 
12mo,  in  the  chapter  on  the  "  Surnames  of  Ancient 
Families,"  and  which  we  give  in  his  own  words  : — 


THE  SCOTS  IN  THE  LAND  OF  THE  TURBAN.      107 

"  So  it  fell  out  of  late  years  that  an  English  gentleman 
travelling  in  Palestine,  not  far  from  Jerusalem,  as  be  passed 
through  a  country  town  heard  by  chance  a  woman  sitting 
at  the  door  dandling  her  child  to  sing, 

"  O  Bothwell  Bank,  thou  bloomest  fair." 

The  gentleman  hereat  exceedingly  wondered,  and  forth- 
with in  English  saluted  the  woman,  who  joyfully  answered 
him,  and  said  she  was  right  glad  to  see  a  gentleman 
of  our  isle ;  and  told  him  she  was  a  Scotchwoman,  and 
came  first  from  Scotland  to  Venice,  and  from  Venice 
thither,  where  her  fortune  was  to  be  the  wife  of  an  officer 
under  the  Turk,  who  being  at  that  instant  absent,  and  might 
soon  return,  she  entreated  the  gentleman  to  stay,  the  which 
he  did ;  and  she,  for  country's  sake,  to  show  herself  more 
kind  and  bountiful  to  him,  told  her  husband  at  his  home- 
coming that  the  gentleman  was  her  kinsman,  whereupon 
her  husband  entertained  him,  and  at  his  departure  gave 
him  divers  things  of  good  value." 

From  the  Exchequer  Eolls  of  Scotland  we  learn  that 
the  heart  of  James  I,  in  1437,  was  removed  from  his  body, 
like  that  of  Robert  I,  and  taken  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
East — a  journey  of  which  no  details  are  given  beyond  the 
payment  of  £90  "to  a  certain  knight  of  the  Order  of 
iSt.  John  of  Jerusalem  for  bringing  (back)  the  heart  of  the 
illustrious  prince  of  blessed  memory,  James,  the  late  King 
of  Scotland,  from  Rhodes  to  the  Carthusian  monastery  near 
the  burgh  of  Perth,  where  the  body  of  the  said  prince  is 
buried."  Although  the  return  of  the  king's  heart  is  thus 
chronicled,  we  are  left  in  ignorance  of  the  nature  and  com- 


io8  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FOKTU.VE. 

position  of  the  expedition  with  which  it  was  sent  from 
Scotland  to  Palestine. 

From  this  date  to  the  last  year  of  the  nineteenth  century 
seems  somewhat  of  a  leap ;  but  we  read  that  in  1800,  when 
the  government  sent  an  army  under  Abercrombie  to  expel 
the  French  from  Egypt,  in  the  last  days  of  December, 
when,  with  other  troops,  the  92nd  Highlanders  at  Marmorice 
Bay  were  waiting  reinforcements  from  the  Turks,  among 
the  latter  who  came  particularly  to  see  the  former  was  an 
Osmanli  officer  of  stately  and  dignified  appearance. 

He  proved  to  be  a  gentleman  named  Campbell,  from 
Kintyre,  who,  early  in  life,  had  been  so  affected  by  the 
death  of  a  friend  whom  he  had  killed  in  a  sudden  quarrel 
near  Fort- William,  that  he  had  wandered  abroad,  and 
ultimately  joined  the  Turkish  army,  in  which  he  had  risen 
to  be  a  general  of  artillery  under  the  Sultan  Selim.  "  When 
he  saw  our  men  in  the  dress  to  which  he  had  been  accus- 
tomed in  his  youth,  and  heard  the  bagpipes  playing,"  says 
the  Caledonian  Mercury,  "  the  remembrance  of  former 
years,  and  of  his  country,  so  affected  him  that  he  burst  into 
tears.  The  astonishment  of  the  soldiers  may  be  imagined 
when  they  were  addressed  in  their  own  language — the 
Gaelic,  which  he  had  not  forgotten — by  a  turbaned  Turk 
in  full  costume,  with  a  white  beard  flowing  down  to  his 
middle." 

He  sent  off  several  boat-loads  of  fruit  to  the  Gordon 
Highlanders,  of  whose  colonel,  the  gallant  John  Cameron 
of  Fassifern,  he  made  several  inquiries  about  relations  who 
were  then  living  at  Campbelton.  "  They  entered  into 
correspondence  with  him,"  says  the  Rev.  Mr.  Clerk  in  his 


THE  SCOTS  IN  THE  LAND  OF  THE  TURBAN.      109 

privately  printed  memoir  of  Cameron,  "  but  we  have  not 
learned  what  was  the  close  of  his  career,  whether  he  re- 
visited his  native  land  or  died  in  his  adopted  country." 

We  now  come  to  the  story  of  one  whose  adventures,  if 
related  at  length,  would  surpass  any  romance  ever  written, 
that  of  Thomas  Keith,  who  became  the  last  Aga  of  the 
Mamelukes  and  governor  of  Medina — Medinet-el-Ndbi  —  (or 
the  city  of  the  prophet),  yet  whose  name  is  utterly  unknown 
in  his  own  country  ! 

Thomas  Keith,  a  record  of  whose  service  was  furnished 
to  us  by  the  War  Office,  was  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  where 
he  served  his  apprenticeship  to  a  gunsmith  be  fore  ne  enlisted, 
on  the  4th  of  August,  1804,  in  the  2nd  battalion  of  the  78th 
Highlanders,  commanded  by  Major- General  Mackenzie 
Frazer  of  Castle  Frazer  ;  and  soon  after  he  went  with  the 
corps,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  MacLeod  of  Gienis,  to 
join  the  army  in  Sicily  under  Sir  John  Stuart,  the  Count 
of  Maida,  where  he  took  part  in  the  victorious  battle  of 
that  name,  and  the  subsequent  capture  of  Crotona  on  the 
Gulf  of  Taranto. 

Keith,  proving  a  smart,  intelligent,  and  well-educated 
soldier,  was  appointed  armourer  to  the  Ross-shire  Buffs, 
now  ordered  to  form  a  part  of  the  expedition  fitted  out  in 
Sicily  in  1807  to  occupy  Alexandria,  to  compel  the  Turks 
to  defend  their  own  territories,  and  relieve  our  allies,  the 
Russians,  of  the  pressure  they  put  upon  them. 

Like  most  British  expeditions,  this  one  under  Mackenzie 
Fraser  proved  too  slender  ;  it  consisted  only  of  the  20th 
Light  Dragoons,  a  regiment  then  clad  in  blue  with  orange 
facings  ;  the  31st,  35th,  and  78th  Regiments,  with  that  of 


I io  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

De  Bolle  and  Les  Chasseurs  Brittaniques,  a  mixed  corps, 
formed  of  deserters  from  all  countries. 

On  the  18th  of  March  General  Fraser  disembarked  this 
force  near  the  Arabs'  Tower,  westward  of  Alexandria,  and 
began  his  march  for  the  latter,  with  the  view  of  attacking 
it  and  keeping  open  a  communication  with  the  naval 
squadron  ;  but  he  was  either  ignorant  of  the  actual  strength 
of  the  Turkish  forces  in  and  about  the  city,  or  that  the 
Mameluke  Beys,  though  in  arms  apparently  against  the 
new  viceroy,  Mehemet  Ali,  now  were  ready  to  follow  him 
against  the  British  troops. 

Alexandria  was  captured,  but  then  followed  our  defeat 
at  Kosetta  (or  Raschi<T)  on  the  Bolbiton  branch  of  the  Nile, 
where  General  Patrick  Wauchope  of  Edmonston  fell,  with 
185  officers  and  men  of  the  31st  Regiment  alone,  and  next 
day  the  heads  of  these  were  displayed  on  stakes  along  the 
road  that  leads  towards  Tantah. 

Another  disastrous  affair  — when  Keith  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy — followed  at  the  village  of  El  Hamet, 
four  miles  south-west  of  Rosetta,  on  the  banks  of  the  canal 
that  unites  the  Nile  with  Lake  Etko.  There  Colonel  Mac- 
leod,  with  five  companies  of  his  Highlanders  and  two  of 
the  35th,  with  a  few  of  the  20th  Dragoons,  took  post  on 
the  embankment,  when  in  the  mist,  on  the  morning  of  the 
21st  April,  they  were  furiously  attacked  by  an  overwhelming 
force  of  Albanian  cavalry  and  infantry,  that  came  down 
the  Nile  in  70  large  river-boats.  MacLeod  formed  a 
square,  but  the  rush  of  the  foe  proved  too  great  for  him, 
with  their  lances,  matchlocks,  and  yataghans.  A  company 
of  the  35th  and  another  of  the  Ross-shire  Buffs  were  cut 


THE  SCOTS  IN  THE  LAND  OF  7 HE  TURBAN,      m 

down  though  making  a  desperate  resistance,  and  every 
officer  and  man  of  both  companies  perished,  save  some  22 
who  escaped,  and  Keith  and  a  Highland  drummer  who 
were  taken  prisoners.  Seven  Albanians  were  slain  in  suc- 
cession by  the  claymore  of  Sergeant  John  MacRae  of  the 
78th  ere  his  head  was  cloven  from  behind  by  a  yataghan ; 
and,  ere  Lieutenant  MacRae  fell,  six  men  of  his  surname, 
all  from  Kintail,  perished  by  his  side.  MacLeod  also  fell, 
and  the  Albanians  were  seen  caracolling  their  horses  -on  all 
sides,  each  with  a  soldier's  head  on  the  point  of  a  lance. 
(General  Stewart.} 

Keith  with  a  few  survivors  was  dragged  to  Cairo,  where 
450  heads,  hewn  from  MacLeod's  men,  were  exposed  in  the 
market-place,  with  every  mark  of  barbarous  contempt ;  and 
there  he  became  the  property  of  Ahmed  Aga,  who  pur- 
chased him  for  a  few  coins  from  an  Albanian  lancer. 
Ahmed,  fortunately  for  Keith,  conceived  a  strong  fancy  for 
him,  and  finding  all  chance  of  escape  utterly  hopeless, 
according  to  the  means  of  locomotion  in  those  days,  he 
and  the  drummer  adopted  the  turban  —  Keith  taking 
the  name  of  Ibrahim  Aga  and  the  latter  that  of  Osman, 
under  which  we  shall  have  to  refer  to  him  again  when  in 
old  age. 

Keith  had  soon  to  quit  the  service  of  his  new  friend 
Ahmed.  A  Mameluke  of  the  latter,  a  renegade  Sicilian, 
having  insulted  him,  swords  were  drawn,  and  the  young 
Scotsman  killed  the  Sicilian  on  the  spot,  and,  to  escape  the 
consequences,  fled  to  the  favourite  wife  of  the  Viceroy, 
Mehemet  Ali,  and  procured  her  protection.  She  gave  him 
a  purse  of  money,  and  sent  him  disguised  to  her  second 


112  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

son,  Tusoun  Pasha,  born  at  Kavala,  in  Macedonia  (where 
Mehemet's  father  had  been  head  of  the  police),  and  he  took 
Keith  into  his  service,  pleased  to  find  that  he  was  a  skilful 
armourer  and  master  of  the  Arabic  language. 

Though  little  else  than  a  boy,  Tusoun  (we  are  told  by 
the  author  of  Egypt  and  Mohammed  All)  had  a  fiendish 
temper,  and  on  Keith  incurring  his  sharp  displeasure  by 
some  omission  of  duty,  he  ordered  the  latter  to  be  assassin- 
ated in  bed,  and  beset  the  house  with  armed  slaves,  whose 
instructions  were  to  mutilate  him  and  bring  away  his  head. 
But  Keith  was  prepared  for  them  ! 

Ere  they  could  enter  his  room  he  was  out  of  the  door- 
way, which  he  had  barricaded,  and  which  he  defended  for 
half-an-hour  with  his  sword  and  pistols,  till  a  pile  of  dead 
lay  before  him ;  then  seizing  a  lucky  moment,  when  they 
shrank  from  that  ghastly  barrier,  he  leaped  into  the  street, 
and  brandishing  his  bloody  sabre,  once  more  sought  the 
protection  of  Tusoun's  mother. 

She  effected  a  reconciliation  between  them,  and  the 
savage  young  prince,  in  admiration  of  his  courage, 
appointed  him  Aga  of  his  body  of  Mamelukes,  a  post  of 
importance,  in  which  he  displayed  many  brilliant  qualities. 
"  In  the  bearded  Aga  of  the  Mamelukes,  who  shaved  his  head 
in  conformity  to  the  rules  of  the  Prophet,  it  might  have 
been  difficult  to  recognise  the  kilted  Ross-shire  Buff  of  a 
year  or  so  before  ;  but  now  his  former  military  experience 
made  him  of  vast  service  in  infusing  a  species  of  discipline 
among  the  Mamelukes  and  other  wild  and  barbarous  horse- 
men in  the  Pasha's  army,  while  his  knowledge  of  all  kinds 
of  weapons,  his  bodily  strength,  bravery,  and  hardihood, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  THE  LAND  OF  THE  TURBAN.      113 

made  him  almost  their  idol.  Thus  he  stood  high  among 
the  Agas  of  the  Pasha  of  Egypt." 

Freed  from  the  British,  the  latter  now  began  to  adopt 
warlike  measures  against  the  Wahabees,  who  had  plundered 
many  caravans,  and  forbidden  people  to  pray  in  their 
mosques  for  his  master  the  Sultan — being  in  the  East  not 
unlike  the  Puritans  under  Cromwell. 

It  was  on  the  1st  March,  1811,  just  before  Tusoun  was 
to  begin  his  march  against  these  people  in  Arabia,  that  the 
dreadful  massacre  of  the  Mameluke  Beys  and  their  soldiers 
took  place  at  Cairo.  Keith  escaped  that  event,  warned,  it 
is  supposed,  by  Tusoun  to  absent  himself,  as  he  was  to 
command  the  latter's  cavalry ;  but,  if  in  the  capital,  he 
must  have  been  cognisant  of  that  awful  scene  in  the  citadel, 
when  (as  Ebers  relates)  from  every  window  and  loophole 
musketry  and  cannon  volleyed  on  these  gorgeously- 
accoutred  horsemen,  till  hundreds  with  their  horses  lay  in 
the  narrow  way  wallowing  in  blood,  though  some  snatched 
sword  and  pistol  but  in  vain,  and  in  unutterable  confusion 
men  and  chargers,  living,  dying,  and  dead,  rolled  in  one 
mighty  mass — at  first  shouting  and  screaming,  then 
silently  convulsive,  and  more  silent  and  still,  and  480  lives 
were  quenched,  one  alone  escaping  by  leaping  his  horse 
over  the  terrific  rampart — Ameer  Bey. 

Leading  Tusonn's  cavalry,  as  Ibrahim  Aga,  Thomas 
Keith,  then  only  in  his  eighteenth  year,  had  under  him 
800  sabres,  chiefly  Bedouins,  while  the  infantry,  2,000 
Arnaouts  in  the  kilt,  were  led  by  Saleh  Bey.  In  October 
they  attacked  Yembo,  on  the  Red  Sea,  and  Keith's 
Bedouins  pillaged  the  town.  In  January,  1812,  Tasoun 

I 


i  14          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

and  Keith  set  out  to  attack  the  city  of  Medina,  and  on 
their  march  by  the  sandy  caravan  route,  after  capturing 
Bedr-Honein  and  Safra,  in  a  narrow  defile  between  two 
rugged  mountains,  they  were  attacked  by  more  than  20,000 
fanatical  Wahabees. 

The  infantry  took  to  flight,  the  Bedouins  followed  fast, 
all  abandoning  the  prince  save  Keith  and  one  other  horse- 
man. The  three  broke,  sword  in  hand,  through  the  enemy, 
reached  the  camp  in  the  rear  at  Bedr-Honein,  and  escaped 
to  the  Red  Sea,  the  whole  shore  of  which  was  now  swept 
by  the  victorious  Wahabees  ;  but  Keith  for  his  fidelity 
in  the  Pass  of  Jedeida  was  appointed  treasurer  to  Mehemet 
Ali,  by  orders  from  whom  he  lavished  gold  to  detach  the 
Bedouins  from  the  Wahabees,  against  whom  Tusoun 
marched  again  in  1812,  accompanied  by  Keith. 

They  stormed  Medina,  the  latter  leading  the  Arnaouts, 
sword  in  hand,  in  his  twentieth  year.  "  At  Medina,"  says 
the  History  of  Arabia,  "  he  fought  with  courage,  being 
the  first  man  who  mounted  the  breach,  and  after  dis- 
tinguishing himself  on  many  other  occasions  he  was  made 
governor  of  the  city  in  1815."  But  nowhere  did  he  do  so 
much  than  in  the  repulse  of  the  Turks  before  Taraba, 
when  14,000  of  them  were  killed  or  wounded.  Keith 
captured  a  cannon  in  a  charge,  and  served  it  with  his  own 
hands.  In  1816  he  was  in  command  at  Mecca,  near 
where,  on  one  occasion,  5,000  human  heads  were  piled 
before  the  tent  of  the  victorious  Mehemet.  In  the  cavalry 
fight  at  El  Bass,  Keith,  while  succouring  Tusoun,  slew  four 
with  his  sabre  in  quick  succession,  but  was  unhorsed,  cut 
to  pieces,  and  beheaded  on  the  spot. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  THE  LAND  OF  THE  TURBAN.     115 

His  comrade,  "  Osman"  the  drummer,  long  survived 
these  events,  and  the  strongest  feature  of  his  character, 
says  one  who  met  him,  was  his  intense  nationality.  "  In 
vain  men  called  him  Effendi ;  in  vain  he  swept  along 
in  Eastern  robes,  and  rival  beauties  adorned  his  harem. 
The  joy  of  his  heart  lay  in  this: — that  he  had  three 
shelves  of  books,  and  that  these  books  were  thorough-bred 
Scotch;  and,  above  all,  I  recollect  that  he  prided  him- 
self upon  the  '  Edinburgh  Cabinet  Library.'  "  (Traces  oj 
Travel.) 

So  lately  as  1854,  Colonel  Cannon,  son  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Cannon,  minister  of  Maine  and  Strathmartin,  and  Colonel 
Ogilvy  of  Tanuadyce,  entered  the  Turkish  service.  The 
former,  known  as  Behram  Pasha,  commanded  the  Turkish 
Light  Division  at  Silistria  while  Naysmith  was  there,  and 
also  at  the  battle  of  Giurgevo. 

Later  still,  in  1868,  Mr.  H.  E.  Frost,  a  native  of  Aber- 
deen, held  a  high  office  in  the  gun-factories  at  Constanti- 
nople under  Sir  John  Anderson,  and  for  his  great  services 
and  improvements  in  gunnery  was  made  brigadier-general, 
with  the  rank  of  pasha ;  "  and,  commenting  on  a  sabre 
d'honneur  to  Abdul  Kerim  Pasha,  the  Invalide  Russe 
declares  that  the  real  conqueror  of  Servia  was  not  Abdul, 
but  Arthur  Campbell  Pasha,  a  military  agent,  who,  with 
six  British  officers,  was  the  real  leader  of  the  Turkish 
troops."  (The  World,  1877.)  In  1886  Borthwick  Pasha 
was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Gendarmerie  Commission ; 
and  in  the  Scotsman  for  August,  1876,  we  read  that  Blacque 
Bey,  a  Catholic,  then  director  of  the  Press  at  Constan- 
tinople, and  formerly  the  Turkish  Minister  at  Washington, 

12 


1 1 6  THE  SCO  TTISH  SOL  DIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

is  of  Scottish  descent  from  a  Mr.  Black  who  followed  King 

ames  VII  to  France. 

European     discipline    was    first    introduced   into   the 
Persian  army  by  two   Scottish   officers    during  the  early 

art  of  the  present  century.  The  first  Persian  artillery 
corps  was  organised  by  Lieutenant  Lindsay  of  the  Madras 
army,  who  had  every  difficulty  thrown  in  his  way  by  the 
prejudices  of  the  Mahomedans.  But  the  then  Shah 
gave  him  unlimited  powers.  The  serbaz,  or  infantry,  were 
organised  by  Major  Christie  of  the  Bombay  army,  an  officer 
of  the  greatest  merit,  who  inspired  them  with  an  esprit  de 
corps  never  before  known  in  Persia.  The  surgeon-general 
of  the  army  of  the  Prince  Abbas  Mirza,  when  encamped  on 
the  frontiers  of  Yam,  in  Azerbijan,  in  1810  and  1816,  was 
Dr.  Campbell,  a  Scotsman,  as  Morier  states  in  his  Travels; 
and  it  was  from  these  officers  that  the  Persian  buglers  and 
trumpeters  acquired  the  British  "calls"  in  the  field,  the 
use  of  which  by  them  perplexed  our  troops — particularly 
the  Ross-shire  Buffs — at  the  Battle  of  Khooshab,  when  Sir 
James  Outram  so  thoroughly  routed  the  Persians  under 
Shooja-ool-Moolk.  In  1831  Dr.  Littlejohn,  another  Scot, 
on  leaving  India,  entered  the  service  of  Daood  Pasha  at 
Bagdad,  and,  accompanying  the  army  of  Abbas  Mirza  in 
the  Kermon  campaign,  commanded  the  garrison  of  Azer- 
bijan, but  was  compelled  to  surrender  to  the  Firman 
Firma,  after  which  he  remained  to  the  day  of  his  death  at 
Shiraz. 

In  1840  Sir  Henry  Lindsay-Bethune,  Bart.,  of  Kilcon- 
quhar,  was  a  general  officer  in  the  Persian  service,  and  a 
to  j-ior-general  in  Asia. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  THE  LAND  OF  THE  TURBAN.      117 

In  1821  the  governor  of  Tripolizza,  which  under  the 
Turks  had  been  the  capital  of  the  Morea,  was  Sir  Thomas 
Gordon  Knight,  previously  an  officer  of  the  Scots  Greys. 
The  town  had  been  sacked  by  the  Greeks  in  the  same 
year.  On  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  between  France 
and  Russia  he  had  served  as  a  volunteer  in  the  army  of  the 
latter,  and  was  an  A.D.C.  on  the  retreat  from  Moscow.  He 
afterwards  returned  to  Scotland,  and  then  taking  £20,000 
with  him,  went  to  the  Morea  to  fight,  for  Greece,  and  is 
"now  at  the  head  of  Yps  Tlonti's  staff  and  commandant 
of  Tripolizza."  (Ed.  Weekly  Journal,  No.  1253.) 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE    SCOTS    IN    DENMARK. 

The  Sinclairs  of  Roslin — Stuart  of  Ardgowan — Learned  Scots 
in  Copenhagen — The  Earl  of  Bothwell  :  his  marriage  with 
a  Norwegian  Lady — Wiffert's  Levy — Scoto-Danish  Explo- 
ration of  Greenland — Numerous  Scotch  adventurers  in 
Denmark — Danish  Count  killed  by  a  Scottish  officer. 

IN  the  times  of  which  we  chiefly  write,  when  our  country- 
men rose  to  rank  and  power  in  nearly  every  European  court 
and  army,  the  favourite  creed  and  toast  of  these  wan- 
derers were,  "  Peace  at  home  and  plenty  wars  abroad," 
while  the  old  Highland  version  was,  we  are  told,  "  0  Lord, 
turn  the  world  upside  down,  that  honest  fellows  may  make 
bread  out  of  it." 

In  northern  Europe,  Denmark  was  a.  favourite  field  for 
some  of  these  military  spirits. 

In  1379,  Haco,  King  of  Denmark,  created  Sir  Henry 
Sinclair  of  Roslin,  Earl  of  Orkney,  a  title  confirmed  by 
Robert  II,  while  these  isles  were  still  a  portion  of  Scandi- 
navia. Sir  Henry  was  the  only  son  of  that  Sir  William 
Sinclair  who  perished  in  battle  against  the  Moors  at  Teba 
in  1331.  According  to  Sir  Robert  Douglas,  he  married 
Florentina,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Denmark  ;  and  Nisbet 
in  his  Heraldry  adds  that  he  was  made  by  Christian  I, 
Lord  of  Shetland,  Duke  of  Oldenburgh  (in  Holstein),  a  state- 
ment doubted ;  and  that  he  was  Knight  of  the  Thistle,  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  DENMARK.  119 

Cockle,  and  the  Golden  Fleece — the  gift  of  the  different 
sovereigns  of  these  orders.  The  old  tradition,  that  before 
one  of  this  family  died  the  beautiful  chapel  of  Roslin 
appeared  to  be  full  of  light,  is  supposed  to  be  of  Norse  origin, 
imported  by  them  from  Scandinavia,  as  the  tomb-fires  of 
the  North  are  mentioned  in  many  of  the  Sagas. 

In  1469  James  III  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  tfye 
King  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  whose  dowry  was 
Orkney  and  Shetland. 

In  1506,  when  Sir  David  Sinclair  directed  his  body  to 
be  buried  in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Magnus,  at  Kirkwall,  his 
golden  chain  of  office  as  a  chief  captain  of  the  palace  of 
Bergen,  which  post  he  held  with  that  of  "  Governor  of  Het- 
land,"  under  the  Scottish  crown,  was  bequeathed  to  the 
altar  of  St.  George,  in  the  Domskerke  of  Roes  Kilde,  the 
ancient  capital  of  Denmark. 

In  1506  we  find  James  IV  interfering  in  behalt  of  his 
ally,  John,  King  of  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden,  against 
whom  the  latter  country  had  revolted,  and  despatching 
conciliatory  letters  to  the  Archbishop  of  Upsala  and  the 
citizens  of  Lubeck,  who  were  about  to  assist  the  Swedes — 
letters  which  were  models  of  elegance  and  vigour  (Pinkerton) 
— and  by  his  influence  the  insurrection  was  suppressed  ;  but 
when  war  with  England  came,  in  1513-15,  inspired  only  by 
ingratitude,  neither  Denmark  nor  France  responded  to  the 
Scottish  government.  Yet,  in  1518,  Christian  II  applied 
to  it  for  assistance  in  suppressing  an  insurrection  which  had 
broken  out  among  his  Swedish  subjects,  and  asked  for 
1,000  Highlanders.  This  request  was  declined,  on  the  plea 
that  the  disposition  of  the  English  court  was  uncertain.  In 


120  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

this  matter  Christian  sent  as  his  ambassador  Alexander 
Kinghorn,  a  Scottish  physician,  established  in  Denmark. 

In  1519,  however,  a  body  of  Scottish  troops,  with  plenty 
of  ammunition,  was  sent  to  Copenhagen  under  James 
Stewart  of  Ardgowan  to  fight  in  that  war  which  saw 
the  massacre  of  Stockholm,  the  adventures  of  Gustavus 
Vasa,  and  the  termination  of  the  Union  of  Calmar.  In  the 
dead  winter  of  1520  the  army  under  Otto  Krumpe, 
composed  of  Germans,  Scots,  and  French,  passed  the  Sound  ; 
and  fought  the  peasantry  undev  Sture,  who  was  slain  by 
a  cannon-ball.  The  Swedes  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  all  who 
fell  were  refused  the  rites  of  Christian  burial,  and  Chris- 
tian was  crowned  King  at  Stockholm,  where  he  placed  the 
Scottish  and  German  troops  in  garrison ;  but  the  tyran- 
nical conduct  of  Christiern  (or  Christian),  which  ulti- 
mately led  to  his  deposition,  and  the  piratical  seizure  by 
Danish  privateers  of  a  rich  merchant-ship  belonging  to 
Leith,  completely  alienated  his  Scottish  allies,  who  returned 
with  the  Laird  of  Ardgowan  (Epist.  Reg.  Scot.,  etc.),  whose 
representative  is  now  Sir  Michael  S.  Stewart,  Bart.,  of  Ard- 
gowan and  Blackball. 

With  the  army  of  which  they  formed  a  part,  Paraselsus 
was  the  principal  physician.  The  capital  of  Denmark  (says 
Schiern)  "  had,  as  we  learn  from  '  a  grace  for  the  Scottish 
nation,'  issued  in  1539  by  Christian  III,  an  entire  guild  of 
Scotsmen,  which,  among  other  institutions,  formed  an 
hospital  in  Copenhagen  for  '  their  sick  countrymen,'  and 
during  the  first  half  of  the  century  many  of  these  were 
professors  of  the  university  there,  to  wit — Peter  David 
and  Johannis  Maccabeus  (John  MacAlpin)  for  theology  ; 


THE  SCOTS  IN  DENMARK,  121 

Alexander  Kinghorn,  medicine ;  Thomas  Alame,  philo- 
sophy ;  while  many  Danish  students  were  attending  the 
University  of  Aberdeen."  Thus  the  fugitive  Both  well  had 
doubtless  a  warm  welcome  in  Denmark  in  1560. 

Before  this  crisis  in  his  misfortunes,  Bothwell  had  been 
in  Denmark,  and  there  had  met  the  Lady  Anne,  whose 
father,  Christopher  Throndson  (of  the  Rustung  family), 
was  admiral  of  Christian'  III,  and  whose  mother,  Karine, 
was  daughter  of  the  deacon  of  Trondheim. 

In  Resen's  Annals  of  Frederick  If,  under  date  June, 
1560,  information  is  given  that  the  Lord  James,  Earl  of 
Bothwell,  High  Admiral  of  Scotland,  came  to  Denmark, 
and  was  well  received  by  the  king,  by  whom  and  the  Duke 
of  Holstein  he  was  conducted  through  Jutland,  as  he  wished 
to  travel  in  Germany.  In  the  same  year  he  was  in  France. 

Anne  complained  that  Bothwell  "  had  taken  her  from 
her  fatherland  and  home  into  a  foreign  country,  away  from 
her  parents,  and  would  not  hold  her  as  his  lawful  wife, 
which  with  hand,  mouth,  and  letters  he  had  promised  to 
do,"  at  the  time  when  it  was  rumoured  at  home  he  was 
making  a  rich  match  in  Denmark.  (F.  Shiern,  Life  of 
Bothwell.} 

Though  the  Earl  of  Bothwell,  who  was  latterly  the  evil 
star  of  Mary's  life,  was  not  a  soldier  of  fortune,  his  con- 
nection with  Norway  and  Denmark  is  so  little — if  at  all — 
known  in  Scotland,  that  we  maybe  pardoned  for  inserting 
it  here. 

In  Suhm's  Samlinges,  or  Collections  for  the  History  of 
Denmark,  we  find  it  stated  that  the  famous — or  infamous 
— earl  was  married  early  in  life  to  a  Norwegian  lady,  Anne, 


122  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

daughter  of  Christopher  Throndson,  prior  to  his  marriage 
with  Lady  Jean  Gordon,  of  the  house  of  Huntly,  and  that 
his  possessing,  through  the  former,  certain  estates  in  Orkney 
was  reason  for  his  being  made  duke  of  these  Isles  in  1567. 

After  his  flight  from  Orkney,  and  his  defeat  at  sea  by 
the  gallant  Kirkcaldy  of  Grange,  Bothwell  sailed  into  Kar- 
mesund,  a  harbour,  when  he  was  found  by  Captain  Christian 
Alborg,  commander  of  a  Danish  warship  named  the  Biornen, 
or  Great  Bear,  who  demanded  his  licences  for  sailing  an 
armed  ship  in  Danish  waters,  and,  as  he  failed  to  pro- 
duce them,  compelled  the  earl  to  accompany  him  up 
the  Jelta  Fiord  to  Bergen.  Captain  Alborg  in  his  decla- 
ration records  that  "  among  the  Scottish  crew  there  was 
one  disguised  in  old  and  patched  boatswain's  clothes,  who 
stated  himself  to  be  the  chief  ruler  of  all  Scotland." 

This  was  the  earl,  with  whom  he  reached  the  castle  of 
Borgen,  or  Bergenhaus,  on  a  tongue  of  land  in  the  Bye- 
fiorden.  The  governor  of  the  fortress,  a  wealthy  Danish 
lord  named  Erick  Bosenkrantz,  appointed  a  committee 
of  twenty-four  gentlemen  to  interrogate  the  prisoner. 
These  met  on  the  23rd  September,  1567.  Among  them 
were  the  bishop  and  four  councillors  of  Bergen,  from 
whom  Bothwell  obtained  permission  to  reside  in  the  city. 

Magister  Absalom  Beyer,  the  pastor  of  Bergen,  who  left 
behind  him  a  diary  entitled  The  Chapter  Book,  running 
from  1533  to  1570,  recorded  therein  the  following,  which 
is  inserted  by  Suhm  in  his  Samlinges  : — 

"  1567,  September  2. — Came  in  (to  Bergen)  Royal 
David,  of  which  Christian  Alborg  is  captain.  He  had 
captured  a  Scottish  noble,  James  Hepburn,  Earl  of  Both- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  DENMARK.  123 

well,  Duke  of  Orkney  and  Shetland,  who  had  been  wedded 
to  the  Queen  of  Scotland.  He  was  suspected  to  have  been 
in  the  plot  against  the  king's  life.  The  council  of  the 
kingdom  having  revolted  against  the  queen,  this  earl 
escaped,  and  has  come  hither  to  Norway. 

"  1567,  September  17. — I  upbraided  the  Lady  Anne, 
daughter  of  Christopher  Throndson,  that  this  Earl  of  Both- 
well  had  taken  her  from  her  native  country,  and  yet  would 
not  keep  her  as  his  lawful  wife,  which  he  had  promised  to 
do,  with  hand,  mouth,  and  letters,  which  letters  she  caused  to 
to  be  read  before  him  ;  and  whereas  he  has  three  wives 
living — first,  herself;  secondly,  another  in  Scotland,  from 
whom  he  has  bought  (divorced  ?)  himself ;  and  thirdly, 
Queen  Mary.  The  Lady  Anne  opined  '  that  he  was  good 
for  nothing.'  Then  he  promised  her  an  annual  rent  from 
Scotland,  and  a  ship  with  all  her  anchors  and  cordage 
complete. 

"  September  25. — The  earl  went  to  the  castle,  when 
Erick  Rosenkrantz  did  him  great  honour. 

"  September  30. — The  earl  departed  on  board  the  David 
and  was  carried  captive  to  Denmark,  where  he  yet  remains 
in  the  castle  of  Malmo,  at  this  time,  1568. 

"  October  10,  1567. — Part  of  the  earl's  men  were 
returned  to  Scotland  on  board  a  small  pink  which  Erick 
Rosenkrantz  had  lent  them,  and  it  is  said  they  were  all  put 
to  death  on  their  landing." 

The  only  discrepancy  here  is  in  one  statement  of  the 
pastor  and  the  committee  :  the  former  calls  the  Danish 
ship  the  David,  and  the  latter  the  Biornen  ;  but  perhaps 
Captain  Alborg  commanded  two  so-named. 


i24  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Other  passages  in  the  Chapter  Book  record  that  in  1 563 
the  Lady  Anne  moved  in  the  best  circle  in  the  province, 
which  she  could  not  have  done  as  Both  well's  mistress; 
and  that  she  was  known  as  the  Skottifruen,  or  Scottish  lady. 
Her  second  sister,  Dorothy,  was  married  to  John  Stewart,  a 
gentleman  of  Shetland  ;  and  her  third,  Elsie,  was  thrice 
married — the  last  time  to  Axel  Mouatt,  a  Scottish  gentle- 
man settled  in  Norway. 

The  royal  order  issued  by  King  Frederick  for  imprison- 
ing Bothwell  in  Malmo  was  issued  from  Fredericksborg, 
28th  December,  1567.  (Les  Affairs  du  Comte  de  Bodeul.} 

He  lived  two  years  after  his  well-known  confession,  and 
died  in  the  fortress  of  Dragsholm,  on  the  northern  coast  of 
Zealand,  between  Halbek  and  Kallondsborg,  in  April,  1578, 
and  was  interred  in  the  church  of  Faareville. 

According  to  the  Privy  Seal  Register,  Axel  Wiffirt,  a 
servant  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  Frederick  II,  was  licensed 
to  levy  2,000  soldiers  in  Scotland,  and  to  convey  them 
away  armed  as  coulvreniers  on  foot  "  as  they  best  can  pro- 
vide them,"  to  serve  the  Danish  monarch  in  his  war  against 
the  Swedes.  The  accoutrements  of  these  troops  were  a 
habergeon  with  sleeves,  a  matchlock,  salade,  sword,  and 
dagger.  This  was  in  July,  1568. 

In  1571,  Crawford  states  in  his  Memoirs  that  Captain 
Michael  Wemyss,  an  experienced  soldier,  was  coming  from 
Denmark  with  his  company,  consisting  of  a  hundred  men, 
to  serve  under  the  Earl  of  Morton  against  the  adherents  of 
Queen  Mary :  probably  the  former  were  some  of  Axel 
Wiffirt's  levy. 

During    Bothwell's    captivity  in    Denmark   a    Scottish 


THE  SCOTS  IN  DENMARK.  125 

officer  named  Captain  John  Clark  made  a  great  figure 
there.  He  had  commanded  a  body  of  soldiers  in  the 
insurrection  which  ended  at  Carberry  Hill;  and  in  the 
subsequent  autumn  passed,  with  80  Scots,  ;uto  the  service 
of  Frederick  II,  who  on  the  15th  June,  1564,  gave  him  a 
commission,  dated  at  Bordesholm,  over  206  Scottish  cavalry. 
He  is  described  by  Resen  as  a  brave  and  well- trained  captain, 
who,  with  his  lieutenant,  David  Stuart,  after  a  bloody 
encounter,  stormed  the  castle  of  Halmstad,  which  com- 
manded the  Kattegat,  from  the  Swedes.  In  a  letter  dated 
Eoskilde,  Oct.,  1568,  he  styles  himself—"  I,  John  Clark, 
commander  of  the  Scottish  military  detachments"  (Schiern), 
when  engaging  to  produce  the  murderers  of  Darnley  to  the 
Scottish  government. 

In  1569,  he  with  his  Scottish  troops  was  quartered  at 
Londskrona,  on  the  coast.  His  lieutenant  then  was 
Andrew  Armstrong.  They  quarrelled  with  Frederick  II 
about  commissariat  matters,  Clark  demanding  17,000 
dollars  on  his  discharge  ;  and  for  this  and  other  matters  he 
was  summoned  to  appear  for  examination  at  Copenhagen, 
before  a  court  of  which  Alexander  Durham,  Richard 
Scougal,  and  Cagnioli,  a  kinsman  ofRiccio,  were  members . 
while  his  "  Scottish  Riflemen,"  to  the  number  of  300  or 
more,  were  nearly  perishing  of  hanger  in  Jutland — the 
reward  of  their  service  during  Frederick's  Seven  Years* 
War. 

Clark  died  in  1575,  a  prisoner  of  state,  in  the  castle  of 
Dragsholm,  in  Denmark ;  the  king  of  which  had  come, 
says  Schiern,  "  to  regard  the  Scottish  soldiers  with  a 
strange  dislike." 


126  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

"In  1605  the  King  of  Denmark  sent  three  ships,  of 
which  John  Cunningham,  a  Scotsman,  was  admiral,  to 
Greenland.  They  went  a  great  way  up  Davis'  Straits. 
In  a  place  called  Cunningham's  Ford  they  found  stones, 
out  of  a  hundredweight  of  which  they  extracted  26  ounces 
of  fine  silver.  They  brought  with  them  three  of  the 
natives  of  Greenland  to  Denmark."  (Atlas  Geograpliicus, 
vol  i.) 

During  the  reigns  of  seven  kings,  traces  of  the  formei 
had  been  lost,  having  become  inaccessible  by  floating  ice. 
The  fiord  and  a  cape  still  bear  the  name  of  Cunningham. 

Many  Scots  now  went  to  Denmark.  A  Highland  regi- 
ment, raised  among  the  Mackays,  embarked  for  service 
there  in  March,  1625,  for  the  service  of  King  Christian. 
In  June,  Sir  James  Leslie  levied  another  of  1,000  men,  and 
Captain  Alexander  Seaton  raised  500  more.  The  forces  ot 
Leslie  and  Mack  ly  soon  mustered  in  all  4,400  men ;  and 
a  letter  of  Philip  Burlamachi,  a  London  merchant,  shows 
that  he  paid,  by  the  king's  order,  £3,000  for  their  transport 
from  Scotland  to  Hamburg. 

In  1626  the  king  paid  £8,000  to  the  Earl  of  Nithsdale, 
the  Lord  Spynie,  and  Sir  Jamos  Sinclair  of  Murkle  for 
levying  three  regiments  of  3,000  men  each  "  for  his  unkell 
the  King  of  Denmark's  service,"  making  13,400  soldiers  sent 
by  Scotland  to  that  country  in  two  years.  In  three  years 
Mackay's  regiment  had  1,000  men  and  30  officers  killed  or 
wounded. 

Colonels  Sir  Donald  Mackay,  Seaton,  and  Forbes, 
wounded  at  Oldenburg ;  Captains  Boswal  and  Learmouth 
of  Balcomie,  killed  at  Boitzenburg  ;  Sir  Patrick  M'Ghie, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  DENMARK'.  127 

Forbes  of  Tulloch  and  Munro,  wounded  at  Oldenburg; 
Forbes  and  Carmichael  killed  at  Bredenburg  ;  Mackenzie 
of  Kildare  and  Kerr,  wounded  at  Eckernfiord ;  Lieutenant 
Martin,  killed  at  Boitzenburg,  and  six  others  at  Sfcralsund 
and  elsewhere  ;  seven  ensigns  were  wounded  at  Oldenburg 
and  one  at  Stralsund,  where  the  quarter-master,  chaplain, 
and  500  Highlanders  fell.  (Munro' 8  Expedition  with 
Mackay's  Regiment,  fol.,  1637) 

"  The  regiment  received  colours  whereon  his  Majesty 
(Christian  IV)  would  have  the  officers  to  carry  the  Danish 
cross,  which  the  officers  refusing,  they  were  summoned  to 
compeare  before  his  Majestie  at  Baynesburg  to  know  the 
reason  of  their  refusal."  Captain  Robert  Ennis  was  sent 
home  to  learn  the  wish  of  James  VI,  "  whether  or  no  they 
might  carrie,  without  reproach,  the  Danish  Crosse  on 
Scottish  Colours.  Answer  was  returned  that  they  should 
obey  the  orders  of  him  they  served."  (Ibid.) 

The  escort  of  the  Duke  of  Holstein's  ambassadors  to 
Muscovy  and  Persia  in  1637  would  seem  to  have  been 
mostly  Scottish  soldiers,  and  one  of  them,  a  sergeant  named 
Murray,  distinguished  himself  amid  a  brawl  that  ensued  in 
the  Persian  capital,  when,  among  several  others,  a  Danish 
gunner  was  killed  as  he  was  in  the  act  of  levelling  a  cannon 
against  the  enemy. 

Sergeant  Murray,  "  being  eager  to  avenge  his  death, 
charged  the  natives  so  furiously  that  he  slew  five  or  six  of 
them,  till,  an  arrow  taking  him  directly  in  the  breast,  he 
plucked  it  out,  and,  having  killed  another  with  his  firelock, 
fell  dead  upon  the  spot."  (Voyaye  du  Chev.  Ckardin,  etc.) 

Sir  Thomas  Gray,  one  of  the  many  Scots  who  in  several 


128  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

capacities  served  Christian  IV,  was  military  governor  of 
the  castle  of  Bergen,  where,  in  1647,  he  hospitably  enter- 
tamed  the  fugitive  Marquis  of  Montrose,  who  went  from, 
there  across  the  Norwegian  Alps  to  obtain  an  interview 
with  Christian  IV. 

At  the  close  of  the  century  the  chief  huntsman  of 
Frederick  II  was  a  Scotsman  named  Graham,  when  the 
latter  sumptuously  entertained  Queen  Elizabeth's  envoy, 
Mr.  Vernon,  at  Yagersburg,  a  few  miles  from  Copenhagen, 
as  we  are  told  in  Travels  through  Denmark  in  1702. 

Under  Christian  VII  the  governor  and  commandant  of 
Rendsborg,  a  strong  border  fortress  between  Holstein  and 
Schleswig,  was  Sir  Robert  Keith,  Bart.,  of  Ludquhairn,  a 
major-general  in  the  Danish  army,  and  there  he  died  on 
the  14th  January,  1771.  He  was  a  gallant  veteran,  and 
had  been  A.D.C.  to  his  kinsman,  Marshal  Keith,  for 
many  years. 

The  killing  of  the  Danish  Count  Eantzan  Aschberg  by  a 
Scottish  officer  made  some  noise  in  Europe  in  November, 
1773.  The  count  was  concerned  in  some  way  with  the 
administration  of  Struenzee,  who  so  soon  became  hateful 
to  the  nobility  and  cabinet,  and  whom  a  plot  to  overthrow 
had  been  formed,  under  the  queen-mother,  by  which  he 
was  ultimately  disgraced  and  brought  to  the  scaffold,  with 
his  friend  Count  Brand. 

The  cause  of  Rantzau's  death  was  involved  in  some 
mystery. 

Before  leaving  his  seat  of  Aschberg  he  received  a  letter 
without  any  signature,  informing  him  not  to  set  out  on  a 
journey  he  intended,  as  a  certain  person  would  follow,  and 


THE  SCOTS  IN  DENMARK.  129 

certainly  slay  him  on  the  road.  Disdaining  this  anonymous 
hint,  the  count  departed  for  Switzerland,  whence  he  was 
travelling  to  Spain  by  way  of  France.  When  on  the 
frontier  of  the  former  country  he  was  suddenly  confronted 
by  a  Scotsman,  Lieutenant  Osborne,  of  the  Danish  service, 
who  stopped  his  carriage  on  the  highway  and  offered  him 
a  brace  of  pistols,  desiring  him  to  choose  one  and  fight  a 
fair  duel,  "  as  he  owed  him  satisfaction." 

The  count,  having  no  second  with  him,  refused -to  fight,  > 
on  which  Osborne  shot  him  through  the  head  and  rode 
away.  "As  the  count,"  says  a  print  of  the  time,  "was 
brought  up  at  the  court  of  Denmark,  and  consequently 
knew  the  secret  history  of  the  Danish  cabinet ;  his  journey, 
in  the  present  critical  period,  to  France  and  Spain,  after 
his  falling  into  disgrace  ;  his  being  killed  thus  by  a  zealous 
Scotsman,  and  the  notice  taken  of  the  matter  by  the  courts 
of  France,  cause  his  death,  attended  with  all  these  circum- 
stances, to  make  a  great  deal  of  noise." 

We  have  not  traced  Osborne's  career  further  in  this 
matter  ;  but,  as  in  Sweden,  many  Scottish  names  are  still 
to  be  found  in  Denmark ;  thus,  in  March,  1886,  we  find 
the  Danish  frigate  Eyen  is  commanded  by  Captain  D.  Mnc- 
Dougall,  who  exchanged  salutes  with  our  batteries  on 
the  3rd  of  that  month  t  Portsmouth,  when  sailing  from 
Naples  to  Copenhagen. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  SPAIN   AND  PORTUGAL. 

The  Expedition  of  Douglas — The  Earl  of  Argyll — Moodie  of 
Melsetter — Don  Pedro  Stuart — Sir  John  Downie — Parent- 
age of  the  Empress  Eugenie — The  Scots  in  Portugal- 
Forbes  of  Skellater — Other  adventurous  Scots  in  Portugal. 

WHEN  the  illustrious  Robert  Bruce  lay  dying  at  Card- 
ross,  by  his  desire,  after  his  demise,  his  heart  was  taken 
out,  as  all  know,  embalmed,  and  given  to  his  firm  friend 
and  brother  patriot,  the  noble  Sir  James  Douglas,  for 
conveyance  to  the  Holy  Land,  whither  the  long  war  with 
England  had  prevented  the  king  going  in  person.  Douglas 
had  that  true  heart,  which  had  so  often  beat  high  in  battle 
for  Scotland,  enclosed  in  a  silver  casket,  which  he 
constantly  wore  suspended  from  his  neck  by  a  chain  of  the 
same  metal ;  and  having  made  his  will,  and  settled  all  his 
affairs,  he  set  sail  from  Scotland,  attended  by  a  splendid 
and  gallant  retinue  of  knights,  among  whom  were  Sir 
William  Sinclair  of  Boslin,  Lockhart  of  Lee,  and  others 
famed  in  Scottish  war.  This  was  in  1329. 

Anchoring  off  Sluys,  the  great  emporium  of  Flanders, 
expecting  to  find  companions  bound  on  the  same  pilgrim- 
age, he  kept  open  table  on  board  his  ship,  with  royal 
munificence,  for  twelve  days.  Froissart  says  he  had  with 
him  eight  Scottish  knights,  one  of  whom  bore  his  banner ; 
twenty-six  esquires,  "  all  comely  young  men  of  good 
family  ;  and  he  kept  court  in  a  royal  manner,  with  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL.  131 

sound  of  trumpets  and  cymbals.     All  the  vessels  for  his 
table  were  of  gold  and  silver." 

At  Sluys  he  heard  that  Alphonso,  the  King  of  Leon  and 
Castile,  was  at  war  with  Osmyn,  the  Moorish  King  of 
Granada,  and  as  this  was  reckoned  a  holy  strife,  he  resolved 
to  take  Spain  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem ;  thus,  ;  fcer 
landing  at  Seville,  he  marched  with  the  Spanish  army  to, 
the  frontiers  of  Andalusia,  and  in  the  great  battle  fought 
at  Teba  the  vanguard  was  assigned  to  him — the  Scottish 
hero  and  veteran  of  Bannockburn. 

Teba  lies  about  forty  miles  north-west  of  Malaga,  in 
the  midst  of  the  rocky  Sierra  Camorra,  and  has  still  its 
Moorish  castle  which  was  made  defensible  by  the  French 
in  1810. 

The  Moorish  cavalry  were  routed  and  took  to  flight,  and 
Douglas  with  his  comrades,  pursuing  them  too  eagerly, 
were  separated  from  the  Spanish  army.  The  Moors, 
perceiving  the  small  number  that  followed,  rallied  and 
surrounded  the  Scots.  Douglas,  with  only  ten  survivors, 
cut  his  way  through,  and  would  have  made  good  his 
retreat  had  he  not  turned  to  assist  Sir  William  Sinclair, 
whom  he  saw  surrounded  and  in  dire  peril.  In  attempt- 
ing to  save  his  friend,  he  was  cut  off  and  overwhelmed. 
On  finding  himself  inextricably  involved,  he  took  from  his 
neck  the  casket  containing  the  heart  of  his  king,  and 
threw  it  before  him  with  the  memorable  words,  "  Now, 
pass  onward  as  thou  wert  wont,  and  Douglas  will  follow 
thee  or  die  !" 

He  rushed  to  where  it  lay,  and  was  there  slain,  with  the 
Laird  of  Roslin,  Sir  Robert  and  Sir  Walter  Logan,  two 

K  2 


132  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

brothers.  Next  day  the  body  of  the  hero  of  seventy 
battles — Fordoun  says  he  was  thirteen  times  defeated  by, 
and  fifty-seven  times  victorious  over,  the  English  (Book 
xm) — was  found  with  the  casket  and  brought  home  by 
his  few  surviving  friends.  He  was  laid  among  his  fore- 
fathers in  Douglas  Kirk,  and  the  heart  of  Bruce  in 
Melrose  Abbey. 

At  the  court  of  Alphonso  there  was  a  knight  of  high 
renown  whose  face  was  seamed  with  scars,  and  who  ex- 
pressed surprise  that  a  soldier  of  such  renown  as  Douglas 
liad  none  to  show.  "  I  thank  God,"  said  the  latter,  "  that 
1  always  had  hands  to  protect  my  face."  (Barbour.)  His 
sword  is  still  preserved,  and  is  referred  to  by  Scott  in  the 
notes  to  Marmion.  On  the  blade  is  the  date  1329 — the 
year  of  Teba. 

When  Seville  was  captured  from  the  Moors  by  the 
Spaniards  in  1247,  after  one  of  the  most  obstinate  sieges 
mentioned  in  Spanish  history,  in  which  the  wooden  bridge 
of  the  Gruadalquiver  perished,  one  of  the  bravest  knights 
in  the  army  of  the  King  of  Castile  was  a  Scottish  wanderer 
named  Sir  Lawrer.ce  Poore  (Powrie  ?),  called  in  the  Spanish 
annals  Lorenzo  Poro,  who,  after  the  storming  of  the  city, 
was  the  first  man  to  ascend  La  Giralda,  a  tower  still  250 
feet  in  height.  His  descendant,  the  Marquis  de  la  Motilla, 
still  owns  his  ancestral  mansion  in  the  Calle  de  la  Cuna  at 
Seville,  says  Forde  in  his  work  on  Spain,  and  adds  that  "a 
Scottish  herald  will  do  well  to  look  at  the  coats  of  arms  in 
the  Patio." 

In  1495-6  ambassadors  were  sent  from  James  IV  to 
Spain.  In  the  High  Treasurer's  accounts  for  that  year 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL.  133 

there  is  an  entry  to  "  George  Murehead — 4  ells  of  Rissili's 
brown,  for  a  gowne  to  him,  when  he  went  to  Spain  with  the 
Secretary." 

Sir  John  Seton  of  Barnes,  Knight  of  St.  Jago,  the  direct 
descendant  of  George  IY.  Lord  Seaton  was  Master  of  the 
Household  to  Philip  II,  1556-98  ;  but  was  home  in  Scot- 
land in  1609.  (House  of  Seaton,  etc.) 

In  1618,  Archibald,  Earl  of  Argyll,  who  commanded  the 
royal  forces  at  Glenlivat  in  1594,  "  not  being  able  to  give 
satisfaction  to  his  creditors,"  according  to  Scotstarvit, 
entered  the  service  of  Spain,  had  a  command  in  West 
Flanders,  and  distinguished  himself  at  the  capture  of 
several  strong  places  from  the  States  of  Holland,  but 
changed  his  religion.  Thus  Craig,  a  forgotten  poet,  wrote 
of  him : — 

"  Now  Earl  of  Guile  and  Lord  Forlorn  thou  goes, 
Quitting  thy  prince  to  serve  his  foreign  foes  ; 
No  faith  in  plaids,  no  trust  in  Highland  trews, 
Camelion-like,  they  change  so  many  hues.'' 

About  two  years  after  this,  one  of  the  Semples,  of  whom 
little  more  than  the  name  is  known,  founded  the  Scottish 
College  of  Valladolid,  the  revenue  of  which  is  now  about 
£1,000  per  annum,  and  the  lands  of  which  are  to  be  held 
off  the  Spanish  Crown  while  vines  shall  continue  to  grow 
upon  them.  Six  miles  from  the  city  is  the  country  villa 
(of  the  college)  which  Wellington  occupied  for  a  night  on 
the  retreat  from  Burgos. 

Ludovick,  "  the  Loyal  Eavl  of  Crawford,"  after  the 
king's  fortunes  had  reached  the  lowest  ebb  in  1646,  finding 
himself  penniless  and  destitute,  returned  to  Spain,  the 


134          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

theatre  of  his  early  fame,  "  to  crave,"  says  Guthry,  "  arrears 
dne  to  him"  by  Philip  IV,  who  gave  him  command  of  an 
Irish  regiment,  in  which  a  Don  Diego  Leslie  had  a  company 
— a  follower  of  his  own.  He  was  at  Badajoz  in  1649.  Two 
years  after  he  was  in  Paris  fighting  valiantly  in  the  wars  of 
the  Fronde,  and  guarding  the  Cardinal  de  Retz  in  Notre 
Dame,  with  fifty  other  Scottish  officers  qui  avoient  ete  des 
troupes  de  Montrose,  and  in  these  wars  he  is  supposed  to 
have  perished.  {Memoirs  of  Montrose,  1858.) 

