pt felt by
ignorance for an honourable, religious, and primitive people. It seems
also to have been thought only necessary for the Duke of Cumberland to
show his face in the north, to put to flight a beggarly handful of
undisciplined men, whose moral character, if we might credit certain
passages in the Magazines of the day, was as low as their military
acquirements. By other nations besides their own sister country, the
same erroneous notions concerning the Scottish Highlanders prevailed. In
Germany it was conceded that they might be capable of becoming "good and
useful subjects when converted from heathenism." The French, too,
presumed to look upon them with contempt, until they met them, when
acting as auxiliaries to other powers, so often in battle, and beheld
them so generally in the front, that they verily believed at last, there
were twelve battalions in the army instead of two; and one of their
Generals, Broglio, in after times remarked, that "he had often wished to
be a man of six feet high, but that he became reconciled to his size
after he saw the wonders performed by the little mountaineers."[97]

It is scarcely now necessary to allude to these errors at that time
prevalent regarding the valour of the Scottish host. Tributes from every
known country have long elevated this brave and oppressed people into a
proud and honourable position. Instead, however, of the undisciplined
savages who were supposed to be traversing the country, it was sooner
found than acknowledged, that the intrepidity of the Highlanders was
united to humanity, and to upright principles. To their noble qualities
was added a deep sense of religion. In after-times it was remarked, that
no trait in the character of the Highlanders was more remarkable than
the respect which was paid by the different regiments which were
eventually employed in the British service, to their chaplains. The men
when they got into any little scrape were far more anxious, writes
General Stuart, "to conceal it from their chaplain than from their
commanding officer."

But, however the public prints might revile, and the polite society at
St. James's ridicule, and misunderstand the Highlanders, the General
whose lot it was to conquer the unfortunate Jacobites knew well of what
materials their forces were composed. The Duke of Cumberland, at the
battle of Fontenoy, had been so much pleased with the conduct of the
famous Black Watch, that he had offered them any favour