CHAMBERS'S

POCKET MISCELLANY.

THE COMPANY OF OFFICERS.

THERE are some feelings of an enthusiastic kind, which are not themselves virtues, though often erroneously called so, but are yet so based on a spirit of self-abandonment, that they tend greatly to exalt the character, and sometimes produce the most noble actions. Loyalty is one of these feelings-that ancient and now little-heardof sentiment, which once was as a sort of second religion in the bosoms of a part of the community, only having an earthly instead of a heavenly deity for its object. In the seventeenth century, this so-called virtue was at its height in England; and no one can deny that, whatever were the follies it committed, and however opposed many of its movements might be to the real good of the nation, it was then capable of every kind of self-sacrifice for the sake of what it thought politically right, and only was wrong from want of knowledge and sound judgment. It was, as might be expected, a much more ardent, and perhaps also more pure sentiment, in the northern than in the southern part of the island; the people of the former district being much the simplest and least

sophisticated, and therefore the most liable to any possessing and disinterested emotion. Hence the resistance successively presented in that part of the island to the parliament and Cromwell, to the Revolution settlement, and to the Hanoverian succession. We may smile at the unreflecting ardour which prompted these courses; but when we learn some of the particulars of the deeds which it dictated, and the sufferings which it taught its votaries to endure, we are apt to substitute for our smiles, tears of admiration and of pity.

When the Viscount of Dundee endeavoured, after the Revolution, to maintain the interest of the expatriated James II. in Scotland, he was joined by not only a considerable number of the Highland clans, but by the younger sons of a great number of Lowland families of note, and by not a few of the younger clergy of the disestablished Episcopal Church, to most of whom he gave commissions in his little army. After his death at the battle of Killiecrankie, in July 1689, the cause was maintained for about a year in a languid manner, by commanders of less genius; but at length, when the affairs of the exiled king were ruined in Ireland, and no further hope of his immediate restoration was entertained, the Scottish insurgent army was dissolved by capitulation, and its officers transported, at their own request, to France. About 150 landed there, and, as allies of the French monarch, were immediately placed in garrison, at the pay appropriate to their respective ranks. They so continued till September 1692, when, reflecting on the severe losses experienced by Louis at Cherbourg and La Hogue, and that there was no immediate prospect of their proving of service to their own master, they resolved to be no longer a burden on the French government, but to convert themselves into a company of private sentinels, and serve in the army for ordinary pay. James, on receiving a petition from them to this effect, remonstrated with them against their design; representing that in his first exile during the Commonwealth, he had commanded a similar company of officers, which had come to no good; but, their

resolution being fixed, he at length gave way to it, and selected from their number the gentlemen who should act as captain, lieutenants, and ensign. They then repaired from their garrisons in French Flanders to be reviewed by the king at his palace of St Germain, near Paris, preparatorily to being modelled into the French army. A few days after they came, James rode out with the intention of enjoying the chase, an amusement of which he had become passionately fond since his arrival in France. He was surprised to find himself passing through a double line of mousquetaires, and asked who they were. He was informed that they were the same Scottish officers who, in garments better suited to their ranks, had the day before conversed with him at his levee. In uniforms borrowed from a French regiment, they had taken this opportunity of presenting themselves to him for the first time in their new character. The unfortunate monarch was struck by the levity of his amusement, in contrast with the distress of those who were suffering for him; and he returned pensively to the palace.**

On a future day, when they had received the route for active service, the king reviewed them in the garden at St Germain. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'my own misfortunes are not so near my heart as yours. It grieves me beyond what I can express, to see so many brave and worthy gentlemen, who had once the prospect of being the chief officers in my army, reduced to the station of private sentinels. Nothing but your loyalty, and that of a few of my subjects in Britain, could make me willing to live. The sense of what you have done and undergone for me, hath made so deep an impression on my heart, that, if ever it please God to restore me, it is impossible I can be forgetful of your services and sufferings. Neither can there be any posts in the armies of my dominions but what you have just pretensions to. At your own desires, you are now going a long march, far distant from me. I have taken care to provide you

* Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain.

with money, shoes, stockings, and other necessaries. Fear God, and love one another. Write your wants particularly to me, and depend upon always finding me your father and king.' He then passed along their ranks, and, writing down the name of every individual in his pocket-book, gave him his thanks in particular. Then removing to the front, he took off his hat, and bowed to them. After he had gone away, still thinking honour enough was not done them, he returned, bowed again, and burst into tears. They kneeled before the discrowned monarch, bent their eyes on the ground, and then starting up, passed him with the usual honours of war, as if it was only a common review they were exhibiting. He prayed that God might bless and prosper them, and mournfully left the ground.

Having been destined to serve against Spain, they now commenced a march of between 400 and 500 miles for Perpignan, in the south of France, where they were to join the rest of the troops. In every town they passed through, their history, as well as their gentle and correct deportment, interested all magistrates and other dignitaries in their behalf, so that they were always billeted on the best people in the place. Each morning, also, before commencing their march, they were seen walking on parade with the ladies of the houses in which they had lodged, whose favour they never failed to gain. When they arrived at Perpignan, and drew up before the residence of the lieutenant-general, all the gentlewomen of the town assembled to honour them; and if we are to believe their historian, 'wept bitterly to see so many worthy gentlemen, for their loyalty and honour, reduced to the condition of private sentinels.' These ladies were said to have made up a purse of 200 pistoles for them; but this tribute, owing to some base dealing, never reached them. They were now greatly in need of supplies of money, for their own was all spent, and their pay was but 3d. a day, with a pound and a half of bread. They were therefore reduced, while spending the winter here, to the necessity of selling their watches, rings,

Holland shirts, and embroidered clothes, in order that they might enjoy some share of the comforts to which they had been accustomed. Their fellow-soldiers, meanwhile, paid them greater respect than if they had still been possessed of their original commissions, and it was generally said, that a detachment from all the officers in France could not excel them in all soldierly qualities. They were here joined by two other companies of expatriated Scotsmen, but not composed, like theirs, of officers. When about to commence the campaign in spring, the whole three were reviewed by the Maréchal de Noailles, who was so much pleased with the appearance of the Company of Officers, that he asked them to pass once more before him, and presented them with a valuable mule to carry their baggage.

On the 1st of May 1693, they commenced their march across the Pyrenees, into Catalonia, where it was the design of the French commander to invest the town of Rosas. Obliged, notwithstanding the kindness of the maréchal, to carry their tents and camp-utensils, and taking more than the usual share of the duty of foraging, they suffered more on the march than the rest of the army. The Valley of Lampardo, in which Rosas is situated, is so unhealthy, that the king of Spain, when he heard of the French troops having entered it, remarked, that he had no need of an army to fight them. Many of the Officers' Company took fevers and other severe diseases; yet no entreaties could prevail on any of them to retire to the Perpignan hospital, or remit any part of their duties. The Spaniards having learned the story of the Officers' Company, made three several sorties at the time when they were on duty in the trenches, and were on each occasion met by that company singly, and beaten back to the drawbridge. After the siege had continued for a few days, and a breach was made in the walls, the garrison suffered so severe a fire from a particular part of the trenches, that they beat a chamade, and would have surrendered the town if they could have obtained tolerable conditions. The firing was renewed on both sides, and