In  1706  a  Scotch  officer  rendered  such  valuable  services 
in  succouring  the  city  of  Denia,  in  Valencia — a  place  of 
difficult  access,  and  strongly  defended  by  walls  and  a  double 
port — that  he  won  the  gratitude  of  Charles  III.  This  was 
Commodore  James  Moodie,  of  Melsetter,  who  ran  from 
school  in  his  boyhood,  and  entered  on  board  a  man-of-war. 
How  well  his  services  were  appreciated  by  the  Spanish 
king  may  appear  from  the  following  letter  which  tue 
latter  addressed  to  Queen  Anne  on  the  subject  in 
French  : — 

"  Madame,  my  sister, 

"  Captain  James  Moodie,  who  commands  the  vessel 
Lancaster,  has  rendered  me  services  so  important  that  I  owe 
almost  entirely  to  his  zeal  the  preservation  of  my  city  of 
Denia,  which,  being  destitute  of  all  kinds  of  provision, 
would  not  have  held  out  against  a  siege  of  five  weeks, 
unless  the  said  captain  had  furnished  a  supply  at  the  request 
of  those  who  commanded  on  my  part.  I  doubt  not  but 
your  Majesty  will  make  him  a  handsome  and  generous 
return,  both  on  account  of  the  said  services  and  of  this  my 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL.  135 

pressing  intercession ;  to  which  I  shall  only  add  the  assurance 
of  that  respect  and  sincere  attachment  with  which  I  am, 
madame,  my  sister,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  CHARLES." 

How  the  commodore  was  rewarded  we  know  not ;  but 
from  the  old  Statistical  Account  we  learn  that  when  close 
on  his  eightieth  year  he  was  murdered  in  the  streets  of 
Kirkwall  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jacobite,  Sir  James 
Stewart. 

During  the  war  in  Catalonia,  John  Wauchope  of  Niddrie- 
Marischal,  a  general  of  Spanish  infantry,  was  slain  in 
1718.  His  brother,  in  the  same  service,  has  already  been 
referred  to  as  the  governor  of  Cagliari,  in  Sicily.  The 
earl-marischal  at  this  time,  and  till  1733,  and  several 
other  Scottish  officers,  his  companions  in  loyalty  and 
misfortune,  were  serving  in  the  Spanish  army.  Among 
them  was  Sir  John  Macdonald,  who  afterwards  landed  in 
Moidart  with  Prince  Charles. 

The  earl  was  offered  the  rank  of  lieutenant-general,  but 
declined  it,  until  his  services  should  prove  his  capacity 
and  merit — an  instance  of  modesty  and  disinterestedness 
that  filled  with  astonishment  the  ambitious  Alberoni.  The 
earl  then  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  he  received  the  Order 
of  the  Garter  from  King  James  ;  and  in  1733  he  was  again 
in  the  army  of  Spain  when  war  broke  out  between  that 
country  and  the  emperor.  Some  years  after  he  seems  to 
have  quitted  the  Spanish  service  again  and  lived  for  a  time 
in  obscurity,  though  in  1750  he  was  sent  by  Charles  III 
of  Spain  to  negotiate  for  the  peace  of  Europe,  but  failed  in 


136          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

the   attempt.     As   stated  elsewhere,   he  was  governor  of 
Neufchatel. 

He  was  the  last  earl-marischal,  and  with  him  ended  a 
family  the  most  ancient  in  Europe,  after  serving  Scotland 
in  a  distinguished  capacity  for  above  seven  hundred  years. 
Then  the  old  prediction  attributed  to  Thomas  the  Rhymer 
was  said  to  be  fulfilled  : — 

"  Inverugie  by  the  sea, 
Lordless  shall  thy  lands  be  !" 

The  prints  of  1759  record  that  Don  Pedro  Stuart, 
lieutenant-general  of  the  naval  forces  of  Spain,  left  Madrid 
in  November  for  Carthagena,  whence  he  sailed  with  six- 
teen ships  of  the  line  to  convey  home  his  Sicilian  Majesty. 
(Caledon  Mercury) 

It  was  no  doubt  a  son  of  this  officer  that  we  find  so 
prominently  referred  to  by  Schomberg  and  Brenton  in  their 
naval  histories. 

On  the  night  of  the  19fch  December,  1796,  Nelson,  then 
a  commodore,  having  been  despatched  by  Sir  John  Jervis 
in  Le  Minerve,  38-gun  frigate,  accompanied  by  the  Blanche, 
32  guns,  to  Porto  Ferrajo,  fell  in  with  two  Spanish  frigates, 
and  directed  Captain  Cockburn  to  attack  the  one  that 
carried  a  large  poop  light.  This  was  off  Carthagena. 
The  Blanche  kept  up  a  running  fight  with  one  of  the 
frigates ;  bat  the  Minerve,  says  Sir  Jahlel  Brenton, 
"  proved  more  fortunate,  and  subdued  her  antagonist, 
which  on  being  boarded  proved  to  be  the  Santa  Sabina, 
an  18-pound  frigate  of  40  guns,  commanded  by  Don 
Jacobo  Stuart.  During  the  action  the  contending  and 
chasing  ships  had  run  close  into  Carthagena,  with  the  wind 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL.  137 

dead  upon  the  land.  The  Spanish  captain  was  therefore 
no  sooner  on  board  the  Minerve  than  the  Sabina  was 
taken  in  tow.  This  was  scarcely  accomplished  when  the 
Minerve  was  brought  to  action  by  another  Spanish  frigate."' 

The  hard  and  gallant  fighting  that  followed — fighting- 
for  which  Nelson  presented  a  beautiful  gold-hilted  sword 
to  Captain  Cockburn — lies  apart  from  the  story  of  Don, 
Jacobo  Stuart,  who,  before  he  struck  his  colours,  had  lost 
his  mizzen-mast,  and  had  164  killed  and  wounded  out  of  a 
crew  of  286 — by  his  valour  exciting  the  admiration  of 
Nelson.  Schomberg  gives  the  date  of  this  frigate-battle 
the  19th  December,  1796  ;  Brenton,  the  1st  of  June  in  the 
same  year. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  Sir  John  Downie,. 
a  Scotsman  in  the  Spanish  army,  took  a  prominent  part 
in  several  political  events.  He  went  to  Spain  in  the  first 
instance  with  Sir  John  Moore,  and  with  the  survivors  of 
that  officer's  ill-fated  expedition  returned  with  Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley.  Having  entered  the  Spanish  service,  he  won 
such  reputation  in  Estramadura  that  a  legion  of  7,000  men,, 
collected  by  his  influence  alone,  served  under  him  with 
great  success  during  the  rest  of  the  Peninsular  war.  This, 
force  was  named  the  Estremena  Legion,  on  the  formation  of 
which  he  expended  200,000  dollars.  {London  Courier.} 

In  the  attack  on  Seville,  i«  1812,  he  led  the  advanced 
column,  which  his  legion  formed,  and  for  this  King; 
Ferdinand  VII  promoted  him  to  the  rank  of  field-marshal, 
loaded  him  with  honours,  and  made  him  knight  of  St.  Fer- 
dinand, Carlos  III,  with  seven  crosses,  for  distinguished 
actions  in  the  field.  He  was  made  governor  of  the  palace: 


138  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

of  Seville  and  captain- general  of  Andalusia.  On  visiting 
London  tlie  Prince  Regent  (afterwards  George  IV)  knighted 
him  for  his  Spanish  services  ;  but  his  decided  preference 
for  Spain  gave  offence  in  some  quarters,  though  he 
had  many  attached  friends  in  the  British  army,  among 
them  notably  the  gallant  Sir  Thomas  Picton,  who  fell  at 
Waterloo. 

When  the  troubles  of  Ferdinand  began,  Sir  John  Downie 
and  his  nephew  were  arrested  at  Seville  in  1823,  on 
suspicion  of  being  engaged  in  a  plot  to  rescue  the  king 
and  royal  family,  about  the  time  that  a  French  army 
crossed  the  Bidassoa  and  occupied  Madrid,  while  the  king 
and  Cortes  retired  to  Seville,  and  thence  to  Madrid. 

He  was  subjected  to  many  grievous  indignities,  and 
imprisoned  for  a  time  in  the  Four  Towers,  at  the  arsenal 
of  Curacca,  on  an  island  near  Cadiz,  with  a  sentinel  placed 
over  him.  But  these  sufferings  were  temporary,  and  his 
honours  were  restored  to  him. 

Sir  George  Napier,  in  his  History  of  the  Peninsular  War, 
gave  great  offence  to  the  relatives  of  Sir  John  Downie  by 
terming  him  "  an  adventurer,"  and  drew  forth  a  retort  from 
one,  who  asserted  that  he  "  was  lineally  descended  from  Sir 
Duncan  Forrester  of  Arngibbon,  in  Perthshire,  an  exten- 
sive landed  proprietor,  who  in  the  year  1492  was  Comp- 
troller of  the  Household  to  King  James  IV,"  and  that 
he  was  also  descended  from  the  Maxwells  of  Brediland,  in 
Renfrewshire. 

He  was  born  on  his  father's  property  of  Blairgorts,  near 
Kippen,  in  Stirlingshire,  and  was  a  man  of  very  command- 
ing presence. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL.  139 

He  died  in  Spain  in  1826,  and  was  interred  with  every 
honour  that  the  King  of  Spain  could  bestow. 

In  1879  there  died  at  Madrid  Donna  Maria  Manula 
Kirkpatrick  of  Closeburn,  the  mother  of  the  Empress 
Eugenie,  and  daughter  of  a  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  who  was 
British  consul  at  Malaga  during  her  marriage  with  the 
Conde  de  Montijo,  an  officer  of  the  Spanish  army,  connected 
with  the  Duke  de  Frias,  representative  of  the  ancient 
Admirals  of  Castile,  of  the  Duke  of  Fyars,  and  others  of 
the  highest  rank,  including  the  descendants  of  the  kings  of 
Arragon. 

Her  great-grandfather  (according  to  the  Times)  died  on 
the  scaffold  in  1 746,  in  consequence  of  having  joined  the 
loyal  Highlanders  under  Prince  Charles  Edward.  His  son 
emigrated  and  settled  at  Ostend,  whence  his  family  passed 
into  Spain  and  settled  in  the  south.  The  Countess- 
Dowager,  who  died  in  her  86th  year  at  the  Alba  Palace, 
was  married  to  a  brother  of  the  Count  of  Montijo  and  Teba 
(the  same  Teba  where  "  the  good  Sir  James  Douglas"  fell), 
and  on  the  death  of  the  latter  without  issue  her  husband 
succeeded  to  the  title.  The  law  of  Spain  makes  it  necessary 
to  inquire  into  the  descent  of  any  lady  before  she  can  be 
espoused  by  a  noble,  thus  certificates  were  obtained  from 
Scotland  proving  that  the  Countess  was  a  Kirkpatrick  of 
Closeburn,  and  her  ancestor  had  been  created  a  baron  by 
Alexander  II.  "  From  these  parents  the  Empress  Eugenie 
inherited  the  title  of  Teba.  The  Counts  of  Montijo  and 
Teba  were  of  the  same  origin  as  the  Dukes  of  Medina- 
Sidonia,  the  family  name  of  both  being  Guzman.  .  .  . 
The  counts  appear  among  the  most  illustrious  warriors  of 


140          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Spain  in  past  generations,  back  as  far  as  1492,  and  during 
the  wars  of  the  first  French  Empire  the  owners  of  the  title 
fought  under  the  standard  of  Napoleon." 

The  first  Scotsman  we  can  trace  in  the  Portuguese  ser- 
vice is  Captain  Forbes  of  Skellater,  in  Strathdon,  who 
served  at  the  siege  of  Maestricht,  and  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War  with  the  Prussian  army,  after  which  he  entered  that  of 
Portugal,  where  he  was  the  chief  means  of  introducing  the 
principles  of  that  discipline  which  he  had  learned  under 
Frederick  the  Great  and  Marshal  Keith. 

He  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  four  successive  sovereigns 
of  Portugal,  who  nobly  rewarded  his  integrity  and  virtue. 
He  rose  to  the  rank  of  general,  and  commanded  the  army 
at  Boussillon,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolutionary 
war.  He  attained  the  highest  rank  and  honours  the  King 
of  Portugal  could  award  him ;  and  when  the  royal  family 
retired  to  Brazil  he  accompanied  them,  and  died  there,  on 
the  8th  of  January,  1808,  in  his  67th  year. 

The  influence  of  Forbes  in  the  Portuguese  army  drew 
other  Scotsmen  to  its  ranks.  Among  these  were  William 
Sharpe,  a  native  of  St.  Andrew's,  who  in  1764  was  made 
brigadier-general  and  governor  of  Olivenza,  and  died  in 
London  a  baronet;  in  1780  governor  of  the  province  of 
Minho,  and  colonel  of  the  Mon£a  regiment  of  infantry ; 
Colonel  James  Anderson,  who  in  1763  commanded  the 
battalion  of  Lagos,  and  died  at  Viona  in  1771  ;  Major 
Bethune  Lindsay,  who  died  at  Falmouthin  February,  1776; 
and  Colonel  John  McDonell,  commander  of  the  regiment  of 
Peniche  in  1765 — a  corps  for  steadiness  surpassing  even 
those  of  Prussia.  "  I  am  told,"  says  a  writer  in  the  Edinburgh 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL.  141 

Advertiser,  vol.  iii,  "  that  Colonel  McDonell  has  been  inde- 
fatigable, and  that,  with  the  assistance  of  three  or  four 
of  his  own  relations  who  have  seen  service,  he  has  in  a 
few  months  brought  that  regiment  to  its  present  perfection, 
from  being  one  of  the  worst  in  Portugal.  The  king  publicly 
expressed  his  satisfaction,  and  thanked  the  colonel  at  the 
head  of  his  regiment." 

There  was  also  Lieutenant-General  MacLean,  who  was 
appointed  governor  of  Lisbon  in  1768,  and  ten  years  after 
succeeded  Don  Jose  Francis  Lobo,  Count  of  Oriolo,  as 
governor  of  Estramadura,  the  first  military  honour  in 
Portugal,  and  never  before  given  to  any  but  a  noble  of  the 
highest  rank. 

In  1764,  Captain  Forbes,  the  antagonist  of  the  notorious 
John  Wiikes,  entered  the  Portuguese  service,  after  having 
been  in  the  French  ;  and  there  was  also  the  gallant  Briga- 
dier John  Hamilton,  who  was  drowned  in  1767,  when  re- 
turning home  in  the  Betsy,  of  Leith,  which  foundered  off 
the  coast  of  Lincolnshire. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE   SCOTS    IN    HOLLAND    AND    FLANDERS. 

Intercourse  between  Scotland  and  the  Low  Countries — "  Auld 
Sanct  Geil"  at  Bruges  —  The  Scots  Brigade  in  1570  — 
Brigadier  Henderson — Sir  Andrew  Gray — "  The  Bulwark 
of  the  Republic." 

LIKE  France  and  Sweden,  Holland  and  the  Low  Countries 
were  a  spacious  area  for  the  development  of  Scottish 
valour  and  military  enterprise,  for  thither  in  thousands 
flocked  those  whose  swords  peace  with  England  left  idle  at 
home.  As  one  song  has  it : — 

"  Oh,  woe  unto  those  cruel  wars 

That  ever  they  began, 
For  they  have  swept  my  native  shore 

Of  many  a  pretty  man  : 
For  first  they  took  my  brethren  twain, 

Then  wiled  my  love  frae  me. 
Oh,  woe  unto  those  cruel  wars 

In  Low  Germanic  !" 

Another  girl  sings  thus  of  her  love  : — 

"  Repent  it  will  I  never 
Until  the  day  I  dee, 
Though  the  Lowlands  o'  Holland 
Hae  twined  my  love  and  me." 

Between  Scotland  and  the  Low  Countries  intercourse 
took  place  at  a  very  early  period. 

James  Bennett,  Bishop  of  St.  Andrew's,  when  a  fugitive 
from  the  party  of  the  usurper  Baliol,  took  shelter  there, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       143 

and  dying  in  1332,  was  buried  in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Eckchot 
at  Bruges. 

The  market  of  trade  for  Scotland  in  the  Low  Countries 
was  changed  several  times.  It  had  been  originally  fixed 
at  Campvere,  in  Zealand  (on  the  north  coast  of  Walcheren), 
the  count  of  which  had  married  a  daughter  of  James  I. 
"The  Scots  are  allowed  the  use  of  the  old  parish  church 
here,"  says  a  work  of  1711;  "it  has  frequently  been  in 
danger  by  the  sea,  which  overturned  a  tower  on  the  side 
of  the  harbour  in  1650."  From  thence  the  staple  was 
taken  to  Bruges,  which  in  the  15th  century  was  the  centre  of 
all  European  trade,  and  became  eventually  the  seat  of  the 
Conservator  of  Scottish  Privileges  in  Flanders. 

The  Ledger  of  John  Halli/burton,  who  held  this  office, 
and  which  runs  from  1492  to  1503,  is  perhaps  one  of  the 
most  interesting  commercial  relics  in  Europe.  John  Home, 
the  author  of  Douglas,  was,  we  believe,  the  last  who  held 
this  office.  He  died  in  1808. 

When  passing  along  the  Quai  Espanol  at  Bruges,  in 
September,  1873  (to  quote  a  previous  work  of  our  own), 
we  met  a  vast  crowd  defiling  across  the  old  bridge  that 
leads  thereto  from  the  Rue  des  Augustines,  preceded  by 
women  strewing  the  way  with  flowers,  for  it  was  St.  Giles' 
Day — the  1st  of  the  month — the  patron  of  the  parish 
wherein  lies  the  Scottish  quarter  of  the  old  city.  Preceded 
by  the  cure  with  censers  and  acolytes,  and  escorted  by  the 
2nd  Belgian  Infantry  with  fixed  bayonets,  and  preceded  by 
all  the  drummers  of  the  Civic  Gruard,  came  the  curious 
relic  of  the  saint  on  a  pedestal  borne  by  four  men — the 
left  hand  and  arm  of  St.  Giles  cased  in  silver,  and  fixed 


144  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

•upright  from  the  shoulder.  The  right  arm,  we  need 
scarcely  inform  Scottish  readers  of  Knox's  History,  was 
the  chief  relic  of  the  sister  church  in  Edinburgh,  where, 
till  the  Reformation,  it  was  enshrined  in  silver,  weighing 
over  five  pounds,  and  the  right  of  bearing  which,  on  the 
Saint's  day,  was  hereditary  in  the  family  of  Preston  of 
Gourton.  In  the  Bruges  procession  there  is  borne  St.  Giles 
in  effigy,  accompanied  by  his  fawn,  a  supporter  of  the 
Edinburgh  arms ;  and,  saluted  by  all  guards  and  way- 
farers, the  procession  parades  the  city  till  evening,  when  it 
returns  to  the  old  church  of  St.  Giles  (near  the  great  canal), 
before  the  altar  of  which  lies  William  de  Camera,  sub -prior 
of  St.  Andrew's,  in  Fifeshire,  who  died  at  Bruges  in  1417. 
There  the  Scottish  factory  was  established  in  1386, 
according  to  the  old  folio  ChronyJce  Van  Vlanderen.  It  has 
lonf  since  been  demolished,  but  near  its  site,  in  the 

O  '  ' 

Ilistoire  de  Bruges,  1854,  we  find  still  extant  the  Schotte 
Poorte,  Scliottiuen  Straet,  Schotte  Bolle  Straet,  Schottile 
Straet,  Zottine  Straet,  de  VEglise  St.  Gilles,  all  of  which 
were  the  abode  or  resort  of  Scottish  traders  and  seamen 
in  the  middle  ages. 

In  1408,  Alexander,  styling  himself  the  Earl  of  Mar, 
though  he  had  no  right  to  that  title  save  a  charter  from 
Isabel,  his  first  wife,  raised  "  a  large  company  of  gentle- 
men," sajs  Douglas,  and  carrying  them  into  Flanders, 
under  John,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  performed  great  feats  of 
chivalry  at  the  siege  of  Liege,  in  that  contest  in  which 
36,000  Liegeois  are  said  to  have  been  slain.  He  married 
Jane,  Duchess  of  Brabant,  whose  subjects  refused  to 
submit  to  him  as  a  foreigner,  especially  as  she  died  within 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       145 

a  year  or  so  of  this  marriage.  Enraged  by  this,  he  fitted 
out  a  fleet,  swept  that  of  the  Brabanters  from  the  sea,  and 
steering  elsewhere,  according  to  Drummond,  pillaged  and 
destroyed  Dantzig,  after  which  he  returned  with  a  vast 
booty  to  Scotland. 

Among  those  who  accompanied  him  was  Sir  William 
Hay  of  Nachton.  (Notes  to  Border  Minstrelsy.) 

From  Bymer's  Fcedera  we  learn  that  William,  Lord 
Graham  (ancestor  of  the  Duke  of  Montrose),  was  at 
Bruges  in  December,  1466.  While  there  he  borrowed  £80 
Scots  from  Sir  Alexander  Napier  of  that  Ilk,  who  was  then 
selecting  a  suit  of  fine  armour  for  James  II,  and  was 
present  at  the  nuptials  of  Charles  the  Bold  in  1468,  when 
the  brilliant  tournament  of  the  Golden  Fleece  was  held. 
(Merchiston  Papers.) 

We  have  now  come  to  the  year  1570 — the  epoch  when 
the  old  Scots  brigade  of  gallant  and  immortal  memory,  a 
corps  that  existed  for  258  years  until  1818,  and  took  its  rise 
at  a  time  when  the  power  of  Maurice,  Prince  of  Nassau,  drew 
to  his  standard  the  best  and  bravest  of  those  Scottish 
spirits  whose  swords  failed  to  feed  them  at  home — a  time 
when  the  Spanish  armies  with  which  they  warred  were 
the  finest  troops  in  the  world,  but  when  the  musketeers, 
pikemen,  and  cuirassiers  of  the  Marquis  de  Spinola,  of 
Alexander,  Prince  of  Parma  and  Placentia,  Cordova, 
Mansfeldt,  and  John  of  Austria  were  all  men  of  the 
highest  soldierly  qualities,  with  a  love  of  military  glory ;  but, 
unhappily,  added  to  these  a  bigotry  in  religion,  a  ferocity 
and  cruelty  previously  almost  unknown  in  war. 

It  was   chiefly  by  the  aid  of  the  Scottish  troops  that 

L 


146  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Maurice  of  JNassau  was  able  to  meet  the  tide  of  Spanish 
invasion.  Among  those  who  led  these  Scots  in  1570  were 
Sir  Walter  Scott  of  Buccleugh,  one  of  the  bravest  of 
Border  chiefs,  who  had  exasperated  Queen  Elizabeth  by 
storming  the  casble  of  Carlisle  to  release  Armstrong  of 
Kinninmont,  and  his  son  Walter,  afterwards  created  by 
James  VI  Earl  of  Buccleugh;  Sir  Henry  Balfour  of  Burleigh, 
whose  brother  David,  a  captain  in  his  regiment,  perished  at 
sea  en  route  to  Holland  ;  John  Halkett  of  Pitfirran,  knighted 
by  James  VI,  and  progenitor  of  all  the  Halketts  in  that 
country ;  and  Colonels  Stewart,  Hay,  Douglas,  Grahame, 
and  Hamilton,  whose  names  are  given  by  Grose  in  his 
Military  Antiquities.  The  first  year  of  their  service  was 
distinguished  by  a  brawl  concerning  their  countryman, 
George,  sixth  Lord  Seaton,  who  was  accused  of  tempting 
them  to  revolt  and  join  the  Spaniards  in  the  cause  of  his 
mistress,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots. 

The  Dutch  authorities  threatened  to  put  him  to  the 
rack;  he  was  brought  before  it,  when  the  Scottish  officers, 
with  their  men,  surrounded  the  house,  and  threatened, 
if  he  was  not  set  at  liberty,  "  to  go  off  in  a  body  to  the 
Spanish  general."  (Crawford's  Memoirs.')  He  was  there- 
upon released,  and  the  matter  ended. 

The  war  in  which  these  troops  came  to  bear  a  part  was 
caused  by  Philip  II,  the  successor  of  Charles  V,  a  bigoted 
Catholic,  appointing  his  sister,  the  Duchess  of  Parma, 
Regent  of  the  Netherlands,  on  which  the  discontent  of  the 
people  reached  an  alarming  height.  The  Prince  of  Orange, 
with  Counts  Egmont  and  Home,  remonstrated  against  the 
establishment  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  new  bishops,  and 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       147 

nsisted  upon  the  states-gene  r  1  being  assembled  to  con- 
sider the  complaints  of  the  people  ;  but  ere  long  it  was 
evident  that  the  courts  of  Spain  and  France  had  no  other 
object  in  view  than  the  destruction  of  Protestantism.  A 
general  combination  was  now  formed  for  the  removal  of 
grievances,  and  the  sword  was  cnce  more  drawn  on  the 
great  battlefield  of  Europe,  "  the  Lowlands  of  Holland," 
and  "  no  mean  part  of  the  merit  of  overthrowing  the 
Spanish  power  in  the  Netherlands  is  justly  attributable  to 
the  Scots  brigade,"  many  of  whom  had  served  in  those 
civil  wars  at  home  which  ended  in  the  fall  of  the  castle  of 
Edinburgh  after  the  siege  in  1573. 

In  the  Church  of  St.  Walburga  at  Bruges  there  was 
shown  till  1780  the  tomb  of  a  Scottish  warrior  of  those 
days.  Beneath  no  less  than  sixteen  shields,  each  of  which 
was  surmounted  by  a  coronet,  was  carved  the  epitaph  of 
"  William  Foret,  a  native  of  Scotland,  Chevalier  of  the 
Order  of  St.  Andrew  in  that  kingdom,  during  his  life 
captain  of  150  lances  in  the  service  of  their  Highnesses, 
the  States  of  Flanders  in  the  quarter  of  Bruges,  '  lequel 
il  passa  le  6  Juillet,  1600;  et  Dame  Marguerite  Despars, 
fille  de  noble  homme  Louis  Despars,'  his  wife,  who  died 
20th  December,  1597."  (Sepulchral  Memorials?) 

This  name  is  little  known  in  Scotland,  but  seems  to  have 
belonged  to  Fifeshire. 

In  the  first  five  years  of  the  17th  century  four  recruits, 
who  made  some  figure  in  Scottish  history,  joined  the 
brigade.  These  were  William  Dalrymple,  a  poor  student, 
the  hero  of  Scott's  Ayrshire  Tragedy,  in  1602  ;  and  in 
1605,  Angus  Macdonald  of  Isla,  Maclean  of  Duart,  and 

L2 


148          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Tormod  Macleod  of  Lewis,  who  had  undergone  a  tedious 
captivity  in  Edinburgh  Castle  since  1589  to  keep  the  Isles 
quiet. 

Dalrymple  having  had  the  misfortune  to  be  unwittingly 
the  bearer  of  that  message  by  which  the  Laird  of  Auch- 
indrane  lured  to  his  doom  Sir  Thomas  Kennedy  of  Culzean, 
near  Maybole,  was,  by  means  of  the  former,  enlisted  in  the 
regiment  of  Buccleugh,  with  which  he  served  some  years 
as  a  soldier ;  but  on  returning  home  he  became  a  source 
of  dread  to  the  savage  baron,  who  had  him  murdered  and 
buried  in  the  sand  near  Chapel-Donan.  The  corpse, 
speedily  unearthed  by  the  tide,  was  carried  out  to  sea  by 
the  waves,  which  afterwards  cast  it  on  the  shore  near  the 
scene  of  the  murder,  which  soon  came  to  light,  and  the 
guilty  were  brought  to  an  ignominious  death.  (Pitcairn's 
Trials.) 

In  the  April  of  1607  there  is  recorded  the  arrest  of  a 
ship  conveying  to  Flanders  several  fresh  companies  for 
Buccleugh's  regiment.  It  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  among 
the  Denmylne  MSS.  in  the  Advocate's  Library,  which 
records  that  the  states  of  Flanders  owed  several  great 
sums  to  "  umquhile  Capitayne  Achisoun"  for  his  service  in 
their  wars,  and  that  his  heirs  had  arrested  this  ship  in  the 
harbour  of  Leith  ;  and  the  king  was  requested  to  use  his 
influence  that  the  arrestment  should  be  "  lousit,"  which  no 
doubt  was  the  case. 

In  1609  a  twelve  years'  truce  was  concluded  between 
the  states-general  and  the  King  of  Spain,  and  the  first 
article  of  the  document  bore  that  his  Catholic  Majesty 
treated  with  the  lords  states-general  of  the  United  Provinces 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDEKS.       149 

*'  in  quality  of,  and  as  holding  them  to  be,  free  countries, 
provinces,  and  states,  over  which  he  pretended  nothing." 

In  1G21  the  war  was  renewed  by  the  Spanish  army, 
under  the  Marquis  of  Spinola,  who  won  in  several  en- 
counters, but  was  sharply  repulsed  by  the  brigade  under 
Colonel  Henderson  when  besieging  Bergen- op-Zoom  in 
1622.  He  attacked  that  great  fortress,  the  barrier  between 
Holland  and  Zealand,  with  fury  and  confidence,  pouring 
about  200,000  shot  into  it ;  but  was  compelled  to  raise  the 
blockade  after  three  months,  with  the  loss  of  12,000  men, 
on  the  approval  of  Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau.  In  the 
course  of  this  siege  Colonel  Henderson  was  killed ;  and  it 
is  probably  a  son  of  his,  James  Henderson,  of  whom  we 
read  as  proceeding,  with  the  rank  of  admiral,  with  the 
Dutch  expedition  to  take  Angola  from  the  Portuguese  in 
1641,  at  the  head  of  twenty  ships,  having  on  board  3,100 
soldiers  and  seamen — an  object  in  which  be  succeeded, 
capturing  the  place,  and  finding  therein  a  vast  amount  of 
booty.  (Ogilby's  Africa,  fol.,  1670.) 

During  the  progress  of  the  new  war,  in  1624,  old  Sir 
Andrew  Gray,  whom  we  left  in  London  soliciting  military 
employment,  after  the  struggle  in  Bohemia  arrived  from 
Dover  at  the  head  of  11,000  English  auxiliaries  in  Holland, 
where,  according  to  Balfour's  Annals,  "the  most  part  of  them 
died  miserably  with  cold  and  hunger."  The  scarcity  of 
food  brought  on  a  pestilence,  and  in  their  small  trans- 
ports the  soldiers  were  literally  "  heaped  one  upon 
another."  They  perished  in  thousands,  and  their  bodies 
lay  unburied  in  piles  upon  the  sandy  shores  of  Zealand, 
where  their  limbs  and  bowels  were  torn  and  devoured 


150          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

"by  dogs  and  swine,  to  the  horror  of  beholders."     (Acta 
Regia.) 

After  this  we  hear  no  more  of  old  Sir  Andrew  Gray, 
unless  he  is  the  same  who  is  mentioned  by  Sir  Thomas 
Urquhart  of  Cromarty  in  his  list  of  Scottish  colonels  serving 
Louis  XIII  of  France.  (Hepburn's  Memoirs.) 

In  1629  the  three  battalions  of  the  brigade,  commanded 
respectively  by  Colonels  Sir  Henry  Balfour,  Bruce,  and  the 
Chieftain  of  Bucoleugh,  accompanied  the  Prince  of  Orange 
in  his  successful  attempt  to  reduce  Hertogenbush  (otherwise 
Bois-le-Duc),  where  the  Spaniards  had  concentrated  all 
their  munitions  of  war ;  and  thus  by  one  stroke  gave  a 
mortal  blow  to  the  Spanish  power  in  the  Low  Countries. 
On  this  occasion  so  greatly  did  the  Scots  cover  themselves 
with  glory  that  the  Prince  of  Orange  styled  them  "  The 
Bulwark  of  the  Republic."  (Grose.) 

Walter,  first  Earl  of  Buccleugh,  whohad  so  long  commanded 
the  first  regiment  of  the  brigade,  died  on  the  llth  June, 
1634,  and  his  body  was  landed  at  Leith  for  conveyance  to 
his  own  house  of  Branxholm,  whence  the  funeral  set  out 
for  Hawick.  "  A  striking  sight  it  must  have  been  that  long 
heraldic  procession  which  went  before  the  body  of  the 
deceased  noble,  along  the  banks  of  the  Teviot  on  that  bright 
June  day.  First  went  forty-six  saulies  in  black  gowns  and 
hoods,  with  black  staves  in  their  hands,  a  trumpeter  in  the 
Buccleugh  livery  following  and  sounding  his  trumpet. 
Then  came  Robert  Scott  of  Howshaw,  fully  armed,  riding 
on  a  fair  horse,  and  carrying  on  the  point  of  a  lance  a 
banner  of  the  defunct's  colours,  azure  and  or.  Then  a  horse 
in  black,  led  by  a  lackey  in  mourning,  a  horse  with  a  crim- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.        151 

son  foot-mantle,  and  the  trumpets  in  mourning  sounding 
sadly."  Then  came  the  gum  pheon,  lances,  spurs,  and 
gauntlets,  the  great  pencil  standard  and  coronet,  all  borne 
by  gentlemen  of  the  (-Ian  Scott.  "  Last  caine  the  corpse, 
carried  under  a  fair  pall  of  black  velvet,  decked  with  arms, 
tears,  cypress  of  satin,  and  on  the  coffin  the  defunct's  helmet, 
with  a  coronet  overlaid  with  cypress  to  show  that  he  had 
been  a  soldier.  And  so  he  was  laid  among  his  ancestors 
in  Hawick  Kirk."  (Dom.  Ann.  Scot.) 

Colonel  Sir  William  Brog  was  a  man  of  some  distinction 
among  the  Scottish  troops  in  Holland.  A  rare  print  of  him 
by  Queboren  was  engraved  in  1635.  He  died  in  the  Low 
Country  wars,  and  a  dispute  among  his  heirs  was  before 
the  Lords  of  Session  in  1639 — according  to  Durie's  Decisions, 
1690. 

During  the  German  campaign  which  succeeded,  the 
vexed  question  of  precedence  between  the  Scottish  and 
English  auxiliaries  of  Holland,  with  priority  of  rank, 
appears  to  have  been  discussed  for  the  first  time,  and  it  was 
decided  that  the  order  and  ranking  should  be  according  to 
the  antiquity  of  the  respective  regiments ;  but  this  right 
was  never  contested  in  the  matter  of  the  Scots  brigade 
until  the  year  1783. 

Under  Cardinal  Richelieu,  France  in  1635  joined  the 
Protestant  League ;  but  the  outrageous  cruelties  of  the 
French  troops,  particularly  at  the  siege  and  sack  of  Tirle- 
rnont,  in  Brabant,  so  exasperated  the  Netherlander  that 
they  flew  to  arms  on  every  hand,  and  compelled  the  in- 
vaders to  retreat. 

George  Douglas  (a  son  of  the  Earl  of  Morton),  who  had 


152          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

borne  the  royal  standard  under  Montrose  at  Alford,  in 
1645,  joined  the  brigade  soon  after,  and  died  in  high  mili- 
tary rank  (baronage)  ;  and  the  great  marquis's  friend  and 
chaplain,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  was  chaplain  to 
one  of  the  battalions  in  1648. 

After  the  peace  of  Westphalia,  which  was  signed  at 
Munster  in  that  year,  the  Thirty  Years'  War  ended,  and 
Holland  was  declared  to  be  "  a  free  state,  independent  alike 
of  Spain  and  the  Empire." 

The  Dutch  disbanded  their  forces,  but  "  the  Bulwark  of 
the  Republic,"  their  Scottish  troops,  remained  intact,  and 
the  civil  wars  at  home  sent  so  many  trained  recruits  to 
their  ranks  that  the  brigade  was  eventually  increased  to 
six  battalions. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS. 


Battle  of  Mechlin  —  Siege  of  Gertruydenberg  —  Siege  of  Nieuport 

—  Siege  of  Ostende  —  Battle  of  Sene.fi:  —  Battle  of  Steinkirk 

—  Battle  of  Oudenarde. 

THEIR  first  encounter  with,  the  enemy  was  at  Gembloux,  in 
the  province  of  Namur,  where,  on  the  20th  of  January, 
1578,  the  Spanish  troops  obtained  a  complete  victory  over 
them  and  the  Belgic  insurgents  —  a  defeat  avenged  on  the 
1st  of  August  in  the  same  year  at  the  great  battle  of 
Mechlin,  when,  as  Famiana  Strado  tells  us  in  his  Belgic 
Wars,  the  Scots  threw  off  their  half-armour,  let  slip  their 
belted  plaids,  and  fought  naked  —  "  nudi  pugnant  Scotorum 
multi,"  his  words  are.  This  was  probably  owing  to  the 
heat  of  the  weather;  but,  according  to  the  Dutch  historians, 
the  hardest  work  and  heaviest  loss  fell  upon  the  Scots,  ere 
the  brigades  of  Don  John  of  Austria  were  put  to  the  route 
and  driven  across  the  Dyle. 

In  the  great  church  of  the  city  there  was  then  to  be 
seen  a  monument  with  the  date  obliterated,  and  an  inscrip- 
tion stating  that  there  lay  "  Margaret,  daughter  of  Henry 
Stuart,  by  H.R.H.  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  daughter  to 
George  Stuart,  of  the  illustrious  house  of  Stuart  and 
Lennox  in  Scotland,  by  Dame  Mary  de  Baqueville  of 
Normandy."  (Atlas  Geo.,  1711.) 


154          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

From  the  Privy  Council  Register  we  learn  that  in  1578 
Captain  John  Strachan  was  empowered  to  levy  200  addi- 
tional men  for  the  service  of  the  Low  Countries,  "  friendis 
and  confederatis  of  this  Realme";  that  "  loose  women"  were 
not  to  be  transported  there,  and  that  the  "  great  reputation" 
won  by  Scotsmen  there  was  duly  recorded  in  1581 ;  that  a 
dispute  among  the  officers  was  remitted  to  themselves ;  and 
another,  in  which  Colonel  Balfour  was  concerned,  was 
remitted  to  the  judges  in  Flanders. 

In  the  same  year,  William  I,  Prince  of  Orange,  sent  an 
ambassador  to  Scotland  to  compliment  James  VI  upon  the 
valour  of  the  brigade,  which  now  marched  to  assist  in  the 
ineffectual  attempt  to  raise  the  siege  of  Antwerp,  which 
had  then  been  invested  for  more  than  a  year  by  the  Prince 
of  Parma,  while  the  Dutch  merchants  of  Amsterdam 
basely  used  secret  means  to  prevent  assistance  being  given 
to  their  rival  brethren. 

Here  fire-ships  were  used,  and  a  prodigious  mine  exploded, 
according  to  Strada  and  others,  "  the  shock  of  which  was 
so  dreadful  that  it  made  the  earth  tremble  for  several  miles, 
and  threw  the  water  of  the  river  a  great  way  beyond  its 
banks."  In  the  explosion  500  men  perished,  and  the  city 
surrendered  in  the  following  year ;  but  the  brigade  was 
more  successful  in  the  case  of  Bergen-op-Zoom,  from 
which  the  Prince  of  Parma  was  compelled  to  beat  a 
retreat. 

Meanwhile  a  body  of  Scots,  under  Colonel  Seaton,  and 
of  English,  under  Colonel  Norris,  were  disposed  about 
Ghent,  according  to  Cardinal  Bentivoglio,  who  tells  us  that 
at  the  siege  of  Tournay,  "  some  days  after  the  assault 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       155 

Colonel  Preston,  a  Scotsman,  forcing  his  way  through  the 
German  companies  of  the  king's  camp,  got  some  horse  into 
the  city,"  and  thus  gave  heart  to  the  besieged,  though  he 
informed  them  that  there  was  no  hope  of  succour  from 
France.  (Ilistory  of  the  Wars  in  Flanders,  fol.) 

In  the  commission  granted  in  1584  to  Captain  William 
Stewart  (afterwards  Lord  Pittenweem)  as  colonel  of  the 
Guards  to  James  VI  it  is  stated  that  the  officers  and 
soldiers  of  that  corps  had  previously  served  in  the  Nether- 
lands, where  they  had  been  "  permitted  and  licensiatt  to 
assist  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  the  States  in  their  wieris" 
for  twelve  years  ;  but,  in  default  of  wages,  had  endured 
poverty  and  hunger,  whereby  many  perished,  leaving 
widows  and  orphans — which  affords  a  glimpse  that  the 
brigade  had  found  but  indifferent  paymasters  in  the  states- 
general  of  Holland  at  that  crisis.  (Acts  ParL,  Jac.  VI, 
fol.) 

At  Gertruydeuberg,  on  the  Maes,  after  the  storm  and 
capture  of  the  strongly  fortified  town,  the  brigade  suffered 
so  heavily  in  three  months  that  it  was  ordered  to  remain 
in  garrison  till  recruited  from  Scotland  ;  and  on  the  return 
therefrom  of  the  States  ambassadors,  who  had  gone  to 
congratulate  James  VI  on  the  birth  of  his  son  in  1594, 
they  took  back  with  them  1,500  recruits  to  bring  up  its 
strength.  (Grose's  Antiquities.)  And  five  years  after 
saw  the  brigade  cover  itself  with  glory  at  the  siege  of  Bom- 
mel,  a  strongly  walled  town,  which  was  twice  attacked  by 
the  Imperialists  in  1589  and  1599,  but  on  both  occasions 
they  were  repulsed  with  heavy  losses. 

By  the  year  1600  the  Low  Countries  were  cleared  of  the 


a 56          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

invaders,  and  the  operations  of  the  war  were  almost  con- 
fined to  Flanders  ;  but  in  these  brief  accounts  the  names  or 
numbers  of  the  slain  are  not  fully  recorded. 

In  that  year,  at  the  Downs  of  Nieuport,  eight  miles  from 
Ostende,  the  brigade  served  at  the  attack  of  the  town 
under  Maurice,  Prince  of  Nassau,  when  the  Archduke 
Albert  of  Austria,  who  advanced  to  relieve  it,  was  defeated 
with  the  loss  of  7,000  slain. 

On  this  occasion  the  Scots  brigade  lost  heavily.  It 
formed  part  of  a  column  detached  to  hold  some  bridges  over 
which  the  enemy  had  to  pass  to  reach  the  scene  of  opera- 
tions, and  the  sluices  by  which  the  country  could  be  laid 
under  water ;  but  its  numbers  proved  too  weak  for  the 
duty  assigned  them,  and  they  were  forced  to  retire,  "  the 
whole  loss  having  fallen  on  the  Scots,  as  well  as  on  their 
•chiefs  and  captains,  as  on  the  private  soldiers,  insomuch 
that  800  remained  (dead)  on  the  field,  amongst  whom  were 
eleven  captains,  many  lieutenants,  and  other  officers." 

In  the  History  of  the  Republiclc,  1705,  it  is  stated  that  at 
the  siege  of  Nieuport  many  discontents  concerning  the 
•division  of  booty  and  prisoners  took  place  among  the 
Protestant  troops,  and  that  many  of  the  captured  "  were 
barbarously  killed  in  cold  blood  by  the  Scots." 

In  1601  the  brigade  served  at  the  famous  siege  of 
<O.stende — a  task  which  lasted  three  years,  and  in  which 
more  than  100,000  men  are  said  to  have  perished  on  both 
sides. 

So  slightly  was  itfortified  atfirst,that  the  Princess  Isabella 
averred  she  would  not  change  her  dress  till  the  Dutch  and 
their  Scottish  allies  surrendered,  and  when  it  fell  "  it  was 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.      157 

reduced  to  a  heap  of  rubbish.  The  Spaniards  shot  so  many- 
bullets  against  the  sandhill  bulwark  that  it  became  as  a 
wall  of  iron,  and  dashed  all  the  fresh  bullets  to  pieces  when 
they  hit  it." 

The  governor  was  changed  every  six  months.  The 
assaults  and  cannonading  daily  were  frightful ;  the  forts 
called  the  Hedgehog  and  Gullet  of  Hell  were  carried  by' 
storm  by  the  Spaniards  and  Italians  ;  the  Germans  carried 
the  Sandhill,  though  they  saw  the  first  stormers  blown  by 
scores  into  the  air  amid  the  smoke  of  the  conflict  that 
mingled  with  the  fog  from  the  canals.  Ultimately  the  place 
surrendered  on  honourable  terms,  and  3,000  Dutch  and 
Scots  and  a  few  English  capable  of  bearing  arms  marched 
out,  with  four  field-pieces  in  front,  and  took  their  way  to 
Sluys,  upon  the  Maes. 

One  account  gives  the  roll  of  slain  on  this  occasion  afc 
76,961  of  the  assailants,  and  50,000  of  the  besieged;  and 
by  Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau  the  gallant  survivors  of  the 
latter  were  welcomed  as  conquerors,  and  every  officer  and 
man  was  rewarded. 

The  first  governor  of  Surinam,  when  the  Dutch  got  pos- 
session of  it  in  1667,  was  an  officer  of  the  Scotch  brigade, 
Robert  Baird,  of  the  Sauchtonhall  family,  whose  brother 
Andrew,  also  in  the  Dutch  service,  fell  in  the  East  Indies. 
(The  Surname  of  Baird.} 

In  1672,  when  Louis  XIV  poured  his  troops  under 
Luxembourg,  Conde,  and  Turenne  into  the  Low  Countries, 
the  brigade  consisted  as  yet  of  three  regiments,  commanded 
by  the  father  of  the  first  Lord  Portmore  (who  had  relin- 
quished the  name  of  Robertson  for  that  of  Collier),  Colonel 


158  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Graham,  and  Colonel  Hugh  Mackay  of  Scoury,  a  member 
of  the  Reay  family,  and  formerly  an  ensign  in  the  1st 
Royal  Scots.  In  1073  he  married  Clara,  the  daughter  of 
the  Chevalier  Arnold  de  Bie,  in  whose  house  he  had  been 
billeted. 

Subsequently  he  was  present  at  the  battle  of  Seneff, 
when,  in  August,  1674,  the  army  of  the  Prince  of  Orange 
was  defeated  by  that  of  the  Prince  of  Conde.  In  his  bat- 
talion, Graham  of  Claverhouse  (the  future  Viscount  Dun- 
dee) Deceived  a  captaincy  for  saving  the  life  of  the  Prince 
of  Orangp,  in  whose  Guards  he  was  then  a  cornet.  A 
vacancy  taking  place  soon  after  in  the  command  of  a 
Scottish  regiment,  Claverhouse  applied  for  it  His  request 
was  refused,  whereupon  he  quitted  the  Dutch  service, 
saying,  "The  soldier  who  has  not  gratitude  cannot  be 
brave,"  and,  returning  to  Scotland,  he  raised  a  regiment  of 
horse  to  serve  against  the  persecuted  Covenanters. 

The  ill-judged  appointment  of  some  Dutchmen  to  com- 
missions in  the  brigade  caused  much  discontent  therein 
against  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  future  William  III,  from 
whom  the  force  was  demanded  by  James  VII,  when  the 
time  of  the  Revolution  of  1688  drew  nigh.  (Grose.') 

In  February,  1688,  the  Scottish  Privy  Council,  by  request 
of  James  VII,  forbade  the  officers  of  the  brigade,  "  under 
the  highest  pains,  to  beat  up  for  recruits."  "  This,"  says 
Lord  Fountainhall,  "  was  looked  upon  as  the  forerunner  of 
a  war ;  but  the  pretence  was  that  our  king  intended  (to 
have)  levies  of  his  own." 

In  the  April  following,  10,000  stand  of  arms,  "with 
ammunition  conform,"  were  ordered  from  Holland  by  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.      159 

three  Estates,   then   levying    men   against    King   James. 
(Egllnton  Memorials,  vol.  ii.) 

It  had  now  been  raised  to  six  battalions,  and  when  the 
luckless  king  appealed  to  their  loyalty  only  60  officers  out 
of  290  responded,  while  "  the  rank  and  file,  being  chiefly 
recruited  from  those  whom  the  disturbed  condition  of  the 
country  had  driven  from  Scotland,  remained  with  the  Prince 
of  Orange,  and  formed  one  of  the  most  valuable  portions  of 
the  force  with  which  he  invaded  Britain." 

Three  battalions  came  over  with  him  under  (steceral 
Hugh  Mackay,  but  the  operations  in  which  they  were 
engaged,  at  the  siege  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  at  Killiecrankie, 
and  Aughrim  (in  Ireland),  lie  apart  from  our  narrative. 
The  death  of  the  last  survivor  of  that  force,  Colonel  William 
Maxwell  of  Cardoness,  "  who  came  over  with  our  glorious 
deliverer,  King  William,"  is  recorded  in  the  Edinburgh 
Chronicle  for  1759,  as  having  occurred  in  1752,  in  his  95th 
year. 

In  1692  the  three  regiments  of  the  brigade  rejoined  the 
others  in  Elanders,  where  the  contest  between  Louis  XIV 
and  William  of  Orange  was  about  to  be  renewed  in  the 
spring,  when  the  former  suddenly  appeared  before  Namur 
with  45,000  men,  while  Marshal  Luxembourg  with 
another  army  covered  the  siege  of  that  important  place, 
which  holds  the  confluence  of  the  Sambre  and  the  Maes. 
William  was  unable  to  prevent  its  fall,  and  then  came  the 
battle  of  Steinkirk,  in  which  the  brigade  was  severely 


It  was  now  ordered  that  the  grenadiers  of  each  regiment 
should  alone  wear   caps;  that  there  were   to  be  fourteen 


l6o  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

pikes  in  each  company  of  sixty  men ;  that  each  captain 
was  to  carry  a  pike,  each  lieutenant  a  partisan,  and  each 
ensign  a  half-pike. 

At  Steinkirk  there  were  ten  Scottish  regiments  in  the 
field,  led  by  Lieutenant- General  Mackay,  and  fifteen 
English.  Among  the  former  was  the  brigade ;  Mackay 
led  the  way,  and  his  Scots  were  all  victorious.  They  first 
encountered  the  Swiss  infantry,  and  a  deadly  struggle 
ensued,  for  "  in  the  hedge-fighting,"  says  D'Auvergne  in 
his  Campaigns,  1692,  "  their  fire  was  generally  muzzle  to 
muzzle,  the  hedges  generally  only  separating  the  com- 
batants." 

In  this  battle,  which,  through  William's  bad  leading, 
was  a  series  of  blunders,  there  fell  5,000  of  the  allies,  and 
of  these  3,000  were  Scots  and  English.  Bishop  Burnefc 
relates  that  General  Mackay,  being  ordered  to  take  ground 
which  he  deemed  untenable,  remonstrated,  but  the  orders 
were  enforced.  "  God's  will  be  done !"  exclaimed  the 
veteran,  and  a  minute  after  he  fell  from  his  horse  dead. 

In  1854  there  died  at  his  chateau  of  Ophemert  in 
Guelderland,  Berthold,  Baron  Mackay,  at  the  age  of  81 
years,  of  whom  we  have  the  following  notice: — "The 
baron  was  the  descendant  of  General  Hugh  Mackay  of 
Scoury,  who  commanded  the  Williamites  at  Killiecrankie, 
and  fell  at  the  battle  of  Steinkirk.  Lord  Reay's  second 
son,  the  Hon.  tineas  Mackay,  was  colonel  of  the  Mackay 
(Scots)  Dutch  regiment,  and  his  family  have  since  resided 
at  The  Hague,  where  they  had  obtained  considerable 
possessions  and  formed  alliance  with  several  noble  families. 
Their  representative,  Baron  Mackay,  the  subject  of  this 


'  A  minute  after  he  fell  from  his  horse  "—  p.  160 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.        161 

notice,  married  the  Baroness  Van  Renesse  Van  Wilp, 
and  died  at  a  patriarchal  age,  after  a  life  of  great  piety 
and  usefulness.  By  his  death  the  Baron  ^neas  Mackay, 
late  chamberlain  to  the  King  of  Holland,  become  next 
heir  to  the  ancient  Scottish  peerage  of  Reay  after  the 
Hon.  Eric  Mackay,  now  master  of  Beay,  who  succeeded 
his  brother  Eric,  late  Lord  Beay,  who  died  unmarried  at 
Goldings,  in  Hertfordshire,  in  July,  1847." 

At  Neerwinden,  in  1693,  the  brigade  again  suffered 
heavy  loss,  and  William  was  compelled  again  to  give  way 
before  the  white-coated  infantry  of  France  with  the  loss  of 
10,000  men.  "  During  many  months  after,"  wrote  the 
Earl  of  Perth  to  his  sister  (as  quoted  by  Macaulay),  "  the 
ground  was  strewn  with  skulls  and  bones  of  horses  and 
men,  and  with  fragments  of  hats,  shoes,  saddles,  and  holsters. 
The  next  summer  the  soil,  fertilised  by  20,000  corpses, 
broke  forth  into  millions  of  scarlet  poppies." 

The  treaty  of  Ryswick,  concluded  in  1697,  was  followed 
by  five  years  of  peace. 

The  brigade  shared  in  all  the  perils  and  honours  of  the 
subsequent  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  under  the  com- 
mand of  John,  Duke  of  Argyle.  At  Bamilies,  in  1706,  saya 
the  Atlas  Geographicus,  "  the  Dutch  troops,  but  more  par- 
ticularly the  Scots  in  their  service,  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  extraordinary  gallantry."  Among  the  few  prisoners 
taken  by  the  enemy  was  Ensign  Gardiner,  of  one  of  the 
Scottish  regiments,  who  afterwards  fell  a  colonel  at  the 
battle  of  Preston-pans. 

At  Oudenarde,  in  1708,  where  the  French  were  defeated 
by  Marlborough,  and  where  "  charge  succeeded  charge," 

M 


162  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

states  the  record  of  the  Scots  Royals,  "  until  the  shades  of 
evening  gathered  over  the  conflict,  and  the  combatants 
could  only  be  discerned  by  the  red  flashes  of  musketry  that 
blazed  over  the  fields  and  marshy  ground,"  the  Scots 
brigade  was  among  the  steadiest  troops  in  the  field ;  and 
at  Malplacquet,  in  the  same  year,  when  Villars  was  totally 
defeated,  and  where  the  hapless  descendant  of  James  111 
and  VIII  was  serving  as  a  simple  volunteer,  yet  charged 
twelve  times,  says  Smollett,  at  the  head  of  the  household 
troops,  the  brigade  fought  well  and  loyally.  John,  Marquis 
of  Tullibardine,  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of  Athole,  fell  at 
the  head  of  one  of  its  regiments  ,  and  among  others  there 
also  fell  two  sons  of  Alexander  Swinton,  Lord  Mersington ; 
Charles,  colonel  of  a  battalion  ;  and  James,  one  of  his 
captains,  who  had  married  a  lady  in  Holland.  Both 
brothers  died  within  the  French  lines  or  trenches.  (Douglas 
Baronage.) 

In  the  arts  of  peace  the  Scots  were  not  unknown  in 
Holland.  Among  the  many  filling  chairs  in  the  continen- 
tal universities  in  the  17th  century,  now  utterly  unknown 
at  home,  few  stood  higher  than  David  Stewart,  professor 
of  philosophy  at  Leyden,  who  is  mentioned  with  honour  in 
Soberiana  (Paris,  1732),  a  work  in  which  M.  Sorbier  records 
many  of  the  pleasant  Sunday  evening  conversazioni,  wherein 
Stewart  figured,  at  the  house  of  M.  and  Madame  Saumoise. 


CHAPTEK  XVII. 
THE  SCOTS   IN   HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS 

r 

(Continued.} 

The  Scots  Brigade  and  its  Battles — Siege  of  Bergen-op-Zoom^ 
Changes  in  the  Brigade — Discontent  in  the  Brigade — 
Brigade  Disbanded. 

