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Abhinav Suri

Practical AI for Healthcare

Professionals
Machine Learning with Numpy, Scikit-learn, and
TensorFlow
Abhinav Suri
San Antonio, TX, USA

ISBN 978-1-4842-7779-9 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-7780-5

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-7780-5

© Abhinav Suri 2022

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the

Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned,
specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other
physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,

service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general
use.

The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the
advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate
at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Apress imprint is published by the registered company APress

Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY
10004, U.S.A.
This book is dedicated to all the mentors and friends who have given me
support throughout my education and beyond. A special thank you goes
to my parents, whom I cannot thank enough for encouraging me and
helping me down this path. Sic Itur Ad Astra.
Foreword to Practical AI for Healthcare
Professionals
Over the years ahead, artificial intelligence (AI) will play an ever-
increasing and ultimately a transformative role for medicine’s future.
Nearly every week, we are seeing peer-reviewed studies that
demonstrate the potential of deep neural networks for improving the
accuracy of interpretation of medical images, from scans to slides to
skin abnormalities to real-time machine vision pickup of colon polyps
during endoscopy. Beyond medical images, algorithms are getting
validated for patients, capturing their own data, coupled with
algorithmic assistance, to facilitate the diagnosis of heart rhythm
abnormalities, urinary tract infections, ear infections in children, and
many other common reasons that would require a visit to a doctor. This
early phase of medical AI will inevitably progress with validation via
prospective and randomized clinical trials that are sorely lacking at this
juncture. As Antonio de Leva wrote in The Lancet, “Machines will not
replace physicians, but physicians using AI will soon replace those not
using it.”
But how will physicians get up to speed and learn about this field,
which has undergone so much rapid change in the past decade owing to
the subtype of AI known as deep learning (DL)? In this new book,
Abhinav Suri, a medical student at UCLA, has provided an outstanding
primer for uninitiated clinicians. Abhinav has the perfect background
for this: a double degree in computer science and biology from Penn, an
MPH degree from Columbia, and additional experience leading medical
scan AI research at the Perelman School of Medicine. In just seven
chapters, he succinctly lays out the basics and delineates the limits and
potential flaws of AI, the different types of machine learning (ML)
algorithms and deep neural networks, and “snake oil” AI. We’ve needed
such a book for the medical community to get grounded, not so that
physicians can code, but rather to understand the power, nuances, and
limitations as AI makes its way deeper into the practice of medicine.
Undoubtedly, we will see more educational tools to help promote
understanding and optimal use of AI in healthcare over the years ahead.
The main textbook of the overall field is Deep Learning by Ian
Goodfellow and colleagues, but it is quite comprehensive and well
suited for people who intend to code and get deep into neural
networks. Suri’s new book sets a very good standard for the goal of
getting a quick and pragmatic introduction into AI, catering to the
specific needs of clinicians. It will get you to “think like a computer”
which is a requisite step to get grounded. Awareness of the basics and
nuances of AI will eventually become a standard part of every medical
school curriculum, and this primer may be considered a very good start
in that direction.

—Eric J. Topol, MD
Professor and EVP of Scripps Research
Author, Deep Medicine
La Jolla, California
Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the
author in this book is available to readers on GitHub via the book’s
product page, located at www.apress.com/978-1-4842-7779-9. For
more detailed information, please visit
http://www.apress.com/source-code.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1:​Introduction to AI and Its Use Cases
The Healthcare Information Paradox
AI, ML, Deep Learning, Big Data:​What Do the Buzzwords Mean?​
AI Considerations
Summary
The Rest of the Book…
Chapter 2:​Computational Thinking
How Computers “Think”
What “Can” and “Cannot” Be Solved
Algorithmic Alternatives
Stable Matching
Activity Selection
Analysis of Algorithms and Other Algorithms
Conclusion
Chapter 3:​Overview of Programming
But First, What Are Programs?​
Getting Started with Python
What Just Happened?​
Stepping It Up a Bit
Variables, Methods/​Functions, String Operations, Print String
Interpolation Applied
Minor Improvements:​If Statements
More Improvements:​File Input and For Loops/​Iteration
File Output, Dictionaries, List Operations
Cutting This Down with Pandas
 Summary
Chapter 4:​A Brief Tour of Machine Learning Algorithms
ML Algorithm Fundamentals
Regression
Linear Regression (for Classification Tasks)
Logistic Regression
LASSO, Ridge, and Elastic Net for Regression, the Bias-
Variance Trade-Off
Instance Learning
k-Nearest Neighbors (and Scaling in ML)
Support Vector Machines
Decision Trees and Tree-Based Ensemble Algorithms
Classification and Regression Trees
Tree-Based Ensemble Methods:​Bagging, Random Forest,
and XGBoost
Clustering/​Dimensionality Reduction
k-Means Clustering
Principal Component Analysis
Artificial Neural Networks and Deep Learning
Fundamentals (Perceptron, Multilayer Perceptron)
Convolutional Neural Networks
Other Networks (RCNNs, LSTMs/​RNNs, GANs) and Tasks
(Image Segmentation, Key Point Detection, Image
Generation)
Other Topics
Evaluation Metrics
k-Fold Cross Validation
 Next Steps
Chapter 5:​Project #1 Machine Learning for Predicting Hospital
Admission
Data Processing and Cleaning
Installing + Importing Libraries
Reading in Data and Isolating Columns
Data Visualization
Cleaning Data
Dealing with Categorical Data/​One-Hot Encoding
Starting the ML Pipeline
Training a Decision Tree Classifier
Grid Searching
Evaluation
Visualizing the Tree
This Seems Like a Lot to Do
Moving to PyCaret
Extra:​Exporting/​Loading a Model
Summary and What’s Next
Chapter 6:​Project #2 CNNs and Pneumonia Detection from Chest
X-Rays
Project Setup
Colab Setup
Downloading Data
Splitting Data
Creating Data Generators and Augmenting Images
Your First Convolutional Neural Network:​SmallNet
 Callbacks:​TensorBoard, Early Stopping, Model
Checkpointing, and Reduce Learning Rates
Defining the Fit Method and Fitting Smallnet
Your Second Convolutional Neural Network:​Transfer
Learning with VGG16
Visualizing Outputs with Grad-CAM
Evaluating Performance of SmallNet vs.​VGG16
Evaluating on “External” Images
Things to Improve
Recap
Chapter 7:​The Future of Healthcare and AI
Starting Your Own Projects
Debugging
Considerations
Patient Privacy
Algorithmic Bias
Snake Oil + Creating Trust in the Real World
How to Talk About AI
Wrap Up
Index
About the Author
Abhinav Suri
is a current medical student at the UCLA David Geffen School of
Medicine. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of
Pennsylvania with majors in Computer Science and Biology. He also
completed a master’s degree in Public Health (MPH in Epidemiology) at
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Abhi has been
dedicated to exploring the intersection between computer science and
medicine. As an undergraduate, he carried out and directed research on
deep learning algorithms for the automated detection of vertebral
deformities and the detection of genetic factors that increase risk of
COPD. His public health research focused on opioid usage trends in NY
State and the development/utilization of geospatial dashboards for
monitoring demographic disease trends in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outside of classes and research, Abhi is an avid programmer and
has made applications that address healthcare worker access in
Tanzania, aid the discovery process for anti-wage theft cases, and
facilitate access to arts classes in underfunded school districts. He also
developed (and currently maintains) a popular open source repository,
Flask Base, which has over 2,000 stars on GitHub. He also enjoys
teaching (lectured a course on JavaScript) and writing. So far, his
authored articles and videos have reached over 200,000 people across
a variety of platforms.
About the Technical Reviewer
Vishwesh Ravi Shrimali
graduated in 2018 from BITS Pilani, where he studied mechanical
engineering. Since then, he has worked with BigVision LLC on deep
learning and computer vision and was involved in creating official
OpenCV AI courses. Currently, he is working at Mercedes Benz Research
and Development India Pvt. Ltd. He has a keen interest in programming
and AI and has applied that interest in mechanical engineering projects.
He has also written multiple blogs on OpenCV and deep learning on
LearnOpenCV, a leading blog on computer vision. He has also
coauthored Machine Learning for OpenCV 4 (Second Edition) by Packt.
When he is not writing blogs or working on projects, he likes to go on
long walks or play his acoustic guitar.
© Abhinav Suri 2022
A. Suri, Practical AI for Healthcare Professionals
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-7780-5_1

