... It was all news, Mr. Wotherspoon. I--What are words,
anyhow? Give you good day, sir!"
Mr. Wotherspoon, standing in his door, watched him down the stair and
forth from the house. "He goes brawly! How much is night, and how much
streak of dawn?"
* * * * *
Sir John Cope, King George's general in Scotland, had but a small
army. It was necessary in the highest degree that Prince Charles
Edward should meet and defeat this force before it was enlarged,
before from England came more and more regular troops.... A battle
won meant prestige gained, the coming over of doubting thousands, an
echo into England that would bring the definite accession of great
Tory names. Cope and his twenty-five hundred men, regulars and
volunteers, approaching Edinburgh from the east, took position near
the village of Prestonpans. On the morning of the 20th of September
out moved to meet him the Prince and Lord George Murray, behind them
less than two thousand men.
By afternoon the two forces confronted each the other; but Cope had
chosen well, the right position. The sea guarded one flank, a deep and
wide field ditch full of water the other. In his rear were stone
walls, and before him a wide marsh. The Jacobite strength halted,
reconnoitered, must perforce at last come to a standstill before
Cope's natural fortress.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208