THE  peace  of  Utrecht,  which  was  concluded  in  1713, 
continued  until  1744,  when  the  British  ministry  again 
plunged  into  a  continental  war,  for  which  they  were 
severely  reprobated,  and  in  the  following  year,  by  order  of 
the  states-general,  eight  new  companies  were  added  to 
each  regiment  of  the  brigade,  and  recruited  for  in  Scot- 
land. Their  first  service  was  at  the  siege  of  Tournay, 
then  deemed  one  of  the  strongest  and  finest  citadels  in 
Europe.  The  allied  army,  consisting  of  ]  26,000  men,  took 
the  field ;  but  Sluys  and  Hulst  fell,  and  the  Dutch, 
terrified  by  the  progress  of  the  French,  clamoured  against 
their  rulers,  and  compelled  them  to  declare  the  Prince  of 
Orange  Statholder. 

The  brigade  fought  at  Roucaux,  at  Val,  and  Laffelot.  At 
the  latter,  an  account  of  the  battle  printed  at  Liege  states 
"  that  the  French  king's  brigade  carried  the  village  of 
Lauberg,  after  a  repulse  of  40  battalions  successively."  A 
letter  from  an  officer  states  "  that  this  brigade  consisted  of 
Scots  and  Irish,  who  fought  like  devils  ;  that  they  neither 

M  2 


1 64  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

took  nor  gave  quarter  ;  that  observing  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland to  be  extremely  active  in  the  defence  of  that  post, 
they  were  employed  in  the  attack  at  their  own  request ; 
that  they  in  a  manner  cut  down  all  before  them,  with  a  full 
resolution  to  reach  his  Highness,  which  they  certainly 
would  have  done  had  not  Sir  John  Ligonier  come  up  with 
a  party  of  horse  and  saved  the  duke  at  the  loss  of  his  own 
liberty."  (Scots  Mag.,  1747.) 

The  "  hero"  of  Culloden  was  routed,  with  the  loss  of 
many  colours  and  sixteen  guns. 

In  July,  1747,  Count  Lowendahl  commenced  the  siege  of 
Bergen-op-Zoom,  which  cost  him  20,000  of  the  finest 
French  troops.  On  the  14th  his  batteries  opened  against 
the  place,  the  garrison  of  which  consisted  of  six  battalions, 
including  two  of  the  Scots  brigade,  with  whom.  Colonel 
Lord  John  Murray,  Captain  Fraser  of  Colduthil,  Campbell 
of  Craignish,  and  several  other  officers  of  the  42nd 
obtained  permission  to  serve,  as  their  regiment  was  then 
in  South  Beveland.  (Records  of  the  Black  Watch.} 

In  the  lines  were  18  more  battalions,  with  250  pieces  of 
cannon,  and  the  assailants  mustered  36,000  men,  thereby 
exciting  such  terror  that  the  governor  and  the  whole  of 
the  troops,  except  the  two  Scots  and  one  Dutch  battalion, 
abandoned  the  town,  to  which,  by  oversight  or  treachery, 
Lowendahl  gained  access,  after  a  two  months'  investment. 

The  three  regiments  maintained  a  desperate  contest  with 
the  enemy,  single-handed,  as  it  were,  for  several  hours 
at  this  eventful  crisis.  From  the  15th  July  till  the  17th 
September  the  siege  had  been  pushed  without  intermission, 
and  the  French  losses  were  dreadful.  During  all  that 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       165 

time  74  great  guns  and  mortars  had  hurled  their  iron 
showers  upon  the  works,  in  many  instances  red-hot,  to  fire 
the  streets  and  churches ;  but,  on  the  25th  July,  Loudon's 
Highlanders,  who  were  posted  at  Fort  Eours,  covering  the 
lines,  made  a  sally,  claymore  in  hand  (says  the  Hague 
Gazette),  destroyed  the  enemy's  grand  battery,  and  slew  stf 
many  that  Count  Lowendahl  beat  a  parley  for  the  burial  of 
the  dead.  This  was  refused,  so  the  latter  had  to  lie  where 
they  fell.  The  town  was  now  in  ashes,  the  trenches  full 
of  carnage  and  pools  of  blood,  and  hour  by  hour  the  roar 
of  cannon  and  the  red  explosion  of  bombs  went  on. 

The  stand  made  by  the  two  battalions  of  the  Scots 
brigade  enabled  the  governor  and  a  few  of  the  garrison  to 
recover  themselves  after  the  surprise  of  the  town,  says 
General  Stewart,  otherwise  the  whole  would  have  been 
killed  or  taken.  "The  Scots,"  according  to  the  Hague 
Gazette,  "  assembled  in  the  market-place,  and  attacked  the 
French  with  such  vigour  that  they  drove  them  from  street 
to  street,  till  fresh  reinforcements  pouring  in  compelled 
them  to  retreat  in  turn,  disputing  every  inch  as  they  re- 
tired, and  fighting  till  two-thirds  of  their  number  fell  upon 
the  spot,  killed  or  severely  wounded,  when  the  remainder 
brought  off  the  old  governor  and  joined  the  troops  in  the 
lines." 

This  was  through  the  Steenberg  gate,  and  they  marchoi! 
with  colours  flying  and  drums  beating.  Of  Colliers' 
battalion,  originally  660  strong,  only  156  men  remained 
alive;  and  of  General  Marjoribanks' battalion,  originally 
850,  only  220  survived  the  slaughter. 

The  Hague  Gazette  says  that  "  the  two  battalions  of  the 


1 66  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Scots  brigade  have,  as  usual,  done  honour  to  their  country, 
which  is  all  we  have  to  comfort  us  for  the  loss  of  such 
brave  men,  who  from  1,450  are  now  reduced  to  330,  and 
those  have  valiantly  brought  their  colours  with  them, 
which  their  grenadiers  recovered  twice,  from  the  midst  of 
the  French,  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  The  Swiss  have 
also  suffered,  while  many  others  took  a  more  speedy  way  to 
escape  danger. 

The  brigade  had  37  officers  killed  and  wounded.  Coxe's 
History  of  the  House  of  Austria  has  it  that  330  Scots 
fought  their  way  out.  Two  lieutenants,  Francis  and 
Allan  Maclean,  sons  of  the  Laird  of  Torloisk,  were  taken 
prisoners,  and  brought  before  Count  Lowendahl. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  consider  yourselves  upon 
parole.  If  all  had  conducted  themselves  as  you  and  your 
brave  corps  have  done,  I  should  not  now  have  been  master 
of  Bergen-op-Zoom." 

Allan  Maclean  afterwards  left  the  brigade,  and  raised 
the  114th  Highlanders  for  the  British  service  in  1750,  and 
the  84th  Highlanders  subsequently.  At  the  head  of  the 
latter  he  served  under  Wolfe,  and  was  the  chief  cause  of 
our  victory  at  Quebec. 

In  Amsterdam  there  was  collected  £17,000  in  one  day 
for  distribution  among  the  survivors  of  the  two  battalions, 
and  as  during  the  siege  every  soldier  who  carried  off  a 
gabion  from  the  enemy's  works  was  paid  a  crown,  some  of 
the  Scots  gained  ten  per  day  in  that  desperate  work,  while 
those  who  drew  the  fuses  from  burning  bombs  received 
twelve  ducats  for  each  fuse. 

The  Edinburgh  Herald  for    1800  records  the   death  of 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       167 

John  Nesbitt,  at  Oldhamstocks,  in  his  107th  year,  an  old 
brigademan  who  had  been  wounded  by  a  bayonet  at  the 
famous  siege  of  Bergen-op-Zoom. 

So  many  captains  and  lieutenants  had  fallen  there,  that 
ensigns  received  companies ,  but  purchase  was  unknown 
in  the  Scots  brigade,  which,  after  the  peace  of  1748, 
remained,  as  usual,  on  duty  in  the  Dutch  garrisons ;  but 
changes  took  place. 

Thus,  when  in  1752  the  states-general  agreed  to  reduce 
their  forces  of  the  Scots  brigade,  four  of  the  junior 
companies  of  each  battalion  were  reduced,  and  incorpo- 
rated with  the  old  ones  to  form  Drumlanrig's  regiment, 
the  second  battalion  of  which  had  been  already  reduced  in 
1749.  By  the  new  regulations  "there  are  reduced  of  the 
Scots  28  captains,  56  second  lieutenants,  and  70  ensigns ; 
the  captains  pensioned  at  900  guilders  a  year,  and  obliged 
to  serve ;  the  subalterns  at  300,  with  leave  to  go  where 
they  will.  But  the  gentlemen  who  have  companies  now 
are  between  40  and  50  pounds  sterling  a  year  better  than 
formerly."  (Scots  Mag.) 

The  list  of  the  principal  field-officers  of  the  six  battalions 
is  given  thus,  March  25,  1752 : — 

1st  Battalion — 'Colonel,  Lieutenant-Greneral  Halkett  ; 
2nd  colonel,  John  Houston,  died  at  Edinburgh,  in  1788,  as 
lieutenant-general. 

2nd  Battalion — colonel,  John  Gordon  ;  2nd  colonel,  Earl 
of  Drumlanrig,  who  shot  himself  in  1754. 

3rd  Battalion — colonel,  Major-General  Strewart ;  2nd, 
Colonel  Graham. 

4th  Battalion — Colonel  Mackay  ;  Lieut. -Colonel  Forbes. 


168          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

5th  Battalion — colonel,  Major-General  A.  Marjoribanks, 
died  at  The  Hague  in  1 774 ;  2nd  colonel,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Cunningham. 

6th  Battalion — Colonel  Mackay ;  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Maclean,  died  at  the  Brill  in  1752. 

Between  the  middle  and  end  of  the  last  century  there 
died  the  following  Scotsmen  of  rank  in  the  service  of  the 
states-general,  each  and  all  after  a  long  career  of  military 
experience : — 

In  1758 — Lieutenant-General  Halkett,  at  The  Hague. 

In  1767 — Major  Farquhar  of  Dalwhinnie,  in  his  87th 
year. 

In  1768 — at  Venloo,  Lieutenant- General  Sir  George 
Colquhoun  of  Tillychewan  ;  at  Montpellier,  Colonel  Fergus 
Hamilton;  at  Castleton,  in  Skye,  Colonel  Donald  Mac- 
donald,  in  his  75th  year;  at  Standhill,  Colonel  Robert 
Turnbull  of  Standhill. 

In  1 784 — Colonel  C.  Craigie  Halkett,  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of  Namur. 

In  1786 — at  Zutphen,  in  Gueldreland,  Colonel  Sir 
James  Gordon  of  Embo,  Bart. 

In  1789 — Major-General  Ralf  Dun  das,  lately  command- 
ing Gordon's  regiment ;  Major-General  W.  J.  H.  Hamilton 
of  Silvertonhill,  at  Gorcum-on-the-Maes. 

In  1798 — at  Talisker,  aged  80,  Lieutenant-General  John 
Macleod. 

In  1804 — Lieutenant-Colonel  Sutherland,  of  the  Hon. 
John  Stuart's  regiment. 

In  1755  the  brigade  was  somewhat  disappointed  at  not 
being  recalled  in  a  body  to  Britain ;  but  it  had  now  been  so 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       169 

long  in  the  Dutch  service  that  it  had  become  a  matter 
of  dispute  whether  there  existed  a  right  to  recall  it. 

In  1 768,  the  field-officers  of  the  brigade  addressed  a  strong 
remonstrance  to  the  British  Secretary  for  War,  expressing 
a  desire  for  removal  from  Holland  "  on  account  of  indiffer- 
ent usage,"  but  their  request  was  not  successful ;  and  four 
years  before  this  time  we  find  that  their  officers,  when 
beating  up  for  recruits  in  Scotland,  were  obstructed  by  the 
Convention  of  Royal  Burghs  and  the  magistrates  of  Edin- 
burgh, on  the  plea  that  men  were  required  for  labour  at 
home.  (Edinburgh  Advertiser,  No.  32.) 

In  1797  there  died  in  his  52nd  year  a  distinguished 
officer  of  the  brigade,  Captain  J.  Gr  Stedman,  who  com- 
menced his  career  in  the  British  navy,  but  joined  a  regi- 
ment of  the  former  as  lieutenant,  when  he  served  with  the 
force  sent  to  suppress  the  insurgent  negroes  in  Surinam. 
Inspired  by  a  desire  for  exploring  a  part  of  the  world  then 
little  known,  and  in  the  hope  of  preferment  by  the  states- 
general,  he  volunteered  for  service  with  a  regiment  of 
seven  companies  formed  as  marines,  and  was  appointed 
captain  therein  by  the  Prince  of  Orange  under  Colonel 
Tourgeoud,  a  Swiss.  He  landed  at  Surinam  in  1773,  and 
there  formed  an  attachment  to  a  handsome  mulatto  girl 
in  her  15th  year  (daughter  of  a  Dutch  planter),  "  whose 
goodness  of  heart  and  faithful  attachment  to  him  were 
more  endearing  than  all  her  personal  attractions  ;  but  by 
the  laws  of  the  settlement  she  could  not  be  redeemed  from 
slavery  or  brought  home  to  Europe,  but  died  of  poison,  a 
victim  to  jealousy,  before  the  captain  left  her."  (Ann.  Reg  , 
1797.) 


1 70          THE  SCO  TTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

After  undergoing  incredible  toils,  witnessing  horrible 
cruelties,  and  having  many  strange  adventures,  he  returned 
to  Scotland,  and,  shortly  before  his  death,  published  a 
narrative  of  the  five  years'  expedition  against  the  revolted 
negroes  of  Surinam,  1772-1777,  in  two  volumes  quarto, 
with  eighty  drawings  by  himself,  published  at  London  in 
1796.  He  left  a  widow  and  five  children,  some  of  whose 
descendants  are  now  in  Scotland. 

The  king  in  1776  requested  the  states  to  give  him 
their  six  Scottish  battalions  for  service  against  his 
rebels  in  America  ;  but  the  Dutch  objected,  on  the  plea  that 
tliey  would  have  to  raise  six  others  in  their  place  ;  and  a 
confused  series  of  negotiations  went  on  till  1782,  without 
avail.  In  1776  the  Society  of  Amsterdam  for  the  Recovery 
of  tlie  Drowned  bestowed  their  gold  medal  upon  Dr.  John 
Stoner,  of  the  Hon.  General  Stewart's  regiment,  for  the 
recovery  of  one  who  was  to  all  appearance  dead.  (Edin. 
Weekly  Mag.} 

In  1779  the  brigade  again  offered  its  services  to  the 
British  government,  being  unwilling  to  linger  in  garrison 
towns  when  Britain's  foes  were  in  the  field  ;  but  the  states 
general  were  resolved  that  on  and  after  the  1st  of  January, 
1783,  it  should  be  incorporated  with  the  Dutch  army.  By 
that  time  the  brigade  had  been  213  years  in  this  service, 
and  in  all  the  battles  and  sieges  in  which  its  soldiers  fought 
had  never  lost  a  colour. 

On  the  8th  December,  1782,  the  Prince  of  Orange  issued 
an  order  to  the  colonels  of  the  brigade,  directing  them  to 
assume  blue  uniform  instead  of  the  scarlet  they  had  hitherto 
worn,  to  provide  themselves  with  orange  sashes,  new 


THE  SCOTS  IN  HOLLAND  AND  FLANDERS.       171 

gorgets  and  espontoons,  and  their  sergeants  with  new 
halberts,  with  the  British  arms  engraved  thereon  ;  and 
lastly — a  most  vexed  point — new  colours,  "  painted  with 
the  arms  of  the  generality,  or  of  the  province  upon  the 
establishment  of  which  the  battalion  is  paid ;  as  on  the  1st 
January  next  the  said  regiment  must  begin  to  be  com- 
manded in  Dutch,  from  which  day,  likewise,  the  said  regi- 
ment is  to  beat  the  Dutch  and  not  the  Scottish  march." 

The  indignation  of  the  brigade  at  these  changes  soon 
took  a  practical  turn.  On  General  Welderen  assembling 
the  officers  of  Houston's  and  Stuart's  battalions  at  The 
Hague,  and  delivering  to  them  these  orders,  they  declared 
themselves  to  be  British  subjects,  and  refused  to  obey 
them.  So  time  was  given  for  deliberation,  and  by  a  letter 
from  Lord  Grantham,  addressed  to  Colonel  Terrier,  it  was 
stated  that  those  who  chose  to  return  to  Britian  would  be 
welcomed  by  the  king,  while  those  who  chose  to  stay  in 
Holland  would  not  forfeit  his  regard.  On  this  50  officers 
retired  from  the  Dutch  service,  and  came  to  London  in 
search  of  military  service,  and  were  presented  to  the  king ; 
while  it  was  arranged  that  the  colonels  commandant  of  the 
three  regiments  of  two  battalions  each,  Generals  Houston, 
Stewart,  and  Dundas,  should  receive  pay  for  life,  without 
subscribing  the  Dutch  oath  of  allegiance.  (Edinburgh 
Advert.,  vol.  xxxi.) 

The  next  demand  of  the  regiment  was  the  restitution  of 
their  Scottish  colours  and  to  have  them  sent  to  the  king ; 
and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cunningham  was  at  The  Hague  in 
April,  1783,  to  receive  them  for  that  purpose.  A  long  and 
somewhat  angry  correspondence  ensued,  and  in  1784  the 
states  ordered  the  said  colours  to  be  deposited  in  the 


172          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

arsenal  at  The  Hague,  adding  that  if  the  colours  were 
transmitted  to  Britain  they  declined  to  employ  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Cunningham.  (Pol.  Mag.,  vol.  vi.) 

In  1793  the  brigade  came  back  to  Britain  in  a  body  and 
was  placed  on  the  British  establishment,  and  from  that 
year  till  1809  wore  the  kilt.  On  the  9th  October,  1794, 
they  were  numbered  as  "  the  94th  regiment,  or  Scots 
Brigade,"  under  General  Francis  Dundas,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing June  a  new  set  of  British  colours  was  presented  to 
the  corps  in  George  Square,  Edinburgh,  by  Lord  Adam 
Gordon,  commanding  the  forces  in  Scotland.  By  this  time 
several  Dutchmen  were  in  the  ranks ;  in  one  company 
alone  there  were  23  rank  and  file,  all  foreign.  The  three 
colonels  commanding  were  Francis  Dundas,  Frederick 
Halkefct,  and  Islay  Ferrier. 

As  the  94th  they  maintained  their  ancient  reputation  at 
the  Cape,  in  India,  and  the  Peninsula,  but  were  unfor- 
tunately disbanded  in  1818.  Reimbodied  at  Glasgow  in 
1823,  on  which  occasion  their  old  colours  were  unfurled 
and  borne  by  one  of  the  Black  Watch,  a  vain  attempt  was 
made  to  identify  the  new  corps  with  the  old  ;  but  even  the 
new  one  has  passed  away  ;  as,  under  the  recent  and  help- 
lessly defective  scheme  of  army  reorganisation,  it  is 
u  muddled"  up,  under  a  new  name,  with  the  old  88th  or 
Connaught  Rangers  ! 

Through  the  kindly  influence  of  Lord  Reay,  a  stand  of 
colours  belong  to  the  old  brigade  (not  taken  in  1782)  was 
lately  given  to  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  for  preserva- 
tion in  the  parish  church  of  St.  Giles.  But  such  is  the 
story  of  that  splendid  old  corps,  which  existed  for  248 
years — "  The  Bulwark  of  the  Republic." 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 
THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN". 

Scoto- Swedish  Nobles — The  Scots  in  Stralsund — Gustavus 
Adolphus — Caithness  Men  in  the  Swedish  Service — Colonel 
George  Sinclair — A  Danish  Ballad — The  Polish  Wars — 
The  Siege  of  Stralsund — The  Wreck  at  Rugen — Defence 
of  Colberg — More  Scotch  Volunteers  arrive. 

AT  the  funeral  of  Carl  Gustaf  the  Scoto- Swedish  nobles 
appeared  in  strength.  Baron  Forbess  led  the  Princess 
Euphrosyne,  and  in  the  procession  were  Colonel  Leighton, 
John  Clerk,  Jacob  Spens,  Adolf  Stewart,  who  bore  the 
banner  of  Ravenstein,  Forbess  that  of  Holland,  Douall 
that  of  Gothland  ;  and  forty  Swedish  cavaliers  of  the  second 
class  were  there,  among  whom  were  the  names  of  Barclay, 
Klerk,  Spens,  Hamilton,  etc.  The  families  of  thirteen 
Scottish  nobles,  some  of  whose  titles  yet  exist,  are  given  at 
length  by  Marry  at. 

Among  the  untitled  Scottish  noblemen  was  Thomas 
Gladstone  of  Dumfries,  colonel  in  Sweden  in  1647  ;  and 
all  are  frequently  styled  mysteriously  of  Tatilk — i.e.,  "  of 
that  ilk." 

The  first  of  the  Swedish  Spens  family  was  James,  who 
raised  in  1611  a  Scottish  regiment  for  service  in  Sweden, 
to  the  indignation  of  the  Danes,  who  sent  200  horse  to 
slay  him  and  his  attendants  in  Zealand. 

At  Skug  Kloster,  the  chateau  df  General  Wrangel,  and 


174  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

now  the  residence  of  Count  Brahe,  the  lineal  descendant  of 
the  great  astronomer,  there  are  preserved  portraits  of  many 
of  Wrangel's  comrades  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  inscribed 
with  their  names.  Among  these  are  Captain  Kammel 
(Campbell),  David  Drummond,  King  (Lord  Eythen),  Pat- 
rick, Earl  of  Forth,  Major  Sinclair,  who  died  serving 
Charles  XII.  "  The  best  families  in  the  kingdom  are  of 
Scottish  descent,"  s'ays  Bremner  (Denmark  and  Sweden 
1840)  ;  "  Leslies,  Montgomeries,  Gordons,  Duffs,  Hamil- 
tons,  Douglases  (lately  extinct),  Murrays — in  short,  all  the 
best  names  of  Scotland  are  to  be  found  in  Sweden,  having 
been  introduced  by  the  cadets  of  our  noble  families  who 
served  under  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War." 

In  1850  there  were  Count  Hamilton  of  Christianstadt 
and  Baron  Hamilton  of  Boo  ;  and  John  Hugh,  Baron 
Hamilton,  was  Adjutant-General  of  Sweden  in  1803,  and 
premier  ecuyer  to  the  Duchess  of  Sudermaine. 

The  most  famous  cannon-founder  in  Sweden  was  Sir 
Alexander  Hamilton  of  the  Redhouse,  in  Haddingtonshire. 
In  the  time  of  Gustavus  his  gun-forges  were  at  Orebro.  His 
invention,  the  canon  a  la  Suedois,  was  used  in  the  French 
army  till  1780.  He  became  famous  in  the  wars  of  the 
Covenant,  and  in  his  old  age  perished  when  the  castle  of 
Dunglass  was  blown  up  by  the  treachery  of  an  Englishman. 
According  to  Sir  Thomas  Urquhart,  there  was  in  the  time  of 
Gustavus  upwards  of  sixty  Scottish  governors  of  castles  and 
towns  in  the  conquered  provinces  of  Germany  ;  and  he  had 
at  one  time  no  less  than  four  field-marshals,  four  generals, 
three  brigadiers,  27  colonels,  51  lieutenant-colonels,  14 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  175 

majors,  and  an  unknown  number  of  captains  and  subalterns, 
all  Scotsmen,  "  besides  seven  regiments  of  Scots  that  lay  in 
Sweden  and  Livonia,  and  six  elsewhere.  The  Dutch  in 
Gustavus's  service  were  many  times  glad  to  beat  the  old 
Scotch  march  when  they  designed  to  frighten  or  alarm  the 
Dutch;  and  it  is  observed  that  Sir  John  Hamilton  abandoned 
the  army  though  earnestly  pressed  by  Gustavus  to  stay, 
only  because  the  Swedes  and  Dutch  were  ordered  to  storm 
the  enemy's  works  before  him  at  Wurtsburg,  after  he  and 
his  men  had  boldly  hewn  out  a  way  for  them."  (At.  Geo., 
1711.) 

Robert  Munro  of  Foulis  commanded  two  regiments,  one 
of  horse,  the  other  of  foot ;  and  of  his  surname  there  were 
three  generals,  24  field  officers,  11  captains,  and  many 
subalterns  in  Sweden.  (Old  Stat.  Acct.) 

It  has  been  written  that  "  the  reproach  of  a  mere  mer- 
cenary spirit  would  be  unjust  to  the  memory  of  these  brave 
men,  whom  a  peace  with  England  compelled  to  draw  their 
swords  in  other  lands ;  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
military  service,  no  matter  under  whom  or  where,  was  a 
necessary  part  of  a  Scottish  gentleman's  education.  The 
recruiting  in  all  parts  of  Scotland  continued  during  most 
of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  with  the  greatest  spirit,  for  the 
love  of  military  enterprise  and  hatred  of  the  Imperial  cause 
were  strong  in  the  hearts  of  the  nation  ;  and  thus,  until  the 
era  of  the  Covenant,  the  drums  of  the  Scoto-Swedes  rang  in 
every  glen  from  Caithness  to  the  Cheviots." 

We  have  now  to  describe  one  of  the  greatest  calamities 
of  the  time — the  massacre  to  a  man  of  an  entire  Scottish 
regiment  among  the  Norwegian  Alps, 


176  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

In  the  year  1612  Gustavus  Adolphus  procured  several 
companies  of  infantry  from  Scotland,  and  formed  them 
into  two  regiments.  According  to  Puffendorf,  he  had  also 
sixteen  Scottish  ships  of  war,  by  which  he  captured  the 
town  of  Drontheim  (or  Trondeim),  in  Norway,  and  cleared 
the  southern  shores  of  Sweden.  His  Scottish  troops 
served  him  faithfully  in  his  Russian  war,  particularly  at 
the  storming  of  Pleskov  and  Kexliolm,  at  the  mouth  of 
Lake  Ladoga;  and  in  1620  he  had  still  a  stronger  body 
of  these  auxiliaries,  led  by  Colonel  Seaton  and  Sir  Patrick 
Ruthven,  afterwards  field-marshal  and  Earl  of  Forth,  who 
won  high  honours  at  the  capture  of  the  Livonian  capital 
and  the  storming  of  Dunamond  and  Mitau,  in  Courland. 

In  the  March  of  3612,  by  permission  of  James  VI, 
Colonel  George  Sinclair  raised  in  his  native  county  a  body 
of  900  men  for  the  Swedish  service.  A  soldier  of  fortune, 
he  had  been  early  in  the  army  of  "  The  Bulwark  of  the 
North,"  and  was  a  natural  son  of  David  Sinclair  of 
Stirkoke,  and  nephew  of  the  Earl  of  Caithness. 

The  antecedents  of  the  colonel  were  somewhat  remark- 
able. According  to  Calder's  History  of  Caithness,  before 
embarking  for  Norway  he  was  engaged  in  a  somewhat 
desperate  affair,  the  circumstances  of  which  are  briefly 
these: — John,  eighth  Lord  Maxwell  of  Nithsdale,  having, 
it  is  said,  treacherously  slain  Sir  James  Johnston  of  that 
ilk,  fled  to  France  and  then  to  Caithness,  where  he  lurked 
for  some  time;  but  a  price  being  set  upon  his  head,  he 
attempted  flight  again,  but  was  captured  near  the  southern 
boundaries  of  the  county  by  Colonel  Sinclair,  and  sent  to 
Edinburgh,  where  he  was  beheaded  at  the  Market  Cross  on 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  177 

the  21st  of  May,  1613.  His  "Good  Night,"  a  pathetic 
ballad  in  which  he  takes  leave  of  his  lady,  Margaret  Hamil- 
ton, and  his  friends,  is  printed  in  the  Border  Minstrelsy  ; 
and  when  the  hand  of  fate  overtook  Sinclair,  it  was 
deemed  but  a  just  retribution  by  the  whole  Johnston  clan. 

He  embarked  with  his  regiment  to  join  Gustavus  by  the 
way  of  Norway,  and  after  a  four  days'  voyage  landed  on 
the  coast  near  Romsdal.  The  object  of  the  expedition 
was  to  assist  Gustavus  in  the  conquest  of  Norway,  and 
for  this  purpose  Colonel  Monkhoven,  with  another  body  of 
2,300  Scots,  had  not  long  before  landed  at  Drontheim, 
and  cut  a  passage  into  Sweden.  (Geyers'  Histoire  de 
S^lede.) 

Sinclair's  second  in  command  was  Alexander  Ramsay, 
who  had  under  him  two  other  officers — Jacob  Manner- 
spange  and  Henrick  Brussey,  supposed  to  mean  Henry 
Bruce,  according  to  the  Norwegian  accounts  -and  he  was 
accompanied  by  Fru  (or  Lady  Sinclair)  ;  and  they  note  an 
insolent  speech  alleged  to  have  been  made  by  Sinclair  0:1 
his  landing — "  I  will  recast  the  old  Norway  lion,  and  turn 
him  into  a  mole  that  dare  not  venture  out  of  his  burrow  !" 

He  pursued  his  march  along  the  valley  of  Lessoo,  under 
the  shadow  of  the  tremendous  Dovrefelt,  8,000  feet  high, 
and  is  said  to  have  given  the  country  to  fire  and  sword, 
thereby  infuriating  the  Norse,  who  sent  abroad  the  Budstick 
(or  message-rod) — a  signal  like  the  Scottish  fiery  cross — 
summoning  all  to  arms ;  and  a  great  body  of  boors,  armed 
with  matchlocks  and  axes,  under  Burdon  Segelstadt  of 
Ringebo,  near  Elstad,  took  possession  of  the  narrow  moun- 
tain gorge  through  which  the  Scots  had  to  pass  at 

N 


178  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Kringellen.  The  road  was  only  a  mere  footpath,  exceed- 
ingly narrow,  and  overhanging  a  deep  and  rapid  stream 
that  flowed  beneath.  According  to  Norwegian  tradition, 
a  mermaid  appeared  to  Colonel  Sinclair  by  night  and 
warned  him  of  death  if  he  advanced  ;  but  he  replied  that 
"  when  he  returned  in  triumph  from  the  conquest  of  the 
kingdom,  lie  would  punish  her  as  she  deserved."  Accor  ing 
to  Calder's  History,  the  mermaid  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  Fru  herself  in  disguise. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Sinclairs  marched  on,  and  the  air 
which  their  pipes  played  is  still  remembered  in  Norway 
(Calder,  p.  276),  and  it  was  certainly  their  own  dead  march. 
Night  was  closing,  and  the  deep  Norwegian  fiords  and  the 
pine  forests  that  overhung  them  were  growing  dark,  when 
the  regiment  entered  on  the  narrow  path  described.  The 
siillness  and  loneliness,  together  with  the  difficult  nature  of 
the  place,  caused  the  Sinclairs  to  straggle  in  their  march, 
and  they  had  just  attained  the  middle  of  the  black  defile 
when  the  roar  of  more  than  a  thousand  long  matchlocks  re- 
verberated among  the  impending  cliffs,  filling  all  the  chasm 
with  fire  and  smoke. 

Then  came  the  crash  of  half-hewn  trees  and  loosened 
masses  of  rock,  urged  over  by  levers,  that  swept  away 
whole  sections  and  hurled  them  into  the  mountain  torrent 
that  foamed  below.  Among  the  first  who  fell  was  Colonel 
Sinclair,  when  gallantly  essaying  to  storm  the  rocks,  clay- 
more in  hand.  Among  those  hurled  into  the  stream,  say 
the  Norwegians,  was  the  Fru,  "but,  being  supported  by  her 
ample  robes,  she  was  able  to  carry  her  infant  son  safe 
across  in  her  arms." 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  179 

In  the  pass  all  perished  save  sixty  and  the  adjutant. 
These  were  at  first  distributed  among  the  inhabitants  ,  but 
the  latter  grew  tired  of  supporting  them,  and,  marching 
them  into  a  meadow,  murdered  them  in  cold  blood,  all  save 
two,  who  escaped  and  got  home  to  Caithness.  Accounts 
differ,  and  Laing  in  his  Norway  is  at  variance  with  the 
native  narrative  in  some  points.  Colonel  Sinclair  was 
buried  in  the  church  of  Quam,  near  the  valley  of  Vug, 
but  his  regiment  all  lie  in  a  remote  solitude  near  the  fatal 
pass.  Above  the  remains  is  a  cross  with  a  tablet  inscribed 
thus  : — 

"  Here  lies  Colonel  Jorgen  Zinclair,  900  Scots  dashed  to 
pieces  like  earthen  pots  by  the  boors  of  Lessoo,  Vauge, 
and  Foroen,  under  Berdon  Segelstadt  of  Ringebo."  (Von 
fiuch.} 

Here  we  are  strongly  tempted  to  give  Ochlenschalager's 
ballad,  which  is  not  much  known  in  this  country  : — 


"  Child  Sinclair  sailed  from  Scottish  land 

Far  Noroway  to  brave  ; 
But  he  sleeps  in  Gulbrand's  rocky  strand, 

Low  in  a  bloody  grave. 
Child  Sinclair  sailed  the  stormy  sea, 

To  fight  for  Swedish  gold  ; 
'  God  speed  thy  warrior  hearts  and  thee, 

And  quell  the  Norseman  bold  !' 

"  He  sailed  a  day,  and  two,  and  three, 

He  and  his  gallant  band  ; 
The  fourth  sun  saw  him  quit  the  sea 

And  touch  Old  Norway's  strand. 
On  Romsdal's  shore  his  soul  was  fain 

To  triumph  or  to  fall  ; 
He  and  his  twice  seven  hundred  men, 

The  gallant  and  the  tall. 

N2 


i8o          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

"  O  stern  and  haughty  was  their  wrath, 

And  cruel  with  sword  and  spear  ; 
Nor  hoary  age  could  check  their  ^  rath, 

Nor  widowed  mother's  tear. 
With  bitter  death,  young  babes  they  slew, 

Though  to  the  breast  they  clung  ; 
And  wof  ul  tidings,  sad,  but  true, 

Echoed  from  every  tongue. 

"  On  hill  and  rock  the  beacons  glared, 

To  tell  of  danger  nigh  ; 
The  Norseman's  sword  was  boldly  bared — 

The  Scots  must  yield  or  die  ! 
The  warriors  of  the  land  are  far, 

They  and  their  kingly  lord  ; 
Yet  shame  on  him  who  shuns  the  war, 

Or  fears  the  foreign  horde  ! 

"  They  march — they  meet — the  Norwayan  host, 

Have  hearts  both  stern  and  free  ; 
They  gather  on  Bredalbigh's  coast — 

The  Scots  must  yield  or  flee. 
The  Lange  flows  in  Leydeland, 

"Where  Kringen's  shadows  fall  ; 
Thither  they  march,  that  fated  band, 

A  tomb  to  find  for  all. 

"  In  the  onslaught  first,  Child  Sinclair  died, 

And  ceased  his  haughty  breath, 
Stern  sport  for  Scottish  hearts  to  bide, 

God  shield  them  from  the  death  ! 
Come  forth,  come  forth,  ye  Norsemen  trua, 

Light  be  your  hearts  to-day  ! 
Fain  would  the  Scots  the  ocean  blue 

Between  the  slaughter  lay  ! 

"  Their  ranks  yield  to  the  leaden  storm, 

On  high  the  ravens  sail — 
Ah  me  !  for  every  mangled  form 

A  Scottish  maid  shall  wail ! 
They  come  a  host  with  life  and  breath, 

But  none  returned  to  say, 
How  fares  the  invader  in  the  strife 

He  wars  with  Old  Norway  ? 


THE  SCOTS  IN  s  WE  DEN.  181 

"  There  is  a  mound  by  Lange's  tide, 

The  Norseman  lingers  near, 
His  eye  is  bright — but  not  with  pride — 
It  glistens  with  a  tear  I " 

Robert  Chambers,  who  in  his  tour  through  Norway 
visited  the  scene  of  this  slaughter,  says  :  "  In  a  peasant's 
house  here  were  shown  to  me,  in  1849,  a  few  relics  of  the 
poor  Caithness  men — a  matchlock  or  two,  a  broadsword,  a 
( ouple  of  powder-flasks,  and  the  wooden  part  of  a  drum." 

In  1869,  I  was  shown,  by  an  officer  of  the  Norwegian 
artillery,  several  others  in  the  arsenal  at  Aggerhous  ;  but  the 
long  matchlocks  had  been  refitted  with  locks  for  the  flint. 

Among  others  who  now  joined  the  army  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  Captain  Sir  James  Hepburn  of  Athelstein- 
ford,  who  brought  with  him  the  survivors  of  old  Sir 
Andrew  Gray's  Scottish  band  that  went  to  Bohemia  in 
1620;  and  he  was  accompanied  by  his  cousin,  James  Hep- 
barn  of  Waughton,  who  soon  attained  the  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. 

The  Swedish  artillery  at  this  time  consisted  of  4,  6,  and 
12  pounders.  The  musketeers  wore  morions,  gorgets,  buff 
coats,  and  breastplates,  swords  and  daggers ;  the  pikemen 
were  similarly  armed  and  accoutred.  Ammunition  was  for 
the  first  time  made  up  into  cartridges,  regiments  were 
formed  into  right  and  left  wings,  with  pikes  in  the  centre 
to  guard  the  colours.  Gustavus  formed  his  ranks  six  deep, 
Wallenstein  thirty.  Each  battalion  had  four  surgeons  and 
two  chaplains.  For  a  time  the  private  chaplain  of  Gus- 
tavus was  the  then  well-known  Bishop  Murdock  Mackenzie. 
The  hair  was  shorn  short,  but  mustachios,  like  swords  and 
spurs,  were  of  great  length.  All  officers  of  rank  wore  a 


1 82  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

gold  chain,  and  rich  armour  from  Parma  and  Milan  was 
quite  the  rage.  A  day's  march  was  eighteen  miles.  "  In 
a  journal  of  each  day's  marching  which  a  Scottish  regiment 
made  for  six  years  successively,  I  find,"  says  Harte,  "that 
quantity  to  establish  the  medium."  {Life  of  Gustavus.) 
Each  Swedish  and  Scottish  regiment  consisted  at  this  time 
of  eight  companies  ;  in  each  company  were  72  musketeers 
and  54  pikemen. 

In  1625  Gustavus  appointed  Sir  James  Hepburn  colonel 
of  his  old  Bohemian  comrades,  now  represented  by  the  1st 
Scots  Royals,  of  which  his  name  as  1st  colonel,  under  date 
in  France,  1633,  can  yet  be  seen  in  any  Annual  Army  List. 
"  He  was  a  complete  soldier  indeed,"  says  Defoe,  "  and 
was  so  well-beloved  by  the  gallant  king  that  he  hardly 
knew  how  to  go  about  any  great  action  without  him." 

When  Gustavus  renewed  hostilities  with  Sigismund  of 
Poland,  in  1625,  Hepburn's  Scottish  regiment  formed  part 
of  the  allied  force  which  invaded  Polish  Prussia,  captured 
many  strong  places,  and  ended  by  the  total  rout  of  the 
Poles  on  the  plains  of  Semigallia  in  Courland. 

Gustavus,  resolving  to  effect  the  relief  of  Memel,  in 
Prussia,  when  his  garrison  was  closely  blockaded  by  30,000 
Poles,  entrusted  the  duty  to  Hepburn  and  Count  Thurm. 
The  former  had  only  three  Scottish  regiments  of  infantry, 
and  the  latter  but  500  horse  for  this  desperate  task,  which, 
after  a  long  march,  they  began  in  the  night,  "  at  push  of 
pike."  A  terrible  discharge  of  bullets,  arrows,  and  stones 
was  opened  on  the  Scots  by  dense  hordes  of  Cossacks  and 
Heyducks,  clad  in  mail  shirts,  and  Hepburn  was  compelled 
to  take  post  on  a  rock,  around  which  the  wild  horsemen 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  183 

surged  and  shouted,  "  The  Scottish   curs  cannot  abide  the 
bite  of  the  Polish  wolves  !" 

On  that  rock  Hepburn  defended  himself  for  two  entire 
days  against  the  whole  Polish  army  led  by  Prince  Udislaus, 
till  Gustavus  in  person  achieved  the  relief  of  the  town,  on 
which  the  Poles  gave  way  unpursued.  It  was  computed 
that  each  of  Hepburn's  Scots  killed  a  man,  yet  lost  only  a 
seventh  of  their  own  number. 

In  the  following  year  the  Scots  fought  gallantly  at 
Dantzig  under  General  Sir  Alexander  Leslie  of  Balgouie 
(the  future  Earl  of  Leven),  a  veteran  of  the  Dutch  and 
Bohemian  wars.  His  pikemen  broke  through  the  dense 
masses  of  Sigismund's  cavalry  twice,  cut  to  pieces  400, 
capturing  four  troop  standards,  and  retired  with  little  loss ; 
but  this  movement  brought  on  a  battle  which  ended  in  the 
total  rout  of  the  Polish  army,  with  the  loss  of  3,000  men . 
(Puffindorf's  Sweden.) 

In  1627  Hepburn's  Scots  accompanied  Gustavus  again 
into  Prussia,  and  were  at  the  storming  of  Kesmark  on  the 
Vistula  and  the  defeat  of  the  Poles  at  Dirschau.  In  the 
following  year  Sweden  obtained  fresh  levies  from  Scotland. 
Among  these  was  a  strong  regiment  led  by  Alexander 
Lord  Spynie.  These,  with  a  few  English,  made  9,000  men. 
Spynie's  regiment  was  added  to  the  garrison  of  Stralsund, 
then  blockaded  by  the  Imperialists,  who  aimed  at  nothing 
but  the  total  subversion  of  German  liberty  and  extirpation 
of  the  Lutheran  heresy  by  fire  and  sword — a  scheme  in- 
cluding the  conquest  of  all  Scandinavia,  which  attracted 
the  attention  of  all  Europe.  Thus  Stralsund,  which  had 
taken  no  part  in  the  war,  was  exposed  to  a  vigorous  siege, 


1 84  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

and  the  two  Northern  kings  resolved  to  forget  their 
jealousies  and  relieve  it.  Led  by  the  Laird  of  Balgonie, 
5,000  Scots  and  Swedes  cut  a  passage  into  the  town  and 
supplied  the  starving  people  with  food.  A  gallant  defence 
now  began,  though  Wallenstein  vowed  he  would  possess 
Stralsund  "  even  if  God  slung  it  in  chains  between  heaven 
and  earth  !" 

Nowhere  did  the  Scots  do  their  duty  more  nobly  than 
there,  and  medals  were  struck  in  their  honour,  while  Hep- 
burn was  knighted.  "  Here,"  says  Munro,  "  was  killed  the 
valorous  Captain  Macdouald,  who  with  his  own  hands 
killed  with  his  sword  five  of  his  enemies  before  he  was 
killed  himself.  Divers  also  were  hurt,  as  was  Captain 
Lindesay  of  Bainshaw,  who  received  three  dangerous 
wounds  ;  Lieutenant  Pringle  and  divers  more,  their  powder 
being  spent ;  to  make  good  their  retreat  falls  up  Captain 
Mackenzie  with  the  old  Scottish  blades  of  our  regiment, 
keeping  their  faces  to  the  enemy  while  their  comrades  were 
retiring;  the  service  went  on  afresh,  when  Lieutenant 
Seaton  and  his  company  alone,  led  by  Lieutenant  Lumsden, 
lost  about  30  valorous  soldiers,  and  the  lieutenant,  seeing 
Colonel  Holke  retiring,  desired  him  to  stay  a  little  and  see 
if  the  Scots  could  stand  and  fight  or  not.  The  colonel, 
perceiving  him  to  jeer,  shook  his  head  and  went  away.  In 
the  end  Captain  Mackenzie  retired  slowly  with  his  company 
till  he  was  safe  within  the  walls  ;  and  then  he  made  ready 
for  his  march  towards  Wolgast,  to  find  his  Majestic  of 
Denmark."  (Munro's  Expedition,  1637.) 

In  the  end  Wallenstein  was  forced  to  raise  the  siege  and 
begin  a  shameful  retreat. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDE'S.— (Continued.) 

The  Wreck  at  Eugen — Defence  of  Colberg — More  Scottish 
Volunteers  arrive — The  Massacre  of  Brandenburg — The 
Vengeance  of  Frankfort-on-the-Oder — The  Elbe  crossed. 

AT  this  date  (1630)  Gustavus  had  now  in  his  army  more 
than  1,000  officers  and  12,000  men,  all  Scots.  "Amongst 
these  forces,"  says  Richard  Cannon — and  many  of  them, 
nnder  Leslie,  were  sent  to  drive  the  Imperialists  out  of 
the  Isle  of  Rugen — "  Colonel  Hepburn's  Scots  regiment 
appears  to  have  held  a  distinguished  character  for  gallantry 
on  all  occasions :  and  no  troops  appear  to  have  been 
found  better  for  this  important  enterprise  than  the  Scots, 
who  proved  brave,  hardy,  patient  of  fatigue  and  privation, 
frugal,  obedient,  and  sober  soldiers."  (1st  Royals — War 
Off.  Records.) 

Rugen  was  captured  at  a  stroke,  after  which  the  regi- 
ment was  quartered  "  in  Spruce." 

Sir  Donald  Mackay,  of  Strathnaver's  regiment,  1,500 
strong,  raised  for  the  Danish  army  in  the  country  of  Lord 
Reay  in  1626,  now  volunteered  for  service  in  Sweden,  and 
was  ordered  by  Oxenstiern  to  embark  at  Pillau,  under 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Monro,  and  proceed  towards  Wolgast, 
in  Pomerania. 

Monro  (a  cousin  of  Foulis)  embarked  his  men  on  board 


186          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

of  two  Swedish,  vessels — the  Lilynichol  and  Hound.  On 
the  former  were  the  companies  of  Robert  and  Hector  Monro 
and  Bullion ;  on  board  the  latter,  those  of  Major  Sennot, 
Captains  Learmonth  and  John  Monro  ;  while  their  luggage, 
horses,  and  drums  were  on  board  a  third  and  smaller 
craft.  When  night  came  on  there  blew  a  tempest,  and  the 
expedition  found  itself  among  shoal  water,  with  the  rocks 
and  reefs* of  Pomerania  to  leeward  ;  and  Monro's  ship  was 
all  but  water-logged,  though  relays  of  48  Highlanders 
were  constantly  at  the  pumps.  This  was  on  the  19th  of 
August. 

A  little  before  midnight  the  L'lynichol  foundered  on  the 
Isle  of  Rugen,  parting  in  two  ;  but  after  incredible  exertions 
the  soldiers  got  ashore,  the  colonel  being  the  last  to  abandon 
the  wreck,  from  which  he  brought  off  all  the  arms  and 
armour.  He  found  himself  on  the  picturesque  Isle  of 
Rugen — the  last  stronghold  of  paganism  in  the  North, 
and  where  to  this  day  may  be  seen  the  sacred  wood  and 
lake  mentioned  by  Tacitus  in  his  treatise  on  Germany,  and 
where  human  sacrifices  were  offered  up  to  a  gigantic  mon- 
ster-god named  Swantovit.  He  was  80  miles  from  the 
Swedish  outposts.  All  the  forts  were  again  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Imperialists  ;  he  was  without  ammunition,  and, 
as  he  tells  us,  "  had  nothing  to  defend  us  but  swords,  pikes, 
and  wet  muskets."  In  addition  to  this  his  soldiers  were 
soaked,  exhausted,  and  starving. 

On  his  application,  the  seneschal  of  Rugenvalde,  a 
castle  belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Pomerania,  sent  him  fifty 
dry  matchlocks  and  ammunition.  With  men  armed  with 
these,  and  his  pikemen,  Moaro  fell  briskly  upon  a  night 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  187 

picket  of  Imperial  horse,  all  of  which  he  slew  or  captured, 
thus  rewinning  the  isle  for  Duke  Bogislaus  IV.  He  blew 
up  the  bridge,  strengthened  the  castle  of  Rugenvalde  by 
turf  batteries,  and  then  defended  himself  for  nine  weeks, 
till  Hepburn's  "  Invincible  Eegiment"  advanced  to  his 
relief  from  Polish  Prussia  by  order  of  the  chancellor  Oxen- 
stiern. 

On  the  6th  November  500  of  Monro's  Highlanders  were 
ordered  to  defend  to  the  last  Cclberg,  a  half-ruined  castle 
and  town  on  the  coast  of  Pomerania.  He  threw  up  redoubts, 
barricaded  the  approaches,  and  ere  long  the  place  was 
assailed  by  8,000  Imperialists  led  by  the  famous  Count  de 
Monteculculi,  under  whom  were  the  splendidly  accoutred 
regiments  of  Goetz  and  Sparre,  Charles,  Wallenstein, 
Isolani,  and  Coloredo.  Three  troops  of  cuirassiers  in  white 
armour  led  the  van,  with  three  of  Croats  and  1,000  arque- 
bussiers,  all  of  whom  were  hurled  back  in  confusion  by  the 
steady  Highland  fire.  On  being  summoned  to  treat  for 
the  surrender  of  the  post,  Monro  replied  : 

"  The  word  treaty  has  been  omitted  in  my  instructions  ; 
thus  I  have  only  powder  and  ball  at  the  service  of  the 
Count  de  Monteculculi." 

A  dreadful  strife  ensued.  The  whole  town  was  laid  in 
ashes.  The  Reay  regiment  retired  into  the  castle,  and, 
despairing  of  success,  the  count  drew  off  in  the  night,  under 
cover  of  a  mist,  thus  admitting  that  500  Highlanders  could 
repel  sixteen  times  their  number  of  Germans. 

On  the  13th  November  another  deadly  struggle  took 
place,  amid  mist  and  darkness,  between  the  Imperialists — 
7,000  strong — and  the  Swedish  infantry,  under  the  young 


1 88  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Graf  of  Thurn.  They  fled  almost  without  firin  j  a  shot, 
but  the  Scottish  musketeers  of  Lord  Reay  and  Hepburn 
held  their  ground,  and  poured  in  their  volleys  steadily  till 
the  unaccountable  flight  of  the  Swedish  cavalry  left  their 
flanks  uncovered,  and  they  too  fell  back,  with  the  loss  of 
500  men,  many  shooting  their  comrades  in  the  confusion, 
says  Harte. 

In  1631,  Gustavus,  on  representing  his  desire  to  free 
Germany  from  the  oppression  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand, 
received  from  England  and  other  countries  .£108,000,  with 
a  promise  of  6,000  infantry,  raised  by  the  Marquis  of 
Hamilton,  who,  previous  to  his  departure,  received  the 
Order  of  the  Garter  from  Charles  I. 

Colonel  John  Monro  of  Obsdale  now  offered  another 
regiment  of  Highlanders  for  the  Swedish  service,  and 
Colonel  Sir  James  Lumsden  (brother  of  Invergellie)  brought 
over  a  battalion  of  Lowland  infantry.  His  eldest  brother, 
the  laird,  was  senior  captain  of  a  company,  in  which  the 
ensign  was  the  famous  Sir  James  Turner,  the  cavalier 
memorialist.  Robert  Lumsden  was  murdered  in  cold  blood 
by  the  English  at  the  sack  of  Dundee  twenty  years  after, 
but  Monro  of  Obsdale  was  slain  in  battle  at  Wettereau,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  (Scots  Nation  Vindicated,  1714.) 

Robert  Scott  was  quartermaster-general  of  the  Swedish 
army,  and  afterwards  general  in  Denmark.  His  bust  in 
Lambeth  Church  has  been  engraved.  David  Barclay  of 
Mathers  and  Anthony  Haig  of  Beimerside,  the  latter  with 
50  horse,  with  three  sons  of  Boswell  of  Auchinleck,  John 
and  Robert  Durham  of  Pitkerow,  and  Francis  and  Alexan- 
der Leslie  of  Wardis,  all  ioined  the  Swedish  army  at  this 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  189 

time.  "  Mackay,  our  countryman,  is  in  great  honour," 
wrote  James  Baird,  the  commissary,  to  his  brother  Auch- 
medden,  in  1631,  "and  is  general  over  three  regiments,  and 
captain  of  the  King  of  Sweden's  Guar.ls,  quhilk  consist  of 
100  horse  and  100  foot,  and  sail  be  all  Scotsmen."  (Sur- 
name of  Baird.)  There,  too,  came  George  Buchanan  of 
Auchmar,  a  captain.  He  vanquished  an  Italian  swords- 
man in  single  combat,  for  which  he  was  made  major,  but 
was  killed  in  action  soon  after.  (History  of  the  Buchanans.) 
Thus  in  the  second  campaign  against  the  empire  the 
Swedish  army,  according  to  Burnett,  was  almost  entirely 
led  by  Scottish  officers. 

The  love  and  spirit  of  adventure  must  have  been  keen  in 
those  days  which  lured  so  many  brave  Scots  abroad  at  a 
time  when  locomotion  was  tedious  and  difficult,  and  even 
all  ideas  of  locality  beyond  their  native  hills  and  glens  were 
vague  and  dim  indeed. 

lu  the  March  of  1631  Sir  James  Hepburn,  in  his  30th 
year,  was  at  the  head  of  the  Green  brigade,  as  it  was 
named,  comprising  the  four  finest  battalions  of  the  army, 
viz.,  his  own  old  regiment,  the  Reay  Highlanders,  Lumsden's 
musketeers,  and  Stargate's  corps.  The  brigade  was  so 
termed  from  the  colour  of  its  scarfs  and  plumes,  as  the 
other  brigades  were — white,  blue,  and  yellow.  "With  the 
green,  Hepburn  led  the  van  of  the  Swedish  army,  which, 
with  armour  burnished,  colours  flying,  and  matches  lit, 
began  its  march  for  Frankfort-on- the- Oder,  as  Monro  says 
(in  the  words  of  Dalgetty),  under  "  the  Lyon  of  the  North, 
the  invincible  King  of  Sweden  of  never-dying  memory." 
(Exped.,y.  17.) 


igo  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

After  distinguishing  themselves  at  the  capture  of  the 
castle  of  Trepto,  where  Major  Sinclair  was  left  with  two 
companies,  the  Scots  captured  Dameine,  and  then  followed 
their  defence  of  New  Brandenburg,  when  600  of  Lord 
Reay^s  men  were  placed  in  garrison  under  his  lieutenant- 
colonel,  Lindsay,  who  had  been  thrice  dangerously  wounded 
at  the  defence  of  Stralsund. 

After  nine  days'  resistance  against  the  most  overwhelming 
odds,  all  mercy  and  quarter  being  refused  them,  the  entire 
wing  of  the  Reay  Highlanders  was  savagely  cut  to  pieces — 
a  circumstance  that  inspired  all  the  Scots  in  the  army  with 
fury  against  the  Imperialists  and  their  ruthless  leader,  Count 
Tilly. 

Colonel  Lindsay  fell  pike  in  hand  in  the  breach,  and  there 
every  officer  and  man  perished  by  his  side,  save  two — 
Captain  Tnnes  and  Lieutenant  Lumsden — who  swam  the 
wet  ditch  in  their  tartans  and  armour,  and  reached  Hepburn's 
brigade,  then  pushing  on  to  Frankfort,  where  Count 
Schomberg  barred  the  way  with  10,000  veterans.  As  the 
Highland  marching  song  has  it — 

"  In  the  ranks  of  great  Gustavus, 
With  the  bravest  they  were  reckoned, 

Agus  O,  Mhorag ! 
3o-ro  !  march  together ! 

Agus  O,  Mhorag !" 

Longing  for  vengeance,  Hepburn's  brigade  was,  as 
stated,  in  the  van  of  a  column  consisting  of  18,000  men, 
which,  with  200  guns  and  a  pontoon  bridge,  followed  the 
course  of  the  Oder  to  Frankfort,  where  Count  Schomberg, 
who  had  laid  waste  all  the  adjacent  district,  commanded, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  191 

while  Marshal  Home  held  the  Pass  of  Schwedt  to  prevent 
Tilly  from  harassing  the  Swedish  rear.  Directed  by  the 
advice  of  Hepburn  (according  to  Monro),  Gustavus  made 
his  dispositions  for  the  investment,  and  every  column 
marched  to  its  place — the  horse  with  trumpets  sounding, 
the  foot  with  drums  beating,  matches  lit,  and  pikes  ad- 
vanced. 