1. Introduction to AI and Its Use Cases

Abhinav Suri1
(1) San Antonio, TX, USA

In the healthcare world, talk about artificial intelligence (AI) has been
increasing over the past few years. As a result, healthcare professionals
are strongly considering the usage of this remarkable tool in
creating novel solutions that could benefit clinicians and patients alike.
Yet, in the process of developing these applications, individuals are
often confronted with several questions, perhaps the most important of
which is “Do I really need AI?” To answer that question, one has to
understand what AI is beyond the high-level. Unfortunately, the vast
majority of beginner-facing resources on AI stop at the generalized
overview of AI and do not talk about how to implement it. The more
advanced materials suffer from being opaque, are mathematically
dense, and often are addressed to an audience of seasoned
programmers and computer scientists. The purpose of this book is to
give you, the reader, an understanding of what AI actually is, how it
works, and how to code AI-based algorithms in a manner that is
approachable to a beginner (with a background in
healthcare/medicine). But before we can get into the details of AI and
its mechanisms, we need to establish a ground-truth definition of what
AI actually is and establish the logic behind what kinds of problems
would benefit from an AI approach. With that in mind, let’s get started
by talking about a paradox that the world of healthcare is facing: too
much information and no idea what to do with it.

The Healthcare Information Paradox

Other documents randomly have
different content
advancing Saxe had brought up additional troops to meet them and
had posted regiments Couronne and Soissonois in rear of the King's
regiment, and the Brigade Royal in rear of the French Guards; but all
alike went down before the irresistible volleys. The red-coats
continued their triumphant advance for full three hundred yards into
the heart of the French camp, and old Ligonier's heart leaped within
him, for he thought that the battle was won.
Saxe for his part thought little differently from Ligonier; but
though half dead with dropsy, reduced to suck a bullet to assuage
his intolerable thirst, so weak that he could not ride but was carried
about the field in a wicker litter, the gallant German never for a
moment lost his head. Sending a message to the French King, who
with the Dauphin was watching the action from a windmill in the
rear, to retire across the Scheldt without delay, he strove to gain
time to rally his infantry. On the first repulse of the French Guards
Cumberland had detached two battalions to help the Dutch by a
flanking attack on Fontenoy. Seeing that this movement must be
checked at all hazards, Saxe headed these troops back by a charge
of cavalry; whereupon one of the battalions extended itself along the
left flank of the British. Partly in this way, partly owing to the
incessant play of the French artillery on both flanks, the two British
lines assumed the form of two huge oblong columns which gradually
became welded into one. The change was not untimely, for now the
first line of the French cavalry, which had been posted in rear of the
forest of Barry, came down upon the British at full gallop, but only to
reel back shivered to fragments by the same terrible fire. Then the
second line tried its fortune, but met with no better fate. Finally, the
Household Cavalry, the famous Maison du Roi, burning with all the
ardour of Dettingen unavenged, was launched against the scarlet
columns, and like its predecessors, came flying back, a mob of
riderless horses and uncontrollable men, decimated, shattered and
repulsed by the never-ending fire. "It was like charging two flaming
fortresses rather than two columns of infantry."[191]
 Nevertheless some time was hereby gained for the broken
French infantry to reform. The British, once arrived within the French
camp, came to a halt, and looked at last to see how the Dutch were
faring on their left. As has already been told, Waldeck's attack had
been a total failure, and the British, unsupported and always under a
cross-fire of artillery, fell back to the crest of the ridge and were
reformed for a second attack. Waldeck undertook to make another
attempt on Fontenoy, and Cumberland in reliance upon his help
again advanced at the head of the British. But meanwhile Saxe had
brought forward his reserves from Ramecroix, and among them the
Irish brigade, to meet him, while artillery had also been brought up
from the French right to play upon the British front. The French
Guards and the rest of the troops of the French first line had also
been rallied, and the task of the British was well-nigh desperate. The
Irish brigade, which consisted of six battalions, was made up not of
Irish only but of Scots and English also, desperate characters who
went into action with a rope round their necks, and would fight like
devils. Yet, even in this second attack the British carried their
advance as far as in the first, the perfection of their fire-discipline
enabling them to beat back even the Irish brigade for a time. But
their losses had been frightfully heavy; the Dutch would not move
one foot to the attack of Fontenoy, and the cannonade in front
added to that in the flanks became unendurable. The French infantry
likewise closed round on them in superior numbers on both flanks,
and it became apparent that there was nothing for it but a retreat.
Ligonier sent back two battalions to secure the roads leading
through Vezon, and the retreat then began in perfectly good order.
The French Household Cavalry made a furious charge upon the rear
of the column as it faced about, but found to its cost that the
infernal fire was not yet quenched. The three battalions of Guards
and a battalion of Hanoverians turned sternly about to meet them,
and gave them a few parting volleys, which wholly extinguished one
regiment and brought down every officer of another. A few British
squadrons, the Blues conspicuous among them, pushed forward, in
spite of heavy losses, through the cross-fire to lend what help they
could, and the remnant of the heroic battalions retired, facing about
in succession at every hundred yards, as steadily and proudly as
they had advanced.
Their losses in the action were terribly severe. Of the fifteen
thousand infantry, English and Hanoverian, for the Hanoverians bore
themselves not less nobly than their Allies, nearly six thousand were
killed or wounded, the casualties of the twenty English battalions
just exceeding four thousand men. The heaviest sufferers were the
Twelfth and Twenty-third regiments, both of which lost over three
hundred men, the Twenty-first and Thirty-first, which lost rather less
than three hundred men apiece, and the three battalions of Guards,
which lost each of them about two hundred and fifty. Of the
Generals of Foot, Cumberland, Ligonier, and Brigadier Skelton,
though in the hottest of the fire, alone came off unhurt; all of the
rest were either killed or wounded. Many regiments of cavalry also
suffered not a little, in particular the Blues and Royal Dragoons; and
the total loss of the British cavalry exceeded three hundred men and
six hundred horses. The loss of the French was never made public,
but was certainly at least equal to that of the Allies. Contemporary
accounts set it down, with no great improbability, at fully ten
thousand men. As an example of the prowess of British infantry,
Fontenoy stands almost without a parallel in its history. The
battalions formed under a cross-fire of artillery, remained halted
under the same fire, advanced slowly for half a mile in perfect order
under the same fire, and marched up to within pistol-shot of the
French infantry to receive their volley before they discharged a shot.
They shattered the French battalions to pieces, repulsed three
separate attacks of cavalry, halted under a heavy cannonade, retired
for some distance and reformed under a cross-fire, advanced again
with both artillery and musketry playing on front and flanks, made
the bravest brigade in the French service recoil, repelled another
desperate attack of cavalry, and retired slowly and orderly under a
cross-fire almost to the end. By consent of all the British
commanders it was Ingoldsby's misunderstanding of his orders and
his failure to capture the Redoubt d'Eu that lost the battle; and
Ingoldsby was duly tried by court-martial for his behaviour. He was,
however, acquitted of all but an error in judgment; and indeed there
was no question of cowardice, for he accompanied the remainder of
the infantry in its advance with his own detachment and was
severely wounded. It is customary to blame Cumberland for dashing
his head against a wall in attempting such an attack, but he could
hardly have been expected to count on such bad luck as the failure
of Ingoldsby on one flank and of the Dutch on the other. The sheer
audacity of his advance went near to give him the victory. Saxe
owned that he never dreamed that any General would attempt such
a stroke, or that any troops would execute it. Cumberland is blamed
also for not attacking either the Redoubt d'Eu or Fontenoy after he
had penetrated into the French camp. This charge is less easy to
rebut, for the French always know when they are beaten, and seeing
their left rolled up and troops advancing on Fontenoy in flank and
rear would probably have given up the game for lost, and that the
more readily since their ammunition in Fontenoy was for the
moment nearly exhausted. Even so, however, Saxe's reserves were
always at hand at Ramecroix, and would have required to be held in
check. Another puzzling question, namely, why Cumberland did not
make greater use of his artillery in the action, is answered by the
fact that the contractors for the horsing of the guns ran off with the
horses early in the day. Such an occurrence was by no means
unusual, and yet it never happened to Marlborough, not even at
Malplaquet. Altogether, the conclusion seems to be that Cumberland
stumbled on to a brilliant feat of arms by mistake, and, though
seconded by his troops with bravery equal to his own, was not a
General of sufficient capacity to turn his success to account.
At the close of the action Cumberland retreated to Ath and
encamped under the guns of that fortress, leaving his wounded to
the mercy of the French, who, by a strange perversion of their usual
chivalry, treated them with shameful barbarity. Among the wounded,
strangely enough, were a few of the new sect of Methodists founded
by John Wesley, who faced death and wounds with the stern
exultation that had once inspired the troopers of Cromwell. One of
them wrote to Wesley, that even after a bullet in each arm had
forced him to retire from the field, he hardly knew whether he was
on earth or heaven, such was the sweetness of the day. This man
and a few more of his kind probably helped their fellow-sufferers
through the misery of the days following the battle, until
Cumberland's furious remonstrances with Saxe procured for them
better treatment.

