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feet was confronted by a Highland officer with a party
of 16 men. who told him he was a prisoner. They ordered
him to give up his arms, but immediately rushed on in pursuit,
and the Colonel was able to make his way between the oncoming
columns to escape to Seton.
At the beginning of the action Cope had ridden over to the
right, but by the time he reached it the dragoons had already
given way. Returning towards the left, he now tried with
the rest of the officers to get the foot to stand fast and
make a regular fire. But entreaties and threats were alike
useless, and after giving what Drummore described as an
'infamous' fire, the infantry was broken into from right
to left by successive waves of Highlanders. Throwing down
their muskets, they seized broadsword and dirk, and closing
in on the terror-stricken redcoats, they hacked and stabbed
their way forward among what soon became a flying rabble
with no thought but of escape. Far from behaving like the
coward of popular tradition Cope rode in among the broken
foot, calling upon them to halt, and Captain Pointz of Guise's
heard him shout to them: 'For Shame, Gentlemen, behave like
Britons, give them another Fire, and you'll make them run',
and Lieutenant Greenwell of Murray's: 'For Shame, Gentlemen,
don't let us be beat by such a Set of Banditti.'
Finding it impossible to rally the foot. Cope, joined by
Lords Loudon and Home, next tried to round up the dragoons.
Most of Gardiner's troopers had made for the narrow defile
south of Preston House, which soon became choked by a mob
of shouting, swearing men and terrified horses, all struggling
desperately to force their way through. Others with their
horses' croups turned to the enemy huddled together under
the park walls, or dismounting, crawled through the breaches
made in them the previous afternoon, while many of Hamilton's
men escaped to Prestonpans. As it was equally impossible
to get the dragoons to make a stand, and since most of them
had by this time forced their way through the defile. Cope
rode through them, intending to bring them to a halt on
the far side. At the west end of Preston village he met
Lord Home, pistol in hand, turning the runaways into a field,
and with the help of Lord Loudon and some of the dragoon
officers about 45 o of them were got together. A squadron
was formed, and shortly afterwards, on a body of High- landers
appearing at the other end of the village, it was ordered
to attack them, 'seeing they stood in Awe'. So also did
the dragoons,
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