All  the  artillery  and  stores  not  required  were  in  rear  of 
Hepburn's  brigade.  In  Frankfort,  we  have  stated,  were 
10,000  men  under  Schomberg,  Monteculculi,  and  others, 
while  the  weakest  point  was  assigned  to  a  regiment  of  Irish 
musketeers,  led  by  that  Walter  Butler  to  whom  we  have 
referred  in  Austria.  When  reconnoitring  with  Hepburn, 
the  king  narrowly  escaped  capture  by  a  party  which  made 
a  dash  at  him,  but  was  repulsed  by  Hepburn's  musketeers, 
led  by  Major  John  Sinclair,  who  drove  in  the  Imperialists 
under  cover  of  their  batteries  and  made  some  prisoners. 
After  the  Guchen  Gate  had  been  reconnoitered  by  twelve 
Scottish  soldiers,  and  the  batteries  on  every  side,  on 
the  3rd  of  April  the  king  ordered  a  general  assault  under 
cover  of  the  smoke. 

"  Now  my  brave  Scots,"  cried  he,  as  he  called  to  Hepburn 
and  Sir  James  Lumsden  by  name,  "  remember  your  country- 
men who  were  slain  at  New  Brandenburg  !"  (Swedish  In- 
telligencer, 1632.)  On  swept  the  stormers  under  a  storm 
of  lead,  iron,  and  brass  bullets,  led  by  Hepburn  and  Lums- 
don,  having  each  a  petard  holding  20  pounds  of  powder. 
These  blew  the  gate  to  fragments,  and  in  that  quarter  the 
Scots  fought  their  way  in. 

Elsewhere   Monro' s   Highlanders  crossed   the  wet  ditch, 


1 02  THE  SCO  TTISH  SOL  DIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

where  the  water  rose  to  their  necks,  planted  their  ladders 
against  the  scarp,  and  stormed  the  palisades  with  pike  and 
sword  ;  while  the  Blue  and  Yellow  brigades,  all  led  by  Scots- 
men, swept  away  Butler's  Irish  and  all  who  opposed  them. 

Hepburn  was  wounded,  says  Monro,  "  above  the  knee 
that  he  was  lame  of  before.1' 

"Bully  Monro,"  cried  he,  "  I  am  shot !" 

A  major  took  his  place,  but  was  shot  dead.  Then 
Lumsden  and  Monro,  having  joined,  pushed  on,  turned 
their  own  cannon  on  the  Austrians,  and  blew  their  heads 
and  limbs  into  the  air.  To  their  cries  of  "  quarter"  on 
every  hand  the  grim  response  was  — 

"  New  Brandenburg  !     Remember  New  Brandenburg  !" 

One  Scottish  pikeman  (says  the  Swedish  Intelligencer) 
slew  eighteen  Austrians  with  his  own  hand,  and  Lumsden's 
regiment  captured  nine  pairs  of  colours.  Fifty  of  Hepburn's 
men  were  charged  by  a  regiment  of  cuirassiers  in  a 
buvy ing-ground;  but  Major  Sinclair  formed  them  back  to 
back,  and  repulsed  the  assailants.  Twice  the  Imperialists 
beat  a  parley,  but  it  was  unheeded.  "  Still  the  combat 
continued,  the  carnage  went  on,  and  still  the  Scots  brigade 
advanced  in  close  columns  of  regiments,  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  like  moving  castles,  their  long  pikes  levelled  in 
front,  while  the  rear  ranks  of  musketeers  volleyed  in 
security  from  behind." 

Schombergand  Monteculculi,  escorted  by  a  few  cuirassiers, 
fled  by  a  bridge  towards  Glogau,  leaving  40  officers  and 
3,000  men  dead  behind  them,  while  hundreds  threw  them- 
selves into  the  Oder  and  were  drowned.  But  Gustavus 
lost  only  300  men,  and  had  only  two  officer;  of  rank 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  193 

wounded — Sir  John  Hepburn  and  Baron  Teuffel.  The 
former  took  possession  of  the  ramparts  and  posted  guards 
round  the  city,  of  which  Major-General  Leslie  was  made 
governor,  and  his  first  task  was  to  bury  the  dead — 100  in 
every  grave. 

The  capture  of  Landsberg,  on  the  Warta,  was  the  next 
task-  the  key  of  Silesia.  Hepburn  invested  it  on  one  side, 
Marshal  Home  on  the  other,  while  Monro  ran  the  parallels, 
and  got  his  men  entrenched,  with  the  loss  of  six  only,  before 
dawn  on  the  5th,  their  long  lines  of  matches  shining  like 
glowworms  in  the  dusk.  The  town  was  attacked  in  the 
dark,  and  the  Austrians  under  old  Count  Grata  were 
hemmed  in  on  every  side,  as  Hepburn  stormed  the  chief 
redoubt  in  three  minutes,  and  Monro  cut  off  a  sortie  with 
the  loss  of  only  30  Highlanders.  Grata  marched  out  next 
morning  with  the  honours  of  war,  accompanied  by  no  less 
than  2,000  female  camp  followers. 

Hepburn's  brigade  was  next  at  the  investment  of  Berlin, 
and  was  afterwards  encamped  among  the  swamps  of  Old 
Brandenburg,  34  miles  from  the  capital.  There,  amid  the 
miasma  of  the  Havel,  34  of  Monro's  men  died  in  one  week 
— among  them  Robert  Monro,  a  quartermaster-sergeant, 
and  Sergeant  Robert  Munro,  son  of  Culcraig.  But  July 
saw  the  brigade  leave  that  district  of  frowsy  fogs,  where 
only  sour  black  beer  could  be  had,  to  cross  the  Elbe,  beyond 
which  the  Swedish  cavalry  captured  Wolmerstadt ;  while 
the  Laird  of  Foulis  stormed  the  castle  of  Blae  at  the  head 
of  his  Highlanders,  and  Banier  took  Havelberg  from  the 
garrison  of  Pappenheim,  on  whose  person  there  were  said  to 
be  the  marks  of  a  hundred  wounds.  (Scots  Mag.,  1804.) 

0 


CHAPTER    XX. 
THE    SCOTS    IN    SWEDEN.— (Continued.) 

The  Marquis  of  Hamilton's  Contingent — Capture  of  Guben — 
Battle  of  Leipzig — Capture  of  Mersberg,  etc. — Passage  of 
the  Rhine — Capture  of  Oppenheim. 

"  IN  these  warrs"  (says  the  Swedish  Intelligencer,  part  ii), 
"  if  a  fort  be  to  be  stormed,  or  any  desperate  piece  of  service 
to  be  set  upon,  the  Scottish  have  always  had  the  honour 
and  the  danger  to  be  the  first  men  that  are  put  upon  such 
a  business." 

Colonel  Robert  Monro  of  Foulis,  to  whom  we  refer  so 
often,  was  a  well-trained  soldier,  and  began  his  career 
as  a  private  gentleman  in  the  French  Guards,  and  he  tells 
us  : — "  I  was  once  made  to  stand,  in  my  younger  years,  at 
the  Louvre  Gate  in  Paris,  for  sleeping  in  the  morning  when 
I  ought  to  have  been  at  my  exercise,  from  eleven  before  noon 
to  eight  of  the  clock  at  night,  sentry,  armed  with  corslet, 
headpiece,  bracelets,  being  iron  to  the  teeth,  in  a  hot 
summer  day,  till  I  was  weary  of  my  life,  which  always 
made  me  more  strict  in  punishing  those  under  my  com- 
mand." 

The  coming  contingent  of  6,200  men  under  the  Marquis 
of  Hamilton,  then  a  very  young  man,  was  delayed  in  its 
departure  by  an  accusation  of  treason  brought  from  Holland 
against  Hamilton  by  Lord  Ochiltree,  son  of  the  notorious 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  195 

•Captain  Stuart,  who,  during  the  minority  of  James  VI, 
had  usurped  the  estates  of  the  Hamilton  family.  The 
malicious  fabrication  averred  that  Colonel  Ramsay,  the 
•agent  of  Gustavus,  had  told  Lord  Reay  that  the  troops, 
instead  of  being  destined  for  Germany,  were  to  be  em- 
ployed in  raising  Hamilton  to  the  throne  of  Scotland.  A 
challenge  was  the  result ;  but  the  duel — a  public  one — was 
forbidden.  The  expedition  sailed  on  the  4th  August,  after 
the  Scots  from  Leith  had  joined  the  English  in  Yarmouth 
Roads,  and  safely  reached  the  banks  of  the  Oder.  The 
rumour  that  it  consisted  of  20,000  men  had  a  material 
effect  on  the  campaign. 

Soon  there  were  none  but  Scots  left  of  the  contingent,  as 
the  English  all  perished,  says  Harte,  on  the  march  between 
Wolgast  and  Werben,  by  overeating  themselves  with 
"  German  bread,  which  is  heavier,  darker,  and  sourer  than 
their  own ;  they  suffered  too  by  an  inordinate  fondness  for 
new  honey ;  nor  did  the  German  beer  agree  with  their  con- 
stitutions." There  were  now  four  regiments,  consisting 
each  of  ten  companies,  in  each  of  which  were  150  pikes 
and  muskets.  They  had  several  pieces  of  cannon,  including 
some  of  Sir  Alexander  Hamilton's,  known  by  the  Scots  as 
"  Sandy's  Stoups."  (Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Hamilton, 
etc.} 

The  marquis  was  hard-visaged,  wore  his  hair  cut  short, 
and  adopted  often  a  calotte  cap ;  was  sombre  in  expression, 
and  fond  of  quoting  Gustavus.  (Warwick's  Memoirs.) 

After  a  conference  with  the  latter,  the  young  marquis 
marched  his  contingent  towards  Silesia,  and  after  storming 
the  frontier  town  of  Guben,  in  Brandenburg,  he  advanced 

o2 


196  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

to  Glogau,  a  strongly  fortified  city  (60  miles  from  Breslau), 
which  his  Scots  would  have  taken  easily,  as  it  was  insuffi- 
ciently garrisoned ;  but  he  was  recalled  by  Gustavus  to 
Custrin,  and  despatched  to  assist  in  the  reduction  of  Mag- 
deburg. His  force,  reduced  now  by  casualties  to  3,500 
men,  took  possession  of  the  town,  which  the  aged 
Pappenheim  abandoned  ;  but  Hamilton's  force  continued  to 
dwindle,  till,  by  pestilence,  privation,  and  the  sword,  there 
remained  of  it  only  two  battalions  commanded  by  Colonel 
Sir  Alexander  Hamilton  and  Sir  William  Bellenden  of 
Auchnoule  (afterwards  Lord  Bellenden  of  Broughton,  near 
Edinburgh).  These  were  incorporated  with"  the  column  of 
the  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar,  while  the  marquis  rode  as  a 
mere  volunteer  on  the  staff  of  the  Swedish  king.  (Harte, 
JSurnett,  etc.) 

The  latter  was  now  marching  toward  the  Pass  of  Witten- 
berg, en  route  recalling  from  Havelburg  the  regiment  of 
the  Laird  of  Foulis,  who  had  been  joined  by  a  fresh  body 
of  Scottish  recruits,  chiefly  under  Robert  Munro  of  Kii- 
ternie,  who  died  at  the  former  place  of  marsh  fever,  and 
was  buried  by  his  clansmen  with  military  honours. 

On  the  plains  of  Leipzig — God's  Acre — the  same  ground 
on  which  Charles  V  overthrew  the  Emperor  of  Saxony  on 
the  memorable  7th  of  September,  1631,  the  army  of  Gueta- 
vus,  30,000  strong,  encountered  that  of  Count  Tilly,  num- 
bering 44,000.  On  that  eventful  day  the  Scottish  brigades 
covered  the  advance  and  rear  of  the  attacking  force. 

In  the  van  were  the  Scottish  regiments  of  Sir  James 
Ramsay  the  Black,  the  Laird  of  Foulis,  and  Sir  John 
Hamilton,  which  on  crossing  the  Loben  found  themselves 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  197 

face  to  face  with  the  splendid  Imperialists — chiefly  cuiras- 
siers, whom  Ramsay  at  once  engaged. 

Hepburn  commanded  the  reserve,  which  included  his 
own  brigade,  which  marched  with  colours  flying — the  Green 
brigade  displaying  four.  *•  Go  1  Mitus  !"  was  the  war-cry  of 
the  Swedes  ;  "Sancta  Maria  !"  that  of  the  Imperialists,  before 
whom  rose  a  flight  of  birds,  taken  as  an  omen  of  victory. 

The  Saxons,  who  formed  the  S.vedish  left,  gave  way,  on 
which  Tilly  prepared  to  charge  the  Swedes  and  Livonians 
at  the  head  of  his  main  body  ;  "  but  now  Grustavus  selected 
2,000  musketeers  of  the  brave  Scottish  nation,"  says  the  old 
Leipzig  account,  and  covered  ea  ;h  flank  with  1,000  horse, 
while  the  Scottish  officers  formed  their  men  into  columns 
of  about  600  each — three  front  ranks  kneeling,  three 
standing  erect,  and  all  pouring  in  their  fire  together — a 
platoon  method  adopted  for  the  first  time,  which  struck 
terror,  amazement,  and  destruction  in  the  Austrian  ranks. 
(Harte's  Gustavus.) 

Thus  they  closed  up,  till  Hepburn  gave  the  order 
"  Forward,  pikemen !"  Then  muskets  were  clubbed,  pikes 
levelled,  and  the  regiments  of  Hepburn,  Lumsden,  Ramsay, 
and  Monro,  each  led  by  its  colonel,  burst  like  a  whirlwind 
through  the  Austrian  ranks,  when  all  order  became  lost 
and  their  retreat  began  amid  disorder,  dust,  and  smoke. 
"  We  were  as  in  a  dark  cloud,"  wrote  Monro,  "  whereupon, 
having  a  drummer  by  me,  I  caused  him  beat  the  Scots' 
March  till  it  cleared  up,  which  re-collected  our  friends  to 
us." 

This  old  national  cadence  on  the  drum  was  the  terror  of 
the  Spaniards  in  Flanders,  so  much  so,  that  it  was  often 


198  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

beaten  "  by  the  lubberly  Dutches,"  we  are  told,  "  when  they 
wished  their  quarters  to  be  unmolested  in  the  night." 

All  Tilly's  baggage,  cannon,  and  standards  were  taken, 
and  7,000  at  least  of  his  men  were  slain.  "  The  Scots 
made  great  bonfires  of  the  broken  waggons  and  tumbrils, 
the  shattered  stockades  and  pikes  that  strewed  the  field : 
and  the  red  glow  of  these  as  they  blazed  on  the  plains  of 
Leipzig,  glaring  on  the  glistening  mail  and  upturned  face" 
of  the  dead,  was  visible  to  the  Imperialists  as  they  retreated 
towards  the  Weser." 

By  this  decisive  victory  the  whole  German  empire  was 
laid  open  to  the  invaders,  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Rhine,  and 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Oder  to  the  sources  of  the  Danube, 
and  terror  was  struck  to  the  heart  of  the  Catholic  league ; 
100  captured  standards  were  hung  in  the  Eidderholm 
Kirche  at  Stockholm  ;  and  Colonels  Lumfden  and  Monro, 
Majors  Monipenny  and  Sinclair,  and  others,  were  rewarded 
for  their  merit  in  that  day's  victory,  which  Gustavus  won, 
says  old  Monro,  enthusiastically,  "  with  the  help  of  a  nation 
that  never  was  conquered  by  a  forraine  enemy — the  invincible 
Scots  ! 

Three  days  after,  at  the  capture  of  Mersberg,  when  1,500 
were  killed  or  taken,  Colonel  Hay's  regiment  stormed  the 
outworks;  but  Major-General  Thomas  Kerr  was  slain,  and 
Captain  Mackenzie  of  Suddie  wounded  through  his  helmet, 
after  which  he  k'll.d  his  assailant  by  a  pike-thrust.  On 
the  llth  September,  at  the  capture  of  Moritzberg,  Captain 
William  Stuart,  of  Monro's  regiment,  led  the  musketeers, 
and  prayers  were  offered  up  in  the  cathedral  church  of  St. 
Ulric  ;  while  at  an  entertainment  that  followed,  Gustavn> 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  199 

presented  his  Scottish  officers  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and 
other  Protestant  princes. 

"  Monro,"  said  he,  taking  the  Laird  of  Foulis  by  the  hand, 
"  I  wish  you  to  be  master  of  the  bottles  and  glasses  to-night, 
and  bear  as  much  wine  as  old  Major- General  Sir  Patrick 
Ruthven,  that  you  may  assist  me  to  make  my  guests 
merry."  (Naylor's  Mil.  Hist,  of  Germany,  Harte,  etc.) 

As  the  war  went  on,  when  Hepburn's  brigade  approached 
the  capital  of  Franconia,  he  marched  in  peacefully, 
according  to  terms  he  had  granted  to  Father  Ogilvie,  a 
venerable  priest  of  the  Scottish  cloister,  who  had  visited 
him  on  behalf  of  the  bishop  and  citizens. 

At  Marienburg  on  the  Maine  the  passage  of  Gustavus 
was  disputed  by  the  castellan,  Captain  Keller,  "  a  brave, 
good  fellow,  who  hated  all  Protestants,  and  believed  that 
none  could  reach  him  unless  they  had  wings  as  well  as 
weapons";  but  Sir  James  Eamsayhad  orders  to  capture  the 
place  at  all  hazards.  He  sent  Lieutenant  Robert  Ramsay, 
who  spoke  German  well,  to  procure  some  boats  ;  but  his  rich 
costume  exciting  suspicion,  the  latter  was  made  prisoner. 

The  guns  of  Marienburg  enfiladed  the  bridge  of  the 
Maine,  the  broken  central  arch  of  which  was  crossed  by  a 
plank  admitting  but  one  man  at  a  time,  where  sixty  might 
have  marched  abreast  before,  and  fifty  feet  below  rolled 
the  dark  river.  On  the  5th  October,  Ramsay's  undaunted 
soldiers  advanced  to  the  assault,  led  by  Major  Both  well,  of 
the  family  of  Holyrood  House,  who  with  his  brother  was 
shot  dead  at  the  gorge  of  the  tete-du-pont,  where  most  of 
their  soldiers  perished  with  them ;  but  Hamilton  and 
Ramsay,  with  the  main  body  of  the  regiment,  passed  the 


200  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

stream  in  boats  under  a  cannonade,  and  bivouacked  iu 
llieir  armour  on  the  bank  under  the  fortress,  which  they 
escaladed  at  daybreak.  The  stormers  were  chiefly  officers, 
armed  with  a  partisan  and  a  brace  of  pistols  in  their  sword- 
belts.  Ramsay  had  an  arm  broken,  but  Hamilton  led 
them  on,  and,  after  a  two  hours'  conflict,  the  half-moon 
battery  was  won,  when  it  was  heaped  with  corpses  and 
slippery  with  blood  and  brains. 

"Give  them  Magdeburg  quarter!"  was  the  cry  of  the 
Swedish  supports  as  they  came  up;  and  then  Gustavus 
ordered  the  Scots  to  retire  and  the  Blue  brigade  to  advance. 
Perhaps  he  thought  they  had  done  enough  ;  but  this  was 
an  affront  which  the  Scottish  troops  never  forgave,  for  Sir 
John  Hamilton  resigned  his  commission  on  the  spot.  Sir 
James  Ramsay  received  a  large  grant  of  land  in  the  Duchy  of 
Mecklenburg,  with  the  government  of  Hainan  (Lord  Hailes, 
irouiLocen.  Hist.);  and  the  two  Both  wells  were  interred  with 
all  honours,  side  by  side,  in  the  church  of  St.  Kilian  the 
Scot,  in  the  city  ;  and  so  ended  the  storming  of  Marienburg. 

The  next  service  of  the  Scots  was  the  defence  of 
Oxenford  on  the  Maine,  to  prevent  the  vast  force  of  the 
Imperialists,  said  to  be  50,000  strong,  from  crossing  the 
river.  Hepburn,  who  commanded,  undermined  the  bridge, 
threw  up  works,  cut  down  trees  that  might  impede  his  fire, 
and  made  every  preparation  for  a  vigorous  defence  in  the 
early  days  of  a  stormy  October,  till  the  enemy  came  on, 
with  their  shouts,  drums,  and  trumpets — "  making  such  n 
r.oise  as  though  heaven  and  earth  were  coming  together," 
says  Monro. 

Thirty-six  Scots  musketeers  of  Lumsden's  corps,  who  had 


THE  SCOTS  .W  SWEDEN.  201 

been  advanced  with  videttes  under  Sergeant-Major  Mom- 
penny ,  were  driven  in,  and  the  armour  of  the  latter  was 
soreiy  battered  by  pistol-balls;  and  when  day  broke,  Hepburn 
discovered  that  the  whole  Imperial  army  had  taken  the 
route  for  Nuremberg  by  the  way  of  Weinsheim. 

The  king  now  reinforced  him  with  500  men,  and  sent 
orders  to  abandon  the  tosvn  in  the  dark,  pass  the  Imperial- 
ists, and  occupy  the  place  they  were  approaching — to  wit, 
Weinsheim :  orders  which  were  obeyed  with  alacrity. 
Hepburn  blew  up  the  bridge,  and  with  pikes  and  muskets 
at  the  trail  retreated  at  the  double  just  as  day  dawned  on 
the  mountains  of  Bavaria. 

His  Scots  formed  the  van  of  the  army,  which,  after  a 
five  days'  march  through  a  fertile  country,  reached  in  the 
middle  of  November  Aschaffenberg,  a  stately  city  of  the 
Bishop  of  Mentz,  on  which  300  of  Ramsay's  regiment,  led 
by  Major  Hanna  (of  the  family  of  Sorbie,  we  believe),  had 
already  hoisted  the  three  crowns  of  Sweden ;  while  200 
Scots  of  Sir  Ludovick  Leslie's  regiment  took  possession  of 
Busselsheim  on  the  Maine,  and  held  it  under  Captain  Mac- 
dougal. 

Two  more  Scottish  regiments,  under  Sir  Frederick 
Hamilton  and  Alexander,  Master  of  Forbess,  had  now 
joined  Gustavus,  who  had  thus  thirteen  entire  Scottish 
battalions  of  infantry. 

He  had  five  others,  composed  of  English  and  Irishmen, 
officered  chiefly  by  Scotsmen  ;  and  he  resolved  now  to  turn 
his  arms  against  the  Palatinate,  then  held  by  a  body  of 
Spanish  troops  under  Don  Philippo  de  Sylvia.  He  entered 
the  Bergstrasse  and  reached  the  Rhine,  when  Count  Bralie, 


202  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

with  300  Swedes  and  300  Scots  of  the  regiments  of  Beay, 
Ramsay,  and  the  Laird  of  Wormiston,  crossed  the  stream 
and  entrenched  themselves,  after  repulsing  no  less  than 
fourteen  squadrons  of  Imperial  cuirassiers,  who  fled  to 
Oppenheim.  Seventy  years  afterwards,  a  marble  lion  was 
erected  on  a  column  60  feet  in  height,  to  mark  the  spot 
where  Gustavus,  with  his  Swedes  and  Scots,  passed  the 
great  river  of  Germany.  (Schiller,  Harte,  etc.,  etc.) 

On  the  Imperial  side  of  the  Rhine  rose  the  town  and 
castle  of  Oppenheim.  On  the  other  was  a  strong  redoubt 
girt  by  double  ditches  full  of  muddy  water ;  these  were 
crossed  by  a  narrow  bridge.  A  thousand  resolute  Italian 
and  Burgundian  veterans  held  it,  and  Hepburn's  brigade 
was  ordered  to  capture  the  place,  thus  to  facilitate  the 
passage  of  the  army. 

On  Sunday,  the  4th  December,  1631,  he  broke  ground  be- 
fore it,  and,  just  as  the  king  was  about  to  order  an  assault, 
the  promise  of  some  boats  led  to  a  countermand.  The 
White  brigade  crossed  thus  in  the  night,  and,  with  drums 
beating,  marched  towards  Oppenheim  as  day  broke. 
Meanwhile,  the  Scots  near  the  redoubt  had  lit  fires  behind 
their  earthworks,  when  Hepburn  and  Monro  supped  to- 
gether, enjoying,  we  are  told,  "  a  jar  of  Low  Country  wine," 
when  the  light  shining  on  their  armour  attracted  the 
Imperials,  who  fired  in  their  direction  a  32-pound  shot) 
which  knocked  to  pieces  Colonel  Hepburn's  coach,  while  a 
second  killed  a  sergeant  of  Mouro's,  "  by  the  fire  driuking 
a  pipe  of  tobacco,"  as  the  colonel  curiously  phrases  it ;  and 
now  many  men  of  the  brigade  were  cut  in  two  or  torn 
to  pieces  by  round-shot,  which  dyed  with  blood  all  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  203 

snow  through  which  the  parallels  were  cut.  At  midnight 
200  Burgundians  made  a  desperate  sally,  but  the  Scots 
were  on  the  alert,  and,  after  some  gallant  fighting,  sharply 
repulsed  them. 

On  seeing  the  White  brigade  approaching  Oppenheinn 
the  cavalier  who  commanded  in  the  redoubt,  fearing  that 
his  retreat  would  be  cut  off,  sent  a  little  Italian  drummer 
with  articles  of  capitulation  to  Sir  John  Hepburn,  who 
permitted  him  to  march  out  by  the  way  of  Bingen,  but  to 
leave  all  cannon  behind  him.  The  redoubt  was  now 
occupied  by  200  of  Lumsden's  musketeers  and  100  of 
Beay's,  while  200  of  Ramsay's  captured  the  gates  of 
Oppenheim  just  as  Gustavus  assailed  the  castle.  Ramsay's 
wound  caused  his  absence,  but  his  regiment  was  led  by 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Douglas  ;  and  so  sharp  was  the  service 
it  saw,  that,  though  originally  2,000  strong,  only  200 
survived  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  of  these  few  ever  saw 
Scotland  again.  (Fowler's  Southland,  1656.) 

Hepburn,  having  procured  107  boats,  brought  over  his 
own  brigade  and  the  Blue,  and  as  these  approached  the 
castle  they  were  surprised  to  hear  discharges  of  musketry 
'within  it,  and  to  see  the  garrison  leaping  over  the  outworks 
and  seeking  to  escape  in  every  direction. 

It  would  seem  that  the  two  hundred  Scots  who  had 
captured  the  gates  of  Oppenheim  had  discovered  a  secret 
passage  to  the  castle.  Led  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Douglas, 
they  drove  in  the  station  guards,  and,  reaching  the 
heart  of  the  place,  engaged  in  a  desperate  hand-to-hand 
conflict  with  the  garrison.  Nine  companies  of  Italians, 
each  100  strong,  were  taken  prisoners  in  the  redoubt,  and 


204  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLI  IERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

"the  king,"  says  Harte,  "  made  a  present  of  them  to  Hep- 
burn (whose  kindness  and  humanity  were  equal  to  his 
bravery)  to  refit  his  broken  brigade."  But  they  all 
deserted  en  masse  from  Beyerland  a  few  months  subse- 
quently. Gustavus,  on  entering  the  castle,  which  had 
been  taken  ere  he  could  reach  it,  was  received  with  a  salute 
by  Ramsay's  musketeers. 

"  My  brave  Scots !"  he  exclaimed,  "  why  were  you  too 
quick  for  me  ?" 

A  "  Handbook"  of  1843  states  that  a  ruined  chapel 
within  the  churchyard  of  Oppenheim  is  half-filled  with  the 
skulls  and  bones  of  those  who  fell  on  this  occasion  ;  and  it 
was  to  Scottish  valour  that  Gustavus  owed  nine  pair  of 
colours,  the  first  he  had  ever  taken  from  the  Spaniards.  The 
Swedish  Intelligencer  exultingly  records  how  they  fell  on 
here,  with  "  such  tempest  and  resolution." 

The  following  Sunday  saw  Hepburn's  Scots  before  the 
walls  of  Mentz,  deemed  then  by  the  Germans  their  best 
bulwark  against  France,  and  held  by  2,000  chosen  Castillian 
troops  under  Don  Philippo  de  Sylvia.  "  Colonel  Hepburn's 
brigade  (according  to  use)  was  directed  to  the  most 
dangerous  posts  next  the  enemy,"  whose  fire  from  the ' 
citadel  slew  many  of  his  men  ere  they  got  under  cover  of 
their  parallels.  Then  Colonel  Axel  Lily,  a  Swedish  officer, 
came  next  night  to  visit  Hepburn  and  Monro,  and  being 
invited  to  sup  with  them,  "  in  a  place  from  which  the  snow 
had  been  cleared  away,  the  three  cavaliers  sat  down  by  a 
large  fire  that  the  soldiers  had  lighted,  and  regaled  themselves 
on  such  viands  as  the  foragers  had  procured,  spitted  upon 
old  ramrods  or  sword-blades.  Every  moment  the  flashes 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  205 

broke  brightly  from  the  citadel,  and  the  cannon-shot 
boomed  away  over  their  heads  into  the  obscurity  of  the 
night,  or  plashed  into  the  deep  waters  of  the  Rhine  behind 
them.  They  were  all  discoursing  merrily,  when  Axel  Lily 
said  to  Hepburn,  laughing  as  he  listened  to  the  Spanish 
cannon,  and  ducking  his  head  as  a  ball  passed,  "  If  any 
misfortune  should  happen  to  me  now,  what  would  be 
thought  of  it  ?  I  have  no  business  here,  exposed  to  the 
enemy's  shot.'  " 

Soon  after  a  ball  carried  off  one  of  his  legs  ;  but  the 
king  heaped  so  many  sinecures  upon  him  that  his  Scottish 
comrades  could  not  help  envying  him,  though  he  had  ever 
after  to  march  "  with  a  tree  or  wooden  legge."  (Monro's 
Expedition,  etc.) 

Mentz  surrendered ;  the  bells  of  the  glorious  cathedral 
saluted  Gustavus,  and  Hepburn's  brigade  exchanged  the 
snowy  trenches  for  quarters  in  the  city,  where  they  spent 
the  Christmas;  and  the  king's  court  was  attended  by 
twelve  ambassadors  and  the  flower  of  the  German 
nobles. 

In  Mentz  the  Green  brigade  remained  till  the  5th  March, 
1632,  getting  more  recruits  from  Scotland,  and  the 
regiment,  vacant  by  the  resignation  of  Sir  John  Hamilton, 
was  now  commanded  by  old  Sir  Lodovick  Leslie. 

Previously  (in  February)  Gustavus  had  marched  against 
Creutzenach,  on  the  Nahe,  a  well-built  town,  defended  by  a 
castle ;  and  on  this  expedition  he  took  with  him  300  of 
Ramsay's  musketeers,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Robert 
Douglas,  of  whom  his  secretary,  Fowler,  has  left  us  an 
ample  account  in  his  folio  work,  dated  1656,  in  his  "Life 


206  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

of  Sir  George  Douglas,  Kniglit,  lord  ambassador  extraor- 
dinary for  the  peace  between  Sutherland  and  Poland." 

This  officer  was  the  son  of  Sir  George  Douglas  of 
Mordington  (a  cadet  of  the  house  of  Torthorwald)  and 
Margaret  Dundas  of  Fingask.  Passing  a  party  of  English 
volunteers  under  Lord  Craven,  who  held  the  trenches, 
where  they  certainly  suffered  severely,  he  stormed  the 
"  Devil's  Works,"  as  they  were  named,  at  Creutzenach,  of 
which  he  was  made  governor  till  the  recovery  of  Ramsay 
from  his  wound.  Douglas  incurred  the  displeasure  of 
Gustavus  before  the  battle  of  Lutzen,  and,  after  being  the 
ambassador  of  Charles  I,  died  in  1635.  At  the  capture  of 
Creutzenach  47  of  Ramsay's  men  were  killed,  including 
Captain  Douglas,  shot  through  the  heart. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDES.— (Continued.) 

Bingen  on  the  Rhine — The  Invasion  of  Bavaria — Passage  of 
the  Lech — Occupation  of  Munich — Altenburg. 

SIR  PATRICK  RUTHVEN  having  been  made  governor  of  Him, 
Monro  with  some  of  his  regiment  was  dispatched  to 
Bingen  on  the  Rhine,  which,  with  the  "  Massive  Tower"  (of 
Bishop  Hatto's  old  legend),  was  then  held  by  a  wing  of 
Ramsay's  regiment.  Drawing  off  a  captain  with  100 
Scots,  he  marched  to  the  succour  of  the  Rhingrow  at 
Coblentz,  where  with  twenty  troops  of  horse  he  was  about 
to  be  attacked  by  10,000  Spaniards  from  Spain.  Four  of 
their  regiments  of  horse  fell  suddenly  on  his  cantonments, 
which  were  in  several  open  villages,  but  these  were  so 
resolutely  charged  by  only  four  troops  of  Swedes,  led  by 
Rittmaster  Hume  of  Carrelside,  that  300  of  them  were 
slain,  and  the  Count  of  Napau  was  taken  prisoner. 
(Intelligencer.) 

Soon  after  this,  two  small  towns  on  the  Rhine,  named 
Bacharach,  which  was  encircled  by  antique  walls,  with 
twelve  towers,  and  Stahleck,  the  ancient  seat  of  the 
Electors  Palatine,  were  stormed  by  Ramsay's  musketeers, 
led  by  Major  Hanna,  who,  in  consequence  of  the  resistance 
he  met,  put  all  within  them  to  the  sword,  the  officers 
excepted.  According  to  Hope,  the  beautiful  church  of 


208  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

St.  Werner  at  Stahleck,  was  demolished  on  this  occasion, 
but  the  pointed  windows  still  show  the  most  delicate 
tracery. 

In  the  Swedish  force  of  14,000  horse  and  foot,  now  else- 
where moving  up  the  Elbe,  were  five  battalions  of  Scots, 
viz.,  one  of  Lumsden's,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Robert 
Stuart ;  the  Master  of  Forbess's  regiment,  under  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Sir  Arthur  Forbess ;  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton's 
regiment ;  Colonel  Monro  of  Obisdale's  regiment ;  and 
Colonel  Robert  Leslie's  Old  Scots  regiment,  with  one  of 
Englishmen,  led  by  Colonel  Vavasour.  This  force  cleared 
the  whole  Duchy  of  Mecklenburg,  storming  castles  and 
capturing  towns  ;  and  so  great  was  the  terror  now  generally 
excited  by  their  achievements,  that,  on  the  advance  of 
Gnstavus  towards  the  Moselle,  the  presence  of  so  many 
Presbyterian  soldiers  alarmed  Cardinal  Richelieu,  and  fur- 
nished him  with  a  powerful  argument  for  seeking  to  turn 
Louis  XIII  from  the  Swedish  alliance.  The  spring  of 
the  year  saw  old  Sir  Alexander  Leslie  of  Balgonie — the 
future  champion  of  the  Covenant — with  his  Dutch  and 
Swedish  veterans  hovering  like  a  crowd  over  the  fertile 
plains  of  Lower  Saxony.  He  was  then  field-marshal,  and 
governor  of  all  the  cities  on  the  Baltic  coast. 

Major-General  Sir  David  Drummond  was  then  governor 
of  Stettin.  The  Earl  of  Crawford,  Colonels  Baily,  King, 
Douglas,  Hume,  Gunn,  and  Hugh  Hamilton,  had  all  Dutch 
regiments  ;  also  two  Colonels  Forbess,  John  and  Alexander, 
called  the  Bald,  with  many  more  too  numerous  to  mention. 

The  early  days  of  March  saw  Hepburn's  brigade  and 
the  other  Scots  with  Gustavus  on  the  march  to  Bavaria, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  209 

while  the  chancellor,  Oxtenstiern,  who  had  remained  with 
a  strong  force  to  guard  the  conquests  on  the  Rhine,  repelled 
the  enemy  near  Frankenthal,  in  which  affair  the  Dutch, 
who  formed  the  first  column,  when  they  saw  the  Spaniards, 
resorted  to  their  old  ruse  of  beating  the  Scots'  March  to 
intimidate  the  enemy,  and  yet  basely  fell  back !  But 
immediately  upon  this  the  Scottish  regiment  of  Sir  Lodo- 
vick  Leslie  and  the  battalion  of  Sir  John  Ruthven,  *;  whose 
officers  were  all  valiant  Scots,  Lieutenant-Colonel  John 
Lesly,  Major  Lyell,  Captain  David  King,  and  divers  other 
resolute  cavaliers,"  fell  on  with  sword  and  pike,  driving 
back  the  Spaniards  in  confusion.  So  furious  was  their 
charge  and  so  complete  their  victory  that  the  chancellor 
of  Sweden  in  front  of  the  whole  line  "  did  sweare  that  had 
it  not  beene  for  the  valour  of  thet  Scots  Briggad  they  had  all 
beene  lost  and  defeated  by  the  Spaniard."  (Monro,  part  ii, 
p.  114.) 

The  26th  of  March  saw  Gustavus  before  Donamvdrth, 
the  key  of  Swabia,  where  he  was  joined  by  the  Laird  of 
Foulis  with  his  two  regiments.  The  place  guarded  a  forti- 
fied mountain,  and  was  rendered  strong  by  its  embattled 
walls  and  deep  ditches,  commanding  the  bridge  across  the 
Danube. 

The  Duke  of  Saxe-Lauenberg  occupied  the  city  with 
2,500  men.  A  toll  was  levied  then,  and  he  vowed  the  toll 
paid  by  Gustavus  in  passing  the  river  would  be  the  lives  of 
his  bravest  soldiers — though  the  works  were  without  cannon. 
A  handsome  street  led  to  the  town-gate,  and  in  the  former 
Gustavus  placed  500  musketeers  to  prevent  a  sortie,  and 
completed  a  twenty-gun  battery,  guarded  by  a  body  o^ 


2  io  THE  SCO  TTISH  SO  LDIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

infantry  under  the  Scottish  Captain  Semple.  In  the  gloom 
of  a  dark  night,  a  troop  of  Cronenberg's  Reiters  issued 
from  the  town-gate,  hewel  a  passage  through  the 
musketeers,  and  full  upon  Semple's  artillery  guard,  cutting 
it  to  pieces.  Semple  was  put  under  arrest,  but  pardoned 
on  the  intercession  of  other  Scottish  officers. 

Hepburn  now  urged  a  flank  movement,  and,  drawing  off 
his  own  brigade  with  its  field-pieces  in  silence,  took  up  such 
an  excellent  position  on  the  Swabian  side  that  the  captain 
of  the  place  became  assured.  While  his  guns  opened  on 
the  town,  Gustavus  assailed  the  Lederthor,  and  the  former, 
leading  his  brigade  across  the  corpse-strewn  bridge — ably 
seconded  by  Major  Sidsorf,  of  Ramsay's  regiment — cut  a 
passage  in  about  daybreak  ;  thus  the  Scots  won  the  key  of 
Swabia,  while  the  Swedes  were  still  fighting  in  the  Leother- 
gate.  "  Sir  John  Hepburn  being  thus  gotten  in,"  says  the 
Intelligencer,  "  and  having  first  cut  to  pieces  all  resistance, 
his  souldiers  fall  immediately  to  plundering,  when  many  a 
gold  chain,  with  much  other  plate  and  treasure,  were 
made  prize  of." 

By  sunrise  the  carnage  and  uproar  were  over,  and  the  king 
sent  for  the  leader  of  the  Scots.  "  Through  streets  encum- 
bered by  rifled  waggons,  dismounted  cannon,  broken  drums 
and  arms,  and  terrified  citizens  wandering  wildly  among 
dead  and  dying  soldiers,  he  made  his  way  to  a  handsome 
house  which  had  escaped  the  cannon-shot,  and  where  he 
found  Gustavus  with  Frederick  of  Bohemia,  the  lons:- 

7  o 

bearded  Augustus  of  Psalzbach,  and  other  men  of  rank, 
resting  after  the  fatigue  of  the  past  night,  with  armour 
unbuckled  and  flagons  of  Rhenish  before  them." 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  211 

In  their  presence  he  thanked  Hepburn  for  taking  the 
town  in  flank  with  his  Scots  by  the  Hasfort  bridge,  after 
which  the  brigadier  recrossed  the  Danube  to  throw  up  a 
battery  at  a  point  that  was  deemed  of  the  first  importance. 

After  resting  four  days  at  Donauwo'rth  Gustavus  advanced 
at  the  head  of  32,000  horse  and  foot  to  complete  the 
passage  of  the  Lech. 

In  these  Swedish  wars  were  no  less  than  155  generals 
and  field-officers,  all  Scotsmen,  whose  names  are  given  at 
length  in  the  Memoirs  of  Sir  John  Hepburn ;  while  the 
number  of  Scottish  captains  and  subalterns  will  never  be 
known. 

Among  some  of  the  most  notable  of  the  former  were 
Generals  Sir  Andrew  Rutherford,  afterwards  killed  at 
Tangiers  when  Earl  of  Teviot  ;  Sir  James  Spence  of 
Wormiston,  afterwards  Count  of  Orcholm,  Lord  of  More- 
holm,  and  chancellor  of  Sweden ;  George,  Earl  of  Crawford- 
Lindsay,  who  was  slain  by  a  lieutenant  of  his  regiment 
whom  he  had  struck  with  a  baton  ;  yet  "  General  Lesly, 
being  then  governor  of  Stettin,  when  the  earl  was  buried, 
caused  him  (the  lieutenant)  to  be  shot  at  a  post."  (Scots 
Nation  Vindicated.)  Another  general  was  Sir  James  King 
of  Barrocht,  in  Aberdeenshire,  governor  of  Ylotho,  on  the 
Weser,  who  had  to  leave  Scotland  in  1619  for  slaying 
Seaton  of  Meldrum,  with  whom  his  family  was  at  feud. 
He  was  created  Lord  Eythen  in  1642,  but  died  childless 
and  in  obscurity.  His  title  is  extinct. 

Prior  to  the  passage  of  the  Lech,  Hepburn's  Scots, 
penetrating  into  a  rocky  gorge  three  miles  from  Donauworth, 
captured  the  castle  of  Oberndorff — a  grim  edifice  of  the 

p  2 


2 1 2     THE  SCO  TTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FOR  TUNE. 

middle  a^es,  situated  amidst  the  gloomiest  scenery— killing 
or  capturing  400  men  ;  but  the  count,  "a  mailed  Hercules," 
hewed  his  way  out  and  escaped.  Hepburn  then  rejoined 
to  assist  in  the  passage  of  the  Lech,  which  formed  the  last 
barrier  of  falling  Bavaria — a  swift  mountain  torrent  that 
rises  in  the  Tyrol,  and  is  in  full  flood,  sweeping  down  rocks 
and  timber,  in  May. 

On  the  5th  of  April  the  two  armies  came  in  sight  of  each 
other,  and  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  might  be  said  to  be  fixed 
upon  their  movements.  On  the  Imperial  side  70  pieces  of 
cannon  protected  the  passage  of  that  terrible  stream,  and 
thick,  like  fields  of  corn,  the  dense  battalions  of  Tilly  and 
the  Elector — pikes  and  musketeers — held  the  point  upon 
which  Gustavus  was  marching,  and  the  guns  opened  upon 
him. 

With  72  he  replied,  and  for  six- and- thirty  hours  the  cross- 
fire was  maintained,  till  rocksand  trees  were  dashed  to  pieces. 
The  Bavarians  TV  ere  thrown  into  disorder,  1,000  of  them 
were  killed,  with  Count  Merodi,  and  a  bullet  carried  away 
a  leg  of  old  Count  Tilly ;  and  then,  amid  the  smoke  of  the 
batteries  and  that  created  by  heaps  of  damp  wood  and 
ignited  straw,  Gustavus  ordered  his  infantry  to  pass  the 
stream,  Hepburn  and  his  Scots — as  usual  on  every  piece  of 
desperate  work — forming  the  van.  Captain  Forbes  with 
thirty  musketeers  led  the  immediate  way,  and  found  the 
enemy  had  retired  beyond  gunshot,  the  Bavarian  Elector 
retreating  towards  Ingolstadt,  where  the  veteran  Tilly 
expired,  after  resigning  his  baton  to  Wallenstein,  the 
great  Duke  of  Friedland.  The  invasion  of  Bavaria  struck 
the  Catholics  of  Europe  with  alarm ;  but  in  its  progress, 


THE  ±COTS  IN  SWEDEN.  213 

says  Monro,  old  Sir  Patrick  Ruthven,  "  with  the  young 
cavaliers  of  the  Scots  nation  that  followed  him,  such  as 
Colonel  Hugh  Hamilton,  ColonelJohn  Fortune,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Gunne,  Lieutenant- Colon  el  Montgomerie,  Majors 
Ruthven,  Bruntisfield,  and  divers  other  Scots  captains,  such 
as  Dumbarve,  who  was  killed  by  the  boores,"  overran  all 
Swabia,  and  laid  every  town  under  contribution  from  Ulm 
on  the  Danube  to  Lindon  on  the  Lake  of  Constance. 

The  Green  brigade — in  these  details  we  adhere  chiefly  to 
the  Scots — occupied  eight  days  in  besieging  Ingolstadt, 
beyond  which  lay  the  Elector  of  Bavaria.  On  the  19th 
April  a  sally  was  expected,  and  all  night  the  brigade  lay 
under  arms,  from  sunset  till  sunrise — a  night  the  longest 
in  the  year,  it  seemed,  says  Monro,  "  for  by  one  shot  I  lost 
twelve  men  of  my  own  companie,  not  knowing  what  became 
of  them.  He  who  was  not  that  night  afraid  of  cannon- 
shot  might  next  day  without  harm  have  been  brtiyed  into 
gunpowder  I" 

Gustavus  had  his  horse  shot  under  him,  300  men  were 
killed,  yet  the  Scots  never  flinched ;  a  work  defended  by 
1,500  Bavarian  arquebuses  was  stormed;  but  the  Margrave 
of  Baden-Dourloch  lost  his  head  by  a  cannon-ball,  and  was 
buried  beside  Captain  Ramsey  of  the  Green  brigade,  who 
died  of  fever  on  the  advance  to  Gesegnfeld. 

Hepburn  and  Count  Home,  with  8,000  troops,  now  in- 
vested Landshut,  a  tine  city  in  Lower  Bavaria,  and  on  the 
march  there  the  Scots  suffered  from  the  fanaticism  and 
ferocity  of  the  Bavarian  boores,  who  murdered  about  fifty 
soldiers  on  the  way  by  Augsburg,  tearing  out  their  eyes, 
cutting  off"  their  noses  and  hands,  in  revenge  for  which  the 


214  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Swedes  and  Scots  shot  all  who  fell  into  thoir  hands.  Hep- 
burn was  made  governor  of  Landshut,  honour  being  all 
he  won  ;  but  Home  levied  20,000  dollars  on  his  own  account 
from  the  citizens. 

On  the  7th  May,  1632,  the  army  of  Gustavus  entered 
Munich.  Hepburn's  brigade  were  the  first  troops  in,  and 
he  was  made  governor  of  that  beautiful  capital,  which  no 
troops  were  allowed  to  occupy  but  his  own  brigade,  and  the 
Lord  Spynie's  Scots  regiment,  which  entered  with  the 
king.  To  prevent  plundering,  five  shillings  per  day  was 
given  to  every  man  above  his  usual  pay. 

Leaving  Hepburn  with  his  Scots  to  hold  the  Bavarian 
capital,  Gustavus  advanced  to  Augsburg  to  give  battle  to 
the  Imperialists ;  but  they  fell  back  towards  the  Lake  of 
Constance,  followed  by  the  troops  of  Sir  Patrick  Ruthven. 

Colonels  Forbes  and  Hamilton  now  raised  two  Swiss 
regiments ;  but  the  latter  were  routed  and  scattered,  and 
the  two  former  were  made  prisoners. 

On  the  4th  June  Hepburn's  Scots  relieved  Weissenburg, 
a  place  of  great  importance  ;  after  which  he  encamped  at 
Furth,  and  was  engaged  in  many  defensive  operations. 
Gustavus,  having  to  confront  an  army  of  60,000  men  with 
only  20,000,  formed  an  entrenched  camp  round  Nuremberg, 
which  had  then  six  gates  and  walls  armed  with  300  pieces 
of  cannon.  Under  Wallenstein  the  Imperialists  endeavoured 
to  cut  off  the  supplies  till  the  21st  August,  when  Gustavus 
attacked  the  heights  of  Altenberg,  and  the  Scots  were 
severely  engaged  in  their  attempt  to  storm  the  castle — an 
affair  in  which  1,000  Scots  and  Irish  musketeers,  who 
served  the  Emperor  under  Gordon  and  Major  Leslie,  proved 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  215 

their  most  active  antagonists.  Monro  was  wounded ; 
Captain  Patrick  Innes  was  shot  through  the  helmet  and 
brow ;  Colonel  Mackean  was  killed ;  Captain  Trail,  of 
Spynie's  regiment,  shot  through  the  throat ;  Hector  Monro 
of  Cadboll  through  the  head  ;  and  Captain  Vaus,  of  Foulis' 
regiment,  in  the  shoulder.  Both  Gordon  and  Leslie  were 
taken  and  brought  into  the  Swedish  camp,  where  they 
were  hospitably  entertained  by  Hepburn,  Munro,  and  other 
countrymen  for  five  weeks,  after  which  they  were  released. 
We  have  already  referred  to  these  officers  in  detailing  the 
murder  of  Wallenstein,  in  the  now  ruined  castle  of  Egar, 
in  Bohemia. 

The  two  armies  confronted  each  other  till  the  8th  of 
September,  when  Gustavus  retired,  and  500  of  Hepburn's 
Scots,  commanded  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Sinclair,  covered 
the  retreat  at  Neustadt. 

A  few  days  afterwards  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  being 
about  to  return  to  London,  Sir  John  obtained  leave  to 
accompany  him,  having  had  a  quarrel  with  the  King  of 
Sweden,  of  the  real  details  of  which  no  exact  account  has 
been  preserved.  In  a  fit  of  anger  Gustavus  is  said  to  have 
upbraided  Hepburn  with  his  religion  and  the  richness  of 
his  arms  and  apparel  (Anderson's  France,  vol.  v).  Schiller 
adds  that  the  brigadier  was  offended  with  Gustavus  for 
having  not  long  before  preferred  (to  Sir  John  Hamilton  ?) 
a  younger  officer  to  some  post  of  danger,  and  rashly  vowed 
never  again  to  draw  his  sword  in  the  Swedish  quarrel. 

But  Hepburn  would  seem  not  to  have  been  the  only 
Scottish  officer  with  whom  the  great  Gustavus  seriously 
quarrelled.  One  day  he  so  far  forgot  himself  as  to  give  a 


216  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

blow  to  Colonel  Seaton,  of  the  Green  brigade,  who,  quitting 
his  service,  at  once  set  out  for  the  frontiers  of  Denmark. 
"The  king,"  says  Lord  de  Ros,  condensing  this  anecdote, 
"ashamed  of  the  insults  he  had  put  upon  a  brave  and 
excellent  officer,  soon  followed  on  a  swift  horse  and  overtook 
him.  '  Seatou,'  said  he,  '  I  see  you  are  justly  offended ; 
I  am  sorry  for  it,  as  I  have  a  great  regard  for  you.  I  have 
followed  to  give  you  satisfaction.  I  am  now,  as  you  know, 
out  of  my  own  kingdom  -  we  are  equals ;  here  are  pistols 
and  swords;  avenge  yourself  if  you  choose.'  But  Seaton 
declared  he  had  already  received  ample  satisfaction ;  nor 
had  the  king  ever  a  more  devoted  servant,  or  one  more 
ready  to  lay  down  his  life  for  this  prince  who  had 
so  generously  redeemed  his  hasty  and  inconsiderate 
passion." 

On  the  bank  of  the  Bavarian  Rednitz  Gustavus  erected 
three  powerful  batteries  on  the  22nd  of  August,  and  for 
the  whole  of  that  day  cannonaded  the  Austrians  under 
Wallenstein,  who  remained  motionless,  hoping,  by  famine, 
to  conquer  him ;  but,  after  a  time,  Gustavus  crossed  the 
river  with  his  whole  force  in  order  of  battle,  and  took  up  a 
new  position  near  Furth,  a  small  open  town  in  Middle 
Franconia,  which  enabled  him  to  menace  the  left  flank  of 
the  Imperialists. 

Hepburn  had  resigned,  but  when  a  battle  was  imminent 
he  could  not,  with  honour,  remain  idle  in  the  rear,  but, 
arming  himself  completely  "  in  his  magnificent  inlaid 
armour,  with  casque,  gorget,  breast  and  back  pieces,  poul- 
drons,  vambraces,  and  gauntlets,  as  if  going  on  service,"  he 
mounted,  and  rode  near  the  king,  but  by  the  side  of  Major- 


'Seaton,'  said  he,  '  I  see  you  are  justly  offended.'" — p.  216 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN,  217 

General  Busteine,  wiu>  was  shot  dead  when  the  advance 
began. 

On  the  rocky  summits  of  the  Alta  Feste,  at  the  base  of 
which  flowed  the  Bednitz  and  the  Biber,  the  Imperialists 
were  entrenched  behind  breastworks  and  palisades,  over 
which  their  long  lines  of  polished  morions,  tall  pikes,  and 
arquebuses  glittered  in  the  sunshine,  while  80  brass  cannon 
peeped  grimly  forth  from  every  bush  and  tree,  over  which 
circles  of  ravens  were  wheeling,  marking  where  already  a 
dead  soldier  or  a  charger  lay.  When  the  Swedes  advanced 
in  dense  battalions,  and  the  deadly  strife  began,  shrouding 
the  heights  and  the  dominating  mins  on  the  Altenberg 
in  fire  and  smoke,  Hepburn,  serving  as  a  simple  volun- 
teer, faced  it  all,  while  his  old  brigade  advanced  as 
stormers. 

"  I  will  not  believe  there  is  a  God  in  heaven  if  they  take 
that  castle  from  me  !"  exclaimed  the  impious  Wallenstein, 
while,  shading  his  eyes  with  a  gauntleted  hand,  he  watched 
the  approach  of  four  columns,  each  500  strong,  to  assail  the 
ancient  fortress,  which  was  the  key  of  his  position. 

"  Selecting  2,000  chosen  musketeers,  chiefly  Scotsmen," 
says  Colonel  Mitchell  in  his  life  of  Wallenstein,  these 
stormers,  leaving  their  colours  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
and  supported  by  a  column  of  pikes,  advanced  under  a  fire 
of  80  guns,  that  crashed  through  them,  often,  sweeping 
entire  sections  away,  for  "  the  Scots  knew  well  that  if  they 
failed  no  other  troops  would  attempt  it." 

"  Exposed  to  the  whole  enemy's  fire,  and  infuriated  by 
the  prospect  of  immediate  death,"  says  Schiller  in  his 
Thirty  Years'  War,  "  those  intrepid  warriors  rushed  for- 


2i8  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

ward  to  storm  the  heights,  which  were  in  an  instant  con- 
verted into  a  flaming  volcano." 

They  were  compelled  to  waver,  even  to  retire  down  the 
steep  precipices,  where  their  killed  and  wounded  were 
falling  and  rolling  in  scores  ;  but  five  other  Scoto-Swedish 
columns  came  up  vard  in  fierce  and  furious  succession;  and 
here  Gustavus  had  a  jack-boot  torn  off  by  a  cannon-ball. 

Sheathed  in  light  armour,  Wallenstein's  cuirassiers  came 
filing  forth  under  cover  of  the  smoke,  took  the  assailants  in 
flank,  captured  General  Tortensohn,  and  rode  fairly  through 
the  Swedish  infantry,  through  Cronenberg's  "Invincibles," 
1,500  heavily-mailed  horse,  and  were  routed  by  only  200 
Finland  troops,  who  drove  them  under  the  guns  of  the 
Altenberg,  on  which  those  of  Gustavus  are  said  to  have 
fired  200,000  rounds  that  day. 