June 30
July 11.
August.

From Ath Cumberland fell back to Lessines and drew out such
British corps as were in garrison in Flanders to replace those which
had suffered most heavily in the action. Meanwhile Tournay, very
shortly after the battle, fell by treachery into the hands of the
French; and Saxe's field-army being thus raised to a force nearly
double that of the Allies, Cumberland was reduced to utter
helplessness. The mischief of Fontenoy lay not in the repulse and
the loss of men, for the British did not consider themselves to have
been beaten, but in the destruction of all confidence in the Dutch
troops. The troubles which had harassed Wade to despair now
reappeared. Cumberland, despite his inferiority in strength, was
expected somehow to defend Flanders, Brabant, and above all
Brussels, and yet simultaneously to keep an active army in the field.
Worse than this, he attempted to fulfil the expectation. Against his
better judgment he weakened his force still further by detaching a
force for the garrison of Mons,[192] and then, instead of taking up a
strong position on the Scheldt to cover Ghent at all hazards, he
yielded to the pressure of the Austrians and crossed the Dender to
cover Brussels.[193] Halting too long between two opinions he at last
sent off a detachment for the defence of Ghent, half of which was
cut off and turned back with heavy loss, while the other half, after
enduring much rough usage on the march, entered Ghent only to
see the town surprised by the French on the following day. Four
British regiments took part in this unlucky enterprise and suffered
heavy loss, while the Royal Scots and the Twenty-third, which had
been despatched to Ghent after Fontenoy, of course became
prisoners.[194] Moreover, a vast quantity of British military stores
were captured in Ghent, although Cumberland had a week before
ordered that they should be removed.[195] After this blow
Cumberland retired to Vilvorde, a little to the north of Brussels, still
hoping to cover both that city and Antwerp, and so to preserve his
communications both with Germany and with the sea. Here again he
sacrificed his better judgment to the clamour of the Austrians, for he
would much have preferred to secure Antwerp only. His position was
in fact most critical, and he was keenly alive to it.[196] Just when his
anxiety was greatest there came a letter from the Secretary of State,
announcing that invasion of England was imminent, and hoping that
troops could be spared from Flanders without prejudice to his
operations. "What!" answered Ligonier indignantly, "Are you aware
that the enemy has seventy thousand men against our thirty
thousand, and that they can place a superior force on the canal
before us and send another army round between us and Antwerp to
cut off our supplies and force us to fight at a disadvantage? This is
our position, and this is the result of providing His Royal Highness
with insufficient troops; and yet you speak of our having a corps to
spare to defend England!"[197]
 Walker & Boutall del. To face page 122.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1743. 16th
DETTINGEN, June 1743.
27th
th
FONTENOY, April 30th 1745.
May 11

Aug. 13.
24
Sept.
Oct.

Saxe's plan for reducing the Allies was in fact uniformly the
same throughout the whole of the war, namely to cut off their
communications with the sea on one side and with Germany on the
other. Even before he began to press Cumberland northward toward
Antwerp he had detached a force to lay siege to Ostend, which was
the English base. Cumberland, on his side, had advised that the
dykes should be broken down and the country inundated in order to
preserve it, and both Dutch and Austrians had promised that this
should be done; but as usual it was not done, and before the end of
August Ostend had surrendered to the French. The English base was
then perforce shifted to Antwerp. But by this time the requests for
the return of troops to England had become urgent and imperative
orders. First ten battalions were recalled, then the rest of the foot,
and at last practically the whole of the army, including Cumberland
himself.[198] It is now time to explain the causes for the alarm in
England.
Authorities.—The official account of Fontenoy was drawn up by Ligonier in
French and translated into English, with some omissions, for publication. The
French version is far the better and will be found in the State Papers. The account
in the Life of the Duke of Cumberland is poor, though valuable as having been
drawn up from the reports of the English Generals. Of the French accounts
Voltaire's is the best known, and, as might be expected from such a hand,
admirably spirited. More valuable are the accounts in the Conquête des Pays Bas,
in the Mémoires du Maréchal de Saxe, where Saxe's own report may be read, in
the Campagnes des Pays Bas, and in Espagnac. The newspapers furnish a few
picturesque incidents of some value.
 CHAPTER VI

1745.

Ever since the death of Cardinal Fleury, in January 1743, the hopes
of the Jacobites for French help in an attempt to re-establish the
Stuarts by force of arms had been steadily reviving. Cardinal Tencin,
Fleury's successor, was warmly attached to the cause of the exiled
house; the feeling between France and England was greatly
embittered; the beginning of overt hostilities could be only a matter
of time; and an invasion of Britain was the most powerful diversion
that could be made to divide the forces of the partisans of the
Pragmatic Sanction. In the autumn of 1743 preparations for a
descent upon England from Dunkirk under Marshal Saxe were
matured, and a French fleet, with Saxe and Prince Charles Stuart on
board, actually sailed as far as Dungeness. There, however, it was
dispersed by a storm, which wrecked many of the transports, and for
the present put an effectual end to the enterprise.

July 25
August 5.

Prince Charles returned to Paris not a little disappointed, but

receiving no further encouragement from France nourished the hope
of landing in Scotland and making his attempt with the aid of his
British adherents only. Those adherents for their part had warned
him that success was hopeless unless he should bring with him at
least six thousand men and ten thousand stand of arms; but Charles
was none the less determined to try his fortune. The defeat of the
British at Fontenoy doubtless strengthened his resolution: in June
1745 he came to a definite decision, and on the 25th of July he
landed at Loch-nan-Uamh, between Moidart and Arisaig, with seven
companions, of whom one only besides himself, Sir John Macdonald,
had any experience of the military profession. Three weeks before
his actual arrival a rumour of his landing had reached Sir John Cope,
the General commanding in Scotland, who recommended that all
officers should be recalled to their posts, and that every precaution
should be taken.[199] Even so, however, Charles had been on
Scottish soil a full week before Cope could believe the rumour to be
true.

