staying with the minister of Dunbar. Before dinner they
walked in the manse garden, and Carlyle describes him as looking
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'pale and dejected, which I attributed
to his bad health, and the fatigue he had lately undergone.
I began to ask him if he was not now satisfied with
the junction of the foot and the dragoons, and confident
that they would give account of the rebels. He answered
dejectedly that he hoped it might be so, but - and then
made a long pause. I said, that to be sure they had
made a very hasty retreat; 'a foul flight', said he,
'Sandie, and they have not recovered from their panic;
and I'll tell you in confidence that I have not above
ten men in my regiment whom I am certain will follow
me. But we must give them battle now, and God's will
be done!' ' |
During dinner with the minister's family and his relative.
Cornet Ker, Gardiner 'assumed an air of gaiety', and joked
with Carlyle about his adventures as a volunteer, and his
rawness as a soldier in not having taken up the first good
quarters he could find the previous night. As for the coming
battle, the Colonel spoke of it as a certain victory, 'if
God were on our side'.
Another young man, John Home, destined to become better known
as the author of Douglas (' Whaur's yer Wullie Shakespeare
noo ?'), and a history of the Rising, was also a volunteer
with the royal army. He had arrived that day from Edinburgh,
and was able to give Cope a singularly detailed account of
the Highland army and its numbers. After making a round of
the various enemy-held posts in the city. Home had gone out
to the King's Park where the main body of the Highland army
was encamped, and on arriving there had found the men ' sitting
in ranks upon the ground, extremely intent upon their food'.
So intent were they that he had been able to count them' man
by man', and after including those in the city, he reckoned
the Highlanders' numbers to amount to fewer than 2,000 men.
In appearance he noted that 'most of them seemed to be strong,
active, and hardy men' of average build, whose Highland dress
set off their figures to advantage, and that' their stern
countenances, and bushy uncombed hair, gave them a fierce,
barbarous, and imposing aspect'. Although three-quarters of
them were armed with swords and fire- locks, the latter were
'of all sorts and sizes, muskets, fusees, and fowling-pieces';
of the rest, some had only a sword or a firelock, and he had
noticed about a hundred men who were armed with scythe- blades
attached to pitchfork shafts. As for artillery he had seen
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