The  most  practicable  assault  was  one  suggested  by  Duke 
Bernard  of  Saxe- Weimar  ;  but  an  officer  was  required  to 
reconnoitre  the  ground,  and  for  this  duty  Sir  John  Hep- 
burn offered  himself.  (Harte.) 

"  Go,  Colonel  Hepburn;  I  am  grateful  to  you,"  said  Gus- 
tavus. 

"  Sir,  it  is  practicable,"  reported  Hepburn  after  he  had 
ridden  over  the  ground,  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy, 
by  which  a  faithful  old  sergeant  was  slain  by  his  side. 

On  this  the  Scottish  regiments  of  Hamilton  and  Bellen- 
den  carried  the  heights  by  storm,  driving  in  the  Austrians 
with  terrible  loss ;  and  500  musketeers  of  the  old  Scots 
brigade,  under  Monro,  kept  the  position  till  500  more  of 
their  comrades,  under  Colonel  John  Sinclair,  came  up  to 
reinforce  them,  "  and  these  1,000  Scots  maintained  their 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  219 

dangerous  post  all  night."  "  Our  brigades  of  foot  had  seven 
bodies  of  pikemen  left  to  guard  their  colours,"  says  Monro. 
The  mutual  losses  were  about  5,000  on  both  sides; 
"  neare  sixe  thousand,"  according  to  Sir  James  Turner's 
military  memoirs. 

Night  fell,  and  the  Swedish  troops  at  the  base  of  the  hills 
were  in  peril  of  being  cut  off;  on  this  Gustavus  asked 
Hepburn  to  carry  orders  to  them  to  withdraw. 

"  Sir,  I  cannot  decline  this  duty,  as  it  is  a  hazardous  one," 
he  replied,  and  rode  forward  (Schiller).  But  for  Hepburn's 
skill  or  decision  these  troops  would  have  been  utterly  cut 
off;  but  he  marched  them  to  the  king's  post  in  the  dark, 
and  then,  sheathing  his  sword,  said,  according  to  Modern 
Hist.,  vol.  iii,  "  And  now,  sire,  never  more  shall  this 
sword  be  drawn  for  you  ;  this  is  the  last  time  I  will  ever 
serve  so  ungrateful  a  prince." 

Yet,  when  day  drew  near,  and  it  was  reported  that  the 
Scottish  musketeers  of  Sinclair  and  Monro  lay  too  far  in 
advance  among  the  ruins  of  the  Altenberg,  he  went  by  the 
king's  request  to  see  after  them. 

"  Sir,"  he  reported,  "  I  found  the  Scottish  musketeers 
almost  buried  among  mud  and  water ;  but  have  discovered 
ground  from  whence  four  pieces  of  cannon  might  be  brought 
to  bear  against  the  Altenberg  at  40  paces'  distance." 

But,  after  taking  council,  Gustavus  ordered  a  general 
retreat ;  he  went  in  person  to  draw  off  the  advanced  Scots, 
and  carried  the  half-pike  of  Colonel  Monro,  who  was  so 
severely  wounded  as  to  be  scarcely  able  to  walk. 


CHAPTEK  XXII. 

THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDES.— (Continued.) 

Retreat  to  Neustadt — Field-Marshals  Leslie,  Ruthven,  Douglas, 
etc. — Tragic  Story  of  Major  Sinclair — Count  Cromartie,  etc. 

ON  the  14th  September,  after  his  troops  had  suffered  terribly 
from  scarcity  of  food,  Grustavus,  leaving  500  men  (including 
the  Laird  of  Foulis*  regiment)  in  Nuremberg,  began  his 
retrograde  movement,  with  drums  beating  and  colours 
flying,  towards  Neustadt,  leaving  no  less  than  10,000 
citizens  and  20,000  soldiers  dead  behind  him  in  and  around 
the  great  Bavarian  city — the  casualties  of  war.  "  Dead 
bodies,"  we  are  told,  "  infected  the  air ;  and  bad  food,  the 
exhalations  from  a  population  so  dense,  and  from  so  many 
j  utrefying  carcases  (when  summer  came),  together  with  the 
heat  of  the  dog-days,  produced  a  desolating  pestilencej 
which  raged  among  men  and  beasts,  and,  long  after  the 
retreat  of  both  armies,  continued  to  load  the  country  with 
misery  and  distress." 

We  have  thus  shown  how  the  valiant  Sir  John  Hepburn 
left  the  Swedish  army. 

But  there  would  seem  to  have  been  at  this  time  some 
discontent  among  the  Scottish  officers  concerning  the 
Marquis  of  Hamilton,  who,  they  deemed,  had  been  treated 
ungenerously  ;  but  still  more  concerning  Colonel  Douglas 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  221 

of  Modringfcon  (the  hero  of  Creutzenach),  whom  Gustavus 
had  sent  to  a  common  prison  for  presenting  himself  un- 
ceremoniously in  a  tennis-court  when  he  and  the  Elector  of 
Bavaria  were  at  play — a  punishment  which  the  British 
ambassador,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  and  all  the  Scots,  resented  as 
an  insult.  (Fowler's  Southland.} 

When  the  gallant  Hepburn  and  several  other  Scottish 
officers,  including  colonels  Sir  James  Hamilton  of  Priest- 
field,  now  Edinburgh ;  Sir  James  Ramsay,  called  "  The 
Fair,"  took  leave  of  their  comrades,  Monro  informs  us  that 
the  separation  was  like  that  "  which  death  makes  betwixt 
friends  and  the  soul  of  man,  being  sorry  that  those  who  had 
lived  so  long  together  in  amity  and  friendship,  also  in 
mutual  dangers,  in  weal  and  in  woe  ;  the  splendour  of  our 
former  mirth  was  overwhelmed  with  a  cloud  of  grief  and 
sorrow,  which  dissolved  in  mutual  tears." 

The  command  of  the  brigade  now  devolved,  on  the 
death,  at  Ulna,  of  Colonel  Monro  of  Foulis,  on  Robert 
Monro  (brother  of  Obisdale),  whose  regiment  was  now  so 
weak  as  to  consist  of  seven  companies  instead  of  twelve 
as  originally.  Major  John  Sinclair,  afterwards  killed  at 
Neumosk,  was  made  lieutenant-colonel,  and  Captain 
William  Stewart,  major.  This  was  "  in  Schwabland,"  on 
the  18th  August,  1632,  and  at  the  end  of  September  the 
Green  brigade  marched  to  the  relief  of  Rayn,  on  the  Acha, 
then  besieged  by  the  enemy,  who  abandoned  it  at  the 
approach  of  Gustavus.  The  fact  of  there  being  in  the 
army  of  the  latter  27  field-officers  and  11  captains  of  the 
clan  of  Monro  causes  some  confusion  with  their  names. 

The   Scots   brigade  was   now    so    much    exhausted    and 


222  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

thinned  in  numbers  by  hard  service  that  he  left  it  in 
quarters  of  refreshment  in  Bavaria,  while  he  marched  into 
Saxony.  Before  his  departure  he  expressed  "  his  approba- 
tion of  the  conduct  of  these  valiant  Scots  or  Moccosions, 
and  exhorted  the  commanding  officers  to  use  every  possible 
expedition  in  replacing  the  casualties  in  their  respective 
regiments ;  but  this  proved  the  final  separation  between 
the  great  Gustavus  and  these  distinguished  Soots  regiments. 
His  majesty  marched  to  Saxony  and  was  killed  at  the 
battle  of  Lutzen,  when  the  chief  Scots  in  the  field  were 
only  Sir  John  Henderson,  in  the  reserve,  with  the  Palatian 
cavalry,  on  the  6th  November,  1632. 

The  king  fell  with  eight  wounds,  one  in  the  head,  after 
having  three  horses  shot  under  him,  and  being  several  times 
in  the  power  of  the  enemy,  but  was  always  rescued  by  his 
own  men.  "  Long  have  I  sought  thee,"  cried  an  Imperial 
cavalier,  as  he  put  a  final  shot  through  the  body  of  the 
dying  hero,  and  was  shot  down  in  turn  by  the  Smoland 
cavalry.  The  last  words  of  Gustavus  were,  "  My  God ! 
My  God!"  One  of  those  mysterious  boulders  which  have 
been  transported  from  the  mountains  of  Scandinavia, 
sheltered  by  a  few  poplars,  and  still  called  the  Schnadenstein, 
or  Stone  of  Sweden,  marks  the  site  of  this  catastrophe. 
With  him  died  the  hopes  of  the  Elector  Frederick.  One  of 
his  swords  is  shown  at  Dresden,  a  second  at  Vienna,  and 
a  third  was  long  in  use  by  St.  Machar's  Masonic  Lodge  at 
Aberdeen.  (Edinburgh  Advertiser,  1768.)  It  was  probably 
brought  home  by  his  aide-de-camp,  Colonel  Hugh  Somer- 
ville,  with  his  large  rowelled  spurs,  taken  off  him  on  the 
Held,  and  now  preserved  in  the  Museum  of  Scottish 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN  223 

Antiquities  at  Edinburgh,  to  which  they  were  presented 
by  Sir  George  Colquhoun,  Bart.,  in  1768.  Monro's  work 
contains  fully  four  folio  pages  of  lamentation  on  his  death. 
After  that  event  this  Green  or  old  Scots  brigade  served 
for  a  short  time  under  the  weak  Elector  Palatine,  and  dis- 
tinguished itself  at  the  siege  and  capture  of  Londsberg  on 
the  Lech,  in  Upper  Bavaria,  before  which  a  foolish  dispute 
about  precedence  arose  between  it  and  another,  the  brigade 
of  Sir  Patrick  Ruthven.  "  But,"  says  Monro,  "  those  of 
Ruthven's  brigade  were  forced,  notwithstanding  their 
diligence,  to  yield  the  precedence  unto  us,  being  older 
blades  than  themselves,  for  in  effect  we  were  their  school- 
masters in  discipline,  as  they  could  not  but  acknowledge." 
Colonel  Sinclair,  of  Monro's,  commanded  the  breaching 
battery  at  Londsberg,  when  two  gaps  were  effected.  The 
town  was  abandoned  and  entered  by  Major-General  Ruth- 
ven. The  sufferings  of  the  troops  were  great  about  this 
time.  After  taking  Londsberg  they  bivouacked  for  two 
months  in  the  open  fields,  without  tents  or  cover,  in  the 
extremity  of  cold  and  rough  weather. 

In  February,  163  •>,  the  brigade  crossed  the  Danube  at 
Memmengen,  and  was  quartered  on  the  estates  of  Sir 
Patrick  Ruthven.  Bat  their  houses  took  fire  in  the  night ; 
they  saved  their  cannon  and  ammunition,  but  lost  their 
baggage  ;  and  then  drove  back  the  enemy,  in  sight  of  the 
snow-covered  Alps.  At  the  capture  of  a  castle  near  Rauf- 
beuren  Captain  Bruntisfield  and  Quarter-master  Sandilands 
were  taken  prisoners  and  sent  to  London.  Then  the 
brigade  formed  part  of  the  army  which,  under  Marshal 
Home  and  the  Duke  of  Saxe  Weimar,  marched  to  the 


224          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

relief  of  Nordlingen,  where  the  fortitude  of  the  Swedes 
remained  unconquered  on  the  26th  August,  1634,  but 
where  they  suffered  so  severely  that,  among  others,  Monro's 
once  glorious  regiment  of  Mackay,  Lord  Reay,  was  literally 
cut  to  pieces,  one  company  alone  surviving. 

After  the  battle  this  handful  of  men  retired  to  Worms, 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and,  Marshal  Home  having 
been  taken  prisoner,  the  remnants  of  the  veteran  Scots 
remained  under  the  orders  of  Bernard,  Duke  of  Saxe- 
Weimar. 

The  event  of  the  battle  of  Nordlingen  almost  ruined 
the  Protestant  interests  in  Germany,  and  all  the  fighting 
of  Gustavus  and  his  veterans  seemed  to  have  been  in 
vain. 

Monro,  a  lieutenant-general  in  after  years,  was  con- 
cerned in  Glencairn's  expedition  to  the  Highlands  against 
the  Cromwellian  troops  in  1653-4,  and  fought  a  reckless 
duel  with  the  earl.  From  Balcairn's  Memoirs,  touching 
the  Revolution  of  Scotland,  he  would  appear  to  have  been 
alive  in  1688,  as  he  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  militia, 
"  but  knew  little  more  of  the  trade  than  these  newly  raised 
men,  having  lost  by  age,  and  being  long  out  of  service, 
anything  he  had  learned  in  Gustavus's  days,  except 
the  rudeness  and  austerity  of  that  service."  (Memoirs, 
edited  by  Lord  Lindsay,  1841.)  Several  of  his  political 
and  military  pamphlets  are  preserved  in  the  British 
Museum. 

Sir  Alexander  Leslie  of  Balgonie,  as  field-marshal,  Sir 
Patrick  Ruthven  of  Bondean,  Sir  Robert  Douglas,  and 
others  still  wielded  their  high  rank  in  the  Swedish  army 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  225 

tinder  Queen  Christina,  the  young  daughter  of  the  great 
Gustavus,  but  their  names  only  occur  incidentally. 

Thus,  when  the  talented  Chancellor  Oxenstiern  held  the 
reins  of  government  during  her  minority,  and  was  animated 
by  an  eager  desire  to  obtain  for  Sweden  possession  of 
Pomerania  and  the  bishopric  of  Bremen,  in  the  war  which 
was  waged  the  Saxons  marched  to  the  Elbe  to  give  the 
Swedes  battle,  but  Banier  defeated  them,  and  Sir  Patrick 
Ruthven  was  detached  with  nearly  all  the  Swedish  horse 
and  1,000  musketeers  to  secure  Domitz,  a  town  at  the 
influx  of  the  Elde  with  the  Elbe,  and  having  ditches  by 
which  the  adjacent  country  can  be  laid  under  water. 

Ruthven  fell  with  his  horse  upon  the  Saxons,  cut  them 
off,  captured  2,500,  and  forced  them  to  serve  in  the 
Swedish  army.  It  was  now  resolved  that  Wrangel  should 
command  a  column  on  the  Oder,  Field-Marshal  Sir  Alex- 
ander Leslie  another  in  Westphalia,  and  Banier  on  the  Elbe, 
where  he  routed  twelve  Saxon  battalions.  Baron  Knip- 
hauser  lost  his  life  and  a  battle  elsewhere  ;  but  Leslie  mus- 
tered his  defeated  regiments,  and  with  these  and  his  own 
made  himself  master  of  Minden.  He  then  formed  a  junc- 
tion with  other  Swedish  troops  who  had  been  in  the  service 
of  the  Duke  of  Lunenberg,  cleared  Westphalia,  relieved 
Hanau,  and  marched  towards  the  Weser. 

He  then  joined  Wrangel  and  Banier,  attacked  the  Saxons 
in  their  fortified  camp  at  Perleberg,  and  slew  5,000  in  defeat- 
ing them.  He  routed  also  eight  Saxon  regiments  near 
Edenburg,  and  cut  off  2,000  men  at  Pegau  ;  but  his  services 
on  the  Continent  were  drawing  to  a  clo^e. 

The  unwarrantable  interference  of  Charles  I  and  the 

Q 


226          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

English  with  the  religion  of  the  Scots  had  now  brought 
about  the  army  of  the  Covenant,  and  Marshal  Leslie,  with 
hundreds  of  other  trained  officers  who  had  been  serving 
on  the  Elbe,  the  Oder,  the  Weser,  and  the  Rhine,  came 
flocking  home  to  offer  their  swords  and  experience  for  the 
defence  of  Scotland.  Noble  indeed  was  the  patriotism  of 
those  Scottish  officers  who  came  home  to  lead  the  armies 
of  the  Covenant.  "  In  the  armies  of  Gustavus  there  were 
found  more  commanders  of  Scots  gentlemen  than  all  other 
nations  besides,"  says  Gordon  of  Ruthven.  "  This  did 
well  appear  in  the  beginning  of  the  Covenant,  when  there 
came  home  so  many  commanders,  all  gentlemen,  out  of 
foreign  countrayes  as  would  have  seemed  to  command  one 
armie  offyftie  thousand  and  furnish  them  with  all  sorts  of 
officers,  from  a  generall  doune  to  a  sergeant  or  corporall." 
(Britones  Distemper,  1639-1649.) 

Sir  John  Seaton  of  Gargunnock,  colonel  of  Scots  in 
Sweden,  on  being  invited  by  Charles  to  join  his  army  made 
that  noble  reply,  which  ought  to  have  stung  the  king  to 
the  soul : 

"  No,  sire — not  against  the  country  that  gave  me  birth  !" 
(Xewesfrom  England,  1638.) 

The  Swedish  war  still  raged,  and  in  1644  Torstenson 
had  secret  orders  to  march  into  Holstein,  whence  the 
Danes  had  wrought  the  Swedes  much  mischief.  He  after- 
wards made  a  truce  with  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  and, 
marching  into  Bohemia,  engaged  the  Imperialists  at  Jonko- 
witz  on  the  24th  February,  1645,  and  defeated  them  with 
the  loss  of  8,000  men.  Then  his  cavalry  were  led  by  Sir 
Robert  Douglas  (of  the  Whittingham  family),  who  com- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  227 

manded  the  left  wing,  and  his  cavalry  charge  is  celebrated 
in  military  history  "  as  being  the  first  charge  en  muraillc 
•  (that  is,  firm,  steady  as  a  wall)  ever  executed  against  a 
formed  body  of  infantry,  and  on  this  occasion  i  decided  the 
fate  of  the  day.  (Life  of  Wallenstein.)  Ferdinand,  says 
Schiller,  depended  upon  his  cavalry,  which  outnumbered 
that  of  Douglas  by  3,000  men,  "  and  upon  the  promise  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  who  had  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  and 
given  him,  he  asserted,  the  strongest  assurances  of  com- 
plete victory."  (Thirty  Years'  War.)  In  1648  came  the 
Peace  of  Munster,  when  such  was  the  state  of  Sweden  that 
she  could  maintain  100  garrisons  in  Germany,  ruling  it 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Lake  of  Constance,  besides  sup- 
porting a  veteran  army  of  70,000.  How  much  Scottish 
valour  contributed  to  this  end  these  pages,  perhaps,  may 
show. 

Lord  Reay  died  about  1650,  governor  of  Bergen ;  but 
his  body  was  brought  home  and  interred  among  his 
kindred  in  Strathnaver. 

When  Charles  X,  in  1655,  entered  upon  a  war  with 
John  Casimir,  King  of  Poland,  he  forced  the  latter  to  retire 
into  Silesia  and  abdicate  the  Polish  crown.  In  this  war  he 
gave  orders  to  Sir  Robert  Douglas  to  make  himself  master 
of  Mitau,  an  ancient  fortified  town  in  Courland,  and  to 
secure  the  person  of  the  duke  so  named,  as  he  had  broken 
the  neutrality.  Douglas  obeyed  his  orders  with  brilliant 
success,  and  brought  the  duke  prisoner  to  Riga,  from 
whence  he  was  sent  to  Ivangorod,  where  he  continned  till 
the  end  of  the  war. 

Sir  Robert  Douglas  was  the  son  of  Patrick  Douglas  of 

Q2 


228          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Standing -Staines,  in  East  Lothian,  and  nephew  of  the 
Baron  of  Whittingham,  a  lord  of  session,  whose  represen- 
tative in  the  male  line  he  became.  His  brothers,  William, 
Archibald,  and  Richard,  all  died  in  the  service  of  Sweden. 
Sir  Robert  was  governor  of  East  Gothland,  and  married  a 
daughter  of  Count  Steinbeck,  according  to  Wood.  He 
died  a  field-marshal  in  June,  1662,  and  his  funeral  was 
celebrated  at  Stockholm  with  great  solemnity.  It  was 
attended  by  four  squadrons  of  horse  in  armour,  five  com- 
panies of  infantry,  "  their  muskets  under  their  left  arms 
and  tr  liling  their  p'kes";  hundreds  of  officials  in  mourning 
cloaks  ;  his  arms  and  armour  borne  on  cushions ;  a  marshal 
went  before  the  hearse,  which  was  borne  by  24  colonels  and 
followed  by  the  queen-consort  and  all  the  court.  A  herald 
proclaimed  his  titles,  as  privy-councillor  of  Sweden, 
field-marshal,  counsellor  to  the  College  of  War,  Lord  of 
Thalby,  Hochstaten,  Sangarden,  and  Earl  of  Shonegem ; 
and  at  the  lowering  of  the  coffin  120  pieces  of  cannon 
were  fired,  and  all  the  horse  and  foot  "  gave  two 
pales  of  shot."  (Spottiswoode  Miscell.)  His  eldest  son, 
Count  William,  succeeded  him  in  all  his  titles,  and  was 
A.D.C.  to  Charles  XII,  with  whom  he  was  taken  prisoner 
at  the  battle  of  Pultowa  in  1709.  He  had  two  other  sons, 
one  of  whom  became  a  general  in  the  Russian  service,  and 
the  other  a  captain  in  the  Royal  Swedish  Guards. 

In  that  war,  when  Charles  XII,  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
left  Stockholm  with  only  8,000  Swedes  to  defeat  eventually 
100,000  Muscovites,  he  was  first  under  fire  at  Copenhagen 
at  the  head  of  his  guards,  and  his  closest  attendant  was 
Major  Stuart. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  229 

The  young  king,  who  had  never  before  heard  the  dis- 
charge of  loaded  mutketry,  asked  that  officer  "what  that 
whistling  noise  meant  ?"  "  It  is  musket- balls,"  replied 
the  latter.  "  That  is  right !"  said  Charles ;  "  henceforward 
it  shall  be  my  music." 

At  that  moment  Major  Stuart  received  a  ball  in  the 
shoulder,  and  a  lieutenant  who  stood  on  the  other  side  was 
shot  dead.  (Life  of  Charles  XII,  1 733.) 

Subsequently,  at  the  passage  of  the  Duna  and  defeat  of 
the  Saxons,  there  was,  says  Voltaire,  a  young  Scottish 
volunteer  who  was  master  of  German,  and  offered  himself 
as  a  means  to  discover  the  intentions  of  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  and  the  King  of  Poland.  "He  applied  to  the 
colonel  of  the  regiment  of  Saxon  horse,  which  served  as 
guards  to  the  Czar  during  their  interview,  and  passed  for 
a  cavalier  of  Brandenburg,  his  address  and  well-placed 
sums  having  easily  procured  him  a  lieutenancy  in  the  regi- 
ment. When  he  came  to  Birsen  (sic)  he  artfully  insinuated 
himself  into  the  friendship  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
ministers,  and  was  made  a  party  in  all  their  amusements  ; 
and  whether  it  was  that  he  took  advantage  of  their  indis- 
cretion over  a  bottle,  or  that  he  gained  them  by  presents, 
he  secretly  drew  from  them  all  the  secrets  of  their  masters, 
and  he  hastened  to  give  an  account  of  them  to  Charles 
XII." 

His  information  eventually  led  to  the  successful  passage 
of  the  river  by  the  latter,  and  the  subsequent  conquest  of 
Courland  and  Lithuania. 

At  Pultowa,  in  1709,  among  the  prisoners  taken  by  the 
Muscovites  were  several  Scottish  officers ;  among  them  the 


230  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

unfortunate  Major  Malcolm  Sinclair,  whom  they  basely 
sent  to  Siberia  for  thirteen  years,  and  General  Count  Ham- 
ilton, who  had  commanded  a  column  at  the  battle  of  Narva 
in  1700. 

In  1723,  Salmon,  in  his  Chronology,  notes  the  death  at 
Stockholm  of  "Hugo  Hamilton  Esq.,  of  Scotland,  general 
of  artillery  to  the  King  of  Sweden."  He  was  in  his  70th 
year,  and  had  entered  the  service  as  a  lieutenant. 

Few  events  created  a  greater  sensation  in  Sweden  than 
the  tragic  fate  of  Major  Malcolm  Sinclair  in  1739.  One 
of  the  most  favourite  officers  of  King  Frederick,  he  was 
basely  assassinated  by  Russia  on  his  way  to  Constanti- 
nople with  important  despatches  with  reference  to  a  treaty 
between  Sweden  and  the  Porte.  In  his  memoirs  Baron 
Manstein  relates  the  matter  thus  : — 

"  Bestucheff,  who  resided  at  Stockholm  in  quality  of  the 
minister  of  Russia,  gave  advice  to  his  court  that  Major 
Sinclair  had  been  sent  to  Constantinople,  whence  he  was 
to  bring  back  the  ratification  of  this  treaty.  Upon  this 
news  Count  Munich,  by  order  of  the  cabinet,  sent  certain 
officers,  accompanied  by  some  subalterns,  into  Poland  with 
orders  to  disperse  themselves  in  different  places  and  try 
to  carry  off  Sinclair,  take  away  all  his  letters  and  de- 
spatches, and  kill  him  in  case  of  resistance.  These  officers, 
as  they  could  not  be  everywhere,  employed  some  Jews  and 
some  of  the  poor  Polish  gentlemen  to  get  information  of 
the  arrival  of  Sinclair  ;  thus  he  had  warning  from  the 
governor  of  Chockzine  (in  Bessarabia)  to  take  care  of  him- 
self, as  there  were  lying  in  wait  for  him  several  Russian 
officers,  particularly  at  Lemberg,  by  way  of  which  he  pro- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  231 

posed  to  pass.  Upon  this  Sinclair  changed  his  route,  and 
the  Bashaw  of  Chockzine  gave  him  an  escort  to  Broda, 
where  the  crown-general  of  Poland  gave  him  another, 
with  which  he  entered  Silesia.  There  he  thought  himself 
safe,  but,  being  obliged  to  stop  a  few  days  at  Breslau,  the 
Russian  officers,  who  learned  by  spies  the  road  he  had 
taken,  pursued  and  overtook  him  within  a  mile  of  Nieu- 
stadt.  There  they  stopped  and  disarmed  him,  and,  having 
carried  him  some  miles  further,  assassinated  him  in  a  wood. 
After  this  ignoble  stroke  they  took  away  his  clothes  and 
papers,  in  which,'  however,  nothing  of  consequence  was 
found." 

The  infamous  Russian  court,  having  examined  the  de- 
spatches, coolly  sent  them,  via  Hamburg,  to  that/>f  Sweden. 
Then  the  excitement  became  great.  At  Stockholm  the 
population  rose  and  wrecked  the  houses  of  Catherine's 
ambassador,  crying  out  "  that  they  were  inspired  by  the 
soul  of  Sinclair."  The  remains  of  the  latter  were  placed  in 
a  magnificent  tomb,  inscribed  thus,  by  order  of  King 
Frederick  : — 

"  Here  lies  Major  Malcolm  Sinclair,  a  good  and  faithful 
subject  of  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  born  in  1691,  son  of 
the  worthy  Major-General  Sinclair  and  Madame  Hamilton. 
Prisoner  of  war  in  Siberia  from  1709  to  1722.  Charged 
with  affairs  of  State,  he  was  assassinated  at  Naumberg,  in 
Silesia,  17th  June,  1739. 

"  Reader  !  drop  some  tears  upon  this  tomb,  and  consider 
with  thyself  how  incomprehensible  are  the  destinies  of  poor 
mortals."  (Scots  Mag.,  1740.) 


232          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

In  1759  Colonel  Ramsay  commanded  the  Swedish  garri- 
son of  Abo. 

In  the  Seven  Years'  War  great  progress  was  made  in 
1758  by  the  Swedish  army  in  Pomerania,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Count  Hamilton,  who  recovered,  by  force  of  arms,, 
all  Swedish  Pomerania,  and  even  made  hot  incursions  into 
the  Prussian  territories ;  thus  Frederick  the  Great  advanced 
against  him  in  person  at  the  head  of  10,000  men  from 
Berlin,  while  the  Prince  of  Bevern  menaced  him  with  5,000 
men  from  another  quarter.  In  a  conflict  at  Forhellia  the 
Swedes  were  compelled  to  retreat  and  quit  Prussian 
ground.  Retiring  by  the  way  of  Stralsund,  Count  Hamilton, 
"  either  disgusted  by  the  restrictions  he  had  been  laid 
under,"  says  Smollett,  ".or  finding  himself  unable  to  act  in 
such  a  manner  as  might  redound  to  the  advantage  of  his. 
reputation,  threw  up  his  command,  retired  from  the  army, 
and  resigned  all  his  other  employments."  (Hist,  of  England^ 
vol.  vi.)  General  Lantinghausen  succeeded  him. 

We  presume  this  is  the  same  officer,  Count  Gustavus 
David  Hamilton,  field-marshal  of  Sweden,  who  died  in 
his  90th  year  at  Stockholm,  in  1789,  and  who  is  recorded 
in  the  Edinburgh  Advertiser  for  that  year  as  having  entered 
the  Swedish  army  in  1716,  and  having  fought  in  several 
battles  under  different  powers. 

In  1776  General  Ramsay  (the  same  officer  who  com- 
manded at  Abo),  by  his  simple  presence  of  mind,  compelled 
the  regiment  of  Upland,  then  in  a  mutinous  state  of  revolt, 
to  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  king,  Gustavus  III. 
(Tooke's  Catherine  II.) 

Few  names  have  a  more  honourable  place  in   Sweden 


THE  SCOTS  IN  SWEDEN.  233 

during  the  middle  of  the  last  century  than  that  of  Count 
Croruartie,  knight  commander  of  the  Tower  and  Sword. 
He  was  Lord  Macleod,  who  had  been  "out  in  the  '45, 'r 
and,  after  being  in  the  Tower  of  London,  entered  the 
Swedish  service,  where  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
general.  Returning  in  1777,  he  raised  the  old  73rd 
Highlanders,  latterly  known  as  the  equally  gallant  71st 
Highland  Light  Infantry.  He  died  at  Edinburgh  in  1789,, 
a  major-general  in  the  British  service. 

So  lately  as  1857  we  find  Count  Hamilton,  marshal  of 
the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  and  president  ex-officio  of  the 
Assemblies  of  the  Four  Orders. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
THE    SCOTS    IN    FKANCE. 

The  Ancient  Alliance — The  Scots  under  St.  Louis — The  Archer 
Guard — The  Malondrina — Embassies — Earl  of  Buchan's 
Troops — The  Battle  of  Bouge — Buchan,  Constable  of 
France. 

THE  long  alliance  and  friendly  intercourse  between  the 
kingdoms  of  Scotland  and  France  forms  one  of  the  most 
interesting  pictures  in  the  national  annals  of  the  former, 
but  dates  in  reality  from  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of 
William  the  Lion,  though  tradition  and,  in  some  instances, 
history  take  back  the  alliance  to  a  remoter  period,  even  to 
the  days  of  Charlemagne  ;  and,  if  we  are  to  believe  Boethius 
and  Buchanan,  the  double  tressure  in  our  royal  arms, 
counter  fleur-de-lysed  or,  armed  azure,  was  first  assumed 
by  King  Acinus,  as  the  founder  of  the  league.  But  this 
~bordure  could  not  have  been  put  round  the  lion  rampant, 
as  that  gallant  symbol  was  first  adopted  by  King  William 
(according  to  Anderson's  Diplomata)  while  heraldry  and 
its  laws  were  unknown  in  the  ninth  century. 

Following  tradition,  first  we  may  note  that  De  Mezeray, 
in  his  Histoire  de  France,  records  that  in  790  "  began  the 
indissoluble  alliance  between  France  and  Scotland,  Charle- 
magne having  sent  4,000  men  to  the  aid  of  King  Achius, 
who  sent  in  return  two  learned  Soots,  Clement  and  Alain," 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  235 

in  whom  originated  the  University  of  Paris.  Next,  Bishop 
Lesly  states  that  so  far  back  as  882  Charles  III  had  twenty- 
four  armed  Scots,  in  whose  fidelity  and  valour  he  reposed 
confidence,  to  attend  his  person — the  first  of  the  Scottish 
guard.  Strange  to  say,  Eginhardus,  the  secretary  of 
Charlemagne,  gives  an  account  of  the  assistance  the  Scots 
gave  that  monarch  in  his  wars;  and  Paulus  ^milius 
and  Bellefoustus  follow  suit — the  latter  adding:  "  Scotorum 
fideli  opera  non  parum  adjutas  in  bello  Hispanico  fuerat"\ 
while  the  prelate  before  quoted  states  that  the  King  of 
Scotland  sent  4,000  warriors  under  his  brother  William  to 
assist  Charles  in  his  contest  in  Italy. 

Following  all  this  perhaps  led  Ariosto  to  enumerate 
among  their  alleged  auxiliaries  the  Earls  of  Errol  and 
Buchan,  the  Chief  of  the  Forbesses,  and  a  Duke  of  Mar  ! 
(Orlando  Fiirioso,  conte  x.) 

In  1168  we  come  to  more  solid  ground — the  first 
authentic  negotiation  between  Scotland  and  France—  when 
William  the  Lion  sent  ambassadors  to  Louis  the  Young,  to 
form  an  alliance  against  England.  (Hailes'  Annals.)  It  was 
renewed  repeatedly,  particularly  in  1326  by  Robert  I,  at 
Corbeil ;  in  1383  and  1390,  during  the  reign  of  Robert  II, 
when  the  ambassadors  of  Charles  VI  were  royally  enter- 
tained in  the  castle  of  Edinburgh  ;  and  at  various  intervals 
down  to  the  reign  of  Mary  and  Francis. 

In  1254,  it  is  stated  that  the  life  of  King  Louis  IX 
was  twice  preserved — once  in  France,  and  afterwards  at 
Danicotta,  in  Egypt,  in  1270,  during  the  Holy  War — by 
his  faithful  and  valiant  Scots  sent  to  serve  him  by  Alex- 
ander III.  On  this  occasion  the  three  commanders  were 


236          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Patrick  Dunbar,  Earl  of  March,  Walter  Stuart  of  Dun- 
donald,  and  David  Lindsay  of  Glenesk.  This  led  to  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  Scots  attending  the  King  of 
France  to  100  men,  constituting  them  a  garde  du  corps 
(L'Escosse  Fran<;aise,  par  A.  Houston).  "  The  practice  of 
having  armed  Scots  attendants  appears  to  have  been  con- 
tinued by  the  succeeding  sovereigns  of  France,  and 
Charles  V  is  stated  to  have  placed  this  corps  on  a  regular 
establishment,"  says  the  War  Office  record  of  the  1st  Royal 
Scots,  which  corps  is  alleged  to  represent  the  Archer  Guard 
of  immortal  memory. 

"  The  Garde  Escossaise,"  says  Abercrombie,  writing  in 
1711,  "still  enjoys,  preferable  to  all  those  that  ever  did 
service  in  France,  place  and  precedence.  For  example, 
the  captain  of  the  Scots  guards  is,  by  way  of  excellency, 
designed  first  captain  of  his  Majesty's  guards.  He  begins 
to  attend  on  the  first  day  of  the  year,  and  serves  the  first 
quarter.  .  .  .  When  the  king  is  crowned  or  anointed 
the  captain  of  the  Scots  guards  stands  by  him,  and  when 
the  ceremony  is  performed  takes  the  royal  robe  as  his  due. 
When  the  keys  of  a  town  or  fortress  are  delivered  up  to 
the  king  he  returns  them  that  minute  to  the  captain  of  the 
Scots  guards.  Twenty-five  of  this  guard  wear  always,  in 
testimony  of  their  unspotted  fidelity,  white  coats  overlaid 
with  silver  lace  ;  and  six  of  these,  in  turns,  stand  next  the 
king's  person  at  all  times  and  seasons  in  the  palace,  the 
church,  in  parliament,  the  courts  of  justice,  and  the  recep- 
tion of  foreign  ambassadors.  It  is  the  right  of  twenty-five 
of  these  gentlemen  to  carry  the  corpse  of  the  deceased 
king  to  the  royal  sepulchre  at  St.  Denis.  To  be  short, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  237 

that  troop  of  guards  has,  ever  since  the  days  of  St.  Louis, 
been  in  possession  of  all  the  honour  and  confidence  the 
Kings  of  France  can  bestow  upon  their  best  friends  and 
assured  trustees  ;  and  it  would  look  very  strange  in  that 
country  if  they  should  see  the  braves  et  fiers  Escossois  (for 
so  they  characterise  the  nation)  sit  down  contented  with 
the  sinister"  (Mart.  Atch.,  vol.  i.) 

Among  the  guard  in  1270  this  author  further  gives  the 
names  of  the  Earls  of  Carrick  and  Athole,  John  Stewart, 
Alexander  Cumin,  Robert  Keith,  William  Gordon,  George 
Durward,  and  John  Quincy ;  and  many  of  the  Scots, 
including  Adam  Kilconcath,  the  Earl  of  Carrick,  died  of 
the  plague  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  before  Tunis.  (Martin's 
Genealog.) 

According  to  the  memoirs  of  Philip  de  Commines,  Louis  IX 
had  the  Scots  guard  with  him,  "  and  very  few  besides," 
when  in  the  war  against  the  Count  de  Charolois  he  marched 
to  the  capture  of  Rouen ;  and  again  in  the  desperate  sally 
at  Liege  the  life  of  the  king  was  saved  by  the  Scots,  "  who 
behaved  well,  kept  firm  their  ground,  and  shot  their  arrows 
freely,  killing  more  of  the  Burgundians  than  the  enemy." 

In  1385  the  Scots  College  at  Paris  was  founded  by 
David,  Bishop  of  Moray,  consecrated  in  1290.  It  was 
built  in  the  most  ancient  part  of  Paris,  the  Rue  des  Fosses 
St.  Victor,  as  recorded  on  a  brass  plate  in  the  chapel.  On 
this  plate  were  also  the  arms  of  the  bishop  and  of  the 
archbishop  of  Glasgow  in  1588,  and  therein  in  later  years 
were  monuments  to  James  VII  and  the  Duke  of  Perth, 
the  governor  of  his  son  and  heir.  That  of  the  king  was 
executed  by  Louis  Gamier  in  1703. 


238          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Of  this  college  George  Grout  was  rector  in  1499,  and 
John  Grout  rector  in  1550  (Rec.  Scots  Coll.),  and  the  cele- 
brated Thomas  Innes,  who  succeeded  his  brother  Louis  in 
that  office,  and  died  in  1744.  The  college  was  rebuilt  by 
Robert  Barclay  in  1665. 

The  charters  and  historical  documents  prized  here,  above 
400  in  number,  were  of  vast  interest,  but  were  all  lost  at 
the  Revolution,  when  the  body  of  the  king  was  torn  out  of 
his  coffin,  "  where  he  lay  folded  in  black  silk  velvet,"  at 
the  Benedictines,  and  flung  into  a  lime  pit.  {Scots  Coll. 
MSS.,  4to.)  On  the  final  demolition  its  funds  were  sunk 
in  those  of  the  Scots  College  at  Douay. 

In  the  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew  were  interred  the 
viscera  of  Louisa  Maria,  daughter  of  King  James  ;  the 
heart  of  Mary  Duchess  of  Perth  ;  the  viscera  of  James 
and  Frances  Jennings,  Duchess  of  Tyrconnel,  both  of  which 
were  found  so  lately  as  1883  in  two  leaden  cases,  and  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Monsignor  Rogerson,  administrator  of 
Scottish  endowments. 

In  1354,  when  the  Black  Prince  won  the  battle  of 
Poitiers  over  the  French,  he  found  in  the  field  against  him 
3,000  Scottish  auxiliaries,  led  by  William  Earl  of  Douglas 
(a  veteran  of  the  battles  of  Durham  and  Halidonhill),  who 
fought  with  remarkable  bravery,  was  severely  wounded, 
and  narrowly  escaped  being  taken  prisoner  with  John 
King  of  France.  (Fordun.)  In  this  expedition  he  was 
accompanied  by  Sir  William  Baird  of  Evandale,  who  "  with 
his  family  had  been  long  in  use  to  join  the  Douglases  on 
every  occasion."  (Surname  of  Baird.} 

In  those  days  a  set  of  freebooters,  the    result  of  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  239 

English  invasions,  infested  Trance.  They  consisted  chiefly 
of  men  who  had  been  soldiers,  and,  forming  themselves  into 
bands  or  free  companies,  they  pillaged  on  every  hand 
and  slew  all  who  opposed  them,  destroying  buildings,  and 
paying  no  regard  to  Church  or  State,  according  to  the 
Abbe  de  Choisi.  Their  chief  leaders  were  the  Chevalier  de 
Vert  of  Anxerre,  Hugues  de  Varennes,  and  one  formidable 
adventurer,  Robert  the  Scot,  and  they  posted  themselves 
in  such  places  that  attack  was  almost  impossible. 

These  Malondrins,  as  they  were  named,  chose  their  own 
leaders,  observed  discipline,  and  in  the  latter  none  was 
more  exacting  than  Robert  the  Scot  (Hist,  de  Charles  V, 
Diet.  Militaire,  etc.).  The  English  tolerated  them  as  a 
species  of  allies,  till  Bertrand  du  Guesclin  cleared  the 
country  of  them  and  led  them  into  Spain,  ostensibly  to  fight 
the  Moors,  but  in  reality  to  crush  Peter  the  Cruel . 

In  1370  Charles  V  was  still  on  the  throne  of  France, 
and  in  that  year  there  came  to  him  three  Scottish 
ambassadors,  one  of  whom  was  Sir  John  Edmonstone 
of  that  ilk  in  Lothian,  sent  by  David  II  to  solicit  the 
interposition  of  the  Sacred  College  to  procure  a  favour- 
able decree  in  the  suit  prosecuted  at  the  instance  of 
Margaret  Logie  of  Logie,  queen-consort  of  Scotland,  and 
in  the  following  year  it  was  specially  stipulated  that,  "  in 
case  of  a  competition  for  the  Scottish  crown>  the  King  of 
France  should  withstand  any  English  influence  and  support 
the  determination  of  the  States  of  Scotland."  (Pinkerton.) 

By  a  treaty  signed  at  Paris  in  August,  1383,  the  King  of 
France  engaged,  when  war  began  between  Scotland  and 
England,  to  send  to  the  former  1,000  men  at  arms,  with 


2^0          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

1,000  suits  of  fine  armour  for  Scottish  gentlemen  ;  but  in 
this,  as  in  many  other  instances,  France  proved  false. 

Under  Charles  VI  and  part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  VII 
Robert  Patullo  (or  Pittillock),  a  native  of  Dundee,  is  stated 
to  have  been  captain  of  the  Scots  guards,  and  to  have 
distinguished  himself,  particularly  during  the  expulsion  of 
the  English  from  Grascony.  Prior  to  this,  Henry  V  of 
England,  having  won  the  memorable  battle  of  Agincourt  in 
1415,  and  captured  many  of  the  principal  towns  in  France, 
was  actually  acknowledged  as  heir  to  the  throne  by  Charles 
VI,  on  which  the  Scots  guard  quitted  his  court  in  disgust, 
«,nd  marched  to  take  part  with  the  dauphin  (afterwards 
Charles  VII)  in  his  resistance  to  this  new  arrangement, 
which  would  have  deprived  him  of  the  succession  to  the 
throne.  This  brings  us  to  the  period  referred  to  by 
Buchanan  in  his  famous  "  Epithalamium"  on  the  marriage 
of  Francis  of  France  and  Mary  of  Scotland  : — 

"  When  all  the  nations  at  one  solemn  call 
Had  sworn  to  whelm  the  dynasty  of  Gaul, 
In  that  sad  hour  her  liberty  and  laws 
Had  perished  had  not  Scotland  join'd  her  cause « 
No  glorious  fight  her  chieftains  ever  wan 
"Where  Scotland  flamed  not  foremost  in  the  van. 
Unless  the  Scots  had  bled,  she  ne'er  had  grown 
To  power,  or  seen  her  warlike  foes  o'erthrown. 
Alone  this  nation  Gallia's  fortunes  bore, 
Her  varied  hazards  in  the  war's  uproar  ; 
And  often  turned  herself  against  the  lance, 
Destined  to  crush  the  rising  power  of  France." 

The  fortunes  of  the  latter  were  at  the  lowest  ebb  when 
Scotland  sent  her  succour. 

After  the  assembling  of  Parliament  in  1420,  it  was  re- 
solved to  send  a  force  of  auxiliaries  to  France,  under  Sir 


THE  SCOTS  JN  FRANCE.  241 

John  Stuart  of  Coul,  created  Earl  of  Buchan,  youngest  son 
of  Robert  Duke  of  Albany,  by  Muriel  Keith,  of  the  house 
of  Marischal,  born  sixty-six  years  after  Bannockburn. 
These  auxiliaries  are  stated  by  Buchanan  at  7,000  men,  by 
Balfour  at  10,000,  and  were  conveyed  from  Scotland  by 
the  fleet  of  Juan  II  of  Castile  from  the  west  coast  to 
France,  where  they  landed  at  Rochelle,  after  a  prosperous 
voyage.  The  following  were  some  of  the  leaders  in  this 
expedition  under  the  gallant  Buchan  : — 

Sir  Archibald  Douglas,  Earl  of  Wigton,  afterwards  Lord 
of  Longueville  and  marshal  of  France;  Sir  John  Stewart 
of  Darnley,  constable  of  the  troops,  afterwards  slain  at 
Orleans  in  1429 ;  Sir  Robert  Maxwell  of  Calderwood,  who 
died  of  his  wounds  at  Chinon  ;  Sir  Robert  Stewart  of 
Railston ;  Sir  William  Crawford  of  Crawfordland,  killed  at 
the  siege  of  Clonell  in  1424  ;  Sir  Alexander  Macauslon  of 
the  Lennox  ;  Sir  John  Carmichael  of  that  ilk  ;  Sir  John 
Swinton  of  that  ilk,  slain  at  Yerneuil  with  Sir  Alexander 
Buchanan  of  that  ilk  ;  Sir  Hew  Kennedy  of  Ardstinchar  ; 
Sir  Robert  Houston  ;  Sir  Henry  Cunningham,  third  son  of 
Kilmaurs ;  and  Sir  Alexander  Stewart,  great-grandson  of 
Walter,  the  Lord  High  Steward. 

It  is  stated  (in  Dalomoth's  Arms,  1803)  that  in  the 
presence  of  Charles  VI  Sir  Alexander  encountered  a  lion 
with  his  sword,  which  broke  in  the  conflict,  after  which  he 
slew  it  by  a  branch  torn  from  a  tree.  To  commemorate 
this  the  king  augmented  his  arms  by  a  "  lion  debruised, 
with  a  ragged  staff  in  bend" — a  story  doubted  in  the  English 
Archceologia. 

All  the  knights  and  men-at-arms  were  accoutred  and 

R 


242  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

armed  according  to  the  Scots  Acts  of  Parliament,  vol.  ii, 
and  were  under  the  regulations  for  the  Scottish  troops  in 
the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century.  By  them  pillage 
was  forbidden  under  pain  of  death — which  was  also  the 
punishment  for  any  soldier  who  killed  a  comrade.  "  Any 
soldier  striking  a  gentleman  was  to  lose  his  ears,  any 
gentleman  defying  another  was  to  he  put  under  arrest.  If 
knights  rioted  they  were  to  be  deprived  of  their  horses  and 
armour;  whoever  unhorsed  an  Englishman  was  to  have 
half  his  ransom,  and  every  Scottish  soldier  was  to  have  a 
white  St.  Andrew's  Cross  on  his  back  and  breast,  which,  if 
his  surcoat  was  white,  was  to  be  broidered  on  a  square  or  a 
circle  of  black  cloth." 

From  Rochelle,  Buchan  marched  his  forces  instantly  to 
the  aid  of  the  dauphin,  who  was  then  endeavouring  to 
rescue  Languedoc,  and  by  courier  informed  the  earl  that 
he  had  been  deluded  by  the  pretended  reconciliation  with 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  at  Pouilly-le-Fort ;  so  to  the  former 
and  his  Scots  was  assigned  the  town  and  castle  of  Chatillon 
in  Touraine,  where  they  soon  came  to  blows  with  the 
English  and  Burgundians  ;  and  there,  in  one  of  their  first 
encounters,  Sir  Robert  Maxwell  was  mortally  wounded  in 
1420,  and  was  interred  in  the  church  of  the  Friars  Minors 
at  Black  Angers,  after  bequeathing  his  coat-of-mail  to  John 
Maxwell  his  page.  (Ilist.  of  the  Maxwells.) 

Before  the  arrival  of  Buchan,  Walsingham  and  others 
record  that  a  Scottish  garrison  in  Fresnoi-le-Vicomte  made 
a  desperate  resistance  to  the  army  of  Henry  of  England, 
under  Sir  William  Douglas  of  Drumlanrig,  and  the  first  of 
his  house.  In  one  sally  100  Scots  were  slain  and  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  243 

banner  of  Douglas  taken.  By  Henry's  orders  it  was  hung 
as  a  trophy  in  the  church  of  Notre-Dame  de  Rouen.  The 
Scots  defended  themselves  for  eighteen  months,  till  their 
countrymen  landed  at  Rochelle,  which  exasperated  the 
King  of  England  so  much  that  in  all  treaties  made  by  the 
Burgundians  he  declined  to  allow  the  Scots  to  be  compre- 
hended. Drumlanrig  was  afterwards  killed  in  France  in 
1427.  So  barbarous  was  the  King  of  England  that  he 
murdered  in  cold  blood  30  Scottish  men-at-arms  whom  he 
captured  in  the  town  of  Meaux,  on  the  Marne. 

While  to  Tannequi  de  Chatel  and  other  gallant  Trench 
leaders  was  assigned  the  command  of  the  French  troops 
in  Tours,  to  Buchan  and  his  Scots  was  entrusted  now  the 
protection  of  the  province  of  Anjou. 

Of  the  English  armies  of  those  days  we  find  but  a  sorry 
account  in  Brady's  History  and  Dugdale's  Baronage,  etc., 
so  far  as  pay  went.  From  them,  Hume  (vol.  iii)  concludes 
that  the  numerous  armies  mentioned  in  these  wars  "  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  ragamuffins  who  followed  the  corps  and 
lived  by  plunder.  Edward's  army  before  Calais  consisted 
of  30,094  men ;  yet  its  pay  for  sixteen  months  was  only 
£127,201."  Hence  the  savage  outrages  committed  by  such 
troops  in  Scotland  and  France. 

Thomas  Duke  of  Clarence,  second  son  of  Henry  IV  of 
England,  who  had  recently  been  appointed  governor  of 
Normandy,  was  joined  by  Sir  Thomas  Freeport  and  two 
captains  of  Portuguese  free  lances  011  Easter  Eve,  1421, 
after  which  he  marched  the  English  army  towards  Anjou 
to  encounter  the  allied  Scots  under  Buchan,  and  the 
Dauphin  ois  under  Marechal  de  la  Fayette,  the  Vicomte  de 

R2 


244         THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Narbonne,  and  other  leaders  of  high  valour  (Monstrelet's 
Chron.) 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  22nd  March  he  learned  from 
certain  Scottish  foragers  that  the  Earl  of  Buchan's  force 
was  encamped  at  Bouge,  a  little  town  tweuty-twc  miles 
eastward  of  Angers. 

"They  are  ours  !"  exclaimed  Clarence,  as  he  accoutred, 
"  but  let  none  follow  me  save  the  men-at-arms." 

With  the  latter  he  set  forth,  "  besides  his  gallant  furni- 
ture and  armour,"  says  Buchanan,  "  wearing  a  royal  diadem 
set  with  many  jewels,"  leaving  the  Earl  of  Salisbury  to  follow 
with  the  archers  and  4,000  infantry. 

The  Scots  and  Dauphinois  held  the  ancient  bridge  of  the 
Couanar,  which  was  deep,  narrow,  and  rapid  at  that  poii.t, 
and  was  the  only  means  by  which  the  adverse  hosts  could 
meet  each  other ;  and  Clarence,  we  are  told,  was  filled  with 
fury  to  find  that  its  passage  was  to  be  disputed  by  the  Scots, 
and  may  perhaps  have  remembered  the  old  English  saying 
(introduced  by  Shakespeare  in  his  Henry  V] : — 

"  If  that  you  would  France  win, 
Then  with  Scotland  first  begin." 

Sir  John  Stewart  of  Darnley  and  the  Sieur  de  la  Fon- 
taine, who  had  been  scouting  with  some  cavalry,  on  seeing 
the  advancing  English  fell  back  to  report.  "  To  your  arms  !" 
was  the  order  of  Buchan,  who  drew  up  the  combined  troops 
in  front  of  the  town. 

Montacute,  Earl  of  Salisbury,  had  orders  to  cross  the 
stream  by  a  ford  and  take  the  Scots  in  flank  if  he  could, 
while  Clarence  with  his  men-at-arms,  in  their  panoply  of 
steel,  was  to  assail  the  bridge  in  front.  Its  defence  was 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  245 

entrusted  to  Sir  Robert  Stewart  of  Railston,  with  thirty 
archers  only  ;  but,  just  as  the  skirmish  began,  Kennedy  of 
Ardstinchar,  who  with  a  hundred  Scots  held  a  church 
close  by,  in  their  hurry  but  half-armed,  rushed  forth,  and 
by  a  shower  of  arrows  drove  the  English  back.  Then 
Buchan  pressed  on  at  the  head  of  200  chosen  Scottish  men- 
at-arms,  and  in  the  narrow  way  between  the  parapets  of 
the  old  bridge  there  ensued  a  close  and  dreadful  melee,  when, 
fired  by  the  memories  of  a  hundred  years'  war,  the  Scots 
and  the  English  met  in  the  shock  of  battle,  as  they  alone 
could  meet  each  other.  The  latter,  says  Buchanan,  were 
exasperated  to  "  be  attacked  by  such  implacable  enemies, 
not  only  at  home,  but  beyond  the  seas ;  so  they  fought 
stoutly,  buu  none  more  so  than  Clarence  himself,  who  was 
too  well  known  by  his  armour." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  royal  earl,  a  powerful  warrior  in 
his  forty-second  year,  fought  with  all  the  heroism  of  his 
race;  but  Clarence,  distinguished  by  his  fatal  coronet,  was 
the  mark  of  every  Scottish  sword  and  lance. 

In  the  close  melee  he  was  quickly  assailed  by  Sir  John 
Oarmichael  (ancestor  of  the  Earl  of  Hyndford),  who  spurred 
against  him  with  lance  in  rest ;  the  tough  oak  shaft  was 
splintered  on  the  corslet  of  Clarence,  who  was  wounded 
in  the  face  by  Sir  John  Swinton  of  that  ilk,  and,  just  as  he 
was  falling  from  his  saddle,  had  his  brains  dashed  out  by 
one  blow  from  the  Earl  of  Buchan's  mace — "  a  steel  ham- 
mer," Hume  of  Godscroffc  calls  it,  a  weapon  to  which  he 
had  resorted  after  driving  his  lance  through  the  prince's 
foody. 

His  fall  filled   the  English  M  ith   blind  fury.     In  crowds 


246          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

they  pressed  over  the  heaps  of  dead  on  the  bridge  to  avenge 
him — knights,  archers,  and  billmen  intermingled,  but 
jostling  and  impeding  each  other  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  Scots,  by  one  furious  charge,  with  helmets  closed  and 
lances  in  rest,  drove  them  back,  put  them  to  flight,  and 
cut  them  to  pieces,  the  pursuit  and  flight  being  continued 
till  night  fell,  with  bridles  loose,  the  victors  scarcely  pausing 
even  to  wipe  their  bloody  blades  upon  their  horses'  manes. 
According  to  Bower,  1,700  English  perished,  while  the 
Scots  lost  only  two  and  the  French  twelve — a  statement 
utterly  incredible.  The  Chronicle  of  Monstrelet  states  that 
of  the  English  there  fell  3,000,  and  of  the  Dauphinois 
11,000,  including  three  good  knights,  Charles  le  Bouteiller, 
Gavin  des  Fontaines,  and  Sir  John  Grosin. 