August 19.
30

The three persons on whom the Government chiefly relied for

the safety of Scotland were Cope himself, Andrew Fletcher, the Lord
Justice-Clerk, and Duncan Forbes, the Lord President: but the only
man in authority who at once betrayed serious apprehension was
the Lord Advocate Craigie, who had been dreading some such
complication ever since Fontenoy. Cope also was uneasy, owing to
the extreme weakness of the force at his disposal. He had not, in all,
more than three thousand men, for the most part new and raw
regiments upon which he could repose little trust, and which in spite
of his representations in the previous year were not even properly
armed.[200] He resolved, however, to march northward at once in
order to overawe any waverers by a display of force: and on
receiving at last, after long delay, absolute confirmation of the news
of the Pretender's disembarkation, he threw his most trustworthy
regiment, the Sixth Foot, with two companies of the Royal Scots,
into the forts which protected the line of Loch Lochy and Loch Ness.
[201] It was, however, impossible for him to move without first
making provision for the subsistence of his little army, and this was a
work of much time and difficulty. It was not until the 19th of August
that he finally marched from Edinburgh for Fort Augustus with
fifteen hundred men of the Forty-fourth, Forty-sixth, and Forty-
seventh Foot, and a convoy of stores so large as greatly to impede
his movements.
 Meanwhile affairs had assumed a far more dangerous
complexion. Charles had been active in summoning the leaders of
the clans on which he counted; and though less favourably received
than he had hoped he had secured Cameron of Lochiel, Macdonald
of Keppoch, Macdonald of Glengarry, and others. On the 16th of
August a party of Keppoch's and Lochiel's men succeeded in cutting
off two companies of the Royal Scots which were on their way to
Fort Augustus, killed a dozen of them, and took the rest prisoners:
and on the 19th, the very day of Cope's departure from Edinburgh,
Charles raised his standard at Glenfinnan, to find himself on the next
day at the head of sixteen hundred men.
Cope had not yet received full intelligence of these transactions,
but it was pretty evident to him that his advance to the north was
likely to be something more than a mere military promenade, and he
became extremely unwilling to execute it. Yielding, however, to
positive orders from the Lords-Justices[202] he continued his march
upon Fort Augustus, not a little disgusted to find that, though he had
encumbered his train with several hundred stand of arms for
distribution to loyal volunteers, no such volunteers were forthcoming
to receive them. Charles, for his part, on receiving information of
Cope's approach, with great promptitude made a forced march to
Corry Arrack, the worst pass on the road, and having disposed his
troops with great skill, waited exultingly for the coming of the red-
coats that he might overwhelm them during their passage of the
defile.[203] To his surprise not a man appeared. Cope had been
made aware of his dispositions and had turned aside from
Dalwhinnie to Inverness, leaving the road to the south open to the
rebels. From Inverness he despatched urgent messages to
Edinburgh for transports to convey his troops southward by sea.
Cope has always been greatly blamed for this movement, the
contention being that he should either have maintained his ground
in front of Charles or have fallen back on Stirling. All critics, however,
overlook the crucial points, that not only was his force inferior to
that of the rebels but that he could not trust a man of them.
Charles's Highlanders could march two miles to Cope's one, and
would have made short work of a large convoy in charge of
undisciplined troops. Again, if Cope had halted, the rebels would
have been on him in a few hours before he had had time to
entrench himself, even supposing that he could have found
entrenching tools. The fact that he sent for transports shows that he
would not rely upon his troops in a retreat; the advance northward
was undertaken contrary to his advice, and the misfortune that
followed was simply the usual result of civilians' interference with
military operations.

Aug. 30
Sept. 10.
Sept. 4 .
15
Sept. 11.
22

Charles, on his side, lost no time in following up his advantage,

and at once pushed rapidly southward. One of his parties was,
indeed, repelled by the minute English garrison which held the post
at Ruthin,[204] but his men indemnified themselves by bringing in
Macpherson of Cluny a prisoner, and thereby gaining Lord Lovat and
the Frasers to the cause. By the 30th of August Charles had reached
Blair Athol, and on the 4th of September he entered Perth, where he
was joined by James Drummond, titular Duke of Perth, and Lord
George Murray, both of them valuable acquisitions for the following
that they brought with them, while Murray was, in addition, a very
skilful officer. Resuming his march on the 11th, he avoided the guns
of Stirling Castle by fording the Forth eight miles above the fortress,
and took up his quarters in the town of Stirling, which had opened
its gates to him. By the 15th he was within eight miles of Edinburgh.

Sept. 16.
27
Sept. 17.
28
 The city was in consternation over his approach. The Castle of
Edinburgh was, indeed, provided with an adequate garrison, but the
town was absolutely defenceless; nor were there any regular troops
at hand excepting the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dragoons, both of
them young regiments, raw and untrained. On the morning of the
16th these two corps, together with a party of the town-guard, were
drawn up at Coltbridge, when their picquets were suddenly driven in
by the pistol-shots of a few mounted gentlemen of the rebel army.
The picquets were seized with inexplicable panic, which presently
communicated itself to the main body; and in a few minutes both
regiments, despite the entreaties of their officers, were off at full
gallop to the south, never stopping until they reached Preston. They
had not been there long before the panic was rekindled. One of the
dragoons, while in search of forage after dark, fell into a disused
coal-pit full of water and shouted lustily for help. Instantly the cry
was raised that the Highlanders were on them, and the men, rushing
to their horses, galloped away once more through the night, and
could not be halted till they reached Dunbar. The "Canter of
Coltbrigg," as this ludicrous but shameful flight was dubbed, was the
source of all the subsequent success of the Pretender. So petty are
the causes that will go near to overset a throne. Probably, if the
truth of the matter could be known, it would be found that a few
raw horses, unbroken to fire-arms, among the picquets were the
cause of the whole disaster.[205] For the moment, however, the panic
was decisive in its results. Charles entered Edinburgh without
resistance on the following day and took up his quarters at
Holyrood; but halting for no more than twenty-four hours in the
capital he pursued his march to the south. His troops by this time
had swelled to twenty-five hundred men, though many of these
were indifferently armed, and the force was absolutely destitute of
artillery. Still happy chance had sent panic in advance of him, and he
wisely followed it with all possible speed.
 Sept. 19.
30
Sept. 20
October 1.

Cope, meanwhile, on hearing of the march of the rebels

southward had moved from Inverness to Aberdeen, where, on the
arrival of transports from Edinburgh, he embarked his men and
arrived safely on the 16th of September at Dunbar. On the two
following days the troops were disembarked, and the army, being
reinforced by two hundred Highland levies under Lord Loudoun, and
by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dragoons, was raised to a total of
twenty-three hundred men, with six guns. On the 19th Cope
marched northward along the coast road, and on the following day
caught sight of the rebels, not, as he had expected, to westward,
but to southward of him, quietly halted on the brow of Carberry Hill.
He at once took up a strong position, with his rear resting on the
sea, his left being covered by a marsh and his right by two
enclosures with walls seven feet high, between which ran the road
to the village of Prestonpans. In his front lay another enclosure
surrounded by a ditch from ten to twelve feet broad; and thus
naturally entrenched, Cope's force might well have seemed
unassailable. The rebels, however, moved down from the hill and
took up their position opposite to the marsh on Cope's right. Cope
therefore changed front to the left so as to rest his right on the ditch
and his left on the sea, thus presenting his front to the marsh, an
alteration which appeared to offer the rebels little advantage. In the
course of the evening, however, a man well acquainted with the
marsh pointed out to the rebel commanders a passage by which it
might safely be traversed; and in the course of the night Charles
threw his army safely across and formed it for attack in two lines—
twelve hundred men in the first, and the remainder, who were but
ill-armed, in the second line. His new position was not more than
two hundred yards from the English camp, for Cope, deeming the
marsh impassable, had omitted to post a single guard or sentry on
that side.
 Sept. 21
October 2.

