with three
regiments of dragoons, by whose charge he expected to sweep away
Charles's right wing; behind his cavalry were the luckless militia of
Glasgow and the Lothians. In all, he had from 10,000 to 12,000 men
against, perhaps, 7000 at most, for 1200 of Charles's force were left to
contain Blakeney in Stirling Castle. Both sides, on account of the heavy
roads, failed to bring forward their guns.

Hawley then advanced his cavalry up hill: their left faced Keppoch's
Macdonalds; their right faced the Frazers, under the Master of Lovat, in
Charles's centre. Hawley then launched his cavalry, which were met at
close range by the reserved fire of the Macdonalds and Frazers. Through
the mist and rain the townsfolk, looking on, saw in five minutes "the
break in the battle." Hamilton's and Ligonier's cavalry turned and fled,
Cobham's wheeled and rode across the Highland left under fire, while the
Macdonalds and Frazers pursuing the cavalry found themselves among the
Glasgow militia, whom they followed, slaying. Lord George had no pipers
to sound the recall; they had flung their pipes to their gillies and gone
in with the claymore.

Thus the Prince's right, far beyond his front, were lost in the tempest;
while his left had discharged their muskets at Cobham's Horse, and could
not load again, their powder being drenched with rain. They received the
fire of Hawley's right, and charged with the claymore, but were
outflanked and enfiladed by some battalions drawn up _en potence_. Many
of the second line had blindly followed the first: the rest shunned the
action; Hawley's officers led away some regiments in an orderly retreat;
night fell; no man knew what had really occurred till young Gask and
young Strathallan, with the French and Atholl men, ventured into Falkirk,
and found Hawley's camp deserted. The darkness, the rain, the nature of
the ground, and the clans' want of discipline, prevented the annihilation
of Hawley's army; while the behaviour of his cavalry showed that the
Prince might have defeated Cumberland's advanced force beyond Derby with
the greatest ease, as the Duke of Richmond had anticipated.

Perhaps the right course now was to advance on Edinburgh, but the
hopeless siege of Stirling Castle was continued--Charles perhaps hoping
much from Hawley's captured guns.

The accidental shooting of young AEneas Macdonnell, second son of
Glengarry, by a Clanranald man, begat a kind of blood feud between the
clans