Among  the  English  there  fell  the  Lords  of  Tankerville 
and  De  Roos  of  Hamloke,  Sir  John  Grey  of  Heton,  and 
Gilbert  de  Umphreville,  titular  Earl  of  Angus  in  Scotland. 
Two  hundred  knights  and  men-at  arms,  with  their  battle- 
chargers  and  rich  armour,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Scots. 
Among  the  first  were  Henry  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  son 
of  the  half-sister  of  Richard  II;  and  John,  Earl  of 
Somerset,  whose  sister  Jane  was  afterwards  queen  of 
James  I. 

Buchan  sent  the  body  of  Clarence  to  the  Earl  of  Salis- 
bury, and  it  was  eventually  interred  in  Canterbury  Cathe- 
dral ;  but  his  coronet  remained  a  trophy  with  the  Scots. 
Sir  John  Stewart  of  Darnley  purchased  it  from  one  of  his 
soldiers  for  1,000  angels  ;  Sir  Robert  Houston  afterwards 
lent  him  5,000  upon  it.  Buchanan  asserts  that  it  was 
Macauslon  from  the  Lennox  who  rent  it  from  the  duke's 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  247 

helmet.  Sir  John  Carmichael,  in  memory  of  shivering  his 
spear  on  the  duke's  corslet,  added  to  his  armorial  coat  a 
hand  grasping  a  broken  spear  ;  but  the  honour  of  unhorsing 
him  was  claimed  by  Swinton  and  Sir  Alexander  Buchanan. 
To  Hugh  Kennedy,  Charles  VII  of  France  gave,  as  an 
addition  to  his  arms,  azure,  three  fleurs-de-lys  or,  still  borne 
by  all  his  descendants. 

On  the  Earl  of  Buchan  was  bestowed  the  office  of  Con- 
stable of  France,  last  held  by  Charles  of  Lorraine — the 
first  stranger  who  ever  held  such  an  honour — and  with  it 
he  got  princely  domains,  stretching  over  all  the  land  between 
Chartres  and  Avranches.  He  was  also  made  master  of  the 
horse. 

After  his  victory  he  took  possession  of  the  castle  of 
Chartres,  on  the  Eure,  and  laid  siege  to  the  old  fortress  of 
Alengon  (of  which  three  battlemented  towers  yet  remain), 
repulsing  with  the  loss  of  400  men  the  Earl  of  Salisbury, 
who  attempted  its  relief.  He  then  captured  the  town  of 
Avranches,  in  Normandy,  in  the  autumn  of  1422,  after 
which  he  returned  to  Scotland,  in  consequence  of  feuds 
which  had  broken  out  there,  leaving  his  troops  under  the 
command  of  Sir  John  Stewart  of  Darnley,  who  was  styled 
"  Constable  of  the  Scots  in  France." 

Charles  VI  died  on  the  21st  of  October  that  year,  and 
the  Duke  of  Bedford,  whose  name  was  disgraced  by  his 
persecution  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  ordered  Henry  VI  to 
be  proclaimed  King  of  France,  while  the  dauphin,  to  whom 
Scotland  adhered,  was  called  in  mockery  "the  King 
Bourges,"  as  the  English  and  Burgundians  had  all  the 


248  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

best  provinces  of  France,  including  Normandy,  and  the 
territory  between  the  Loire  and  Schelat. 

The  Scots  guards,  of  whom  Darnley  was  now  captain, 
were  with  Charles  VII  at  the  castle  of  Espailly,  in 
Auvergne  ;  and  it  is  about  this  time  that  we  first  find 
the  French  mode  of  spelling  the  name  of  the  Scottish  royal 
family. 

In  the  Liste  des  Commandeurs  des  Gendarmes  Escossais, 
etc  (Pere  Daniel),  under  date  24th  March,  1442,  is  Jean 
Stuart,  Seigneur  d'Arnelay  et  d'Aubigne. 

'•'•Jean  Stuart,  fils  du  precedant,  Seigneur  d'Anbigne'. 

"  Robert  Stuart,  cousin  du  precedant,  Seigneur  d'Aubigne, 
fait  Marechal  de  France  en  1515." 

To  Charles  VII  all  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  the  best 
chivalry  of  France  adhered,  and  his  affairs  were  beginning 
to  prosper,  when  there  came  to  the  castle  of  Espailly  bad 
tidinjjs  of  his  Scottish  auxiliaries  at  Crevant. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  FEANCK— (Continued.) 

The  Battle  of  Crevant— The  Battle  of  Verneuil— The  Battle 
of  Roverai — Margaret  of  Scotland — The  Conflict  of  Mont- 
Ihery — The  Scots  in  Naples. 

IN  the  July  of  1423  King  Charles  ordered  a  body  of  his 
allied  French  and  Scottish  forces  to  cross  the  Loire  and 
invest  the  town  of  Crevant,  then  held  by  the  enemy.  It 
is  in  the  district  of  Auxerre,  and  the  river  Yonne  lay 
between  the  relieving  force  and  the  English  and  Bur- 
gundians,  who  were  about  15,000  strong,  drawn  up  in 
order  of  battle  on  a  hill,  with  Crevant  in  their  rear,  the 
stream  in  front,  with  a  stone  bridge  by  which  it  was 
spanned. 

The  weather  was  so  sultry  that  the  attacking  force 
suffered  greatly  on  their  march  by  the  heat  and  the 
weight  of  their  armour  ;  thus  many  of  the  Scots  men- 
at-arms  proceeded  on  foot,  leading  their  horses  by  the 
bridle.  They  were  led  by  Sir  John  of  Darnley ;  the 
French  by  the  Marechal  de  Senerac.  The  armour  of 
the  Scottish  and  French  men-at-arms  at  this  period 
differed  somewhat  from  that  of  the  English.  They 
wore  back  and  breast-plates,  attached  to  which  were  various 
plates  adapted  to  overlap  the  figure  ;  and  over  the  flanks 
on  each  side  the  soldier  wore  taces  or  plates  attached  to  a 


250  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

small  shield,  covering  the  front  of  the  thigh  ;  and  these 
taces  were  square,  lozenge- shaped,  or  serrated,  according 
to  fancy.  Gauntlets  of  steel  were  then  recent  French  in- 
ventions, superseding  long  gloves  of  thick  leather. 

By  the  express  orders  of  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  then 
at  Dijon,  the  town  was  to  be  saved  from  the  Scots  particu- 
larly, whereupon  the  Marshal  of  Burgundy  joined  his 
forces  to  those  of  Salisbury,  with  whom  were  the  Earl 
of  Suffolk,  Lord  Willoughby  of  Eresby,  and  other  heroes  of 
Agincourt. 

After  solemn  mass  in  Auxerre,  and  drinking  a  loving-cup 
together,  120  English  and  Burgundian  horse,  with  as  many 
archers,  came  boldly  forward  as  scouts,  as  the  old  governor 
of  Cambrai  records,  about  10  A.M.  on  a  Saturday. 

Under  Darnley's  orders  were  only  3,000  Scots  and  a  few 
French,  under  Marechal  le  Comte  de  Senerac,  the  Lords 
of  Estissac  and  Ventadour.  According  to  Monstreleb  and 
others,  with  all  their  troops  in  glittering  array,  he  and  the 
other  three  leaders  sat  placidly  in  their  saddles  and  saw  the 
English  and  Burgundians  cross  the  bridge  of  the  Yonne  and 
form  in  squares  of  foot  and  squadrons  of  horse  when  they 
ought  to  have  held  that  bridge  with  cannon  and  cross-bow, 
forgetting  the  most  simple  rules  of  war ;  and  terrible  was 
the  sequel ! 

The  French,  who  had  been  demoralised  since  Agincourt, 
fell  back  under  Senerac,  leaving  the  whole  brunt  of  battle 
to  the  Scots — a  handful  compared  to  the  opposing  force, 
which  quickly  overlapped  them  on  both  flanks,  while  a 
sortie  from  Crevant  assailed  their  rear.  Though  fighting 
•with  their  hereditary  valour  with  spear,  maul,  and  sword, 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  251 

the  Scots  fell  into  disorder.  Desperately  fought  Stewart  in 
the  van  to  repair  his  first  error,  but  lost  an  eye  by  a  sword- 
thrust  through  the  bars  of  his  visor,  after  which,  blinded 
with  blood,  he  surrendered  himself  to  a  Burgundian  lord, 
Claude  de  Bevasir  of  Castillux  ;  and  there,  too,  was  taken 
Sir  William  Crawford  of  Crawfordland,  who  remained  a 
prisoner  till  the  following  year,  but  afterwards  fell  ia 
France.  De  Ventadour  also  lost  an  eye  and  yielded  him- 
self to  the  Lord  of  Gamaches. 

Of  the  Scots  there  fell  1,200,  and  among  them,  Monstrelet 
enumerates,  a  nephew  of  the  absent  Earl  of  Buchan ;  Sir 
William  Hamilton  and  his  son ;  Sir  Thomas  Swinton ; 
Stephen  and  John  Frasmeres  (Ferrier  ?)  ;  while  400  Scots 
were  made  prisoners.  In  the  wars  of  those  days  one  suc- 
cessful campaign,  with  pay  and  plunder,  with  the  ransom 
of  a  few  prisoners,  was  supposed  to  be  a  small  fortune  to 
an  English  soldier.  (Dugdale's  Baronage?) 

Solemn  thanksgiving  was  offered  up  by  the  victors  in  the 
churches  of  Crevant,  and  the  first-fruits  of  it  were  the 
capture  of  two  other  towns  on  the  Loire. 

Sir  John  of  Darnley  was  afterwards  exchanged  for  the 
Lord  Pole,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Suffolk.  He  was  made 
Lord  of  Aubigne,  Concressault,  and  Evereux,  with  the  right 
of  quartering  his  arms  with  those  of  France.  He  arranged 
the  marriage  of  the  Princess  Margaret  of  Scotland  with 
the  future,  and  infamous,  Louis  XI,  and  fell  in  his  old  age 
at  the  siege  of  Orleans  in  1429. 

ihe  tidings  of  Crevant  urged  the  return  of  the  Constable 
Bnchan  to  France  from  Scotland,  whither  came  as  envoys 
Rones  of  Chartres,  chancellor  of  the  former,  and  Juvenal 


252  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

des  Ursins,  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  a  celebrated  prelate  and 
historian  ;  so  another  auxiliary  force  was  equipped  to  take 
vengeance  for  the  late  defeat. 

The  Earl  of  Douglas — the  same  who  lost  an  eye  at 
Homildon,  who  fought  at  Shrewsbury,  and  defended  the 
castle  of  Edinburgh  in  1409 — on  being  created  Duke  of 
Lorraine  and  Marshal  of  France,  joined  the  constable 
with  a  body  of  horse  and  infantry.  Hollinshed  gives  the 
new  auxiliary  force  at  10,000  men.  Among  the  leaders 
were  Sir  Alexander  Home  of  that  ilk ;  and  Douglas,  an 
aged  Border-warrior  who  fought  at  Homildon ;  Adam 
Douglas,  afterwards  governor  of  Tours ;  Robert  Hop- 
Pringle,  the  Laird  of  Smailholm,  armour-bearer  to  the 
Earl  of  Douglas ;  two  other  Douglases  of  the  lines  of 
Queenbury  and  Lochleven ;  and  Bernard  Lindsay  of  the 
house  of  Glenesk. 

In  the  spring  of  1424  these  forces  landed  at  Rochelle 
and  joined  the  other  Scottish  troops  then  in  Poitou  under 
Charles  VII. 

It  is  related  by  Godscroft  that  the  aged  Home  of  that 
ilk  had  resolved  to  send  a  younger  kinsman  m  his  place, 
but  when  he  saw  the  Scottish  troops  departing  his  military 
spirit  fired  up  anew. 

"Ah,  Sir  Alexander,"  said  the  Earl  of  Douglas,  "  who 
would  have  thought  that  we  should  ever  part  ?" 

"  Nor  shall  we  now,  my  lord  !"  exclaimed  the  old  knight ; 
so  he  sailed  with  Douglas,  and  died  in  his  armour  on  the 
field  of  Verneuil. 

At  this  time  the  Duke  of  Bedford  was  besieging  Ivri-la- 
Bataille,  a  Norman  town,  against  the  valiant  Girault  de  la 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  253 

Palliere,  who  had  agreed  in  his  sore  extremity  to  surrender, 
if  not  relieved  by  a  certain  day  ;  BO  Charles  marched  to 
its  relief  with  9,000  Scots,  under  Buchan,  Douglas,  and 
Murray,  according  to  Monstrelet,  and  the  same  number  of 
French,  under  Yentadour,  Narbonne,  and  de  Tonnere  ; 
Buchan,  as  constable,  commanding  the  whole,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  Duke  of  Alencon. 

Bedford  led  26,000  men-at-arms  and  archers  under 
Salisbury,  Suffolk,  and  Willoughby  ;  and  when  this  reliev- 
ing force  came  in  sight  of  Ivri,  St.  George's  Cross  was 
already  flying  on  its  walls,  which  still  exist,  together  with 
a  strong  old  tower  into  which  the  English  garrison  retired 
on  the  approach  of  Charles  VII.  When  the  force  of  the 
latter  came  in  sight  of  Verneuil,  "  the  Earl  of  Buchan," 
says  Rapin,  "  was  pleased  to  resign  (the  command)  to  the 
Earl  of  Douglas,  his  father-in-law,  to  whom  the  king  sent 
for  that  purpose  a  patent  constituting  him  lieutenant- 
general  of  the  whole  kingdom,  otherwise  the  constable 
could  not  have  acted  under  his  orders."  This  was  on  the 
17th  August,  1424 

Bedford,  whom  Douglas  was  wont  to  ridicule  as  "  John 
with  the  leaden  sword,"  resolved  to  wait  the  attack,  and 
selected  excellent  ground,  flanked  by  a  hill  on  which  he 
posted  2,000  archers  with  their  protecting  stakes ;  while 
Douglas  drew  up  in  order  of  battle  before  Verneuil,  then  a 
towu  of  great  strength,  the  ancient  walls  of  which  still 
remain. 

To  the  constable  with  his  suite  he  assigned  the  centre  ; 
the  wings  he  gave  to  Viscount  Narbonne  and  Gilbert  the 
Marechal  de  la  Fayette. 


254          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Each  flank  was  covered  by  a  thousand  mounted  gendar- 
merie, in  complete  mail,  horse  and  man,  with  bow,  mace, 
and  battle-axe  ;  and  with  the  left  flank  were  000  Lombardy 
cross-bowmen,  sent  by  the  Duke  of  Milan,  mounted  and  in 
full  armour. 

Douglas  held  a  council  of  war,  before  which  he  urged 
"  that  as  the  Duke  of  Bedford  intended  evidently  to  fight 
on  strong  ground,  chosen  by  himself,  battle  should  not  be 
risked."  But  the  French  leaders,  already  jealous  of  the 
Scots,  declared  that  "if  battle  were  avoided  the  honour 
of  France  would  suffer."  Then  the  Viscount  Narbonne 
ordered  his  bowmen  to  advance,  and,  in  deflance  of  all 
authority,  began  his  march  towards  the  English.  Pere 
Daniel  and  Hall  record  that  "  Douglas  was  infuriated  by 
this  disobedience ;  but  that  neither  he  nor  the  constable 
could  avert  the  purpose  of  these  rash  French  lords. 
Douglas  was  in  a  foreign  land,  and,  afraid  that  his  honour 
might  suffer  if  the  field  was  lost  by  only  half  his  troops 
engaging,  he  issued  orders  for  the  whole  to  advance  uphill 
and  attack  the  English." 

This  was  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  then  began 
a  conflict,  of  which  every  account  is  confused,  but  on  the 
issue  of  which  the  fate  of  France  and  her  king  seemed  to 
depend. 

The  English  received  the  uphill  charge  of  the  Scots 
with  a  shout  so  hearty  that  it  dismayed  the  French  under 
Narbonne,  who  held  back  his  column,  leaving  his  allies  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  all.  Close,  deadly,  and  terrible  was  the 
conflict,  the  Scots  handling  their  long  spears  and  heavy 
swords  in  close  battle,  choosing  to  die  rather  than  surren- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  255 

der  or  give  way.  The  French  authorities  admit  that  "  the 
bravest  leaders  and  most  efficient  troops  who  fought  on 
their  side  that  day  were  the  Scots." 

Yet  it  was  a  lost  battle,  and,  choosing  rather  to  die  than 
surrender  it,  there  fell  the  Constable  Buchan  ;  his  father-in- 
law,  the  Earl  of  Douglas  ;  two  Sir  James  Douglases,  Sir 
Walter  Lindsay,  Sir  Alexander  Home,  Sir  John  Swinton 
of  that  ilk,  Sir  Robert  Stewart,  and  Hop-Pringle  of 
Smailholm,  with  many  French  knights  and  great  lords  of 
Dauphiny  and  Languedoc,  with  4,000  men,  the  most  of 
whom  were  Scots  and  Italians.  Hollinshed  gives  the  slain 
at  9,700  of  these,  and  2,100  English.  Many  of  the 
Italians  had  the  hardihood  to  revisit  the  field,  perhaps  in 
search  of  plunder,  but  were  shot  down  in  the  twilight  and 
stripped  of  arms  and  clothing  by  the  English  archers. 

Covered  with  wounds,  the  bodies  of  the  Earls  of  Buchan 
and  Douglas  were  borne  from  the  field,  and  honourably  in- 
terred by  the  English  in  the  church  of  St.  Gnetian,  at 
Tours,  where,  and  at  Orleans,  so  lately  as  1043,  a  daily 
mass  was  celebrated  for  the  souls  of  the  Scots  who  fell  at 
Verneuil. 

Bnchan  was  succeeded  as  constable  of  France  by 
Arthur,  Due  de  Bretagne,  and  left  one  daughter,  who  was 
married  to  George  Lord  Seton. 

The  power  of  Bedford  grew  weaker  in  France  after  the 
battle  of  Verneuil,  where  more  men  fell  on  both  sides  than 
in  any  battle  since  Agincourt.  Subsidies  came  grudgingly 
from  London  to  aid  the  iniquitous  war,  and  then  Joan  of 
Arc  came  upon  the  scene  when  Charles  VII  was  contem- 
plating a  flight  to  Scotland.  In  1428  Bedford  was  orderei 


256          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

to  cross  the  Loire  and  ravage  those  provinces  which  still 
adhered  to  the  former,  and,  as  a  preparatory  step,  besieged 
Orleans,  on  which  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  were  turned,  for 
the  numberless  deeds  of  valour  performed  around  the  city. 
Cannon  were  extensively  used,  and  by  one  of  them  the 
Earl  of  Salisbury  was  slain. 

The  siege  had  lasted  four  months,  and,  as  the  season  was 
Lent,  Bedford  sent  from  Paris  a  vast  quantity  of  salted 
herrings  and  other  stores  in  SCO  carts,  with  a  train  of 
artillery  and  1,700  men,  under  Sir  John  Fastolffe,  one  of 
England's  best  generals,  made  Knight  of  the  Garter  by 
Henry  VI.  Under  his  orders  were  Sir  Thomas  Rampston 
and  Sir  Philip  Hall,  "  with  1,000  followers,"  probably  some 
of  the  unpaid  "  ragamuffins"  referred  to  by  Brady. 

To  cut  off  this  force  Charles  VII  despatched  the  Count 
of  Clermont  with  3,000  men,  including  the  cuirassiers  and 
archers  of  the  Scottish  guard  under  John  Stewart,  Count 
d'Aubigne,  and  the  lancers  of  the  Count  Dunois.  The 
glitter  of  their  brilliant  armour  warned  Fastolffe  of  their 
approach  at  seven  in  the  morning  of  the  12th  February, 
1429.  He  made  a  barricade  ("lager"  it  would  now  be 
called)  of  the  herring  waggons  and  carts,  and  posted  his 
men  in  the  rear  thereof. 

The  French  and  Scottish  men-at-arms  dismounted  and 
assailed  the  entrenchment  with  sword  and  battle-axe,  while 
the  archers  plied  their  arrows;  but  the  movement  was 
begun  too  furiously  by  the  Scots,  in  their  rancorous  hate  of 
the  English  and  desire  to  avenge  the  day  of  Verneuil,  though 
Clermont  and  Dunois  had  placed  some  guns  in  position 
which  would  soon  have  knocked  the  vehicles  to  pieces. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  257 

By  lance,  bill,  and  bow  they  were  repulsed,  and  then 
Fastolffe,  ordering  some  of  the  waggons  to  be  withdrawn, 
issued  forth  and  charged  them  furiously.  Short  and  sharp 
was  the  conflict  ;  but  the  Scots  were  routed  and  the 
French  cannon  taken.  Stewart  of  Darnley  and  one  of  his 
sons  were  slain.  Dunois  was  wounded,  and,  according  to 
Monstrelet,  there  fell  six-score  great  lords  and  500  soldiers. 

The  conflict  of  Roverai  was  deemed  of  great  importance 
in  its  time,  as  the  convoy  contained  so  much  that  was 
necessary  for  the  English  in  Lent.  "The  Bastard  or 
Orleans,  who  had  sallied  out  to  assist  Clermont  in  cutting 
it  off,  preserved  sufficient  presence  of  mind  to  escape 
Fastolffe  in  the  confusion,  and  to  reach  the  city  with  400 
men.  The  successor  of  Darnley  at  the  head  of  the  Scottish 
guard  was  a  native  of  Dundee  (before  referred  to),  named 
Robert  Patullo,  a  soldier  so  famed  for  his  success  in 
many  affairs  in  Guienne  that  he  was  called  '  The  Little 
King  of  Goscony'." 

The  Scoto- French  alliance  was  supposed  to  be  made 
closer  when,  in  1643,  the  Scottish  Princess  Margaret 
(daughter  of  James  I),  in  her  twelfth  year,  was  united  to  the 
dauphin,  afterwards  the  terrible  Louis  XI,  then  a  year 
older.  William  Sinclair,  third  Earl  of  Orkney,  the  admiral 
of  Scotland,  and  John  Bishop  of  Brechin,  with  sixteen 
knights  and  esquires,  140  young  gentlemen,  and  1,000 
men-at-arms  in  nine  vessels,  formed  her  train,  to  intercept 
which  the  English  lawlessly  sent  out  a  piratical  fleet,  which 
was  beaten  by  the  Spaniards  ;  thus  the  royal  bride  landed 
safely  at  Rochelle,  and  her  marriage  was  solemnised  on  the 
6th  July.  (Pinkerton.')  "  The  unhappy  bride  had  passed 

8 


258          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

to  a  husband  of  famed  malignity  ;  and  not  all  her  prudence, 
wit,  love  of  learning,  taste  for  poetry,  inherited  from  her 
princely  father,  nor  her  affability,  could  save  her  from  the 
pangs  of  domestic  distress."  The  vague  word  of  Jacques 
de  Tilloy,  a  villainous  courtier,  accused  her  of  conjugal  in- 
fidelity, and  destroyed  her  constitution,  already  enfeebled 
by  harshness  and  neglect.  The  beautiful  Margaret  died  in 
her  twenty-first  year,  protesting  her  innocence,  to  the  deep 
grief  of  her  father-in-law,  Charles  VII. 

Inspired  by  insular  hate,  Grafton,  the  Englishman, 
wrote  of  her  brutally ;  but  John  Major  calls  her  with 
more  probability  "  Virginum  formosum  et  honestam" ; 
and  his  long  residence  as  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris 
gave  him  opportunities  for  information,  while  his  simplicity 
is  a  warrant  for  his  veracity. 

In  1440  the  latter,  in  some  manner,  reconstituted  the 
Scottish  guard,  and  gave  precedence  to  it  over  all  the 
troops  in  France,  designating  it  "  Le  Garde-du-Corps 
Ecossais."  The  Scots  gendarmes  and  garde-du-corps  con- 
tinued to  form  part  of  the  French  military  force  until 
about  the  year  1788  (War  Office  Record  :  1st  Foot).  The 
dream  of  an  English  empire  in  France  ended  in  1451. 

The  muster  rolls  of  the  Scottish  garde-du-corps  and  the 
gendarmerie,  extending  from  1419  to  1791,  have  recently 
been  published  by  Father  Forbes-Leith,  and  are  the  most 
interesting  Scottish  lists  we  possess. 

In  1461  Charles  VII  died,  and  Louis  XI  succeeded  him. 
In  the  vile  conspiracies  of  the  latter  against  his  father  he 
made  many  attempts  without  success  to  seduce  the  Scottish 
guard  from  its  allegiance  ;  and  remembering  this  when  he 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  259 

became  king,  he  regarded  them  as  his  most  trustworthy 
supporters  in  the  course  of  those  wars  and  intrigues  by 
which  he  broke  the  power  of  the  great  feudal  lords  of 
France. 

In  1465  they  served  in  the  conflict  at  Montlhery — a 
bloody  but  indecisive  battle  fought  between  the  troops  of 
Louis  XI  and  those  of  tbe  Ligue  du  Bien-Public,  commanded 
by  the  Comte  de  Charolois,  afterwards  Charles  the  Bold  of 
Burgundy,  where  so  many  of  his  people  fell  that  the  field 
is  still  named  the  Cimetiere  des  Bourguinons ;  and  Louis 
was  taken  out  of  the  field  by  the  Scots,  who  fought  in  a 
circle  round  him,  and  conveyed  to  the  old  castle  of 
Montlhery,  which  still  remains.  (De  Mezeray.)  At  this 
time  Thomas  Boyd,  created  Eai'l  of  Arran  in  1468,  was  in 
the  service  of  Charles  the  Bold,  after  the  ruin  of  his  family, 
and  died  in  exile  at  Antwerp  in  1471,  according  to 
Buchanan ;  though  Ferreriers  asserts  that  he  was  slain  in 
Tuscany. 

Some  veterans  of  the  Scottish  guard  would  seem  to 
have  been  at  one  time  settled  in  the  D6partemei;t  du  Cher, 
according  to  a  communication  made  by  a  French  pastor  to 
the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  June,  1863.  The  Duke  of 
Henri chmenfc,  Constable  of  France,  settled  them  on  his 
lands,  when  for  a  time  they  turned  their  attention  to  iron- 
works and  agriculture.  "  For  four  centuries,"  he  continued, 
"they  have  kept  distinct,  without  mingling  with  their 
neighbours,  preserving  their  Scottish  names  with  but  slight 
variations,  and  also  the  tradition  of  their  British  origin." 

Again,  in  1878,  the  papers  contained  an  account  of  "the 
Scottish  colony  of  St.  Martin  d'Auxigny  near  Bourges," 

s  2 


260  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

given  by  M.  le  Pasteur  Vesson,  of  Dunkirk,  to  the  effect 
"  thai  Stuart  of  Aubigne  had  established  them  in  the  Royal 
forest  of  St.  Martin  d'Auxigny,  where  they  numbered 
3,000  persons,  and  had  special  privileges  till  1789.  A 
tall,  strong  race,  they  are  quiet  and  shy,  but  very  industrious 
and  honest.  Their  names  have  been  altered,  but  the 
Scottish  original  may  be  easily  traced,  as  for  instance  Coen 
for  Cowiej  and  in  a  contract  one  of  them  recently  signed 
his  name  '  Opie  de  Perth.'  "  (Times,  1878.) 

In  1483  Bernard  Stewart  of  Aubigne,  marshal  of  France, 
came  to  Scotland  as  ambassador  from  Charles  VIII  to 
renew  the  ancient  league  ;  and  on  returning  he  took  back 
with  him  eighteen  companies  of  Scottish  infantry,  "  under 
the  command  of  Donald  Robertson,  an  expert  and  valiant 
commander,"  says  Balfour,  "  who  purchased  much  renown 
under  the  French  king  in  the  wars  of  Italy."  (Annales, 
vol.  i.) 

The  Scottish  auxiliaries  certainly  won  much  glory  in  the 
conquest  of  Naples  and  elsewhere  in  Italy  in  1495. 

Guichardin  tells  us  in  his  history  that  when  Charles 
VIII  crossed  the  Alps  the  strength  of  his  army  was 
40,000  men,  with  four  hundred  pieces  of  cannon,  in  that 
war  which  first  revealed  to  Europe  that  France  had  risen 
to  a  place  among  the  powers  of  the  Continent ;  but  Gui- 
chardin exaggerates.  The  army  of  Charles,  who  had  pre- 
tensions to  Naples  as  Thir  of  Anjou,  consisted  of  20,000 
men,  including  the  Scots  under  Stewart  of  Aubigne,  whom 
he  valued  highly.  "In  Calabria,"  says  Philip  de  Commines, 
•'  he  left  Monsieur  d'Aubigny,  a  brave  and  honourable  per- 
son, to  command  in  chief.  The  king  had  made  him 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  261 

constable  of  that  kingdom,  and  given  him  the  county  of 
Aen  and  the  marquisat  of  Iquillazzo."  One  of  the  chief 
causes  of  the  French  success,  says  De  Mezeray,  was  their 
artillery  drawn  by  horses,  while  those  of  the  Italians  were 
drawn  by  oxen. 

Surrounded  by  the  Scottish  guard,  Charles  entered 
Florence  in  complete  mail,  with  his  lance  resting  on  his 
thigh.  They  fought  at  Fornovo  that  battle  at  the  foot  of 
the  Apennines,  when  a  complete  victory  was  won  over  the 
united  states  of  Italy.  After  delivering  Sienna  and  Pisa 
from  the  Tuscan  yoke,  Charles  took  possession  of  Rome  as 
a  conqueror,  and  Paulus  Jovius  and  others  have  transmitted 
to  us  an  interesting  account  of  the  French  entry  into  the 
capital  of  Alexander  VI. 

"  First  came  the  Swiss  and  Germans,  keeping  step  to 
their  drums,  with  banners  displayed  and  parti-coloured 
dresses,  their  officers  all  distinguished  by  tall  plumes  in 
their  helmets,  and  all  armed  with  swords  and  pikes  ten 
feet  long.  Every  corps  of  1,000  had  100  armed  with 
arquebuses.  Then  came  5,000  Gascons,  all  archers  ;  then 
the  French  cavalry,  2,500  of  whom  were  heavily  mailed, 
and  twice  that  number  more  lightly  armed,  but  all  with 
fluted  spears  of  great  size,  and  the  manes  and  ears  of  their 
horses  cropped.  Then  came  the  king,  guarded  by  the 
Scots,  with  300  mounted  archers  and  200  French  knights, 
armed  with  maces,  and  wearing  gold  and  purple  surcoats 
over  their  armour.  The  Scottish  Gardes  de  la  Manche  are 
immediately  next  the  king,  and  ride  with  white  hoquetons 
over  their  mail,  in  token  of  their  unspotted  fidelity." 

Philip    de    Commines  specially   mentions  the    Scottish 


262  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

archers  at  the  battle  of  Fornovo,  in  July,  1495,  wherein, 
after  a  furious  charge,  the  Italian  Estradiots,  whose 
favourite  weapon  was  the  zagaye,  were  driven  in  ;  yet  only 
nine  of  the  Scots  were  slain. 

Charles  VIII  died  in  1498,  and  was  succeeded  by  Louis 
XII,  under  whom  the  Scots  were  again  in  Italy,  serving 
against  the  Venetians  in  1509,  as  the  lists  of  the  French 
army  published  at  that  time  attest.  In  particular  they 
fought  at  the  battle  of  Agnadel  or  Rivalta,  when  the 
Venetians  were  defeated  with  great  loss  in  Lombardy  ;  but 
of  this  war  history  is  almost  destitute  of  details. 


CHAPTEK  XXV. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.— (Continued.) 

The  Battle  of  Marignano— The  Duke  of  Albany— The  Battle 
of  Pavia — Scottish  Privileges — The  Scots  in  Picardy — 
Robert  Stuart  of  Veziers — Slays  the  Constable  of  France — 
Mark  Boyd— The  Battle  of  Coutras. 

ACCORDING  to  the  spirited  work  of  Forbes-Leith  and  other 
authorities,  the  Scottish  guard  distinguished  itself  in  the 
campaigns  of  Francis  I,  and  bore  itself  nobly  in  the 
great  battle  of  Marignano  and  on  the  disastrous  day  of 
Pavia. 

Francis  I,  who  in  1515  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  France, 
young,  brave,  and  full  of  ambition,  resolved  that  his  first 
military  enterprise  should  be  the  reconquest  of  Milan,  and 
with  this  view  marched  towards  the  Alps  a  magnificent 
army  on  pretence  of  defending  his  frontier  against  the 
Swiss,  who  had  taken  up  arms  at  the  Papal  instigation  in 
order  to  protect  Maximilian  Sforza,  the  Duke  of  Milan, 
whom  they  deemed  themselves  bound  in  honour  to  sup- 
port. 

The  armies  came  in  sight  of  each  other  at  Marignano  on 
the  Lambro,  eleven  miles  south-east  of  Milan,  where  ensued 
one  of  the  most  obstinate  battles  of  modern  times,  at  four 
o'clock,  on  the  13th  of  October,  1515.  "  An  army  of 
25,000  Swiss,"  says  Voltaire,  "  some  with  St.  Peters's  keys 


264  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

on  their  backs  and  breasts,  some  of  them  armed  with  pikes 
eighteen  feet  long,  moved  in  close  battalions,  others  with 
large  two-handled  swords,  all  advanced  with  loud  shouts 
towards  the  king's  camp  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mari- 
gnano.  Of  all  the  battles  in  Italy  this  was  the  bloodiest 
and  the  longest.  The  French  and  Swiss,  being  mixed 
together  in  the  obscurity  of  the  night,  were  obliged  to 
wait  for  daylight  to  renew  the  engagement." 

Surrounded  by  the  Scottish  guard,  whose  commander  in 
that  year  was  Robert  Stuart,  son  of  the  second  Lord  of 
Aubigne,  the  king  at  the  first  charge  made  on  his  vanguard 
repulsed  it  ere  the  darkness  fell,  and  both  armies  halted 
amid  the  dead  and  w'ounded,  "  many  of  both,"  says  De 
Mezeray,  "  lying  down  by  each  other  all  the  night.  The 
king,  with  his  armour  on,  rested  himself  upon  the  carriage 
of  a  gun,  when  the  great  thirst  his  toil  had  brought  upon 
him  made  him  relish  even  a  little  water,  mixed  with  dirt 
and  blood,  brought  to  him  by  a  courteous  soldier  in  his 
steel  morion." 

The  moment  day  broke  he  attended  to  the  disposition  of 
his  arquebusiers,  gunners,  and  Genoese  cross-bowmen,  and 
by  cannon-shot,  bullets,  and  arrows  tore  the  dense  Swiss 
battalions  asunder,  charging  through  them  with  his  horse, 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  Grarde-du-Corps  Ecossais,  and 
drove  the  enemy  into  a  great  wood,  where  numbers  of 
them  were  cut  to  pieces. 

Of  the  Swiss,  10,000  fell;  of  the  French,  only  400! 
The  former,  though  not  routed,  gave  way,  and  so  ended 
a  strife  which,  says  Voltaire,  "  the  old  Marechal  de 
Trivala  used  to  call  the  battle  of  giants.  Maximilian 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  265 

Sforza  was  carried  into  France,  like  Lewis  the  Moor,  but 
upon  milder  conditions.  He  became  a  subject.  The 
sovereign  of  the  finest  province  in  Italy  was  permitted  to 
live  in  France  on  a  moderate  pension."  The  Chevalier 
Bayard,  who  had  greatly  contributed  to  the  victory,  was 
knighted  on  the  field. 

At  the  end  of  1523  Francis  I  was  joined  by  John  Duke 
of  Albany,  previously  regent  of  Scotland,  where  he  had 
been  aught  but  popular.  Son  of  that  infamous  Alexander 
of  Albany  (who  had  been  exiled  for  his  intrigues  with  the 
English)  and  of  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  the  Count  de 
Boulogne,  born  in  France,  and  the  husband  of  a  French 
wife,  Anne  de  la  Tour  of  Vendome,  he  was  more  than  half 
a  Frenchman,  and  had  disgusted  many  of  the  proud  Scottish 
peers  and  chiefs ;  yet  Francis,  in  virtue  of  his  royal  birth 
and  rank  as  Count  of  Boulogne  and  Auvergne,  gave  him 
a  high  command  in  the  French  army,  when  he  was  en- 
couraged by  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  to  make  war  upon  the 
emperor  and  invade  Luxembourg.  Other  favours  were 
conferred  on  Albany  when  Francis  led  his  army  into  Italy 
again  in  1-523,  at  that  time  when  the  constable  of  Bourbon 
formed  a  conspiracy 'against  him,  and,  entering  the  Imperial 
service,  endeavoured  to  thwart  his  designs  upon  the  Italian 
peninsula. 

Albany  led  a  body  of  Scottish  auxiliaries  in  this  war, 
and  to  them  Francis  added  600  horse,  10,000  infantry,  and 
a  train  of  artillery  ;  for  to  him,  says  De  Mezeray,  he  assigned 
the  complete  conquest  of  Naples  in  1524,  the  viceroy  of 
which,  Launoy,  had  succeeded  Colonno  in  command  there. 
Francis  at  the  same  time,  to  subdue  the  city  of  Milan, 


266          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

sent  forward  the  Admiral  Bonnivet  and  the  Chevalier 
Bayard  with  30,000  men. 

While  Launoy  continued  to  "amuse"  the  Duke  of  Albany 
in  Tuscany  the  battle  of  Pavia  was  fought  on  the  24th  of 
February,  1525.  Previous  to  this  Francis  had  laid  siege 
to  the  city — "  the  city  of  a  hundred  towers" — in  the 
October  of  the  preceding  year,  and  this  led  to  the  great 
contest  in  which  the  Scottish  guard  displayed  the  most 
unparalleled  loyalty  and  devotion  to  diity. 

Led  by  Pescara  and  Launoy,  a  united  army  advanced  to 
the  relief  of  Pavia,  whence  prudence  would  have  dictated 
a  retreat  ;  but  Francis  despised  to  fall  back,  as  his  troops 
were  strongly  entrenched.  Seldom  have  armies  engaged 
with  greater  ardour,  more  national  rivalry,  and  rancorous 
antipathy.  The  valour  of  the  French  made  the  Imperialists 
first  give  ground ;  but  the  fortunes  of  the  day  changed. 
The  Swiss  in  the  French  service  deserted  en  masse,  while 
Pescara  fell  upon  the  gendarmerie  in  a  fashion  to  which 
they  were  unaccustomed,  a  number  of  Spanish  foot,  says 
Guichordini,  armed  with  heavy  arquebuses,  being  chec- 
quered  with  the  cavalry ;  while  Leyra,  sallying  out  of 
Pavia,  made  a  dreadful  assault  on  the  French  rear,  and  then 
the  confusion  and  rout  became  general. 

Surrounded  by  the  Scottish  guard  and  the  flower  of  the 
nobles,  Francis,  whose  horse  was  killed  under  him,  fought 
with  stern  valour,  and  slew  seven  men  with  his  own  hand. 
Resisting  desperately  in  a  circle,  man  after  man,  gendarme 
and  archer,  k  right  and  gentleman,  the  Scottish  guard  went 
down  till,  according  to  L'ecosne  frangoise  of  A.  Houston, 
only  four  remained  alive,  when  Francis  gave  up  his  sword 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  26? 

to  Pomperant,  a  French  gentleman,  who  followed  the 
Constable  de  Bourbon,  and  ultimately  it  was  handed  to 
Launoy.  (Brantome,  Guichordin,  etc.)  Before  leaving  as  a 
prisoner  for  Pizzighettone  he  wrote  to  his  mother  the 
memorable  letter  containingthe  sublime  laconism," Madame, 
tout  est  perdu  fors  1'honneur." 

This  event  filled  Europe  with  alarm ;  Milan  was  aban- 
doned, and  soon  not  a  French  soldier  remained  in  Italy. 
The  Duke  of  Albany  was  compelled,  says,  De  Mezeray,  to 
disband  the  Italian  troops  he  had  levied,  and  then  to  ship 
his  French  and  Scots,  the  Spaniards  "  lending  him  some 
galleys  for  that  purpose,  those  of  the  regent  not  being 
sufficient  to  transport  them." 

In  October,  1533,  we  again  hear  of  the  Duke  of  Albany 
prominently,  when  he  escorted  to  Marseilles  Catharine  de 
Nicolais,  whose  maternal  aunt  he  had  married.  On  the 
10th  of  the  same  month  the  Pope,  Clement  VII,  arrived  at 
Marseilles  in  the  king's  galleys. 

Three  years  after,  Albany  died  in  his  own  castle  of 
Minfleur,  nine  miles  from  Clermont.  Two  relics  of  him 
still  exist  in  France — his  chapel  and  palace  at  Vic-le-Comte, 
in  Auvergne. 

On  the  13th  of  August,  1548,  our  young  Queen  Mary, 
then  in  her  girlhood,  landed  in  France,  the  contracted 
bride  of  the  dauphin ;  and  two  years  afterwards  we  find  a 
gentleman  of  the  Scottish  guard,  Robert  Stuart,  supposed 
to  be  in  the  English  or  Protestant  interest,  accused  of  the 
desperate  crime  of  attempting  to  poison  her.  What  wers 
the  proofs  of  this  seem  vague ;  but  he  was  arrested  and 
executed  publicly. 


268  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

On  the  14th  of  April,  1538,  Mary  was  married  to  the 
dauphin  with  great  pomp  by  the  Cardinal  Bourbon,  in  the 
cathedral  church  of  Notre  Dame — a  ceremony  attended 
by  the  King  and  Queen  of  Prance,  four  cardinals,  the 
princes  of  the  blood,  and  all  the  most  august  personages 
of  the  realm ;  and  during  the  time  that  the  sovereigns  of 
Scotland  and  France  were  united  in  marriage  their  designa- 
tion was : — Francis  et  Maria  de  Gratia,  Rex  et  Regina 
Scotia,  Francia,  Anglia  et  Hibernia.  The  privileges  of 
the  Scots  in  France  were  most  ample,  and  were  in  every  way 
the  same  as  those  enjoyed  by  French  subjects  in  Scotland 
by  Act  of  Parliament. 

These  privileges  were  fully  defined  and  confirmed  by 
Henry,  King  of  France,  in  a  letter  of  naturalisation 
registered  in  the  Parliament  of  Paris  and  Great  Council  of 
the  Chamber  of  Accompts.  Until  the  Revolution  the  effects 
of  all  strangers,  Scots  excepted,  dying  in  France  were  liable  to 
seizure  by  the  law  of  that  country,  even  though  the  heir 
was  on  the  spot ;  and  the  reader  may  remember  Sterne's 
indignant  outburst  on  this  subject  in  the  introduction  to  his 
Sentimental  Journey. 

Three  years  before  this  auspicious  royal  marriage  some 
of  those  concerned  in  the  murder  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  and 
the  subsequent  defence  of  St.  Andrews  against  the  French 
fleet,  took  military  service  in  France. 

Henry  IV  having  recalled  from  exile  the  Constable  de 
Montmorencie — whom  his  father  had  warned  him  never  to 
employ — in  May,  1553,  sent  him  with  an  army  into  Picardy, 
where  the  troops  of  the  aged  emperor,  after  seizing 
Lorraine  and  ravaging  Flanders,  were  there  levying  war. 


SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  269 

With  the  array  of  the  constable  went  Sir  William  Kirkcaldy 
of  Grange,  whom  Henry  had  commissioned  as  a  captain  of 
light  horse,  whose  armour  covered  only  the  upper  part  of 
the  body,  their  trunk-hose  being  quilted  and  stuffed  with 
bombast;  their  arms,  petronels,  swords,  daggers,  and 
demi-lances.  Many  of  Kirkcaldy's  friends  and  kinsmen 
now  rode  in  their  armour  with  the  same  host. 

Among  them  we  may  enumerate  Sir  James  Melville  of 
Halhill,  then  in  his  18th  year;  Archibald  Mowbray  of 
Barnhougal ;  and  Norman  Leslie,  master  of  Rothes  (one 
of  the  actual  assassins  of  the  cardinal),  whom  King  Henry 
had  appointed  "colonel  of  the  Scotts  Lanciers" — says 
Balfour  in  his  Annales— an  appointment  which  he  had  won 
through  the  influence  of  "  the  Laird  of  Brimstone,  another 
expatriated  soldier  of  fortune  who  carried  a  lance  in  the 
Spanish  wars."  After  various  marches  and  movements, 
on  reaching  the  neighbourhood  of  St.  Quentin,  the  vener- 
able constable,  old  in  years  and  arms,  "  being  in  his  grand 
climacterick,"  fell  sick,  and  both  armies  went  into  winter- 
quarters. 

The  spring  of  1554  saw  them  in  the  field  again.  In 
attacking  Dinant,  a  small  but  ancient  city,  the  French 
were  repulsed  thrice  by  a  tremendous  arquebuse-fire,  and 
no  less  than  eleven  standard-bearers  were  shot  down  in 
succession  under  their  colours  in  the  breach.  At  that 
crisis,  Mowbray  of  Barnhougal  (husband  of  Elizabeth 
Kirkcaldy  of  Grange),  to  set  an  example,  rushed  into  the 
dangerous  breach,  sword  in  hand,  but  was  compelled  to 
retire,  which  he  did  untouched.  (Melville's  Memoirs.') 

Eventually  Dinant  was   taken,  and   afterwards   a  battle 


270          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

took  place  on  the  plain  before  Renti  on  the  3 1  st  of  August 
1554.  On  the  preceding  day,  the  constable,  perceiving 
that  the  Spaniards  meant  to  possess  themselves  of  certain 
heights  which  commanded  the  French  position,  sent 
Norman  Leslie's  Scottish  lancers  and  some  other  cavalry  to 
drive  the  Imperialists  back,  and  on  this  duty  Melville  thus 
describes  him : — In  view  of  the  whole  French  army  the 
master  of  Rothes,  "  with  thirty  Scotsmen,  rode  up  the  hill 
upon  a  fine  grey  gelding.  He  had  above  his  coat  of  black 
velvet  his  coat  of  armour,  with  two  broad  white  crosses,  one 
before  and  the  other  behind,  with  sleeves  of  mail  and  a  red 
bonnet  upon  his  head,  whereby  he  was  known  often  by  the 
constable,  the  Duke  d'Enghien,  and  the  Prince  de  Conde." 
His  party  was  diminished  to  only  seven  by  the  time  he 
came  within  lance-length  of  the  Imperialists,  who  were 
sixty  in  number  ;  but  he  burst  amid  them  like  a  thunder- 
bolt, escaping  the  fire  of  the  arquebuses,  and  struck  five 
from  their  saddles  with  his  long  Scottish  lance  ere  it  broke 
to  splinters.  Then  drawing  his  sword,  he  hewed  among 
them  again  and  again  with  the  reckless  valour  for  which 
he  had  ever  been  distinguished. 

"At  the  critical  moment  of  this  most  unequal  contest 
of  seven  Scottish  knights  against  sixty  Spaniards,  a 
troop  of  Imperial  spearmen  were  hastily  idling  along  the 
hill  to  join  in  the  encounter.  By  this  time  Leslie  had 
received  several  bullets  in  his  person,  and  finding  himself 
unable  to  continue  the  conflict  longer,  he  dashed  spurs  into 
his  horse,  galloped  back  to  the  constable,  and  fell  faint  and 
exhausted  from  his  saddle,  with  the  blood  pouring  through 
his  burnished  armour  on  the  turf."  (Memoirs  of  Kirlccaldy 
of  Grange.} 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  271 

By  the  king's  desire  he  was  borne  to  the  royal  tent, 
when  the  Prince  de  Conde  remarked  that  "  Hector  of  Troy 
had  not  behaved  more  valiantly  than  Norman  Leslie." 
The  royal  surgeon  dressed  his  wounds  in  vain,  as  he  ex- 
pired at  Montreuil  fifteen  days  after  the  battle,  with  his 
last  breath  deploring  his  share  in  the  murder  of  Cardinal 
Beaton.  (Scot.  Chron.,  Hollinshed.)  He  was  the  son  of 
George,  fourth  Earl  of  Bothes,  by  Margaret,  daughter  of 
Lord  Crichton.  On  the  day  after  his  exploit  the  battle  of 
Benti  ensued,  and  so  furious  was  the  charge  of  the  Spanish 
vanguard  that  a  portion  of  the  army  in  which  Sir  William 
Kirkcaldy  served,  the  chevaux  legers,  fell  back,  till  the 
Spaniards  were  checked  in  turn  by  a  column  under  the  Vi- 
comte  de  Tonannes  and  a  knight  of  the  house  of  Eglin- 
ton,  Sir  Gabriel  de  Montgomerie,  styled  Lord  of  Lorges  in 
France  (Papers  of  the  Archer  Guard),  and  ere  long  Benti 
was  won. 

So  highly  did  King  Henry  value  Norman  Leslie's  memory 
that  the  survivors  of  his  Scottish  troop  of  lancers  were 
sent  back  to  their  own  country  under  Crichton  of  Brun- 
stone,  says  Hollinshed,  laden  with  rewards  and  honours ; 
and  by  his  influence  such  as  were  exiles  were  restored  to 
their  estates,  as  a  reward  for  their  valour  on  the  frontiers  of 
Flanders. 

At  the  battle  of  St.  Quentin,  fought  on  St.  Lawrence's 
Day,  1557,  the  old  Constable  de  Montmorencie  fought  like 
a  lion,  but  was  unhorsed  and  captured  alive  by  some 
Flemish  knights.  In  that  melee  Sir  James  Melville  of 
Halhill,  who  fought  close  by  his  side,  was  unhorsed  by  a 
blow  on  the  helmet,  but  was  remounted  by  his  servant 


272          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

"  upon  a  Scots  gelding,  which  bore  him  right  through  the 
enemy,"  whose  swords  were  aimed  at  his  defenceless  head ; 
but,  leaping  over  several  walls,  he  gained  the  barriers  of  La 
Fere,  where  he  drew  up  at  the  booth  of  a  barber-chirurgeon 
to  have  his  wounds  dressed,  during  which  process  his  horse 
was  kindly  held,  as  he  tells  us,  by  Mr.  Killigrew,  an  English 
gentleman  who  served  in  those  wars.  The  defeat  at  St. 
Quentin  nearly  laid  France  at  the  foot  of  the  emperor. 
Melville  accompanied  his  friend  the  constable,  a  prisoner  of 
war,  to  Cambray,  where  soon  after  a  treaty  of  peace  was 
concluded,  and  then  Kirkcaldy  of  Grange  returned  home. 

"  I  heard  Henry  II,"  Melville  says,  "  point  to  him 
and  say,  '  Yonder  is  one  of  the  most  valiant  men  of  our 
age!'" 

Two  years  after  St.  Quentin  he  lost  his  friend  and  patron, 
Henry  II,  who  was  slain  in  a  tournament  when  running  a 
course  with  the  Count  de  Montgomerie  (captain  of  the 
Scottish  guard).  In  tilting,  the  vi-:or  of  the  king's  helmet 
flow  up,  and  the  lance  of  the  Scot  entered  his  eye.  He 
died  of  the  wound,  and  from  that  hour  tournaments  were 
abolished  by  law  in  France. 

The  new  captain  of  the  Scottish  guard  was  James,  third 
Earl  of  Arran.  Queen  Elizabeth,  Coligni,  and  the  Prior 
of  St.  Andrew's  prevailed  upon  the  earl — a  weak  man — to 
join  with  some  of  his  archers  in  the  conspiracy  of  Amboisc 
in  15GO,  concocted  by  Cond6  against  the  Guises.  It  failed  ; 
he  had  to  fly,  and  many  of  the  guard  perished  in  the 
catastrophe. 

In  1559  Robert  Stuart,  Seigneur  de  Veziers,  and  desig- 
nated as  a  kinsman  of  Queen  Mary,  was  accused  of  being 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  273 

connected  with  the  assassination  of  President  Minard,  who 
was  pistolled  in  the  streets  at  night,  during  the  Huguenot 
turmoils.  He  was  further  accused  of  a  design  to  fire  Paris 
in  several  quarters,  to  achieve  the  liberation  of  all  who 
were  incarcerated  for  religion's  sake.  These  accusations 
failed,  but  they  rankled  in  the  heart  of  Stuart — a  bold, 
wild,  and  reckless  spirit,  who  fought  at  the  battle  of 
Dreux  in  1562,  when  the  Protestants,  under  Conde,  were 
defeated,  and  their  leader  taken  prisoner  by  the  Duke  de 
Guise,  who  shared  his  conch  the  night  after  with  his 
mortal  enemy  and  slept  soundly  by  his  side. 

Stuart  also  fought  at  the  battle  of  St.  Denis  in  1567, 
where  he  slew  with  his  own  hand  the  veteran  constable,  the 
general  of  the  Catholics,  and  where  the  Huguenots  were 
defeated  in  consequence  of  their  inferior  numbers.  The 
constable's  death  is  thus  recorded  by  Daulio  in  his  Civil 
Wars  of  France,  folio,  1646  : — 

The  constable  had  received  four  wounds  on  the  face  and 
a  great  one  from  a  battle-axe  on  the  head,  yet  was  en- 
deavouring to  rally  his  soldiers,  when  Robert  Stuart  rode 
up  with  his  pistol,  and  "bent  towards  him" ;  whereupon 
the  constable  said,  "  Dost  thou  not  know  me  ?  I  am  the 
constable  !"  "  Yes,  I  do,"  he  replied;  "  and  because  I  know 
thee  I  present  thee  this !"  and  shot  him  through  the 
shoulder ;  but,  as  he  was  falling,  Montmorencie  hurled  his 
broken  sword  with  such  force  in  Stuart's  face  that  he  beat 
out  some  of  his  teeth,  broke  his  jawbone,  and  laid  him 
on  the  field  for  dead.  The  constable  was  then  aban- 
doned and  left  to  die  by  his  soldiers.  He  was  in  his 
eightieth  year.  Stuart  survived  to  fight  again  in  the  battle 

T 


274          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

of  Brissar,  on  the  16th  of  March,  1569,  but  was  taken  pri- 
soner and  poniarded  to  death,  probably  by  some  friends  of  the 
constable.  Another  Robert  Stuart  would  seem  to  have 
been  about  this  time  imprisoned  on  some  charge  in  the 
castle  of  Yincennes,  from  which  he  escaped  and  fled. 

Among  the  Scottish  auxiliaries  who  served  Henry  III 
against  the  German  and  Swiss  mercenaries  who  entered 
France  in  support  of  the  King  of  Navarre  was  Mark 
Alexander  Boyd,  younger  of  Pinkhill,  an  extraordinary 
genius  and  scholar,  author  of  Epistolce  Heroicum  and  many 
other  poetical  and  learned  works,  who  was  content  to 
"trail  a  pike"  as  a  poor  private  soldier  till  he  was  severely 
wounded  in  the  ankle,  and  whose  adventures,  literary  and 
otherwise,  read  like  a  romance.  He  died  at  Pinkhill  in 
1601 ;  but  a  sketch  of  his  life  was  written  by  Lord  Hailes 
in  1783,  and  an  excellent  portrait  of  him  was  engraved  by 
De  Leu. 

Among  the  Sects  who  fought  at  Coutras  was  William 
Duncan,  younger  of  Airdrie ;  and  Maynor,  whose  father 
had  been  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Flodden.  In  after 
years  William  had  to  fly  from  Scotland,  as  an  enemy  of 
Cardinal  Beaton  and  a  reformer.  A  wound  in  the  bridle- 
arm  at  Coutras  ended  his  soldiering  as  a  Huguenot. 
Joining  his  kinsman,  Mark  Alexander  Boyd,  at  Toulon,  he 
engaged  in  poetry  and  controversial  literature,  and,  with 
his  second  brother,  Mark,  took  a  high  place  among 
the  learned  of  France.  Some  of  his  poems  were  inscribed 
to  Henry  IV,  and  one  to  his  friend,  the  celebrated 
Balzac.  Mark  became  physician  to  the  royal  household, 
and  founded  a  branch  of  the  Fifeshire  Duncans  in 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  27$ 

France,  where  his  descendants  still  exist.     (Old  Scott.  Reg., 
vol.  1114.) 