A little before daybreak the alarm was given in Cope's camp,

and the General hastened to form his line of battle, with his infantry,
as usual, in the centre, the Thirteenth Dragoons on his right wing,
and the Fourteenth Dragoons on his left. The Highlanders were no
sooner formed than Charles gave the signal for attack. They rushed
forward with a yell upon the artillery before Cope's front, and drove
the gunners, who were seamen from the fleet, away from their
guns. Then, firing a volley at the dragoons, they rushed straight
upon them with the broadsword and slashed furiously at the noses
of the horses. The dragoons, already too well inured to panic, at
once wheeled about in confusion. The infantry, though uncovered on
both flanks, remained steady and poured in a destructive fire, but
the Highlanders immediately closed with them, and the bayonet was
no match for broadsword and target. In a few minutes the English
were broken and flying for their lives. Four hundred were cut down
on the spot and over a thousand more were taken prisoners, one
hundred and seventy only succeeding in making their escape. The
loss of the rebels was no more than thirty killed and seventy
wounded. The whole action did not last ten minutes, and yet never
was victory more complete. The dragoons were so thoroughly scared
that, after galloping first to Edinburgh, where the Governor
indignantly refused to admit them to the Castle, they turned round
and hurried south to Berwick, where Cope had already arrived
before them.
The moral effect of Prestonpans was prodigious. Twice the
English troops had faced the Highlanders, and each time they had
fled in panic. On the first occasion no blood had been shed, but
Prestonpans brought with it a memory and a tradition of horror, for
all of the slain English had perished by the sword, and the field
presented a frightful spectacle of severed limbs and mutilated
bodies. Charles was for taking advantage of the moment and
marching immediately upon London; and if he had done so it is
probable that he would at least have reached the capital. There was
little or no enthusiasm among the English for the cause of the
Guelphs, and there were few or no troops to stand in Charles's way;
there was only one fortified place, Newcastle, to trouble him to the
south of the Tweed, and the whole district was profoundly scared.
But the Highlanders were already hurrying homeward with the
plunder gained by the action, diminishing the strength of his force
by one-half; so that it was deemed more prudent to return to
Edinburgh.
Charles's great object now was the reduction of Edinburgh
Castle, which with Stirling Castle and the forts in the Highlands was
practically all of Scotland that remained to the Guelphs. A blockade
of a few weeks would have forced it to submission by famine, but
General Guest, the Governor, threatened to lay the town in ashes if
his supplies were cut off. A few shots from his cannon showed that
he was in earnest, and, in deference to the entreaties of the
townsfolk, Charles was fain to let him have his way. The
circumstance might in itself have sufficed to show the futility of
military operations on such terms, but the gain of certain prominent
Scottish nobles to the cause, and the addition of several hundred
volunteers to the rebel army, seemed to afford some compensation
for this enforced inactivity. By the end of October Charles's force was
augmented to six thousand men, five-sixths of them excellent
material, while its efficiency was further heightened by the arrival of
several French and Irish officers, who brought with them money, five
thousand stand of arms, and six pieces of field artillery.
Meanwhile military preparations went forward in England with
feverish activity. Cumberland, as has already been told, received
orders to send back first a part, and then the whole of his army: and
now the full peril of the situation in Flanders can be realised. It is
plain from Ligonier's letters that Saxe had it in his power to destroy
the British force encamped at Vilvorde, and that one good soldier at
least lived in daily dread of the catastrophe. Had Ligonier's
apprehension been fulfilled the throne of the Guelphs must have
fallen: and the fault would have been King George's own, for his folly
in trifling with the war for two campaigns instead of pursuing it
vigorously as Stair had advised. As things were, however, the British
passed the North Sea in safety, together with certain Dutch and
Hessians who had been summoned, as in 1715, the help of England
in pursuance of the Treaty. The Dutch indeed arrived before the
British could be despatched, and thus of ten battalions placed under
the command of Marshal Wade for the defence of the kingdom no
fewer than seven were foreign.[206] Pending the arrival of the troops
from over sea frantic efforts were made to fill the ranks, as usual
much depleted by drafts, of the regiments at home. On the 6th of
September a bounty of no less than six pounds was offered to every
recruit who would join the Guards before the 24th, and of four
pounds to any enlisting between the 24th and the 1st of October.
[207] The spirit of the country also began slowly to kindle: and the
newspapers fanned the rising flame by an incessant blast of "No
popery, no arbitrary power, no wooden shoes."[208] Fifteen leading
noblemen offered to raise and equip two regiments of horse and
thirteen of foot at their own expense. The gentlemen of Yorkshire
raised a Royal Regiment of Hunters, first germ of our present
Yeomanry, which served without pay. Companies of volunteers were
formed in London. The peaceful Quakers combined to present every
soldier with a flannel waistcoat for the coming winter campaign: and
a subscription was started in the City to provide a blanket and two
paillasses to each tent, thirty watch-coats to each battalion, and a
pair of worsted gloves to every man.[209] The militia also was called
out in several counties: and finally Cope was removed from the
command in Scotland and replaced by General Handasyde.[210]

Oct. 31
Nov. 11.

Charles in the meantime was anxious to move southward with

the least possible delay, and fight the motley force which was
gathered together under Wade at Newcastle;[211] but his Scottish
adherents were most unwilling to move, and it was only when he
declared his determination to enter England alone, if no one would
follow him, that they grudgingly consented to march for a little
distance over the border. Lord George Murray with great wisdom
advised that the advance should be through Cumberland rather than
Northumberland, which would compel Wade to harass his troops by
marches along bad roads through a difficult country. If Wade should
remain inactive, which his previous behaviour in command
suggested to be more than likely, the rebels would be at liberty to
move whither they pleased. The better to conceal the true direction
of the advance the army was divided into two columns, the one
under Charles himself to march by way of Kelso and the other by
way of Moffat, both to converge ultimately on Carlisle. Thus at
length, on the 31st of October, the rebels began their advance
southward, but still in no very good heart. The letters of the chiefs
show that they looked upon the whole enterprise as desperate, and
that they longed to be at their homes reaping their harvest, and
looking to the wintering of their herds.[212] The rank and file of the
Highlanders did not write letters, but simply betook themselves in
scores to their homes.

Nov. 8 .
19
Nov. 17.
28
Nov. 20
Dec. 1.

Murray's plan of invasion succeeded admirably. On his arrival at

Kelso Charles sent forward an advanced party to order quarters at
Wooler, and having thus alarmed Wade for Newcastle turned sharply
to the westward and entered Cumberland by Liddesdale. On the
following day he was joined by the other column, and the united
army, some five thousand strong, proceeded to the investment of
Carlisle. The town was held only by a garrison of militia, but the
commander and the mayor refused to surrender, and the siege was
delayed by a false alarm that Wade was marching to rescue. On the
13th of November, however, batteries were raised by the rebels,
whereupon the mayor's courage evaporated and his worship
requested a capitulation for the town. Charles refused to grant it
unless the Castle also was included, and the result was that he
gained both Castle and town with the loss of hardly a man. Wade,
when it was too late, started to relieve Carlisle, but, being stopped
by a fall of snow, returned again to Newcastle, and sent General
Handasyde with two battalions of foot and a regiment of dragoons to
re-occupy Edinburgh. This movement increased the anxiety of the
Highlanders to return home: but after some debate it was decided to
continue the advance. Two hundred men were left to garrison
Carlisle, and with a force greatly reduced by desertion Charles, on
the 20th, renewed his march to the south without the least
molestation from Wade. On the 27th he passed the Ribble, that
barrier so often fatal to Scottish invasion, at Preston, where he was
well received, and a few recruits were added to his army.
Acclamations, too, greeted him on his way to Wigan and Manchester,
but the people refused to accept the arms that were offered to them
or to enlist themselves for his cause. Only at Manchester the
exertions of Mr. Francis Townley, a Roman Catholic of a very old
family in the county, availed to raise a couple of hundred men. It
was but a trifling addition compared with that expected by the
Highland chiefs, and served to confirm their misgivings as to the
desperate character of the enterprise.

Dec. 4.

