emble, he gave up
the hope of returning to England, and determined upon the sieges of
Edinburgh and Stirling. On the fourth of January he marched from Glasgow
to Bannockburn, where he took up his quarters; and Lord George Murray,
with the clans, occupied Falkirk. Before the twelfth of the same month,
General Hawley, who had now formed a considerable army in Edinburgh,
resolved upon raising the siege of Stirling, before which the trenches
were opened.

Lord George Murray was, however, resolved to make a strong effort to
prevent this scheme of General Hawley's from taking effect. Hearing that
there was a provision made of bread and forage at Linlithgow for General
Hawley's troops, he resolved to surprise the town and to carry off the
provisions. He set out at four o'clock in the morning; was joined by
Lord Elcho and Lord Pitsligo, with their several bodies of horse, and
before sunrise Linlithgow was invested. The Jacobites were disturbed,
however, in their quarters by a party of General Hawley's dragoons; and
a report which prevailed that another body of horse and foot were also
approaching, induced Lord George to return to Falkirk. On the following
day he returned to Stirling; and the clans were quartered in the
adjacent villages. The reinforcements which had been so long expected
from the north were now near at hand; so that they could scarcely fail
to arrive before an engagement began. The clans were augmented in
number, and what was almost of equal importance, they had regained
confidence and health on returning to their native land. All were in
high spirits at the prospect of an engagement.

The Prince employed the fifteenth day of the month in choosing a field
of battle; on the sixteenth he reviewed the army. The plan of the
engagement was drawn out by Lord George Murray, according to his usual
practice. The army of the insurgents amounted to nine thousand men. On
that evening he learned that General Hawley had encamped on the plain
between that town and the river Carron: upon which a council was called,
and it was resolved the next day to attack the enemy.

The sympathies of the modern reader can scarcely fail to be enlisted in
the cause of the Jacobites, who appear henceforth in the character of
the valiant defenders of their hills and homes, their hereditary
monarchy, their national honour and rights. Whatever an Englishman may
have felt on beholding the incursions of a Highland force in his own
country, the s