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my Lads, and fear nothing.' A moment later he received
a deep wound in the right arm from a scythe-blade, and having
been dragged from his horse, was struck a mortal blow on
the back of his head by a Highlander with a Lochaber axe.
Taking up his hat in his left hand the Colonel waved it
to his servant as a signal to retreat, with the words, 'Take
care of yourself.' On returning two hours later with a cart,
the man found that Gardiner had been stripped of his outer
clothing and boots, and robbed of his watch and other valuables,
and having been carried in a semi-conscious condition to
the manse of Tranent, he died there the following morning.
That Gardiner fought bravely there can be no doubt, but
Doddridge's narrative, which was given him by the Colonel's
servant, is almost certainly untrue. Apart from the improbability
of a man in his state of health being able to retain his
powers of movement and speech after being so severely wounded,
the evidence of his relative Cornet Ker, who was posted
'very near' him, seems conclusive. According to him the
Colonel fell from his horse after receiving two gun-shot
wounds in the right side. Having no servant or spare horse
in attendance he was unable to remount, and almost immediately
afterwards was brought to the ground by six cuts in the
head. Ker added that Gardiner's wounds had been 'certify'd'
to him by the surgeon who had attended the Colonel, the
minister of Tranent, and Gardiner's 'body servant'.
On the Jacobite side six officers were killed, of whom the
most noteworthy were young David Threipland of Fingask,
and Malcolm MacGregor, who commanded one of Perth's companies.
Attended only by two servants, Threipland had pursued a
party of dragoons, who suddenly turned and shot him dead.
He was buried where he fell, and years afterwards Scott
remembered, as a child, sitting on his grave. MacGregor,
whom Johnstone describes as 'whimsical and singular', was
hit in five places, and after he was wounded called out
to his men, 'My lads, I am not dead, and, by God, I shall
see if any of you does not do his duty.' He died soon after
the battle.
The casualties among the rank and file of the royal army
are difficult to assess, for no official Government figures
appear to have been issued, and those available are nearly
all derived from Jacobite sources. Under the heading of
'Killed' the numbers range from Johnstone's ridiculous figure
of 1,300 to Murray of Broughton's more modest total of 500,
while Home puts the figure as low as 200,
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