In  1853  we  find  William  Baillie  of  Cormiston  designed 
archer  of  the  cross  to  Henry  III  King  of  France — a  term 
of  which  it  is  difficult  to  define  the  meaning,  though  it  is 
given  him  in  the  Scottish  Privy  Council  Register  in  that 
year. 

In  the  wars  between  Henry  of  Navarre  and  the  Catholics 
the  Scots  in  France  bore  their  share.  Thus,  at  the  memor- 
able battle  of  Coutras,  fought  in  1587  on  the  plain 
near  the  confluence  of  the  Dronne  and  1'Isle,  between 
these  portions,  when  the  squadrons  of  the  Protestant  chiefs^ 
Tremouille  and  Turenne,  were  pierced  by  the  charge  of 
Lovardine,  a  slender  company  of  Scottish  gentlemen,  who 
fought  on  the  side  of  the  former,  attracted  the  attention  of 
all  the  field,  according  to  D'Aubign6  and  Mathieu. 

Though  formed  up  to  support  the  reeling  troops,  and 
exposed  to  the  whole  shock  of  the  victors,  they  would  not 
yield  a  foot  of  ground,  but  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder. 
They  were  without  cuirasses,  and  had,  we  are  told,  only 
buff  jerkins  with  thin  plates  of  metal  between  the  folds,  and 
nearly  every  man  of  them  was  wounded.  Henry  of  Navarre 
saw,  with  regret,  their  captain,  called  the  Master  of  Wemyss 
(probably  a  mistake  for  Sir  John,  second  son  of  Sir  John 
Wemyss,  twenty-first  of  that  ilk),  carried  on  the  shoulders  of 
David  Herriot,  one  of  his  followers  ;  and  the  king  is  said, 
"  from  observing  the  solicitude  and  care  of  the  latter  for 
his  master's  life,  to  have  engaged  him  in  his  own  service. 
What  this  Scottish  troop  suffered  may  be  reckoned  the 
hardest  part  of  the  loss  sustained  by  the  conquerors  in. 

T  2 


276 


THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 


this  battle  of  Coutras,  as  their  whole  loss  is  stated  to  have 
been  only  five  gentlemen  and  thirty  soldiers." 

In  1588  Henry  III  was  assassinated,  and  the  succession 
to  the  throne  of  France  was  left  open  to  the  King  of 
Navarre,  who,  early  in  the  following  year,  was  acknowledged 
as  their  master. 

"  Henry,"  says  the  Due  de  Sully  in  his  memoirs,  "  no 
longer  doubted  when  he  saw  the  Scots  guards,  who  threw 
themselves  at  his  feet,  saying,  '  Ah,  sire  !  you  are  now  our 
king  and  our  master.'  And  some  moments  after  Messires 
de  Biron,  de  Dampierri,  and  several  others  did  the  same." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  FKANCE.— (Continued.) 

First  Royal  Scots,  etc.— The  Rev.  Mr.  Welch— The  Scots 
Guards  again — Scoto-French  Officers — A  New  Campaign — 
Passage  of  the  Rhine — "  Pilot's  Guards" — Scots  at  Bingen 
— Siege  of  Taverne — Death  of  Hepburn — The  Regiment  of 
Douglas. 

WE  have  now  reached  that  period  when  the  1st  Koyal 
Scots,  first  regiment  of  the  British  line,  and  the  oldest  in 
the  world,  makes  its  appearance  in  the  military  history  of 
France. 

Milner,  a  historian  of  the  18th  century,  designates  the 
regiment  "  an  old  Scots  corps"  of  uncertain  date  ;  but  Sir 
John  Hepburn  (already  referred  to  in  our  account  of  the 
Scots  in  Sweden)  was  commissioned  as  its  colonel  in 
France  on  the  26th  January,  1633,  the  same  date  given  in 
the  British  army  lists.  "  This  corps,"  says  the  War  Office 
Record,  "  must  have  existed  for  some  time  as  independent 
companies  previously  to  its  being  constituted  a  regiment, 
as  Pere  Daniel  (Histoire  de  la  Milice  Franqaise)  states  that 
it  was  sent  from  Scotland  to  France  in  the  reign  of  James 
VI,  and  this  monarch  commenced  his  reign  in  1567,  when 
only  a  child,  and  died  in  1625  ;  hence  it  is  evident  that  it 
had  been  in  France  some  years  before  its  formation  as  a 
regiment  under  Sir  John  Hepburn." 


278  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Pere  Daniel  alludes  to  it  in  connection  with  Henry  IY, 
associates  its  services  with  the  wars  of  the  League,  and 
fixes  the  date  of  its  arrival  in  France  about  1590.  The 
companies  from  which  it  was  constituted  are  supposed  to 
have  been  raised  by  men  who  served  in  the  Scots  Archer 
Guard  ;  and  as  that  force  had  ceased  to  exist,  "  the  Royals," 
says  the  Record  quoted,  "  may  be  considered  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  that  ancient  body."  It  is  certain  that  "  the 
King  of  Scotland  permitted  his  subjects  to  aid  the  Protes- 
tant cause,  and  several  companies  of  Scottish  foot  were 
raised  and  sent  to  France  in  1591." 

The  Duke  de  Sully  refers  to  4,000  Scots  and  English 
who  came  over  about  1589,  and  refers  to  Scottish  miners 
whom  he  employed  at  the  siege  of  Dreux  in  1593.  {Memoirs, 
vol.  i.)  "  The  English  quitted  France  in  1595  ;  but  Henry 
IV,  having  discovered  the  value  of  these  companies  of  hardy 
and  valiant  Scots,  retained  them  in  his  service,"  says  the 
War  Office  Record. 

Birrel  states  in  his  diary  that  on  the  12th  July,  1605, 
the  King  of  France's  guard  "mustered  very  bravely  on 
the  Links  of  Leith,"  were  sworn,  and  thereafter  received 
their  pay ;  but  this  could  only  refer  to  recruits  of  the 
more  ancient  force — the  Scots  garde- du- corps,  which  was 
cavalry. 

In  1610  Henry  IV  had  been  preparing  for  war  with 
Austria,  when  he  was  murdered  in  the  streets  of  Paris. 
After  his  death,  his  son,  Louis  XIII,  being  a  minor,  the 
intention  was  abandoned,  and  a  part  of  the  army  was 
disbanded. 

Ten  years  after,  Louis  XIII  was  uniting  Beam  to  the 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  279 

crown  and  restoring  to  the  Catholics  the  churches  appro- 
priated by  the  Huguenots,  who  again  prepared  for  war  ; 
and  thus  ere  long  the  king  found  himself  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  besieging  some  of  his  other  towns,  among 
others  St.  Jean  d'Angeli,  on  the  Charente,  one  of  the  most 
vigorous  defenders  of  which  was  the  Rev.  John  Welch,  of 
Nithsdale,  formerly  minister  of  Kirkcudbright,  a  distin- 
guished divine  (who,  curiously  enough,  had  begun  life  as  a 
mosstrooper,  but  was  banished  by  James  VI  for  opposing 
episcopacy  in  1606).  In  St.  Jean  d'Angeli,  which  was 
strongly  fortified,  he  had  officiated  as  a  clergyman  for 
sixteen  years  when  it  was  besieged  by  Louis  XIII.  The 
citizens  were  greatly  encouraged  in  the  defence  by  the 
fiery  precepts  and  example  of  Mr.  Welch,  who  took  a  place 
on  the  walls  and  served  the  cannon  with  his  own  hands, 
and  when  the  town  capitulated  he  boldly  continued  to 
preach  as  usual.  On  this  Louis  sent  the  Duke  d'Epernon 
to  bring  him  into  his  presence. 

The  duke  appeared  with  a  party  of  soldiers  in  the  church 
and  summoned  Mr.  Welch  from  the  pulpit ;  but  the  latter 
coolly  requested  him  to  take  a  seat  "  and  listen  to  the  word 
of  God."  The  duke  did  so,  and  heard  the  sermon  to  its 
close  ;  but  then  took  the  preacher  to  the  king,  before  whom 
Mr.  Welch  knelt  and  prayed  for  wisdom  and  assistance. 
Louis  asked  him  sternly  how  he  dared  to  preach  on  the 
verge  of  the  court  of  France.  He  replied : 

"  First  I  preach  that  you  must  be  saved  by  the  deatk 
and  merits  of  Christ,  and  not  your  own ;  and  I  am  sure 
conscience  tells  you  that  your  own  good  works  will  never 
merit  Heaven.  Next,  I  preach  that,  as  you  are  King  of 


28o  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

France,  there  is  no  man  on  earth  above  you  ;  but  those 
preachers  whom  you  have,  subject  you  to  the  Pope,  which  I 
will  never  do."  "  Very  well,"  replied  Louis,  whom  the 
last  remark  gratified,  "you  shall  be  my  minister,"  and 
dismissed  him  with  an  assurance  of  his  protection. 

When  the  town  was  besieged  a  second  time,  in  1621, 
"the  king,"  says  the  Atlas  Geographicus,  1711,  "charged 
those  who  stormed  it  to  take  particular  care  that  no  hurt 
was  done  to  Mr.  Welch,  or  anyone  belonging  to  him."  He 
was  sent  under  escort  to  Bochelle.  He  dared  not  then 
return  to  London,  but  afterwards  died  there,  under  banish- 
ment, in  his  53rd  year.  His  widow,  Elizabeth  Knox,  third 
daughter  of  the  Reformer,  died  at  Ayr  in  1G25. 

In  the  paths  of  peace  as  well  as  those  of  war,  other  Scots- 
men have  distinguished  themselves  Among  these  we  may 
mention  David  Home  and  the  Strachans.  "  David  Home," 
eays  Marchond,  "  was  a  Scotsman  by  birth,  and  of  a  very 
distinguished  family,  in  which  there  have  been  frequently 
noblemen."  He  lived  in  the  end  of  the  16th  century,  and 
was  in  succession  minister  of  the  reformed  churches  in 
Lower  Guienne  and  Orleans — 1603-20.  He  wrote  against 
the  Jesuits,  and  the  assassination  of  Henry  IV  by  the 
madman  Bavaillac  is  said  to  have  been  occasioned  greatly 
by  his  pen. 

The  Strachans  were  zealous  Catholics — James  and 
George,  who  enjoyed  the  protection  of  Cardinals  Barberini 
and  Dupenon.  One  of  them  was  principal  of  the  College 
of  London,  where  Verbon  Grondier  was  tried  and  burned 
for  sorcery,  and  where,  in  1632,  the  Superieure  was  examined 
on  her  possession  by  devils  and  her  knowledge  of  Latin 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  281 

and  requested  the  devil  who  possessed  her  to  say  "  aqiia  in 
the  Scottish  language." 

By  the  year  1623  the  Scottish  guard  in  France  would 
seem  to  have  become  somewhat  decayed,  as  in  that  year, 
Balfour  records,  Lord  Colville  went  to  France  to  have 
it  established  according  to  its  "  first  institution" ;  and  the 
History  of  the  JZarldom  of  Sutherland  states  that  in  July, 
1625,  Lord  Gordon  made  a  muster  of  the  corps  on  the 
Links  of  Leith,  when  his  younger  brother,  Lord  Melgum, 
was  appointed  lieutenant.  The  first  gentleman  of  the 
company  was  Sir  William  Gordon,  younger  of  Kindroch. 

We  have  stated  in  its  place  how  the  result  of  the  battle 
of  Nordbrigen  almost  ruined  the  Protestant  interests  in 
Germany,  but  soon  after  the  court  of  France  agreed  to 
support  the  declining  cause  ;  a  French  army  approached 
the  Rhine,  and  several  towns  in  Alsace  received  French 
garrisons. 

In  1627  there  was  sent  to  France,  by  order  of  Charles  I, 
a  singular  force — a  strong  band  of  archers  under  Alex- 
ander Macnaghton  of  that  ilk,  to  serve  in  France,  for 
whence  they  sailed  with  a  number  of  the  Mackinnon  clan, 
accompanied  by  many  pipers  and  harpers.  (Trans.  Antiq. 
Soc.  Scot.) 

In  1633  Sir  John  Hepburn  obtained  the  command  of 
the  chief  Scottish  regiment,  with  the  rank  of  marechal  de 
camp,  according  to  Father  Loguille,  the  Jesuit.  At  this 
time  (Sir  Thomas  Urquharfc  states)  there  were,  among 
others,  Scots  who  were  colonels  of  horse  and  foot  under 
Louis  XIII — Sir  Andrew  Gray,  Sir  John  Foulerton,  Sir 
John  Seton,  Sir  Patrick  Murray,  John  Campbell,  the  future 


282  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Earl  of  Irwin  ;  Colonels  Andrew  Lindsay,  Thomas  Hume, 
John  Forbess,  John  Leslie,  Mowat,  Morrison,  and  Living- 
stone. Sir  John  Seton  was  the  oldest  Scottish  officer  in 
the  service,  having  been  a  captain  in  the  guards  in  1608. 
(Mem.  of  the  Somervilles.)  Andrew  Rutherford  of  Hunt- 
hill  also  had  a  regiment,  which  he  commanded  till  1680, 
when  he  became  a  lieutenant-general.  (Douglas  Peerage.) 

Among  the  privates  in  Hepburn's  regiment  in  1634  was 
a  pikeman,  John  Middleton,  who,  after  distinguishing  him- 
self on  many  occasions,  rose  in  after  years  to  be  Earl  of 
Middleton,  general  of  Scottish  cavalry,  governor  of  Edin- 
burgh Castle,  and  died  in  command  of  the  combined 
English  and  Scottish  troops  at  Tangiers  in  1763. 

In  1634  Jacques  Nonpar,  Marechal  de  La  Force,  opened 
the  new  campaign,  which  was  to  spread  the  frontiers  of 
France  far  beyond  those  of  Champagne  and  Picardy ;  and 
on  this  expedition  marched  Sir  John  Hepburn  with  his 
regiment  and  several  other  Scottish  commanders.  The 
former  had  soon  an  opportunity  of  showing  the  skill  he 
had  won  in  besieging  under  the  great  Gustavus  at  the 
reduction  of  La  Mothe,  in  March,  which  was  entrusted 
to  him  and  the  regiments  of  Turenne  and  De  Toneins, 
while  La  Force  with  the  rest  of  the  army  penetrated  into 
Lorraine. 

The  blockade  lasted  five  months,  during  which  Hepburn 
lost  many  of  his  best  soldiers  in  assaults,  against  which  the 
besiegers  hurled  enormous  stones,  which,  says  the  Chevalier 
Andrew  Ramsay,  Knight  of  St.  Lazare,  "  split  into  1,000 
pieces,  killing  and  wounding  all  who  dared  to  approach." 
(Hist,  de  Turenne,  par  le  Chev.  Ramsay,  Paris,  1735.) 


THE    SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  283 

On  the  fall  of  La  Mothe  Hepburn  received  orders  to 
rejoin  the  Marechal  de  La  Force,  whom  he  joined  with  six 
regiments  of  pikes  and  musketeers,  seven  squadrons  of 
horse,  and  a  train  of  guns,  after  crossing  the  Rhine  at 
Monninghein,  and  thus  securing  for  his  leader  the  safe 
passage  of  the  great  river  of  Germany.  The  famous 
Capuchin,  Father  Joseph  du  Tremblay,  at  this  time  ac- 
companied the  French  army,  and  often  thrust  his  advice 
upon  its  leaders.  As  the  column  of  Hepburn  approached 
Monninghein  he  pointed  out  on  a  map  the  various  fortified 
towns  which  might  be  reduced  with  ease  at  other  points. 
"Not  so  fast,  Father  Joseph,"  said  Hepburn  ;  "towns  are 
not  taken  by  a  finger  end,"  which  reply  was  long  a  proverb 
in  the  French  army. 

The  winter  had  come  now,  snow  covered  the  mountains, 
and  ice  blocks  were  crashing  in  the  narrow  gorges  through 
which  the  Neckar  foamed  towards  the  Rhine,  while  the 
troops,  in  half-armour  and  bufis,  toiled  on  towards  the  high 
and  heavy  brow  of  the  Juttenbuhl,  where  stood  the  "English 
Buildings,"  as  they  are  misnamed — a  palace  erected  by 
Elizabeth  Stuart  in  imitation  of  a  part  of  old  Linlithgow 
Palace,  her  happy  Scottish  home.  Here  Hepburn  broke 
the  blockade  of  the  Imperialists,  relieved  a  Swedish  garri- 
son, and  took  possession  of  Heidelberg  on  the  23rd  December. 
The  Marechal  de  La  Force  and  Hepburn  now  formed  a 
junction  with  the  Swedish  army  of  the  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar 
at  Loudon,  consisting  of  4,000  horse  and  7,000  infantry — 
the  latter  of  which  were  nearly  all  Scotsmen — the  veterans 
of  Gustavus.  Among  tl:em  was  the  remnant  of  the  Green 
brigade,  who  hailed  their  old  commander  with  joy,  and 


284  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

beat  the  Scottish  March  at  his  approach,  while  one  solitary 
piper — the  last  of  Mackay's  regiment — blew  his  notes  of 
welcome,  and  all  the  survivors  of  the  long  career  of  Swedish 
glory  were  now  incorporated  in  the  Regiment  d  Hebron,  as  it 
was  named  in  the  French  service,  and  with  it  the  Swedish 
regiment,  whilom  of  Hepburn. 

The  strength  of  the  latter  was  given  in  1637  at  the 
following  : — The  Lieutenant- Colonel  Munro  ;  the  major, 
Sir  Patrick  Monteith ;  45  captains,  one  captain-lieutenant, 
93  subalterns,  12  staff-officers,  one  piper,  664  non-commis- 
sioned officers,  96  drummers,  and  48  companies  of  150 
pikes  and  muskets,  making  a  grand  total  of  8,316  men, 
representing  thus  the  Scoto-Bohemian  bands  of  Sir  Andrew 
Gray  and  all  the  Scotch  corps  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  By 
order  of  Louis  XIII  it  was  to  take  the  right  of  all  regiments 
then  embodied. 

Frequent  quarrels  now  ensued  between  the  regiment  of 
Hepburn  and  that  of  Picardy,  the  oldest  of  the  French 
line  (raised  in  1562),  and  commanded  by  the  Due  de 
Charost,  as  they  treated  with  ridicule  the  claims  of  Hep- 
burn's corps  to  antiquity,  and  called  them  "Pontius  Pilot's 
Guard,"  a  sobriquet  retained  by  the  Royal  Scots  to  this 
day.  Thus,  on  one  occasion,  after  a  sharp  dispute  on 
some  contested  point  of  honour,  an  officer  of  Hepburn's 
said  laughingly  to  one  of  the  regiment  of  Picardy  . 

"  We  must  be  mistaken,  Monsieur  ;  for  had  we  really 
been  the  guards  of  Monsieur  Pontius  Pilate,  and  clone 
duty  at  the  Sepulchre,  the  Holy  Body  had  never  left  it," 
implying  that  Scottish  soldiers  would  not  have  slept  upon 
their  post?,  whereas  those  of  the  Regiment  de  Picardy  did. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  285 

In  the  turns  of  the  campaign  at  the  village  of  Fresche, 
the  enemy,  under  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  fell  unexpectedly 
upon  the  columns  commanded  by  Hepburn  and  the  famous 
Turenne,  and  a  desperate  conflict  ensued.  While  each 
main  body  disputed  the  ground  with  the  other,  Hepburn — 
according  to  the  folio  Histoire  de  Lorraine — led  200  Scot- 
tish musketeers  to  the  left  flank  of  the  foe,  while  the 
Chevalier  Orthe,  of  Turenne's  corps,  led  100  French  to  the 
right,  and  both  poured  in  a  cross-fire,  till  Hepburn  gave 
the  order  to  "  charge,"  and,  with  a  rush  downhill,  all  fell 
on  with  clubbed  muskets — the  bayonet  was  yet  unknown 
—  and  the  troops  of  Lorraine  gave  way;  but  famine  com- 
pelled the  French  to  retire. 

At  Bingen  the  Rhine  was  crossed  again  by  a  pontoon- 
bridge,  while  Hepburn  and  his  Scots  covered  the  sea. 
"  They  fought  for.  eight  days,  almost  without  intermission" 
(says  the  memoir  of  the  Duke  d'Epernon,  folio,  1670), 
"  leaving  the  ways  by  which  they  retreated  more  remark- 
able by  the  blood  of  their  enemies  than  their  own." 

Not  daring  to  halt,  without  food,  encumbered  by  heavy 
armour  and  clumsy  matchlocks,  short  of  ammunition  and 
all  stores,  the  now  dejected  French  troops  traversed  path- 
less woods  and  mountains,  pursued  by  the  Imperialists, 
who  covered  all  the  country ;  but  Hepburn  and  Henri  de 
la  Tour  d'Auvergne  were  conspicuous  among  the  officers 
who  encouraged  the  sick  and  the  weary ;  and  it  was 
generally  remarked  that  on  this  desperate  retreat  none 
suffered  less  than  the  hardy  Scots  of  the  Regiment  d*  Hebron. 

In  Paris  the  greatest  alarm  prevailed  ;  Richelieu  found 
himself  on  the  brink  of  ruin,  by  ebb  of  that  war  he  had 


286  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

undertaken  for  the  glory  of  France,  and  the  year   1635 
closed  in  doubt  and  dread. 

Louis  XIII  now  ordered  the  diploma  of  a  marshal  of 
France  to  be  expedited  under  his  great  seal  at  the  court  of 
Versailles  for  Sir  John  Hepburn,  but  the  latter  was  fated 
not  to  receive  it. 

After  the  treaty  of  1636  between  the  great  cardinal  and 
Duke  Bernard  of  Saxe- Weimar  against  the  emperor,  Hep- 
burn, with  his  Scottish  regiment,  above  8,000  strong,  joined 
the  duke,  and  the  new  campaign  was  opened  with  the  siege 
of  Taverne,  which  was  obstinately  defended,  as  the  garrison 
daily  expected  to  be  relieved  by  Count  Galas,  who  had 
given  the  governor,  Colonel  Mulheim,  a  promise  to  that 
effect ;  and  Taverne  was  doomed  to  be  the  last  scene  of 
the  gallant  Hepburn's  long  and  brilliant  career. 

Mulheim's  garrison  was  numerous  and  resolute  (Hist. 
d'Alsace,  fol.,  1727),  and  the  town,  situated  among  chest- 
nut woods,  then  in  all  the  foliage  of  May,  was  overlooked 
by  beautiful  scenery.  The  only  approach  to  the  citadel — 
whilom  a  castle  of  the  Bishops  of  Strasburg — was  a 
narrow  pathway  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock,  steep,  narrow, 
and  swept  by  heavy  cannon. 

By  the  9th  June  the  breach  in  the  walls  was  practicable, 
and  the  French,  Scots,  and  German  stormers  advanced  to 
the  assault,  pikes  in  front,  musketry  in  rear,  and  .colours 
flying  over  the  helmets  that  glittered  in  the  sun.  "  No- 
thing was  heard  for  a  time,"  says  an  eye-witness,  "  but  the 
clash  of  swords  and  pikes,  heavier  blows  of  clubbed 
muskets  and  swung  partizans  as  they  struck  fire  from 
tempered  corslets  and  morions,  amid  which  the  tall  plumes 


"A  ball  from  the  ramparts  struck  him  in  the  neck." — p.  2 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  287 

of  Hepburn,  Turenne,  and  Count  Jean  of  Hanau  were 
seen  floating  in  the  foremost  ranks,  while  the  shouts  of  the 
victorious,  the  cries  of  the  despairing  and  dying,  the  roar 
of  muskets,  arquebuses,  and  pistols,  with  the  deeper  boom 
of  culverin  and  cannon-royal  (48-pounder),  seemed  only  to 
lend  a  greater  fury  to  the  stimulus  of  the  assailants." 

Three  hours  the  assault  continued,  but  the  stormers  had 
to  retire  at  last,  leaving  400  men  lying  in  the  breach,  the 
chief  of  whom,  the  Count  of  Hanau,  was  shot  through  the 
brain 

A  second  and  third  assault  were  attempted  with  equally 
bad  success,  says  the  Histoire  de  Turenne.  In  an  attempt 
to  storm  the  postern  Hepburn's  regiment  lost  50  men,  and 
it  was  at  this  crisis  their  gallant  leader  fell.  Rashly  he 
had  ventured  to  reconnoitre  the  great  breach  too  closely, 
when  a  ball  from  the  ramparts  struck  him  in  the  neck, 
piercing  his  gorget.  He  fell  from  his  horse,  and  was  borne 
away  by  the  Scots,  to  whom  his  fall  was  the  signal  for  a 
fourth  and  furious  assault.  (Mercure  Franqais,  torn,  xxi.) 

It  was  led  by  Viscomte  Turenne.  The  town  was  won, 
and  the  shouts  of  victory  were  the  last  sounds  that  reached 
the  ears  of  the  dying  Hepburn  as  he  lay  with  a  crowd  of 
his  sorrowing  comrades — the  veterans  of  Bohemian, 
Swedish,  and  Bavarian  wars — around  him ;  and  "  his  last 
words  were  touchingly  expressive  of  regret  that  he  should 
be  buried  so  far  from  the  secluded  kirkyard  where  the 
bones  of  his  forefathers  lay,"  in  Athelstaneford. 

He  was  not  quite  in  his  38th  year.  "  I  find  it  exceed- 
ingly difficult,"  wrote  Cardinal  Richelieu  to  Cardinal  La 
Valette,  "  upon  whom  to  bestow  the  colonel's  regiment, 


288          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

because  his  eldest  captain,  who  is  related  to  him,  is  a 
Huguenot,  and  the  Catholics  earnestly  petition  to  have  it 
conferred  upon  one  of  their  party,  among  whom  we  find 
the  Lion  Douglas,  who  is  descended  from  one  of  the  best 
families  in  Scotland." 

Sir  Jchn  Hepburn,  who,  as  a  contemporary  writer,  Lith- 
gow,  states,  won  the  reptutation  of  being  "  the  best  soldier 
in  Christendom,  and  consequently  in  the  world,"  was  in- 
terred under  a  noble  monument,  which  was  erected  to  his 
memory  by  Louis  XIV,  in  the  left  transept  of  the  cathe- 
dral of  Toul,  but  was  destroyed  by  the  Revolutionists  in 
1793. 

By  a  letter  from  Pere  Georges,  cure  of  the  cathedral, 
the  author  was  informed,  in  October,  1852,  that  during  some 
repairs  the  coffin  of  the  Scottish  hero  had  been  found  arid 
reinterred  under  a  monument  erected  by  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  III. 

On  the  fall  of  Taverne  Louis  XIII  conferred  the  com- 
mand of  the  great  Scottish  regiment  on  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  James  Hepburn,  who  had  borne  that  rank  under 
Gustavus  in  1632.  He  was  of  the  ancient  house  of 
Waughton,  whence  sprang  the  Earls  of  Bothwell,  and  was 
soon  after  killed  at  the  head  of  the  corps  when  serving ; 
bnt  the  circumstances  connected  with  his  fall  are  unknown. 

At  the  close  of  1637  he  was  succeeded  by  Lord  James 
Douglas,  son  of  the  first  Marquis  of  Douglas  (who  had  won 
renown  in  the  wars  between  Austria  and  the  Protestant 
League),  and  in  the  following  year  the  regiment  joined  the 
army  under  Marechal  de  Chastillon  to  reduce  Artois,  then 
forming  a  portion  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  289 

In  that  service,  on  the  12th  July,  at  the  siege  of  St. 
Omers,  a  strong  force  of  the  enemy  attempted  to  scour  the 
trenches  held  by  Douglas's  Scots,  who  repulsed  them  with 
a  great  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  taken.  (Mercure  Fran- 
ftm.) 

At  the  siege  of  Hesdin,in  1639,  the  regiment  was  formed 
in  brigade  with  that  of  Champagne  ;  and  in  a  conflict  with 
the  Spaniards,  under  the  Marquis  de  Fuentes,  lost  four 
pieces  of  cannon.  It  was  in  1G43,  when  the  Douglas  regi- 
ment was  under  the  orders  of  the  Prince  of  Savoy  at  the 
siege  of  Turin  in  Piedmont,  that  the  battalions  of  Scots 
guards  before  referred  to,  after  serving  at  Runcroy  and 
elsewhere  under  the  Prince  of  Conde,  were  incorporated 
with  the  already  numerous  battalion  of  the  Royal  Scots 
regiment,  and  all  formed  the  garrison  of  Turin  after  the 
surrender  of  the  city  on  the  27th  September. 

The  officers  of  one  of  these  Guard  battalions  (the  Earl 
of  Irwin,  Lord  Saltoun,  and  others)  raised  an  action  against 
the  King  of  France  in  the  Scots  Courts  for  the  expense  of 
this  corps.  (See  Trans.  Antiq.  Soc.,  1859.) 

The  years  1644  and  1645  saw  them  fighting  in  the 
Netherlands  in  the  division  of  Marshal  Meilleraie,  like 
other  Scottish  regiments  (those  of  Chambers,  Proslin,  etc.), 
covering  themselves  with  glory,  while  England  was  torn 
by  the  great  Civil  War,  and  Scotland  was  involved  with 
that  of  the  Covenant;  and  in  1648  "a  troop  of  Scots 
cuirassiers  and  the  regiment  of  Scots  guards  had  an 
opportunity  of  distinguishing  themselves  at  the  battle  of 
Lens,  in  Artois,  under  the  Prince  of  Conde.  The  Spanish 
army,  commanded  by  the  Archduke  Leopold,  suffered  a 

U 


290  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

complete  overthrow,  lost  38  pieces  of  cannon,  100  standards, 
and  colours."  (W.  0.  Records.)  In  1647  all  the  soldiers 
of  Colonel  Macdonald  taken  in  Jura  were  given  to  Colonel 
Sir  Henry  Sinclair  for  his  regiment,  then  in  the  French 
service. 

In  1648  a  treaty,  concluded  at  Munster,  gave  peace  to 
the  most  of  Europe  ;  but  the  war  went  on  between  France 
and  Spain  ;  and  on  the  6th  May,  1649,  300  veteran  Scots, 
who  had  been  left  to  defend  Ypres,  in  Flanders,  after  a 
fierce  and  desperate  resistance,  surrendered,  but  marched 
out  with  the  honours  of  war,  with  drums  beating  and  St. 
Andrew's  Cross  flying. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
THE  SCOTS  IN  FKANCE— (Continued.) 

Cuthberts  of  Castlehill — Douglas  Regiment  in  Paris — In  the 
Netherlands — Reduced — In  England — Again  in  France — 
Island  of  the  Scots. 

CHAKLES  II,  when  in  exile,  curiously  enough  prevailed  upon 
Andrew  Lord  Gray  of  Kinfauns,  when  lieutenant  of  the 
Gendarmes  Ecossais  (under  the  captainship  of  the  Duke  of 
Albany),  to  resign  that  post  in  favour  of  the  Marshal 
Schomberg,  and,  according  to  Douglas  in  his  Peerage, 
no  Scotsman  ever  possessed  it  again;  but  this  is  doubtful. 

It  is  a  little  after  this  period  that  we  find  the  Cuthberts 
— the  Scoto-French  family  of  Castlehill — coming  into 
prominence,  when  Jean  Baptiste  Cuthbert,  born  at  Rheims 
in  1619,  in  a  house  in  the  Rue  de  Ceres,  was  recommended 
to  King  Louis  by  Cardinal  Mazarin  in  1662-3,  and  made 
comptroller- general  of  France,  and  as  such  made  the 
riches  of  the  kingdom  consist "  in  commerce,"  says  Anquetil 
in  his  Memoirs.  He  died  in  1683,  full  of  fame  as  a  minister 
of  finance  and  marine,  leaving  a  son  behind,  Marquis  of 
Signaley,  who  was  proved  to  claim  his  descent  from  the 
Cuthberts  of  Castlehill. 

In  a  certificate  lately  furnished,  under  the  seal  of  the 
Lord  Lyon,  of  the  descent  of  John  Cuthbert,  Baron  of 

u2 


292  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Castlehill,  and  of  Jean  Hay  of  Dalgetfcy,  his  spouse,  the 
family  seem  to  have  been  settled  in  Inverness  "about  the  year 
950,"  a  little  after  the  accession  of  Kenneth  II.  Their 
residence  was  the  Auld  Castlehill,  once  royal,  now  in  ruins. 
Lord  Lyon  cites  an  Act  of  1687,  certifying  the  descent 
of  Jean  Baptiste  Colbert,  Marquis  of  Signal ey,  from  this 
family  through  Edward  Colbert,  a  son  thereof,  who  went 
to  France  with  Mary  Lindsay  of  Edzell,  his  spouse,  in  1280, 
accompanying  Christian  de  Baliol  (niece  of  Alexander  III) 
when  the  latter  went  to  marry  Enguerrond  de  Guines,  Lord 
of  Coucy. 

The  Cuthbcrts  held  the  lands  of  Castlehill  and  others  for 
centuries  ;  were  frequently  high  sheriffs  of  Inverness  ;  one 
fought  at  Harlaw  in  1411  and  captured  the  standard  of 
the  Lord  of  the  Isles,  and  one,  a  hundred  years  later  on,  was 
styled  "  Alderman  of  Inverness."  (Spot's  Miscel.,  vol  iv.) 
The  family  passed  away  in  Scotland  about  the  close  of  the 
18th  century  ;  but  in  1 789  we  find  one  of  the  French  branch 
speaking  in  the  National  Assembly,  on  the  abolition  of 
tithes.  In  the  Edinburgh  Advertiser  for  that  year  he  is 
called  "  a  native  of  Scotland — Bishop  of  Rhodes.  His 
name  is  Cuthbert ;  but,  for  what  reason  we  know  not,  the 
prelate  calls  himself  Colbert."  His  brother  Lewis  was 
provost-marshal  of  Jamaica  (Stut.  Account.)  But  the 
name  is  still  found  in  France.  Thus,  in  the  Annuaire 
Militaire,  1805,  Pierre  E.  Colbert  appears  as  lieutenant  of 
lancers  in  the  Imperial  guard;  and  in  1887  the  wife  of 
Count  de  Chabot  was  a  Mademoiselle  Colbert,  for  whom 
Lord  Lyon  prepared  the  document  above  quoted. 

In   1650,  when  the  revenues  of  Louis  XIV  became  im- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  293 

paired,  the  Douglas  regiment,  like  the  most  of  the  French 
troops,  found  a  difficulty  in  procuring  their  pay  ;  and  King 
Charles  II,  having  signed  the  Covenant,  requested  the 
return  of  the  Scottish  troops  to  Scotland  ;  but  Louis  declined 
to  permit  this,  and  sent  them  to  garrison  the  barrier  towns 
of  Picardy  and  Flanders ;  but  the  summer  of  1652  saw 
them  in  the  vicinity  of  Paris,  under  Marshal  Turenne, 
against  the  insurgents,  under  Conde,  fighting  at  the  barri- 
cades in  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine,  when  Douglas's  Scots, 
with  whom  the  Duke  of  Abory  was  serving,  stormed  one 
of  their  works  near  the  Seine,  sword  in  hand,  with  irresis- 
tible valour,  after  which  they  retired  to  St.  Denis  with  the 
king  and  court.  (Clarke's  Hist.  James  //.) 

Conde  now  held  Paris ;  the  Spanish  army  entered  France, 
and  in  the  conflicts  which  ensued  at  Ablon,  seven  miles 
from  Paris,  Douglas's  Scots  bore  a  conspicuous  part.  ''  On 
one  of  these  occasions  a  captain  of  his  regiment  was  taken 
prisoner,  but  escaped,  and  brought  information  that  the 
Prince  of  Cond6  had  left  the  Spanish  army  through  indis- 
position "  The  king's  army,  being  in  want  of  provisions, 
sought  winter  quarters  in  Champagne,  while  the  regiment 
of  Douglas  pressed  the  siege  of  Bar-le-Duc,  and  captured 
an  Irish  regiment  in  the  Spanish  service. 

Chateau  Portieu,  in  the  Ardennes,  was  their  next  scene 
of  service.  On  the  march  thither  the  weather  was  so 
severe  that  many  of  Douglas's  soldiers  were  frozen  to  death, 
but  the  survivors  stormed  the  town  on  the  10th  of  January, 
1653. 

In  1654  the  still  powerful  regiment  was  employed  in 
the  Netherlands;  and  in  1655  its  colonel,  Lieutenant- General 


294  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Lord  James  Douglas,  commanded  the  flying  camp  between 
Douay  and  Arras.  Many  fierce  skirmishes  ensued,  and  in 
one  of  these  he  was  killed,  in  October,  in  the  twenty-eighth 
year  of  his  age.  A  magnificent  monument  was  erected  to 
his  memory  in  the  church  of  St  Germain  des  Pres,  where 
it  still  remains. 

Near  it  is  another  monument  to  his  grandfather,  William, 
tenth  Earl  of  Angus,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Catholics  in 
Scotland  in  1592.  He  assumed  a  religious  life,  and  dying 
at  Paris  in  1611,  was  interred  in  St.  Germain  des  Pres. 
Copies  of  the  long  and  elaborate  Latin  inscriptions  on  these 
two  tombs  are  given  in  the  Scots  Magazine  for  1767. 

Lord  James  was  succeeded  in  the  colonelcy  by  his  brother, 
Lord  George,  afterwards  Earl  of  Dumbarton,  referred  to 
in  the  well-known  song  of  "  Dumbarton's  drums  beat 
bonnie,  0  !"  In  his  youth  he  had  been  page  of  honour  to 
Louis  XIV,  and  made  the  profession  of  arms  his  choice. 

In  1660  the  French  army  was  greatly  reduced  in  strength, 
and  Dumbarton's  regiment  of  eight  b  ittalions  was  dis- 
banded, all  but  eight  companies,  when  in  garrison  at 
Avennes  ;  and  when — after  the  Restoration — Scotland  and 
England  began  to  form  separate  armies  of  guards,  horse 
and  foot,  the  Duke  of  Albany's  troop  of  guards  from  Dun- 
kirk and  the  regiment  of  Dumbarton  from  FJanders 
returned  to  Britain  in  1661  ;  but  the  latter  returned  to  the 
French  service  in  the  following  year. 

At  that  time  General  Andrew  Rutherford,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Teviot,  commander  of  a  battalion  of  Scots  guards 
in  the  French  army,  was  governor  of  Dunkirk,  and  his 
corps  was  incorporated  with  that  of  Dumbarton,  which  in 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  295 

1662  consisted  of  23  companies  of  100  files  each,  making  a 
total  of  all  ranks  of  above  2,500  men. 

Three  years  after  its  return  to  France  war  broke  out 
between  Britain  and  Holland,  and  as  Louis  took  part  with 
the  latter,  the  regiment  of  Dumbarton  finally  quitted  the 
French  service  for  that  of  its  native  country,  and  landed  at 
Bye,  in  Sussex,  on  the  llth  June,  1666,  when  reduced  to 
800  men.  (Salmon's  Chron.,  etc.)  All  that  follows  maybe 
stated  briefly. 

After  being  twelve  months  in  Ireland,  the  regiment 
returned  to  the  French  service  at  the  peace  of  Breda  in 
1668  ;  and  in  an  order  issued  by  Louis  XIV,  1670,  respecting 
the  rank  of  regiments,  it  appears  as  one  of  the  first. 
(Pere  Daniel.) 

In  the  war  that  broke  out  between  France  and  the  states- 
general  in  1672,  Dumbarton's  regiment,  now  augmented  to 
16  companies,  joined  the  division  of  Marshal  Turenne,  and 
under  the  Comte  de  Chomilly  was  at  the  siege  and  reduc- 
tion of  Grom  in  July.  In  1674  the  regiment,  with  the 
Scots  battalion  of  Hamilton,  served  with  Turenne's  army 
on  the  Rhine,  and  in  June  was  encamped  at  Philipsburg  in 
Western  Germany,  with  the  brigade  of  Brigadier- General 
the  Marquis  of  Douglas.  After  an  incredible  deal  of 
fighting,  marching,  and  manoeuvring  during  three  years 
on  the  Rhine  and  in  Alsace  under  the  Marshals  Luxem- 
bourg and  de  Cregin,  the  corps,  in  the  spring  of  1678, 
quitted  the  French  service  for  ever ;  and  since  then,  as 
the  First  Royal  Scots,  have  been  the  premier  regiment  of  the 
British  army,  and  possesses  a  very  long  inheritance  of 
history  unequalled  in  the  annals  of  war  and  glory. 


296  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

At  the  Revolution  the  Earl  of  Dumbarton  adhered  to 
King  James  VII,  whom  he  followed  to  France,  where  he 
died  in  1692. 

Among  many  others  who  followed  the  king  into  exile 
were  David  Viscount  Dundee,  K.T.,  who  died  in  1700  ;  and 
James  Galloway,  third  Lord  Dunkeld,  who  had  joined  the 
brother  of  the  former  peer,  and  was  with  him  at  Killie- 
crankie,  who  fell  in  action  a  colonel  in  the  French  service, 
in  which  his  son  James  attained  the  rank  of  a  general 
officer,  with  a  high  reputation  for  valour  and  skill.  His 
name  appears  in  the  French  Liste  des  Offiders  Generaux 
for  May  10,  1748,  as  "  my  Lord  Dunkell,"  and  he  was  alive 
in  1 764 ;  but  of  him  nothing  more  is  known. 

The  period  1693-7  brings  us  to  one  of  the  most  touching 
episodes  in  the  story  of  our  military  exiles — the  fate  of  the 
surviving  officers  of  the  army  of  Lord  Dundee  :  men  whose 
magnanimity  was  worthy  of  the  most  glorious  ages  of 
Athens  and  of  Sparta.  "  It  is  delightful,"  wrote  Robert 
Chambers,  "  to  record  the  generous  abandonment  of  all 
selfish  considerations,  and  the  utter  devotion  to  a  lofty  and 
beautiful  moral  principle,  which  governed  the  actions  of 
this  noble  band  of  gentlemen." 

According  to  terms  made,  the  surviving  officers  of 
Dundee's  army  were  to  have  their  work  confined  to  France 
according  to  the  tenor  of  their  Scottish  commissions ;  and 
so  long  as  there  was  a  hope  of  a  successful  landing  on  the 
British  coast  their  pay  was  continued,  till,  on  the  paltry 
pretext  of  expedience,  it  was  withdrawn,  and  they,  only  150 
in  number,  were  reduced  to  penury,  while  Dutchmen  were 
exalted  to  rank  and  power  at  home.  Generously  these 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  297 

Scottish  officers  made  common  stock  of  their  jewellery, 
rings,  and  watches,  and  so  forth,  till  starvation  came  upon 
them,  and  they  obtained  King  James's  permission  to  form 
themselves  into  a  company  of  private  soldiers  for  the  service 
of  King  Louis.  Previous  to  joining  the  army  of  Marshal 
Noailles,  they  took  farewell  of  their  native  monarch  at  St. 
Germain — a  last  farewell  it  proved  to  most  of  them. 

Of  this  most  remarkable  company  Colonel  Thomas  Brown 
was  captain  ;  Colonels  Andrew  Scott  and  Alexander  Gordon 
were  lieutenants ;  Major  James  Buchan  was  ensign.  The 
sergeants  were  three  other  officers,  Jenner,  Lyon,  and  Gor- 
don ;  and  in  the  rank-and-file  men  were  three  field-officers 
and  forty-two  captains.  The  rest  were  subalterns.  One  of 
the  captains,  John  Ogilvie,  afterwards  killed  on  the  banks 
of  the  Rhine,  was  author  of  the  sweet  song — 

"  Adieu  for  evermore,  my  love. 
Adieu  for  evermore." 

King  James  VII  chanced  to  be  going  forth  to  hunt 
on  the  morning  when  they  paraded  before  the  palace  of 
his  exile,  in  French  uniform,  with  their  fixed  bayonets 
shining  in  the  sun. 

"  What  troops  are  these  ?"  asked  the  king. 

"  Your  Majesty's  devoted  Scottish  subjects,"  replied 
an  equerry  ;  "  but  yesterday  they  all  bore  your  Majesty's 
commission — to-dny  they  are  privates  in  the  army  of 
France." 

Then  James  dismounted  and  approached  them,  nearly 
overcome  with  emotion. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  it  grieves  me  beyond  expression 
to  see  so  many  brave  and  loyal  officers  of  my  army 


298  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

reduced  to  the  station  of  private  sentinels.  The  sense  of 
all  you  have  undergone  and  lost  has  impressed  me  so 
deeply,  an  it  ever  please  God  to  restore  me  to  the  throne 
of  my  ancestors,  your  services  and  your  sufferings  will  be 
remembered.  At  your  own  desire  you  are  going  away  far 
from  me.  Fear  God  ;  love  one  another  ;  write  your  wants 
particularly  to  me,  and  you  will  ever  find  me  your  father 
and  your  king."  (Dundas's  Officers,  1714.) 

With  deep  emotion  they  heard  him ;  he  received  a  list 
of  their  names,  and,  covering  his  face  with  his  handkerchief, 
sobbed  heavily,  while  the  whole  line  sank  upon  their  knees, 
and  bowed  their  heads.  Then  the  word  "march"  was 
given,  and  they  parted  for  ever. 

Perpignon  in  Rousillon  was  their  first  destination ;  then, 
after  a  journey  of  900  miles  in  heavy  marching  order,  they 
joined  the  army  of  Marshal  Noailles. 

"  Le  gentilhomme  est  toujours  gentilhomme,"  exclaimed 
that  officer  when  he  saw  them. 

The  ladies  of  the  city  presented  them  with  a  purse  of  200 
pistoles,  and  bought  all  their  rings  that  remained — a  souvenir 
des  officiers  ecossais ;  and  wherever  they  went  the  tears 
of  the  women  and  the  acclamations  of  the  men  welcomed 
them. 

On  the  27th  of  May,  1693,  this  company,  with  some 
other  Scottish  companies,  one  entirely  composed  of  deserters 
from  the  1st  Royal  Scots,  and  two  of  Irish,  mounted  the 
trenches,  at  the  siege  of  Rozas,  on  the  coast  of  Catalonia. 
Major  Rutherford  led  the  Scottish  grenadiers,  and  Colonel 
Brown  commanded  the  whole ;  and  so  furious  was  the 
assault,  that  the  governor  beat  a  chomage  and  capitulated. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  299 

"  Ces  sont  mes  enfants  /"  cried  Marshal  Noailles,  as  he  saw 
them  storming  the  breach. 

"  By  St.  lago,  they  alone  have  made  us  surrender  !"  cried 
the  Spanish  governor  afterwards. 

From  thence  they  marched  to  Piscador,  in  the  plain  of 
the  Fluvia,  in  that  awful  snow,  when  16,000  men  perished 
out  of  an  army  of  23,000,  by  starvation  chiefly.  Famine  and 
the  bullet  slew  many,  but  three-halfpence  per  diem  sufficed 
to  feed  the  Scottish  officers,  who  were  fain  to  eat  horse- 
beans  and  garlic. 

At  Silistadt  their  sufferings  inpreased,  in  that  they  had 
to  part  with  their  wigs  and  stockings  for  food.  Bread  they 
were  unable  to  buy.  In  1693  they  marched  to  old  Brissac, 
and  1697  saw  them  on  the  Rhine,  where  they  performed  one 
of  the  greatest  military  exploits  of  the  age. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
THE   SCOTS   IN  FRANCE.— (Continued.) 

Influence  of  the  Old  Alliance — Colonel  Oswald — The  Laws  of 
Lauriston — Field-Marshal  Law — Governor  of  Venice — 
Colonel- General  of  the  Imperial  Guard. 

M.  NECKER  DE  SAUSSURE,  in  his  Voyage  en  Ecosse  et  aux  lies 
Hebrides,  1806-8,  refers  pleasantly  to  the  influence  which 
he  thought  the  ancient  French  alliance  had  on  Scotland 
and  her  people. 

"  It  is,"  he  wrote,  "  above  all  that,  in  relation  to 
strangers,  that  the  Scottish  character  is  displayed  to  the 
greatest  advantage.  Hospitality  in  all  its  finest  shades 
and  under  every  form  is  the  national  virtue  of  Scotland. 
The  inhabitants  do  not  partake  in  the  least  of  the  coldness 
and  prejudice  towards  foreigners,  which  is  so  justly  the 
reproach  of  the  best  society  in  England.  ...  In  looking 
for  the  causes  of  this  remarkable  difference,  we  shall  find 
them  in  the  intimate  relations  which  formerly  existed 
between  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  and  continental  govern- 
ments, in  particular  the  French  nation.  This  country  (France) 
has  always  been  the  bitterest  enemy  and  rival  of  England, 
and  was,  on  the  contrary,  the  closest  ally  of  Scotland.  The 
Scots  ef  er  enjoyed  in  France,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, privileges  from  which  other  nations  were  excluded. 
They  were  exempt  from  the  taxes  on  foreigners ;  they  had 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  301 

at  Paris  a  college  consecrated  to  the  Scottish  Catholics  and 
regulated  by  Scottish  professors.  Scotland  also  furnished 
to  the  kings  of  France  a  company  of  bodyguards.  So 
many  privileges  encouraged  the  nobles  and  gentlemen  to 
travel  in  France,  to  educate  their  children  there,  and 
frequently  to  establish  themselves  in  that  country  They 
learned  the  French  language,  spoke  it  with  facility,  and  on 
their  return  to  their  own  country  they  introduced  the  tone 
and  manners  of  the  court  of  Versailles." 

Towards  the  end  of  the  18th  century,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  Scots  in  the  French  army  was  John  Oswald,  a 
native  of  Edinburgh,  who,  in  1792,  became  a  chef  de 
battalion  of  that  ferocious  Republican  army  which  marched 
against  La  Vendee. 

His  parents  kept  a  coffee-house  in  the  Parliament  Close, 
celebrated  in  its  day  as  John's  Coffee-house,  and  there  he  is 
supposed  to  have  been  born  about  the  year  1760.  He  served 
an  apprenticeship  to  a  jeweller,  and  in  a  frolic  enlisted  in 
the  18th  Royal  Irish,  but,  on  succeeding  to  a  good  legacy, 
purchased  an  ensigncy  in  the  42nd  Highlanders,  to  which 
corps  he  was  gazetted  on  the  25th  August,  1778.  On  the 
22nd  March,  1780,  he  became  lieutenant  in  the  2nd 
battalion,  with  which,  in  the  January  of  the  following 
year,  he  embarked  at  Portsmouth,  under  Colonel  Norman 
Macleod  of  that  ilk,  for  the  West  Indies,  where  he  served 
for  three  years,  and  quickly  made  himself  master  of  Latin 
and  Greek.  In  1783  he  appeared  in  London,  where  he 
speedily  distinguished  himself  as  a  violent  Radical  and 
pamphleteer,  whose  writings  were  "  full  of  crude  notions, 
absurd  principles,  and  dangerous  speculations."  He  also 


302  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

affected  to  imitate  the  Brahmins,  and  abstained  from  animal 
food.  His  verses  won  him  the  approbation  of  Robert 
Burns  ;  and  for  the  press  he  adopted  the  nom  de  plume  of 
Sylvester  Otway.  His  last  work  in  London  was  The 
Cry  of  Nature,  published  in  1791. 

The  next  year  found  him  in  Paris,  when  the  fury  of  the 
Revolution  was  at  its  height,  and  when  a  new  edition  of  his 
first  pamphlet,  A  Review  of  the  Constitution  of  Great 
Britain,  with  several  addenda,  soon  won  him  admittance 
to  the  Jacobin  Club,  in  which  he  gained  such  influence  as 
to  take  a  leading  part  in  all  its  bloodthirsty  projects. 
Eventually  he  was  nominated  by  the  Revolutionary  govern- 
ment to  the  command  of  a  regiment  of  infantry,  "  sans 
culottes,"  raised  from  the  scam  of  Paris  and  the  depart- 
ments. 

On  being  joined  by  his  two  sons,  in  the  true  spirit  of 
equality  he  made  them  drummers  !  His  adherence  to  dis- 
cipline— won  no  doubt,  in  the  old  "Black  Watch" — soon  made 
him  unpopular  with  the  lawless  scoundrels  he  led  ;  and  on 
attempting,  it  is  said,  to  substitute  an  efficient  pike  for  the 
wretched  muskets  with  which  they  were  armed,  they 
mutinied  against  him. 

His  corps  was  one  of  the  first  employed  in  La  Vendee, 
in  that  war  which,  for  a  time,  the  Royalists  prosecuted 
with  success  from  1793  to  1795 — a  resistance  singularly 
favoured  by  the  woods,  wilds,  and  thickets  of  the  country ; 
and  then  he  was  reported  to  be  killed  in  battle  ;  but  the 
real  story  of  his  fate  was  that  his  own  men  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  shooting  him,  his  two  sons,  and  an  Englishman 
who  held  a  commission  in  the  regiment. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  303 

A  few  years  after,  a  clergyman  of  Edinburgh  published 
a  work  proving,  to  his  own  satisfaction  at  least,  that  Oswald 
was  not  shot  in  La  Vendee  ;  but,  escaping,  appeared  in 
time  as  Napoleon  Bonaparte  !  (Stuart's  Sketches,  etc.) 

Under  the  First  Empire  there  rose  to  the  highest  rank, 
civil  and  military,  two  men  of  old  Scottish  families — Law, 
who  became  Marquis  of  Lauriston  and  marshal  of  France ; 
and  Macdonald,  who  became  Duke  of  Tarentum  and  also  a 
marshal  of  France.  The  family  of  the  former  have  taken 
deep  root  there,  though  the  antecedents  of  their  name  were 
against  them  ;  for  the  first  of  them,  in  the  land  of  their 
adoption,  was  the  famous  financial  projector,  John  Law, 
who  nearly  brought  ruin  upon  it  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XV; 
and  whose  varied  adventures  seem  to  pertain  to  romance 
rather  than  to  solid  history. 

Descended  from  the  Laws  of  Lithrie  in  Fifeshire,  John 
Law  was  the  only  son  of  William  Law,  a  goldsmith  in  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  was  born  in  April,  1671,  probably  in  the 
Parliament  Close,  though  some  have  averred,  in  the  Tower 
of  Lauriston.  Though  bred  to  no  profession,  eai'ly  in  life 
he  exhibited  a  singular  capacity  for  calculation.  On  the 
death  of  his  father,  he  succeeded  to  the  estate  and  Tower 
of  Lauriston,  an  ancient  mansion  of  the  Merchiston  Napiers, 
beautifully  situated  near  the  Firth  of  Forth,  an  edifice 
greatly  embellished  in  recent  years  by  Andrew  Ruther- 
ford, Lord  Advocate  of  Scotland.  Gambling  debts  soon 
involved  Law  deeply,  but  his  estate  being  entailed,  it  was 
saved.  Tall,  handsome,  and  much  addicted  to  gallantry, 
he  went  to  London,  where  he  soon  became  well-known  as  Beau 
Law,  and  where  he  had  a  mortal  quarrel  with  another  young 


304  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

man  known  as  Beau  Wilson,  an  aspirant  for  fashionable 
fame  about  the  end  of  the  reign  of  William  of  Orange. 

The  dispute  began  between  them  on  the  9th  April,  1694, 
at  the  Fountain  Inn,  in  the  Strand,  and  a  meeting  was 
arranged  for  them  by  a  Captain  Wightmore,  at  a  place 
then  remote  from  streets,  Bloom  sbury,  where  the  gallants 
of  the  period  settled  affairs  of  Lonour  ;  and  there,  after  one 
pass,  Law  ran  Wilson  through  the  body  and  killed  him  on 
the  spot.  "  The  cause  of  the  quarrel  arose  from  his  (Wilson) 
taking  away  his  own  sister,"  says  Evelyn,  "  from  a  lodging 
in  a  house  where  Law  had  a  mistress,  which  the  mistress 
of  the  house  thinking  a  disparagement  to  it,  and  losing  by 
it,  instigated  Law  to  this  duel." 