English troops now began to close in upon the little rebel army
from every side. Wade was moving down upon it from the north;
Cumberland lay before it with eight thousand men at Lichfield, while
a still larger force of militia, stiffened by battalions of the Guards,
was in process of concentration at Finchley Common for the defence
of London. Still the rebels pursued their march southward, the
people staring at them as they passed, amused but indifferent, and
apparently hardly able to take the matter seriously. At Cambridge
sensible middle-aged men talked of taking a chaise to go and see
them on the road;[213] and Hogarth, to the great good fortune of
posterity, could see nothing in the march of the Guards to Finchley
but an admirable subject for the exercise of his pencil and the
indulgence of his satire. Yet there was still a panic in store for
London. From Macclesfield Lord George Murray sent forward a small
force to Congleton, which pushed away a party of horse that lay
there and pursued it for some way along the road to Newcastle-
under-Lyme. Cumberland, thinking that the rebels were about to
advance by that line or turn westward into Wales, turned also
westward to Stone to intercept them, and Murray, making a forced
march eastward, reached Ashbourne and on the following day
entered Derby. By this manœuvre the rebel army had gained two
marches on Cumberland and successfully passed by the most
formidable force interposed between it and London. The capital was
in consternation. Business was suspended, all shops were shut, and
the Bank of England only escaped disaster by making its payments
in sixpences in order to gain time. Cumberland on discovering his
mistake hurried his cavalry by desperate marches to Northampton in
order to regain, if possible, the ground that he had lost, but the only
result was utter exhaustion of the horses; and the Duke of
Richmond, who was in command of this cavalry, frankly confessed
that he did not see how the enemy could be stopped. The rapidity of
the rebels' movements, the difficulty of moving regular troops during
the winter along execrable roads, and above all the want of an
efficient head at Whitehall to replace the timid and incompetent
Newcastle, served to paralyse the whole strength of England.

Dec. 6 .
17
Dec. 18.
29
Dec. 26.
1746.
Jan. 3 .
14

On the night of his arrival at Derby Charles discussed at length

the question of the dress which he should wear on his entry into
London; but on the following day his officers represented to him the
danger of further advance, with Wade and Cumberland closing in
upon his rear. News had arrived of the landing of French troops at
Montrose; it would be better, they urged, to retreat while there was
yet time and to join them. Charles combated the proposition hotly
for the whole day, but yielded at last; and on the morrow the retreat
was begun. Cumberland, who had fallen back to Coventry, at once
caught up four thousand men and followed the rebels by forced
marches, but did not overtake them until the 18th, when his
advanced parties made an attack on Murray's rear-guard at Clifton
Moor, a few miles to the south of Penrith. The English, however,
were repulsed with the loss of a hundred men, a misadventure easily
explained by the fact that the action was fought after dark, when the
musket was a poor match for the claymore. Still the repulse was not
creditable to the royal troops nor encouraging for further attempts
upon the rebel rear-guard. Wade meanwhile made no attempt to
intercept the northward march of Charles, who crossed the Esk into
Scotland unmolested on the 20th of December, and six days later
occupied Glasgow. His force, despite many days of halt, had covered
the distance from Edinburgh to Derby and from Derby back to
Glasgow in exactly eight weeks. A few days later he resumed his
march to Stirling, where he was joined by the French, who had
landed at Montrose, and by other levies which, notwithstanding
General Handasyde's entreaties that they might be attacked from
Edinburgh and Inverness, had been allowed to assemble in the
north. These reinforcements augmented his strength to nine
thousand men: and since the French had brought with them
battering guns Charles resolved to besiege the Castle of Stirling and
so to secure for himself, if possible, all Scotland north of the Firths of
Forth and Clyde.
Meanwhile Cumberland after recovering Carlisle had been
recalled to the south of England with most of his infantry to guard
the southern coast in case of a French invasion. Wade, who was
quite worn out with age and infirmity, was also removed from his
command, and at Cumberland's nomination General Hawley was
appointed to be Commander-in-Chief in Scotland. Hawley was a man
of obscure origin, rough and brutal in manners, but a strict
disciplinarian of the ruder school which was beloved of Cumberland,
and very far from an incapable soldier. On his arrival at Edinburgh he
found himself entrusted with twelve battalions and four regiments of
dragoons, and with absolute liberty to do with them as he thought
best. Still his difficulties were considerable. Artillery had been given
to him but no gunners, his instructions being that he should draw
the latter from the garrisons of Berwick and of Edinburgh. On being
summoned, however, these gunners proved to be civilians who had
been foisted on to the establishment for the sake of their votes, and
were not intended to be of any other service.[214] The same
principle could be traced in every other detail relating to these two
garrisons, for the trail of corruption was over all.[215] Many of the
battalions again were no better than militia, and the infantry
generally was in so bad a state that it was hard to raise above three
or four thousand men fit for service from the whole of it. "I hope we
shan't be blamed," wrote Hawley, in explaining his inaction, "but it is
not the name of twelve battalions that will do the business. No
diligence in me shall be wanting, but a man cannot work without
tools. The heavy artillery is still at Newcastle for want of horses,
which were sent to Carlisle for no use. The major of artillery is
absent through sickness. I suspect his sickness to be a young wife: I
know him. I have been obliged to hire a conductor of artillery, and
seventy odd men to act as his assistants for the field-artillery. I was
three days getting them from the Castle to the Palace-yard and now
they are not fit to march."[216] At length by great exertion the whole
force of twelve battalions and three regiments of dragoons, with its
artillery, was made ready for the field. Hawley then moved up to
Falkirk on the way to relieve the beleaguered Castle of Stirling, and
encamped on the western side of the town.

Jan. 17.
28

The rebels so far had made little progress with the siege. The
French engineer with them, who was a coxcomb of little skill, had
chosen wrong sites for his batteries, and General Blakeney, who was
in command of the garrison, had made him sensible of the fact by a
most destructive fire. On the 16th of January Charles, hearing of
Hawley's march upon Falkirk, left a few hundred men to maintain
the blockade of the Castle, and advanced with the remainder to
Bannockburn, where he drew them up, as on a field of good omen,
in order of battle. Hawley, however, declined to move, his artillery
being but just come up: so on the following day Charles determined
to attack him. While he was moving forward Hawley was enjoying
the hospitality of Callendar House from Lady Kilmarnock, wife to one
of the rebel leaders, having left General Huske, an excellent officer,
in command. Manœuvring with a small detachment to distract
Huske's attention to the northward along the road that leads to
Stirling, Charles led his army to the south of the English camp, and
then advanced upon it towards a ridge of rugged upland known as
Falkirk Muir. The English drums promptly beat to arms, and urgent
messages were despatched to Callendar House for Hawley, who
presently galloped up at speed without his hat. Hastily placing
himself at the head of the three regiments of dragoons he hurried
with them in the teeth of a storm of rain and wind to the top of
Falkirk Muir, ordering the foot to follow with bayonets fixed. The
rebels however reached the summit of the ridge before him; and
Hawley then formed his army on the lower ground, drawing up the
infantry in two lines, with the cavalry before them on the left of the
first line. His left was covered by an impassable morass, and thus it
came about that the left of the rebels, who were also formed in two
lines, stood opposite to his centre. The numbers of each army were
about nine thousand men. The formation of the British being
complete, Hawley, who had great faith in the power of cavalry
against the Highlanders, ordered the dragoons to attack. They
advanced accordingly. The Highlanders waited with perfect coolness
until they were within ten yards of them, and then poured in an
effective volley. Therewith the evil tradition of panic seized at once
upon the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dragoons, which turned about
and galloped off in disorder. The Ninth Dragoons showed more
firmness, but the Highlanders throwing themselves on the ground
thrust at the bellies of the horses with their dirks, and they also
were beaten back. Then the Highlanders advanced, and the foot,
shaken by the defeat of the horse and blinded by wind and rain,
fired an irregular volley. One-fourth of the muskets missed fire owing
to the rain, and every regiment excepting two at once turned and
fled. No efforts of their officers, who behaved with the greatest
gallantry, had the least effect in stopping them, though many were
regiments of famous reputation; and the Highlanders pursuing with
the claymore made not a little havoc among the fugitives. On the
right of the first line, however, the Fourth and Forty-eighth stood
firm, their front ranks kneeling with bayonets fixed while the middle
and rear ranks fired, and repulsed the left wing of the rebels: the
Fourteenth soon rallied and joined them, the Royal Scots and Buffs
rallied also, and these troops keeping up a steady fire made, with
the Ninth Dragoons, an orderly retreat. The losses did not exceed
two hundred and eighty of all ranks, killed, wounded or missing, the
two regiments that stood firm coming off with little hurt, the Forty-
eighth indeed without injury to a man.
The action cannot be called a great defeat if a defeat at all, but
it was a disgrace, and Hawley felt it to be so. "My heart is broke," he
wrote to Cumberland, "I can't say we are quite beat, but our left is
beat and their left is beat.... Such scandalous cowardice I never saw
before. The whole second line of foot ran away without firing a
shot." It may well be that Hawley's absence during the preliminary
manœuvres of the rebel army and his hurried arrival immediately
before the action contributed to make the troops unsteady, but in
reality there was nothing to excuse their precipitate flight except
that, as Hawley had himself written from Edinburgh, they were little
better than militia. The truth was, that by constant talk of the
desperate prowess of the Highlanders and by endless gloating, such
as the ignorant delight in, over the horrors of the field of
Prestonpans, the men had worked themselves into a state of almost
superstitious terror.[217] Such a thing is not rare in military history
and has, unless I am mistaken, been seen again in our own army
within our own time.[218]
 Hawley was soon able to report that the whole of his force had
recovered itself with the exception of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Dragoons, which appear to have been hopelessly demoralised. Nor
can it be denied that the General's remedies were stern enough.
"There are fourteen deserters taken," he wrote, a fortnight after the
action, "shall they be hanged? Thirty-one of Hamilton's dragoons are
to be hanged for deserting to the rebels, and thirty-two of the foot
to be shot for cowardice."[219] Still it was felt that there was but one
way thoroughly to restore the spirit of the troops, namely that the
Duke of Cumberland should take command of them in person. The
Duke no sooner received his orders than he hurried to Edinburgh,
travelling night and day with such speed that he accomplished the
journey from London in less than six days. Neither he nor the King
blamed Hawley. Indiscipline was in his opinion the reason for the
failure, and he came up to Scotland fully resolved to put an end to it.
He seems in fact to have joined the army, asking in scornful and
indignant surprise what was the meaning of this foolish flight of
English infantry before wild Highlanders: and this attitude was
almost sufficient in itself to put the soldiers upon their mettle.

