e time he reached Perth he
was six days' march behind them. He sent old Sir Andrew Agnew to
garrison the house of Blair, and other small companies to occupy all the
chief houses in Athol. He himself retired with the main body to
Aberdeen, and there waited for milder weather.

In the neighbourhood of Inverness lies the country of the Mackintoshes.
The laird of that ilk was a poor-spirited, stupid man. It was his simple
political creed that that king was the right one who was willing and
able 'to give a half-guinea to-day and another to-morrow.' That was
probably the pay he drew as officer in one of King George's Highland
companies. Of a very different spirit was his wife. Lady Mackintosh was
a Farquharson of Invercauld; in her husband's absence she raised a body
of mixed Farquharsons and Mackintoshes, several hundred strong, for the
Prince. These she commanded herself, riding at their head in a tartan
habit with pistols at her saddle. Her soldiers called her 'Colonel
Anne.' Once in a fray between her irregular troops and the militia, her
husband was taken prisoner and brought before his own wife. She received
him with a military salute, 'Your servant, captain;' to which he replied
equally shortly, 'Your servant, colonel.'

This high-spirited woman received Charles as her guest on February 16 at
the castle of Moy, twelve miles from Inverness.

Having learnt that Charles was staying there with a small guard, Lord
Loudon conceived the bold plan of capturing the Prince, and so putting
an end to the war once for all. On Sunday the 16th, at nightfall, he
started with 1,500 men with all secrecy and despatch. Still the secret
had oozed out, and the dowager Lady Mackintosh sent a boy to warn her
daughter-in-law and the Prince. The boy was both faithful and sagacious.
Finding the high road already full of soldiers, he skulked in a ditch
till they were past, then, by secret ways, over moor and moss, running
at the top of his pace, he sped on, till, faint and exhausted, he
reached the house at five o'clock in the morning, and panted out the
news that Loudon's men were not a mile away! The Prince was instantly
aroused, and in a few minutes was out of the house and off to join
Lochiel not more than a mile distant. As it happened, Lord Loudon's
troops had already been foiled and driven back by a bold manoeuvre of
some of 'Colonel Anne's' men. A blacksmith with some half-dozen men--two
pipers amongst them--were patrolling the woods ne