Law  declared  the  meeting  to  be  accidental.  A  Scotsman 
was  little  likely  to  get  justice  in  London  then,  so  a  jury 
found  him  guilty  of  murder ;  but,  pending  a  commuta- 
tion of  sentence,  Law  escaped  from  the  King's  Bench, 
reached  the  Continent  in  safety,  and  was  afterwards  par- 
doned in  1717.  Prior  to  this  he  had  revisited  Scotland, 
where,  in  1701,  he  published,  at  Glasgow,  "  Proposals  for 
Constituting  a  Council  of  Trade  in  Scotland;"  butthese,and 
other  schemes,  found  no  favour  with  the  Scottish  Parlia- 
ment. Proceeding  to  France,  he  had  recourse  to  gaming 
for  his  subsistence,  and  won  enormous  sums  at  play. 

On  obtaining  an  introduction  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  he 
offered  his  monetary  scheme  to  Chomillart,  the  Minister  of 
Finance,  who  deemed  it  so  perilous  that  he  ordered  him 
to  quit  Paris  in  four-and-twenty  hours ;  and  in  a  similar 
manner  it  procured  his  expulsion  from  Genoa  and  Venice ; 
but  such  was  his  success  in  play,  that,  on  returning  to 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  305 

Paris  after  the  succession  of  Orleans  to  the  Regency,  he 
was  in  possession  of  fully  £100,000  sterling  ;  and  having 
been  fortunate  enough  to  secure  the  patronage  of  the 
Regent,  by  letters  patent,  2nd  March,  1716,  his  bank  was 
established,  with  a  capital  of  1 ,200  shares  of  5,000  hvres 
each,  which  soon  bore  a  premium. 

His  bank  became  the  office  for  all  public  receipts,  and  in 
1717  there  was  annexed  to  it  the  famous  Mississippi  scheme, 
in  which  immense  fortunes  were  realised,  and  the  stock  of 
which  rose  from  500  livresto  10,000  by  the  time  the  mania 
reached  its  zenith,  and  a  frenzy  seemed  to  possess  the 
public  mind. 

Law's  house  in  the  Rue  Quinquinpoix  was  hourly  beset 
with  applicants,  who  blocked  up  the  street  and  rendered  all 
progress  impossible  ;  for  all  ranks — peers,  prelates,  citizens, 
and  mechanics,  learned  and  unlearned,  and  even  ladies  of 
the  highest  rank,  nocked  to  that  Temple  of  Plutus,  till 
Law  was  compelled  to  transfer  his  place  for  business  to  the 
Place  Vendome,  where  the  tumult  and  noise  became  so 
great  that  he  was  again  obliged  to  move,  and  purchased,  at 
an  enormous  price,  from  the  Prince  de  Carigna,  the  Hotel 
Soissons,  in  the  beautiful  gardens  of  which  he  held  his 
levees,  and  allotted  stock  to  his  clamorous  clients. 

Amid  all  this  whirl  Law  retained  a  strong  affection  for 
his  patrimonial  home,  "  and  a  story  in  reference  to  this 
is  told  of  a  visit  paid  to  him  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  in 
Paris,  at  the  time  when  his  splendour  and  magnificence  were 
at  the  highest.  As  an  old  friend,  the  duke  was  admitted 
directly  to  Mr.  Law,  whom  he  found  busily  engaged 
writing.  The  duke  entertained  no  doubt  that  the  great 


3o6  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

financier  was  busied  with  a  subject  of  the  highest  import- 
ance, as  crowds  of  the  most  distinguished  individuals  were 
waiting  in  the  anterooms  for  an  audience.  Great  was  his 
Grace's  astonishment  when  he  learned  that  Mr.  Law  was 
merely  writing  to  his  gardener  at  Lauriston  regarding  the 
planting  of  cabbages  at  a  particular  spot !" 

When  the  crash  came,  the  amount  of  notes  issued  from 
Law's  bank  more  than  doubled  all  specie  in  France,  and  great 
difficulties  arose  from  the  scarcity  of  the  latter,  which  was 
hoarded  up  and  sent  out  of  the  country  in  large  sums  ;  thus 
tyrannical  edicts  were  promulgated  against  all  persons 
having  more  than  500  livres  in  specie,  and  Law's  notes  were 
declared  valueless  after  the  1st  November,  1720.  The 
10th  of  the  following  month  saw  John  Law,  the  comp- 
troller-general of  French  finance,  flying  from  Paris  to 
his  country  seat  of  Guermonde,  with  only  800  louis  in  his 
purse,  and  thence  from  France,  never  to  return  ! 

After  residing  in  England,  he  returned  to  the  Continent 
in  1725,  and  fixed  his  residence  at  Venice,  where  he  died 
on  the  21st  March,  1729,  in  a  state  of  poverty,  yet  occupied 
to  the  last  in  vast  schemes  of  finance. 

He  married  Lady  Catherine  Knollys,  daughter  of  the 
third  Earl  of  Banbury,  by  whom  he  had  a  son,  William, 
and  a  daughter,  who  espoused  her  cousin,  Viscount  Wai- 
lingford,  afterwards  created  Lord  Althorpe. 

His  son,  who  had  been  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1675,  was 
protected  by  the  Duchess  of  Bourbon.  He  rose  to  be  a 
mar£chal  de  camp,  and  remained  in  France.  His  cousin, 
James  Francis  Law,  was  created  Comte  de  Tancarville 
receiving  the  venerable  stronghold  of  that  name  in  Quille- 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  307 

bceuf,  once  the  abode  of  the  chamberlains  of  the  Dukes  of 
Burgundy,  a  grand  edifice,  stormed  and  demolished  at  the 
Revolution.  Charles  Grant  (Vicomte  de  Vaux)  records 
that  among  his  brilliant  services  in  India,  the  Comte  de 
Tancarville,  at  the  head  of  only  200  Frenchmen,  persuaded 
Shah  Zadol  with  80,000  to  march  against  the  British  in 
Bengal,  when  the  Shah  was  defeated,  and,  with  M.  Law, 
"  made  prisoner  on  the  same  day  that  Pondicherry  sur 
rendered." 

This  was  on  the  15th  January,  1761,  when  the  unfortunate 
Comte  de  Lally  capitulated  to  Sir  Eyre  Coote.  This 
was  about  the  same  time  when  a  Scottish  officer  of  Lally's, 
Colonel  D.  MacGregor,  with  600  Sepoys,  150  French- 
men, and  1,000  coolies,  so  vigorously  defended  the  ports  of 
Gingce  and  Thiagur,  that  he  was  permitted  to  march  out 
with  all  the  honours  of  war. 

In  1763,  at  the  peace,  Pondicherry  was  restored  to  France 
and  Law,  the  Comte  de  Tancarville,  was  appointed  governor 
and  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  French  settlements  in 
the  East  Indies,  where  he  amassed  enormous  wealth,  most 
of  which  was  swept  away  amid  the  future  troubles  of  the 
French  Indian  campaign.  His  departure  for  India  is  thus 
announced  in  the  London  papers  of  April,  1764  : — "  Col. 
Law  de  Lauriston,  appointed  governor  and  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  French  establishments  in  the  East  Indies,  is  to  go 
on  board  the  Due  dePraslin,  50  guns,  which,  in  company  with 
the  Chameau  frigate,  sails  for  Pondicherry  at  the  latter  end 
of  this  month."  By  his  wife,  Jeanne  Carvalhoo,  a  lady  of 
the  Mauritius,  he  had  six  sons  and  four  daughters. 

Two  of  his  sons  he  destined  for  the  French  army     the 

x*2 


308          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

eldest,  who  became  marshal  of  France,  was  one  of  these  ; 
two  others  he  resolved  should  be  sailors,  and  the  fates 
of  both  were  miserable.  One  sailed  with  the  gallant 
D'Entrecosteou  in  his  voyage  round  the  world,  and  was 
heard  of  no  more  ;  the  other  became  an  officer  in  the  regi- 
ment of  Hector,  one  of  the  seven  battalions  of  loyal 
emigrants  taken  into  British  pay,  and  which,  in  1795, 
embarked  at  Southampton  on  board  of  Admiral  Warren's 
fleet  for  the  ill-fated  expedition  to  Cape  Quiberon,  under 
the  Comtes  D'Hervilly  and  De  Pusaye.  This  little  army,  con- 
sisting chiefly  of  the  regiments  of  Hector,  Hervilly,  Duden- 
drenne,  44th,  or  Royale-Marine,  Royal-Louis,  emigrant  and 
artillery,  were  cut  to  pieces  on  the  coast,  the  regiments  of 
Hervilly  and  Dudendrenne  massacring  their  own  officers, 
according  to  the  last  dispatch  of  the  Comte  de  Sombreuil ; 
and  all  'the  prisoners,  including  young  Law,  were  shot  to 
death,  by  order  of  General  Hoche. 

The  fourth  son  entered  the  British  service  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  rose  to  wealth  afterwards  as  a  merchant  in  the 
city  of  London;  while  the  eldest,  James  Alexander  Bernard 
Law,  adhered  to  the  fortunes  of  the  monarchy.  He  was 
born  at  Pondicherry,  on  the  1st  February,  1 7G8,  during 
the  governorship  of  his  father,  the  Comte  de  Tancarville, 
and  in  1784  was  at  the  Eoyal  Military  School  of  Paris, 
where,  fortunately  for  himself,  he  was  the  fellow-student 
and  friend  of  another  student,  Napoleon  Bonaparte  ;  and 
together  they  quitted  the  seminary  as  second  lieutenants  of 
artillery.  Soon  afterwards,  Law  married  the  daughter 
of  M.  le  Due,  Marechal  de  Camp  and  Inspector-General  of 
Artillery,  of  which  there  was  always  a  school  at  La  Fere,  and 
there  their  eldest  son  was  born. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  309 

When  the  political  storm  of  1792  broke  out,  James  Law 
with  his  family  fled  to  Austria,  where  he  accepted  a  com- 
mission under  the  emperor,  and,  as  A.D.C.  to  General 
Beauvoir,  served  in  the  futile  and  severe  campaigns  against 
the  armies  of  the  Republic.  In  1794  he  greatly  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  the  siege  of  Maestricht,  when  it  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  French  ;  and  at  the  investment  of 
Valenciennes,  till  the  conquest  of  Holland  by  Pichegru. 

Afterwards,  in  Italy,  by  a  turn  of  fortune,  he  was  among  a 
party  of  captured  emigrants  and  Austrians,  who  were  brought 
before  his  old  brother- student  of  La  Fere,  Bonaparte,  whose 
protection  he  claimed,  and  who  assured  him  that  there  was 
but  one  way  of  escaping  the  penalty  of  death,  to  enter  the 
French  service  as  a  private  soldier.  He  did  so,  and  the 
5th  April,  1796,  saw  him  commanding  as  chef  de  brigade 
of  horse  artillery,  and  leading  that  force  at  Cortiglionie- 
delle-Stevione,  where  Bonaparte  was  defeated  in  June,  and 
at  Arcola,  where,  in  November,  the  latter  was  victorious, 
and  compelled  the  Austrians  to  raise  the  siege  of  Mantua. 

Marengo  was  fought  on  the  4th  June,  1800,  and  after 
the  victory  there,  in  which  the  Austrians,  though  supported 
by  100  guns  loaded  with  grape,  failed  signally,  Law — or 
Lauriston,  as  he  was  named — was  ordered  by  Bonaparte  to 
organise  the  1st  Regiment  of  Artillery  on  the  system  of 
their  old  35th  Regiment  of  La  Fere ;  he  also  appointed  him 
his  premier  A.D.C.,  in  which  capacity  he  served  the  cam- 
paign of  Egypt ;  and,  according  to  General  Bourrienne,  he 
was  the  most  intelligent  officer  on  the  staff  of  the  First 
Consul. 

In  1801  he  was  sent  to  Denmark  to  urge  that  country  in 


3io  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

its  resistance  to  Britain,  and  was  engaged  in  many  diplo- 
matic missions  which,  by  the  treaty  of  Amiens  in  October, 
1801,  gave  to  the  powers  of  Europe  a  brief  respite  from 
the  bloody  occupations  of  recent  years.  On  the  10th  October, 
"  Colonel  Lauriston,"  as  he  was  named  in  the  English 
papers,  arrived  in  London  with  the  notification  of  the 
treaty,  and,  accompanied  by  the  French  plenipotentiary, 
had  the  horses  taken  from  his  carriage,  which  was  dragged 
by  the  joyous  populace,  with  incessant  cheers,  to  their 
hotel  in  St.  James's  Street;  when  the  A.D.C.  of  the  First 
Consul  came  frequently  to  a  window  and  bowed  to  the 
masses  below,  among  whom  he  scattered  gold. 

He  was  seen  to  be  tall,  handsome,  and  young,  wearing  a 
blue  uniform  laced  with  gold,  a  white  vest,  and  large  black 
stock. 

On  the  15th  he  embarked  at  Dover,  and  was  at  Batis- 
bon,  with  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  when,  so  early  as 
September,  1802,  the  political  horizon  began  to  darken 
again,  and  he  had  to  threaten  the  Diet,  that  unless  the 
war  losses  were  settled  in  two  months,  the  Republic  would 
send  100,000  bayonets  into  Germany ;  and  when  war  was 
declared,  to  James  Law  was  assigned  the  command  of  the 
troops  ordered  against  Bavaria,  in  conjunction  with  Ville- 
neuve — an  expedition  never  carried  out. 

In  February,  1805,  he  was  appointed  general  of  division, 
with  the  diploma  of  Count  Lauriston,  taking  the  title  from 
his  old  hereditary  tower  in  Linlithgowshire — one  in  which 
all  his  descendants  still  seem  to  take  a  pride. 

On  the  30th  March  following  he  sailed  in  the  fleet  of 
Admiral  Villeneuve,  with  9,000  men  under  his  orders,  to 


THE  SCO TS  IN  FRANCE.  3 1 1 

retake  Surinam  and  St.  Helena,  after  ravaging  all  our 
settlements  on  the  coast  of  Guinea.  The  Count  de  Dumas, 
in  writing  of  these  things,  says,  "  Singular  that  Bonaparte, 
on  the  eve  of  his  coronation,  should  have  been  so  intent  on 
the  capture  of  St.  Helena  /" 

The  13th  May  saw  this  expedition  running  along  the 
beautiful  coast  of  Martinique,  where  they  bombarded  the 
Diamond  Bock,  "  which,"  says  Brenton,  "is  in  form  very 
much  resembling  a  round  haystack,  one  side  overhanging 
its  base,  but  having  deep  moats  all  round  it."  Yet  on  its 
crumbling  sides,  never  before  trodden  by  man,  our  fearless 
sailors  had  skilfully  formed  a  battery,  after  first  carrying 
a  cable  over  it  by  the  string  of  a  kite.  Lauristou  won 
the  Rock  by  assault,  with  the  loss  of  800  men,  and,  but  for 
the  appearance  of  Nelson's  fleet,  might  have  retaken  Mar- 
tinique. On  the  19th  his  expedition  sailed  for  Europe, 
when  final  defeat  awaited  Villeneuve  at  Trafalgar,  before 
which  Lauriston  rejoined  the  staff  of  the  Emperor  at  Ver- 
sailles. 

The  year  1805  saw  him  serving  in  the  Austrian  cam- 
paign, the  victory  of  Austcrlitz,  and  the  capture  of  Vienna ; 
after  which  he  presided,  in  Presburg,  at  the  execution  of 
that  treaty  of  peace  which  ended  in  the  removal  of  all 
the  Imperial  arsenals  from  Venice,  of  which  he  was  ap- 
pointed governor  in  1807  ;  "  and  one  of  his  first  public 
acts,  after  entering  the  city,  was  to  erect  a  splendid  tomb 
above  the  hitherto  obscure  resting-place  of  his  grand-uncle, 
John  Law,  the  great  financier." 

The  city  and  territory  of  Venice  were  then  annexed  to 
the  French  kingdom  of  Italy,  and  remained  so  till  1814. 


312          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

The  autumn  of  1808  saw  Count  Lauriston,  after  attend- 
ing the  emperor  at  the  great  conference  of  Erfurt  in 
Saxony,  take  his  departure  for  Madrid,  then  possessed  by 
the  French  army,  with  which  he  shared  in  some  of  the  fierce 
encounters  with  guerillas  and  other  patriots  in  the  suburbs 
of  that  city;  and  when  war  was  again  declared  against 
Austria,  in  1809,  Lauriston  was  on  the  staff  of  Eugene 
Beauharnais,  who  was  then  viceroy  of  Italy  for  the 
emperor,  now,  in  fact  supreme  in  Europe. 

With  Beauharnais  he  marched  for  the  banks  of  the 
Danube.  Deep  then  was  the  hatred  cherished  by  Austria 
for  France  ;  thus  she  suffered  herself  to  be  hurried  prema- 
turely into  a  renewal  of  strife,  which  ended  in  swift  and 
terrible  disasters,  for  her  finances  were  confused  and  her 
warlike  preparations  defective. 

Lauriston  marched  through  Hungary  with  Beauharnais, 
and,  before  Wagram  had  been  won,  on  the  14th  of  June, 
1809,  Lauriston  led  more  than  one  brilliant  charge  in  the 
other  battle  which  took  place  on  the  plain  near  the  Raab,  be- 
tween the  army  of  the  Archduke  John,  who  had  retreated 
from  Italy,  supported  by  the  Archduke  Palatine  with 
25,000  Hungarian  insurgents,  and  the  French  under 
Beanharnais  and  Marshal  Marmout,  each  mustering  about 
50,000  men.  On  the  12th  and  13th  the  attacks  of  the 
French  were  repulsed  with  heavy  loss  ;  but,  on  being  rein- 
forced by  a  strong  column  under  Marshal  Davoust,  the 
conflict  was  resumed  on  the  morning  of  the  14th,  when, 
after  a  noble  resistance,  the  gallant  but  raw  Hungarian 
lines  were  unable  to  withstand  the  well-trained  troops  of 
France,  and  by  sunset  the  two  archdukes  were  compelled 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  313 

to  retreat,  with  the  loss  of  2,000  men.  Beauharnais  claimed 
a  great  victory ;  but  the  Austrians  were  in  such  strength 
at  Comorn  for  some  weeks  afterwards  as  to  show  that  the 
losses  of  the  French  rendered  them  unable  to  pursue ; 
though  the  indefatigable  Lauriston,  pushing  on  with  a 
column,  on  the  24th  seized  Baab,  (or  Nagy-Gyor),  the 
capital  of  Buda,  a  place  fortified  by  nature  and  art, 
capturing  therein  1,500  men,  who  surrendered  prisoners  of 
war. 

The  great  victory  of  Wagram  followed  on  the  6th  of 
July.  Then  Lauriston  commanded  the  artillery  of  the 
Imperial  guard ;  and  when,  in  the  second  day's  carnage, 
Napoleon's  left  wing  fell  into  disorder,  the  count,  with 
one  hundred  guns  drawn  at  full  speed,  took  an  able  posi- 
tion, opened  fire,  and  swept  away  the  Austrian  left  and 
centre  by  grape  and  canister,  thus  deciding  the  fate  of  the 
day  !  Ever  memorable,  perhaps,  will  this  three  days'  battle 
be,  in  which  some  400,000  men,  with  1,500  guns,  contended 
for  mighty  interests.  "  Ten  pairs  of  colours,  forty  pieces 
of  cannon,  and  20,000  prisoners,  including  about  400 
officers  and  a  considerable  number  of  generals,  colonels, 
and  majors,  are  the  trophies  of  this  victory,"  says  the 
French  bulletin.  "The  fields  of  battle  are  covered 
with  the  slain,  among  whom  are  the  bodies  of  several 
generals." 

In  gratitude  to  Lauriston  for  his  share  in  winning  this 
crowning  victory,  the  emperor  with  his  own  hands  deco- 
rated him  with  the  Grand  Cordon  of  the  Iron  Crown  of 
Lombardy,  which  the  former  had  instituted  on  his  corona- 
tion at  Milan  as  King  of  Italy. 


314  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

The  peace,  signed  at  Schb'nbrunn  in  October,  followed — 
the  peace  to  win  which  the  Archduchess  Maria  Louisa  was 
sacrificed  to  the  ambition  of  the  conqueror ;  and  among 
those  who  escorted  her  from  Vienna  to  Paris  was  Count 
Lauriston,  now  colonel-general  of  the  Imperial  guard. 

Two  important  missions  now  devolved  in  succession 
upon  this  trusted  officer.  The  first  was  one  to  Holland, 
to  convey  to  Paris  the  children  of  Louis  Napoleon,  king 
of  that  country,  who,  beginning  to  doubt  his  brother's 
power,  placed  himself  under  the  protection  of  Great  Britain. 
The  second  was  as  ambassador  to  Russia,  to  demand  the 
return  of  French  garrisons  into  Riga  and  Revel,  with  the 
total  exclusion  of  the  British  from  the  Baltic  Sea. 

Lauriston  failed ;  the  stupendous  invasion  of  Russia 
followed,  by  an  army  such  as  had  never  been  seen  before — • 
so  perfect  in  equipment,  so  vast  in  numbers,  and  so  glori- 
ously led ;  but  ruin  came,  and,  amid  the  horrors  of  the 
retreat  from  Moscow,  as  a  staff  and  artillery  officer,  multi- 
farious and  brilliant  were  the  services  he  performed  in  the 
cause  of  his  leader.  He  held  conferences  with  Count 
Kutusof  to  save  Moscow  and  secure  a  peaceful  retreat  for 
the  united  armies  of  France,  but  in  vain ;  and  when  that 
awful  retrograde  movement  began — a  retreat  marked  by 
miles  upon  miles  of  dead  men  and  horses,  abandoned  guns, 
and  other  debris — to  him  it  was  that  the  emperor  gave 
the  onerous  task  of  commanding  the  rearguard  upon  that 
darkened,  desperate  route,  in  which  discipline  passed  away, 
and  scarcely  even  courage  remained,  as  Segur  records  in 
his  terrible  narration. 

After  reaching  Saxony,  Lauriston  picked  out  of  the  ruins 


THE  SCOTS  IN  F-RANCE.  315 

of  the  famished,  tattered,  and  blood- stained  mobs  of  soldiery 
— the  5th  corps  of  the  Grand  Army,  and  led  it  valiantly 
to  battle  at  Lutzen,  at  Boutzen,  and  elsewhere,  and  at 
Leipzig,  the  result  of  which  decided  the  retreat  of  the 
shattered  French  army  across  the  Rhine,  whither  the  allies 
followed  them.  But  there  was  one  mystery  in  the  details 
of  Leipzig.  There,  the  bridge  of  the  Elster  was  unexpect- 
edly blown  up — by  an  error,  some  allege;  by  the  treachery 
of  Napoleon,  say  others,  to  secure  his  safe  flight,  aban- 
doning to  the  enemy  the  relics  of  a  column,  with  which, 
were  Count  Lauriston,  Prince  Poniatowski,  and  Marshal 
Macdonald. 

The  latter,  a  fiery  and  impetuous  Celt,  leaped  his  horse 
into  the  river  and  escaped ;  but  the  prince  was  drowned, 
with  thousands  more ;  and  Lauriston,  after  a  long  and 
futile,  but  most  gallant  resistance,  amid  the  blazing  suburbs 
of  Leipzig,  was  taken  prisoner  and  sent  to  Berlin  by  the 
Prussians. 

The  sun  of  Napoleon  was  setting  now  ! 

On  the  south-east,  Wellington,  with  100,000  veterans  of 
the  Peninsular  war — men  who  had  never  failed  in  battle — 
menaced  France.  On  the  north-east,  the  allied  monarchs, 
with  a  million  more,  soon  found  their  way  to  Paris,  and 
Napoleon  abdicated  to  Elba,  with  400  chosen  old  soldiers 
as  a  bodyguard. 

Meantime,  Louis  XVIII  was  on  the  throne  of  France, 
and,  with  enthusiastic  loyalty,  the  fickle  Parisians  hailed  the 
restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  and  seemed  eager  to  have  the 
blood  of  him  who  had  so  long  been  their  idol. 

Lauriston  came  to   Paris  at  this  crisis.     Louis   XVIII 


316  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

reconstituted  the  old  Mousquetaires  Gris  (that  famous  com- 
pany of  guards,  of  which  Dumas'  hero,  Claude  de  Botz 
d'Artagnan,  was  commander  from  1667  to  1673),  and  he 
gave  the  captaincy  to  Lauriston,  who,  true  to  the  old 
spirit  which  led  him  first  to  serve  the  monarchy,  when 
Bonaparte  landed  from  Elba,  accompanied  Louis  in  his 
flight,  and  retired  to  his  chateau  near  La  Fere. 

While  the  avaricious  monarchs  of  Northern  Europe  were 
wrangling  over  the  distribution  of  their  spoils,  the  vast 
territories  won  by  Napoleon,  the  latter  suddenly  left  Elba, 
appeared  in  France,  and  the  new  rule  of  the  Bourbons 
melted  away  before  the  figure  of  the  returning  emperor ; 
but  Waterloo  was  soon  won,  boastful  Paris  fell  again,  and, 
on  the  second  restoration  of  Louis,  Count  Lauriston  appeared 
at  his  court,  then  held  at  Cambrai,  in  the  citadel  which  is 
deemed  one  of  the  strongest  in  Europe ;  and  on  the  17th  of 
August,  1815,  the  king  created  him  a  peer  of  France,  with 
the  command  of  the  infantry  of  the  Garde  Royale,  when 
one  of  the  first  cares  of  the  Bourbons  was  to  remodel  their 
army  and  place  it  on  a  footing  adapted  to  the  new  order  of 
things ;  but  when  1830  came,  the  Royal  guard  was  fated 
to  be  dissolved,  and  the  Swiss  guard  was  discharged  the 
service. 

In  the  year  1817  the  count  was  created  Marquis  of 
Lauriston,  and  in  the  June  of  1821  received  his  baton  as 
Marshal  of  France,  in  succession  to  his  veteran  comrade, 
Louis  Davoust,  Prince  of  Eckmiihl — "  the  terrible  Davoust," 
a  title  some  of  his  actions  procured  him,  for  he  was  an  excel- 
lent soldier  but  most  unprincipled  man.  With  his  baton 
Lauriston  received  command  of  the  2nd  corps  of  the  army  of 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  317 

the  Pyrenees,  at  a  time  when  the  whole  Peninsula  was  in 
commotion,  consequent  on  the  embroilment  of  Ferdinand 
VII  with  his  people  and  their  new  constitution.  A  French 
invasion  followed  ;  Madrid  was  occupied  ;  Spain  crushed  ; 
and  Lauriston  with  his  corps  laid  siege  to  Pompeluna,  which 
was  vigorously  defended  by  Don  Raymond  de  Salvador. 
It  was  a  case  of  "  war  to  the  knife."  The  inhabitants 
barricaded  their  houses  and  fought  to  the  death  against 
the  troops  of  Marshal  Lauriston,  whose  dispatch  in  the 
Moniteur  of  16th  September  gives  a  graphic  account  of  his 
successful  attack  on  the  suburbs  of  that  great  stronghold  of 
Northern  Spain,  which  Salvador  soon  after  surrendered  to 
him. 

This  was  the  last  scene  of  his  military  glory.  After 
being  a  short  time  in  the  ministry,  broken  down  by  past 
campaigns  and  sufferings  undergone  in  war,  he  died  at 
Paris,  somewhat  suddenly,  on  the  10th  June,  1828,  with 
many  of  his  old  comrades  around  his  bed,  among  them  the 
Marshal  Dukes  of  Bagusa  and  Beggio. 

His  eldest  son,  who  bore  for  a  time  the  title  of  Baron 
Clapperknowes,  from  a  portion  of  the  Lauriston  estate  in 
Lothian,  was  Gentleman  du  Boi  to  Charles  X;  his  second 
son,  Napoleon  Law  de  Lauriston,  was  author  of  several 
historical  works  and  essays ;  and  the  family  name  is  still 
one  of  importance. 

In  the  time  of  the  Crimean  war,  Major-General  Q.  H. 
Law  de  Lauriston  commanded  a  brigade  of  cavalry  at 
Lyon;  George  Charles  Law  de  Lauriston  was  sous-lieu- 
tenant of  the  20th  Foot  Chasseurs ;  and  Arthur  Louis  Law, 
his  brother,  was  lieutenant  of  the  6th  Chasseurs,  Cavtderie 
Legere,  in  China.  (Annuaire  MiUtaire.) 


318  THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

"  In  the  list  of  promotions,"  says  a  correspondent  in  the 
Scotsman,  for  September,  1875,  "I  see  Law  de  Lauriston 
gets  his  squadron.  He  is  descended  from  Mississippi  Law, 
whose  renown  was  once  so  great  in  the  Rue  de  Quinquin- 
poix.  The  captain's  grandfather  rose  to  b  marshal, 
having  served  under  Napoleon  in  Spain,  Germany,  and 
Russia.  .  .  .  His  marshal's  baton  is,  strange  to  say,  in  the 
collection  of  a  gentleman  who  is  also  in  possession  of  the 
baton  of  Marshal  Saxe." 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE  SCOTS  IN  'FRANC'S.— (Concluded) 

Marshal  Macdonald,  Duke  of  Tarentum,  Captain  Ogilvie,  etc. — 
Conclusion. 

IN  1784  there  was  gazetted  to  the  regiment  of  Dillon,  in 
France,  Stephen  James  Joseph  Macdonald,  then  in  his 
nineteenth  year,  having  been  born  on  the  17th  November, 
1765. 

The  regiment  of  Lord  Dillon  was  the  94th  of  the  old 
French  line,  and  3rd  of  the  Irish  brigade,  placed  on  the 
strength  of  the  former  in  1690,  and,  like  all  the  rest  of  that 
brigade,  wore  scarlet  uniform,  and  carried  the  British 
crown  upon  its  colours.  (Liste  Hist,  des  Troupes  de  France.) 

The  young  sous-lieutenant — who  had  previously  been  a 
cadet  in  the  legion  of  Maillebois — was  the  son  of  Neil 
MacHector  Macdonald,  a  gentleman  of  the  Clan  Ronald 
in  Uist,  who  had  been  educated  at  the  Scots  College  in 
Paris,  and  had  received  a  lieutenancy  in  the  regiment  of 
Ogilvie,  through  the  recommendation  of  Prince  Charles,  as 
he  was  one  of  the  hundred  and  thirty  fugitives  who,  after 
the  horrors  of  Culloden,  had  embarked  with  him  on  the 
shore  of  Loch  nan  Namh  in  Moidart,  near  the  wild  hills 
amid  which  he  had  landed,  so  full  of  hope  and  high  enter- 
prise, but  the  year  before  ! 

Macdonald  was  a  subaltern  in  the  regiment  of  Colonel 


320  THE  SCOTTISH     OLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Dillon  till  1792,  when  the  latter  was  barbarously  mur- 
dered by  the  Revolutionists  at  Lisle,  and  his  soldiers,  with 
all  other  foreign  troops,  were  turned  out  of  the  French 
army. 

A  love  affair — his  engagement  to  his  future  wife,  the 
beautiful  Mademoiselle  Jacob,  whose  father  had  joined  the 
Revolutionists — kept  Macdonald  in  France,  where  he 
made  the  first  campaign  of  the  new  war  as  a  staff-major, 
and  on  the  1st  March,  1793,  was  appointed  colonel  of  the 
ancient  regiment  of  Picardy,  and  then  general  of  brigade  ; 
and  as  such  he  served  under  Pichegru  against  the  allied 
troops  of  Britain  and  Austria,  winning  high  honour  by  his 
signal  bravery  at  Comines,  in  West  Flanders,  and  else- 
where ;  and  on  the  retreat  of  the  former,  after  the  Austrian 
Netherlands  were  overrun,  he  pressed  them  hard  and  fol- 
lowed them  into  Holland.  In  that  moment,  says  the 
Edinburgh  Herald  for  10th  January,  1799,  discovering  a 
clansman  in  command  of  a  harassed  British  brigade,  he 
supplied  him  with  every  comfort  that  circumstances  enabled 
him  to  afford ;  till  the  passage  of  the  Waal  on  the  ice,  one 
of  his  most  remarkable  achievements. 

The  Directory  had  a  dislike  of  Macdonald  and  his  Scottish 
surname.  For  a  time  they  deprived  him  of  his  command  ; 
the  coarse  deputy,  St.  Just,  saying  to  Pichegru,  "  We  like 
neither  his  face  nor  his  name — they  are  not  Republican." 
Yet  Pichegru  stood  his  friend ;  and  for  his  services  in  Flan- 
ders and  Holland,  he  was  appointed  a  general  of  division, 
acd  as  such  appeared  in  Italy,  but  too  late  to  have  any 
part  in  that  aggressive  campaign  of  1797,  when  the  armies 
of  republican  France  sought  to  spread  their  new  and 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  321 

startling  principles  throughout  the  Italian  states ;  but  in 
1798  he  was  in  the  army  which,  under  Massena  and 
Berthur,  proclaimed  the  Republic  in  Rome,  and  grotesquely 
sent  a  tri-eoloured  cockade  to  the  Pope,  who  retired  to 
Florence. 

Macdonald  with  his  column  was  left  to  overawe  the 
states  of  the  Church,  and  suppress  those  risings  which 
occurred  among  the  peasantry — risings  suppressed  with 
great  severity ;  and  towards  the  end  of  1798,  as  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Roman  states,  he  ordered  the  levy  of  two 
regiments  of  cavalry  and  one  of  infantry  in  each  depart- 
ment for  the  service  of  the  Consulate. 

After  an  incredible  deal  of  toil,  manoeuvring,  fighting, 
and  remarkable  perils  almost  unequalled  in  war — through 
Naples,  Calabria,  and  Sicily,  when  Cardinal  Ruffo,  Fra 
Diavolo,  Pronio,  and  other  patriots,  made  savage  by 
the  course  of  events,  led  thousands  from  their  fast- 
nesses—  all  loyai  and  hardy  mountaineers,  seeking  to 
free  their  native  land  from  armies  of  Jacobin  in- 
vaders, till  40,000  soldiers  led  by  Mack  dwindled  down 
to  12,000  ;  when  Frenchmen  were  roasted  alive,  disem- 
bowelled, bound  to  trees,  and  left  to  be  devoured  by  dogs 
and  wolves — after  facing  horrors  such  as  these,  we  say, 
Macdonald  fought  his  way  to  Florence  on  the  5th  of  June, 
1799,  by  forced  marches. 

Having  collected  the  troops  scattered  throughout  Tus- 
cany, he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  38,000  men,  all  of 
whom — with  the  exception  of  the  Polish  legion — were 
French,  and  ready  for  the  offensive.  He  detached  Montri- 
chard  with  his  right  wing  to  attack  Klenau  and  raise  the 

Y 


322          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

siege  of  Fort  Urbino ;  while  Olivier,  after  two  encounters, 
overcame  Hohenzollern,  and  not  only  obtained  possession 
of  Modena,  but  drove  the  Venetians  beyond  the  Po. 
General  Kray,  alarmed  by  the  successes  of  Macdonald's 
subalterns,  drew  off  his  artillery  from  before  Mantua,  and 
took  ground  in  such  a  manner  as,  he  hoped,  to  prevent  the 
relief  of  the  city. 

But  the  exploits  of  Macdonald  seemed  only  beginning. 
Although  severely  wounded  in  a  recent  action,  he  con- 
tinued his  march,  and,  on  reaching  Piacenza,  formed  a 
junction  with  General  Victor,  after  which  he  attacked 
General  Ott,  on  the  same  day,  and  compelled  him  to  fall 
back  upon  the  castle  of  San  Giovanni. 

Suwarrow,  impatient  of  delay,  and  fired  by  the  successes 
of  Macdonald,  threatened  to  storm  the  citadel  of  Turin 
and  renew  those  scenes  of  carnage  so  dear  to  his  savage 
nature  ;  but  Furella,  who  commanded  then,  defied  him,  and 
leaving  General  Klenau  to  push  the  siege,  he  collected  at 
Alexandria  seventeen  battalions  of  Russians,  twelve 
regiments  of  Austrian  horse,  three  of  Cossacks,  and 
hurried  on  to  support  General  Ott,  after  which  ensued 
the  three  days'  battle  on  the  Trebur,  an  impetuous 
river  of  the  Appenines  which  falls  into  the  Po  above 
Piacenza. 

On  the  first  day,  17th  June,  Suwarrow,  having  re-en- 
forced the  Imperial  right  wing,  made  a  sudden  attack, 
with  the  bayonet  chiefly,  on  the  French  left,  while  their 
right  was  assailed  with  equal  fury  by  the  Russian  Prince 
Gortchakoff.  On  this,  Macdonald  advanced  with  his  centre 
against  the  already  moving  Austrians,  but  was  compelled 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  323 

to  fall  back  beyond  the  Tidone,  covered  by  the  fire  of  his 
artillery  till  nightfall. 

Early  on  the  dawn  of  the  18th  the  allied  Russians  and 
Austrians  crossed  the  slender  Tidone,  and  in  four  great 
columns  hurled  their  strength  against  him,  as  he  drew  up 
in  order  of  battle  again  along  the  line  of  the  Trebia.  As 
the  country  was  thickly  intersected  by  hedges  and  ditches, 
the  approach  was  tedious,  the  attack  difficult;  but  the  van- 
guard, under  Prince  Pangrazion,  consisting  of  Cossacks, 
turned  the  flank  with  their  bayonets.  So  dreadful  was 
their  charge  that  500  Republicans  perished  there,  while  the 
adjutant-general,  two  colonels,  and  600  of  the  Polish  regi- 
ment of  Dombroceski  were  taken  prisoners ;  but  Mac- 
donald,  undismayed  and  unvanquished,  with  10,000  men 
crossed  the  river,  and,  sword  in  hand,  led  them  up  the 
opposite  bank,  till  repelled  by  a  dreadful  cannon  and 
musketry  fire,  which  continued  to  flash  out  till  eleven  at 
night. 

The  battle  of  the  third  day,  19th  June,  did  not  begin  till 
noon,  as  Macdonald  waited  for  the  Ligurians  to  come  up 
under  Lapoype;  then,  over  ground  strewn  by  the  dead,  the 
wounded,  and  the  awful  debris  of  the  two  days'  previous  fight- 
ing, the  conflict  began  with  freshened  fury,  when  the  column 
of  Sweyskowski  rushed  into  action,  and,  under  cover  of  their 
batteries,  the  French  forded  the  Trebia.  Long  and  doubtful 
was  the  contest,  horrible  the  carnage,  till  Melas,  the 
Austrian,  brought  up  his  cannon  at  the  critical  moment, 
and  Macdonald,  with  stern  reluctance,  began  his  retreat 
along  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  leaving  in  possession  of 
the  enemy  the  field,  where  12,000  of  them  lay  dead, 

Y2 


324          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

with  700  prisoners,  three  pairs  of  colours,  and  some 
artillery. 

While  the  defeat  of  the  Count  Bellegarde  and  the  surren- 
der of  Turin  took  place  elsewhere,  Macdonald,  to  whom  we 
confine  ourselves,  pursued  his  march  towards  Tuscany,  and, 
though  still  suffering  from  his  wounds,  personally  directed 
all  the  movements  of  his  troops  ;  but  finding  it  impossible 
to  resist  the  joint  attacks  of  the  three  great  Austrian 
generals,  Ott,Klenau,and  Hohenzollern,he  marched  towards 
Lucca,  to  form  a  junction  with  Moreau,  thus  ending  an  ex- 
pedition in  which  the  French  lost  12,000  men.  "  Yet  Mac- 
donald," says  Stephens,  "  derived  no  little  glory  from  the 
retreat,  effected  without  the  surrender  of  a  single  battalion, 
though  undertaken  after  the  loss  of  a  pitched  battle  and  in 
the  face  of  superior  forces."  (Hist,  of  the  Wars,  1803.) 

His  health  was  now  so  impaired,  though  only  in  his  34th 
year,  that  he  was  fain  to  obtain  the  permission  of  Suwar- 
row  to  visit  the  baths  of  Pisa,  and  by  that  time  the  French 
had  lost  all  their  conquests  in  Naples  and  on  the  Adriatic 
coast. 

When  they  seized  on  Tuscany,  in  October,  1800,  Mac- 
donald's  column  was  stationed  in  the  country  of  the 
Grisons,  prepared  to  scale  the  Rhetian  Alps  and  advance 
to  succour  their  comrades  in  Italy.  Crossing  the  Spliigen 
— the  usual  way  from  the  Grisons  to  Como — setting  his 
soldiers  the  example,  shovel  in  hand,  to  cut  a  passage 
through  the  snow,  he  was  ready  to  turn  the  enemy's  lines 
on  the  Mincio  and  Adige.  Ere  long  he  was  in  possession 
of  the  mountains  of  the  Tyrol,  hovering  between  Italy  and 
Germany.  He  made  himself  master  of  Trent,  and  when 


Meeting  of  Napoleon  and  Macdonald  after  Wagram. — p.  325 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  325 

the  treaty  of  Treviso  put  an  end  to  the  war,  he  returned 
to  Paris,  in  January,  1801. 

There  his  opposition  to  certain  measures  of  Napoleon 
caused  him  to  be  sent  as  minister  to  Denmark,  and,  not- 
withstanding all  his  bravery,  loyalty,  and  endurance,  his 
Scottish  name,  his  sympathies  for  the  banished  Moreau, 
caused  his  omission  from  the  list  of  the  marshals  of  France 
created  by  Napoleon ;  and  till  1809  he  remained  in  retire- 
ment and  forgotten. 

In  that  year  he  received  command  of  a  division  in  the 
corps  of  Eugene  Beauharnais,  in  the  army  of  Italy,  crossed 
the  Isolo  on  the  15th  of  April,  and  defeated  the  Austrians 
at  Goritz,  in  the  Littorale,  or  coast-land,  and  without  delay 
he  joined  the  Grand  Army  of  the  emperor  before  the  gates 
of  Vienna.  After  fighting  at  Wagram,  where  36,773  men 
of  both  armies  bled  on  the  field,  and  where  corpses  in 
every  variety  of  uniform  floated  in  hideous  masses  down 
the  Danube,  and  when  never  was  the  headstrong  valour  of 
Macdonald  more  conspicuous,  he  was  embraced  by 
Napoleon,  who  exclaimed,  "  Now,  Macdonald,  for  life  and 
death  we  are  together !"  He  received  his  baton  of 
marshal.  "  Among  all  the  marshals  of  France,"  says 
Bourrienne's  editor,  "  there  is  not  one  character  so  pure 
from  every  stain  on  a  soldier's  character,  so  daringly 
honest  to  Napoleon  in  his  prosperity,  so  lastingly  true  to 
him  in  adversity,  as  this,  his  only  Scottish  officer.". 

After  Wagram,  he  commanded  in  the  Duchy  of  Gratz, 
in  Lower  Styria,  when  Napoleon  became  the  husband  of 
Maria  Louisa,  and  was  in  the  zenith  of  his  power. 

After  serving  with  distinction  in  the  Peninsular  war, 


326          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

when  he  co-operated  with  Sachet  at  the  siege  of  Tortosa, 
and  possessed  himself  of  Figueras,  he  marched  at  the  head  of 
the  10th  Corps,  of  which  the  Prussian  army  formed  only 
a  part,  on  the  terrible  invasion  of  Russia,  and,  with  orders 
to  occupy  the  line  of  Riga  and  threaten  St.  Petersburg, 
he  occupied  the  capital  of  Livonia  in  conjunction  with  a 
British  naval  force.  The  invasion  part  became  a  failure. 
On  the  13th  of  December,  1812,  he  was  abandoned  by  the 
Prussians  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  but  by  that  time  all 
was  lost  elsewhere,  and  the  retreat  from  flaming  Moscow 
begau. 

In  1813  Macdonald  commanded  an  army  in  Saxony, 
when,  at  Mercebourg,  he  defeated  the  same  Prussians  who 
had  abandoned  him  in  the  previous  year  ;  and  the  dreadful 
battle  of  Leipzig  soon  followed — that  three  d.»ys'  battle, 
when  340,000  men  closed  in  the  strife.  France  was  de- 
feated, a  retreat  to  the  Rhine  became  unavoidable,  and  the 
orders  were  issued  for  it  at  nightfall ;  but  the  execution  was 
slow,  and — whether  by  treachery  or  design  will  never 
now  be  known — the  bridge  of  the  Elster  was  blown 
up  while  Macdonald  and  his  corps  were  still  defending 
Leipzig. 

He  threw  himself  into  the  river  and  escaped,  to  reach 
Napoleon,  who  continued  his  retreat  to  Mayence  with  the 
wretched  relics  of  a  shattered  host,  whose  spirit  was  now 
dead,  though  a  few  under  Macdonald,  at  the  battle  of 
Hanau,  made  that  last  stand  which  was  born  of  despair. 
Hope  fled !  The  allies  were  closing  on  Paris,  but  Mac- 
donald, true  to  the  instincts  of  his  loyal  father,  adhered  to 
the  fallen  emperor,  and  the  energy  with  which  he  espoused 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  327 

his  cause  at  Fontainebleau  embarrassed  even  the  Emperor  of 
Russia. 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  faithful  services  you  have  ren- 
dered me,"  said  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  who  presented  to 
him  the  magnificent  robes  he  had  received  from  Murad  Bey 
at  the  battle  of  Mont  Tabor  in  Egypt.  (Bourrienne,  etc.) 

"Sire!"  exclaimed  Macdonald,  "if  ever  I  have  a  son. 
this  sabre  shall  be  his  noblest  heritage." 

He  was  now  named  Councillor  of  War  and  Chevalier  of 
St.  Louis ;  and,  on  the  6th  June,  peer  of  France  by  Louis 
XVIII ;  yet,  when  Napoleon  landed  from  Elba,  the  first  to 
join  him  was  Macdonald,  after  seeing  to  the  safe  flight  of 
the  luckless  king,  whom  he  accompanied  as  far  as  Menin. 
The  Imperial  army  crumbled  into  dust  at  Waterloo,  and  in 
1818  Macdonald  was  one  of  the  four  marshals  who  had 
command  of  the  Royal  guard. 

In  1825  he  visited  Scotland,  and  expressed  to  Scott, 
Jefiery,  and  Cockburn,  in  Edinburgh,  "  his  pride  that  he  had 
Scottish  blood  in  his  veins." 

He  visited  the  fields  of  Prestonpans,  Bannockburn,  and 
Culloden,  and  everywhere  was  welcomed  with  Highland 
ardour  and  hospitality,  particularly  at  Armidale,  where  he 
was  welcomed  by  the  Macdonald  clan  in  full  tartan  array, 
and  saluted  by  fifteen  pieces  of  cannon.  At  Castle  Tiorin 
there  was  presented  to  him  an  aged  clansman,  Alaster  Mac- 
donald, who  had  fought  by  his  father's  side  in  the  memor- 
able '45. 

After  his  return  to  France  he  lived  a  life  of  peace  and 
seclusion,  and  died  in  his  75th  year,  on  the  24th  Septem- 
ber, 1840,  at  his  chateau  near  Courcelles. 


328          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

The  Duke  of  Tarentum  was  thrice  married  ;  firsfc,  as  we 
have  stated,  to  Mademoiselle  Jacob,  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful girls  in  France,  by  whom  he  had  two  daughters,  one 
married  to  the  Duke  of  Massa,  in  Italy,  and  one  to  the 
Comte  de  Perregoux.  "  He  married,  secondly,  Madam\ 
Joubert,  formerly  Mademoiselle  Montholon,  widow  of  his 
comrade,  the  brave  General  Joubert,  who  was  slain  in  battle 
against  Suwarrow  at  Novi,  16th  August,  1799.  By  her 
he  had  one  daughter,  afterwards  the  Marchioness  de 
Rochedragon.  He  married,  thirdly,  Madame  de  Bourgaing, 
widow  of  the  ambassador,  Baron  de  Bourgaing.  They 
had  two  children;  to  the  joy  of  the  old  marshal,  one 
of  them  was  a  son,  whom  he  named  Alexander,  who  in 
October,  1824,  was  held  at  the  baptismal  font  by  H.M. 
Charles  X  and  Madame  the  Dauphinesse,  and  who  now 
inherits  the  dukedom  of  Tareutum  and  the  sabre  of  Mont 
Tabor.  Such  was  the  career  of  Stephen  Macdonald,  the 
son  of  an  obscure  fugitive  from  the  fatal  field  of  Culloden." 
(Biog.  Dniverselle,  etc.) 

We  might  think  that  the  time  had  gone  past  when 
Scotsmen  would  enter  the  French  service,  but  it  is  not 
quite  so.  Thus  we  find  two  at  least  in  it — one  during  the 
Franco- Prussian  war,  Captain  Ogilvie ;  and  another  in 
1886,  Baron  Brown  de  Colstoun  of  Haddingtonshire,  giving 
evidence  as  Bear- Admiral  before  the  Budget  Committee  at 
Paris,  on  torpedoes. 

The  latter  title  is  singular,  as  the  only  child  and  heiress 
of  the  last  laird  of  the  ancient  line  of  Colstoun  was 
married  in  1 805  to  George,  ninth  Earl  of  Dalhousie,  whose 
family  represent  it. 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  329 

David  Stuart  Ogilvie,  latterly  staff  captain  of  the 
French  army,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Thomas  Ogilvie  of 
Corrimory,  Inverness-shire.  He  had  formerly  been  a  lieu- 
tenant in  the  20th  Madras  Native  Infantry  (or  old  2nd 
Eegiment),  and  in  1855  was  captain  of  division  in  our 
Land  Transport  Corps  in  the  Crimea.  Subsequently  he 
engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits.  These  proving  unfor- 
tunate, he  joined  the  French  army  during  the  memorable 
war  with  Germany,  but,  though  having  only  the  nominal 
rank  of  captain,  received,  in  the  confusion  consequent  on 
military  reverses,  the  important  command  of  a  battalion. 
He  served  with  it  at  the  defence  of  Paris,  and  led  several 
brilliant  sorties,  in  one  of  which  he  fell,  mortally  wounded. 

Previous  to  this,  "  he  had  been  attached  to  the  army  of 
the  Loire,  giving,  it  is  said,  M.  Gambetta  a  plan  of  the  cam- 
paign ;  but,  as  has  been  seen,"  adds  the  Elgin  Courant, 
"  he  has  died  of  his  wounds,  a  brave  and  gallant  soldier, 
•which  he  had  also  showed  himself  to  be  in  the  Crimean 
war." 

He  was  then  in  his  39fch  year,  and  capitaine  d'etat 
major  of  the  18th  Corps  d'Armee. 

Daring  the  same  strife  Captain  A.  Duncan,  a  retired 
officer  of  French  cavalry,  was  elected  commandant  of  the 
National  Guard  at  Marseilles,  in  March,  1871. 

Several  Scottish  names,  some  curiously  misspelled,  appear 
in  the  French  Annuaire  Militaire,  during  the  Crimean  war 
and  about  that  period ;  such  as  Captain  Pierre  Macintosh, 
63rd  Regiment ;  Lieutenant  Charles  V.  MacQueen,  66th 
Regiment ;  and  L.  V.  MacQuienie,  chef  de  bataillon,  12th 
Chasseurs  a  Pied;  but  these  were,  no  doubt,  only  of 

z 


330          THE  SCOTTISH  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE. 

Scottish  descent,  like  Louis  Nathaniel  Russel),  who  in  1865 
was  lieutenant  in  the  Corps  du  Genie,  and  in  1871  became 
Minister  of  War.  A  native  of  St.  Brienne,  in  Brittany, 
his  mother  was  a  Scottish  lady  named  Campbell,  and  he  is 
described  as  possessing  "  the  cold  phlegm  of  an  English- 
man with  the  clever  prudence  of  a  Sootsman." 

In  many  ways  the  French  still  remember  kindly  the  old 
alliance,  which  placed  the  double  tressure  of  fleur-de-lya 
round  the  Royal  arms  of  Scotland. 

"  Fier  comme  un  Ecossais  !"  (proud  as  a  Scotsman)  is 
still  proverbial,  with  reference  to  the  dashing  men-at-arms 
of  the  Archer  Guard,  the  fiery  Highlanders  and  the  stub- 
born ranks  of  Lowland  pikemen  and  musketeers,  who  as 
Soldiers  of  Fortune  upheld  the  glory  of  France — memories 
more  particularly  retained  in  the  southern  provinces,  where 
Republicanism  is  less  than  elsewhere. 

"  The  appearance  of  the  Highland  regiments  revived  these 
recollections,"  says  General  Stewart  of  Garth,  "  and  when 
travelling  through  Gascony,  Languedoc,  and  Provence,  in 
1814,  I  generally  found  that  the  mention  of  my  name  met 
with  a  desire  to  know  if  1  was  from  Scotland,  accompanied 
by  many  observations  on  the  friendly  connection  which 
subsisted  between  France  and  Scotland,  concluding  with 
an  expression  of  sincere  regret  at  the  interruption  of  that 
ancient  intimacy." 

Curiously  enough,  the  French  have  never  forgotten 
the  predilection  of  their  Scottish  allies  for  the  national 
haggis,  which  they  still  name  fain  benit  d'Ecosse,  or  "  the 
blessed  bread  of  Scotland." 

In  Paris  some  relics  of  the  ancient  alliance  still  linger  in 


THE  SCOTS  IN  FRANCE.  331 

the  names  of  the  thoroughfares ;  viz.,  the  Rue  d'Edimbourg, 
the  Rue  d'£cosse,  a  street  opening  off  the  Rue  St.  Hillier; 
and  the  Rue  Marie  Stuart,  now  in  New  Paris,  lying  between 
the  Rue  Montorgueil  and  the  Rue  St.  Donis. 

In  conclusion,  we  cannot  do  better  th°  .  quote  a  French 
tribute  to  Scotland,  taken  from  the  Temps  for  1887,  when 
noticing  a  recent  historical  work  by  the  well-known 
French  scholar,  M.  Weisner. 

When  visiting  Scotland,  says  the  Temps,  "he  was  much 
strucx  i  y  tho  friendly  feeling  for  France  still  kept  up  in 
f.ii,  noble  conntry.  Old  ties  between  France  and  Scot- 
land have  never  been  forgotten  in  Edinburgh.  The  recol- 
lection of  us  is  upheld  there,  through  that  of  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots.  Every  spot  which  speaks  of  her  speaks  also  of 
us.  She  was  our  Queen  before  she  was  Queen  of  the  Scots. 
The  fidelity  of  this  sympathy  is  shown  not  only  by  the 
cordial  welcome  which  all  our  compatriots  receive,  but  by 
the  tone  of  nearly  all  the  Scottish  press  towards  us.  At 
times,  when  the  London  papers  attack  us  most  strenuously, 
when  questions  of  foreign  policy  excite  the  national  sus- 
ceptibilities against  us,  the  Scottish  papers  are  absolutely 
free  from  a  single  word  injurious  to  France  !  This  reserve 
is  so  rare  throughout  the  rest  of  the  world,  that  it  deserves 
our  special  gratitude  ai^J  kindest  recognition." 


THE    END. 


LONDON : 
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THE  ROMANCE  OF  WAR 

THE  AIDE-DE-CAMP 

THE  SCOTTISH  CAVALIER 

BOTHWELL 

JANE  SETON    OR,  THE  QUEEN'S  ADVoJ 
CATE 

PHILIP  ROLLO 

THE  BLACK  WATCH 

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FIRST  LOVE  AXD  LAST  LOVE 

D  CK  RODNEY 

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JACK  MANLY 

ONLY  AN  ENSIGN 

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ONE  OF  THE  Six  HUNDRED 

MORLEY  ASHTON 

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