Feb. 1 .
12

Hawley had made all preparations for an advance against the

Duke's arrival, and on the 31st of January Cumberland moved
forward to Falkirk with twelve battalions of foot, two regiments of
dragoons, in which neither the Thirteenth nor the Fourteenth was
included, and several companies of loyal Highlanders. The rebels
thereupon raised the siege of Stirling and retired, much against the
will of Charles, to Inverness, leaving their battering guns in the
trenches behind them. Cumberland at once sent forward his
dragoons in pursuit, and pushed on as rapidly as possible to Perth.
He was in no amiable mood, and gave an indication of his feelings
towards the rebels by granting his troops licence to plunder the
estates of rebel leaders on the march.[220] Arriving at Perth he was
detained for several days by the difficulty of collecting supplies and
transport. Nevertheless the campaign was at last to be conducted
with common sense. Cumberland was careful to give his troops
special training against their enemy, prescribing for the infantry the
formation so successfully adopted by the Fourth and Forty-eighth at
Falkirk, and directing that when at close quarters with Highlanders
each soldier should turn his bayonet not against the enemy
immediately before him, but against the man on his own right front,
where the target could not parry the thrust. But this, though
creditable to Cumberland, was of small importance compared to the
change in the general situation. The rebels were in full retreat from
the fertile lowlands into the barren mountains, and their supplies
from France were cut off by British ships of war, while Cumberland's
force was fed from the sea. When one army is full and another
starving, lead and steel are hardly needed to decide the victory.

Feb. 18
March 1.

Nevertheless, even after his retreat from Stirling Charles met

with some trifling successes. Inverness, when he reached it, was
held by Lord Loudoun with some raw Highland levies. Loudoun made
a night march in the hope of seizing Charles's person at Moy Castle,
some ten miles distant; but half a dozen of the rebel Highlanders,
firing a few shots and raising the war-cry of their clans, kindled the
inevitable panic, and Loudoun's men ran away to Inverness in such
disorder that he decided to evacuate the town, and retired across
the Moray Firth. In the course of the evacuation panic again
overtook his men, and fully a third of them deserted.[221] Charles
occupied the town on the following day, and thus obtained a port
into which such French ships as might elude the British cruisers
could bring him supplies. Another of his parties, again, contrived to
capture Fort Augustus, together with three companies of the Sixth
Foot which formed its garrison. But his attempts against Fort William
and Blair Castle were fruitless, for both posts though besieged, and
the latter indeed hard pressed, held out with the greatest firmness
and determination. Thus the barrier of Loch Lochy and Loch Ness
was never wholly broken through.
During all this time Cumberland's temper was steadily rising. For
all his impatience, his operations were delayed by bad weather and
difficulties of transport; though his troops scoured the country
overawing and disarming the inhabitants he could obtain no
intelligence of the rebels whatever; and the petty defeat of Loudoun,
though of no very great importance, was from its moral effect
extremely irritating. Throughout the month of March he remained at
Aberdeen unable to move; and meanwhile a further revival of the
spirit of panic exasperated him beyond measure. Five thousand
Hessians under Prince Frederick of Hesse-Cassel had been taken into
British pay, landed in Scotland, and posted at Perth to check any
attempt of the rebels to return to southward. On the intelligence of a
petty inroad of rebel parties upon Blair and Rannoch Prince Frederick
actually decided to evacuate Perth and fall back to Stirling.
Cumberland was no sooner apprised of this decision than he ordered
the Hessians forward to relieve Blair Castle, but the Prince from
sheer timidity shrank from any attempt to execute the command.
Fortunately Blair was able to defend itself: but Cumberland did not
fail to let the Prince know what he thought of his conduct.

April 15.
26

At length on the 8th of April the Duke was able to advance from
Aberdeen, and having crossed the Spey successfully on the 12th,
pushed forward by forced marches upon Nairn. On the evening of
the 14th his advanced parties had a brush with the rebels' rear-
guard, and he knew that his enemy lay at last within his reach.
Charles lodged for that night at Culloden House, some twelve miles
from Nairn, while his troops, now reduced to five thousand starving,
dispirited men, bivouacked on Culloden Moor. On the following day
he drew up his army in order of battle; but the Duke had granted his
troops a halt at Nairn after their exertions, and the more readily
since the 15th was his birthday. Charles therefore formed the bold
design of surprising him in his camp on that same night; but though
his troops were actually set in motion for the purpose, the men were
too weak from privation to traverse the distance within the
appointed time; and they fell back weary and despondent, having
fatigued themselves to no purpose. Charles's officers were now for
moving to some stronger position, but the young Prince's head
seems to have been turned by his previous successes, and he
resolved to accept battle where he stood.

April 16.
27

Between four and five in the morning of the next day the Duke
broke up from Nairn, and after a march of eight miles received
intelligence from his advanced parties that the rebels were in his
front. He at once formed in order of battle, but finding that the
enemy did not come forward, continued his march. The rebels were
formed in two lines, their right resting on some straggling park walls
and huts, their left extending towards Culloden House. The Duke's
army was disposed in three lines, the two first consisting each of six
battalions of infantry and two regiments of dragoons, while the
Highland irregulars formed the third line. The entire force numbered
about ten thousand men with ten guns, which were stationed in
pairs between the battalions of the first line. "Now," said the Duke,
turning to his men when all was in order, "I don't suppose that there
are any men here who are disinclined to fight, but if there be, I beg
them in God's name to go, for I would rather face the Highlanders
with a thousand resolute men at my back than with ten thousand
half-hearted." The men answered with cheers, and there could be
little doubt as to the issue of the battle. Hawley and the dragoons
were then sent forward to break down the enclosures on the
enemy's right, and at ten o'clock the rebels opened the action with a
discharge from their artillery.
The Duke's cannon instantly took up the challenge; but the duel
could not last long, for Charles's guns were ill-aimed and ill-served,
whereas the British fire was most accurate and destructive. The right
and centre of the Highlanders, unable to endure the grape, presently
rushed forward, swept round the left of the British line upon the
flank and rear of the Fourth and Twenty-seventh Regiments, and for
a short time threw them into some confusion. At every other point,
however, they were speedily driven back by a crushing fire, and the
Fourth and Twenty-seventh, recovering themselves, turned bayonet
against claymore and target for the first time with success. In utter
rage at this repulse the rebels for a few minutes flung stones at the
hated red-coats; but by this time Hawley had broken through the
enclosures and turned four guns upon Charles's second line. On the
left of the rebels the Macdonalds, sulking because they had not the
place of honour, refused to move, and now the English dragoons
burst in upon the Highlanders from both flanks, and, charging
through them till they met in the middle, shivered them to
fragments. The rout of the enemy was complete and the dragoons
galloped on to the pursuit. One thousand of Charles's troops were
killed on the spot, and five hundred prisoners, of whom two hundred
were French, were taken. The remainder fled in all directions. The
loss of the Duke's army was slight, barely reaching three hundred
men killed and wounded, of whom two-thirds were of the Fourth and
Twenty-seventh. The victory was decisive: the rebellion was crushed
at a blow, and all hopes of a restoration of the Stuarts were at last
and for ever extinguished.
The campaign ended, as a victorious campaign against
mountaineers must always end, in the hunting of fugitives, the
burning of villages, and the destruction of crops. To this work the
troops were now let loose, as they had already been in the march to
Perth, though now with encouragement rather than restraint, and
with no attention to "proper precautions." But enough and too much
has been written of the inhumanity which earned for Cumberland
the name of the butcher; his services were far too valuable to be
overlooked, and himself of far too remarkable character to be tossed
aside with the brand of a single hateful epithet. Charles Edward, and
Murray, the ablest of his officers, had turned the gifts which fortune
gave them, and the peculiar powers of their little force in rapidity of
movement and vigour of attack, to an account which entitles them
to very high praise as commanders. It was by such bold actions as
Falkirk and Prestonpans, and by such skilful manœuvres as left
Wade astern at Newcastle and Cumberland at Stone, that our Indian
Empire was won. Thus it was against no unskilful leaders that
Cumberland was matched; and on taking the command he found the
British regular troops in a state of demoralisation, through repeated
panic, which is almost incredible. Whole regiments were running
away on the slightest alarm, in spite of the heroism of their officers;
and even a General, a foreigner and a royal prince, Frederick of
Hesse-Cassel, prepared to retreat at the mere rumour of the
approach of a few score of Highlanders. To all this, Cumberland, by
the prestige of his position and rugged force of character, put an
end. He was called up, young as he was, to a duty from which
almost every General in Europe, of what experience soever, would
have shrunk—a winter campaign in a mountainous country. Ninety-
nine men out of a hundred would have waited for the summer, and
indeed such delay was expected of Cumberland, but he pressed on
to his task at once. He restored the confidence of his troops partly
by the dignity of his station, partly by his own ascendency as a man,
partly by his skill as a soldier, encouraging them not by mere words
only, but also by training them to meet the peculiar tactics of a
peculiar enemy by a new formation and a scientific, if simple,
method of using the bayonet. He pursued his work persistently,
despite endless difficulties, disappointments, and vexations, and did
not rest until he had achieved it completely. Jacobitism, which had
been the curse of the kingdom for three quarters of a century, was
finally slain, and the Highlanders, who had been a plague for as long
and longer, were finally subjugated, for no one's advantage more
than for their own. The methods employed were doubtless harsh,
sometimes even to barbarity, being those generally used by
barbarians towards each other and therefore held inexcusable
among civilised men; but it is not common for half-savage
mountaineers—and the Highlanders were little else—to be brought
to reason without some such harsh lesson. Military execution, as it
was called, was not yet an obsolete practice in war, whether for
injury to the enemy or indulgence of the troops, while Tolpatches,
Pandours, and other irregular bands, whose barbarities were
unspeakable, were esteemed a valuable if not indispensable adjunct
to the armies of the civilised nations of Europe. Moreover, French
regular troops behaved quite as ill in Germany during the Seven
Years' War as any of the irregulars. Still wanton brutality and
outrage, however excused by the custom of war, must remain
unpardoned and unpardonable, on the score not only of humanity
but of discipline. But though the blot upon Cumberland's name must
remain indelible, it should not obscure the fact that, at a time of
extreme national peril, the Duke lifted the army in a few weeks, from
the lowest depth which it has ever touched of demoralisation and
disgrace, to its old height of confidence and self-respect.
Authorities.—The literature of the rebellion of 1745 is of course boundless, but
the military operations and the state of the Army can hardly be better studied than
in the S.P., Dom., Scotland, vols. xxvi.-xxxi., in the Record Office. On the other
side, the Narrative of the Chevalier Johnstone, though frequently inaccurate,
throws useful light on divers points.
 CHAPTER VII

1746.
May 20.
31

The virtual evacuation of the Low Countries by the British in

consequence of the Jacobite Rebellion was an advantage too
obvious to be overlooked by the French. At the end of January,
though winter-quarters were not yet broken up, they severed the
communication between Antwerp and Brussels, and a week later
took the town of Brussels itself by escalade. The citadel, after
defending itself for a fortnight, went the way of the town, and the
capital of the Spanish Netherlands was turned into a French place of
arms.[222] The consternation in Holland was great, and it was
increased when the French presently besieged and captured
Antwerp. Meanwhile the British Commander, Lord Dunmore, who
had been left in the Netherlands with a few squadrons of cavalry,
could only look on in utter helplessness. It was not until June that
the Hessian troops in British pay and a few British battalions could
be embarked, together with General Ligonier to command them,
from England; and it was not until July, owing to foul winds, that
they were finally landed at Williamstadt. The change of base was
significant in itself, for since the capture of Ostend and Antwerp
there was no haven for British ships except in the United Provinces.
Even after the disembarkation these forces were found to be still
unready to take the field. The Hessians had not a grain of powder
among them, and there were neither horses for the artillery nor
waggons for the baggage. Again, to add small difficulties to great,
the Austrian General, Batthyany, having no British officer as his peer
in command, denied to the British troops the place of honour at the
right of the line. It was a trifling matter, but yet sufficient to
embarrass counsel, destroy harmony, and delay operations.[223]

June 30
July 11.
July 13.
24

While the Allies were thus painfully drawing their forces

together, the activity of the French never ceased. The Prince of Conti
was detached with a considerable force to the Haine, where he
quickly reduced Mons and St. Ghislain, thus throwing down almost
the last relics of the Austrian barrier in the south. Thence moving to
the Sambre, Conti laid siege to Charleroi. It was now sufficiently
clear that the plan of the French campaign was to operate on the
line of the Meuse for the invasion of Holland. Maestricht once taken,
the rest would be easy, for most of the Dutch army were prisoners in
the hands of the French; and with the possession of the line of the
Meuse communication between the Allied forces of England and of
Austria would be cut off. But before Maestricht could be touched
Namur must first be captured; and the campaign of 1746
accordingly centred about Namur.

July 6 .
17
July 16.
27
July 21
Aug. 1.

For the first fortnight of July the Allies remained at Terheyden, a

little to the north of Breda, Saxe's army lying some thirty miles
south-westward of them about Antwerp. On the 17th of July the
Allies at last got on march, still with some faint hopes of saving
Charleroi, and proceeded south-eastward, a movement which Saxe
at once parried by marching parallel with them to the Dyle between
Arschot and Louvain. Pushing forward, despite endless difficulties of
transport and forage, through a wretched barren country, the Allies,