Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

farther at this time was, that as his hat was fallen off, he took it in his left hand, and waved it as a signal to him to retreat, and added, what were the last words he ever heard him speak, "Take care of yourself:" upon which the servant retired.

It was reported at Edinburgh, on the day of the battle, by what seemed a considerable authority, that as the colonel lay in his wounds, he said to a chief of the opposite side, "You are fighting for an earthly crown, I am going to receive a heavenly one," or something to that purpose. When I preached the sermon, long since printed, on occasion of his death, I had great reason to believe this report was true, though, before the publication of it, I began to be in doubt: and, on the whole, after the most accurate inquiry I could possibly make at this distance, I cannot get any convincing evidence of it. Yet I must here observe, that it does not appear impossible that something of this kind might indeed be uttered by him, as his servant testifies that he spoke to him after receiving that fatal blow, which would seem most likely to have taken away the power of speech, and as it is certain he lived several hours after he fell. If, therefore, anything of this kind did happen, it must have been just about this instant. But as to the story of his being taken prisoner, and carried to the pretended prince, who, by the way, afterwards rode his horse, and entered upon it into Derby, with several other circumstances which were grafted upon that interview, there is the most undoubted evidence of its falsehood: for his attendant, mentioned above, assures me that he himself immediately fled to a mill, at the distance of about two miles from the spot of ground on which the colonel fell; where he changed his dress, and, disguised like a miller's servant,

returned with a cart as soon as possible, which yet was not till near two hours after the engagement. The hurry of the action was then pretty well over, and he found his much-honoured master, not only plundered of his watch and other things of value, but also stripped of his upper garments and boots, yet still breathing; and adds, that though he was not capable of speech, yet, on taking him up, he opened his eyes, which makes it something questionable whether he was altogether insensible. In this condition, and in this manner, he conveyed him to the church of Tranent, from whence he was immediately taken into the minister's house, and laid in bed, where he continued breathing, and frequently groaning, till about eleven in the forenoon, when he took his final leave of pain and sorrow, and undoubtedly rose to those distinguished glories which are reserved for those who have been so eminently and remarkably faithful unto death.

From the moment in which he fell, it was no longer a battle, but a rout and carnage. The cruelties which the rebels, as it is generally said, under the command of lord Elcho, inflicted on some of the king's troops, after they had asked quarter, are dreadfully legible on the countenances of many who survive. They entered colonel Gardiner's house, before he was carried off from the field; and, notwithstanding the strict orders which the unhappy duke of Perth, whose conduct is said to have been very humane in many instances, gave to the contrary, everything of value was plundered, to the very curtains of the beds and the hangings of the rooms. His papers were all thrown into the wildest disorder, and his house made an hospital for the reception of those who were wounded in the action.

Such was the close of a life which had been so zealously devoted to God, and filled up with so many honourable services. This was the death of him who had been so highly favoured by God, in the method by which he was brought back to him after so long and so great an estrangement, and in the progress of so many years, during which, in the expressive phrase of the most ancient of writers, he had walked with him,-to fall as God threatened the people of his wrath that they should do," with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet," Amos ii. 2. Several other very worthy, and some of them very eminent persons, shared the same fate; either now in the battle of Preston-Pans, or quickly after in that of Falkirk. Providence, no doubt, permitting it, to establish our faith in the rewards of an invisible world, as well as to teach us to cease from man, and fix our dependence on an almighty arm.

The remains of this Christian hero, as I believe every reader is now convinced he may justly be called, were interred the Tuesday following, September 24th, at the parish church at Tranent, where he had usually attended Divine service, with great solemnity. His obsequies were honoured with the presence of some persons of distinction, who were not afraid of paying that last respect to his memory, though the country was then in the hands of the enemy. But, indeed, there was no great hazard in this; for his character was so well known, that even they themselves spoke honourably of him, and seemed to join with his friends in lamenting the fall of so brave and so worthy a

man.

The remotest posterity will remember for whom the honour of subduing this unnatural and pernicious rebellion was reserved; and it will endear the person

of the illustrious duke of Cumberland to all but the open or secret abettors of it in the present age, and consecrate his name to immortal honours among all the friends of religion and liberty who shall arise after us. And I dare say it will not be imagined that I at all derogate from his glory, in suggesting that the memory of that valiant and excellent person, whose memoirs I am now concluding, may, in some measure, have contributed to that signal and complete victory with which God was pleased to crown the arms of his royal highness: for the force of such an example is very animating, and a painful consciousness of having deserted such a commander in such extremity must at least awaken, where there was any spark of generosity, an earnest desire to avenge his death on those who had sacrificed his blood, and that of so many other excellent persons, to the views of their ambition, rapine, or bigotry.

The reflections I have made in my funeral sermon on my honoured friend, and in the dedication of it to his worthy and most afflicted lady, supersede many things which might otherwise have properly been added here. I conclude, therefore, with humbly acknowledging the wisdom and goodness of that awful Providence, which drew so thick a gloom around him in the last hours of his life, that the lustre of his virtues might dart through it with a more vivid and observable ray. It is abundant matter of thankfulness that so signal a monument of grace and ornament of the Christian profession was raised in our age and country, and spared for so many honourable and useful years. Nor can all the tenderness of the most affectionate friendship, while its sorrows bleed afresh in the view of so tragical a scene, prevent my

adoring the gracious appointment of the great Lord of all events, that when the day in which he must have expired without an enemy appeared so very near, the last ebb of his generous blood should be poured out, as a kind of sacred libation, to the liberties of his country and the honour of his God; that all the other virtues of his character, embalmed, as it were, by that precious stream, might diffuse around a more extensive fragrancy, and be transmitted to the most remote posterity with that peculiar charm, which they cannot but derive from their connection with so gallant a fall; an event, as that blessed apostle of whose spirit he so deeply drank has expressed it, "according to his earnest expectation and his hope, that in him Christ might be glorified in all things, whether by his life, or by his death."

In the midst of so many more important articles, I had really forgot to say anything of the person of colonel Gardiner, of which, nevertheless, it may be proper here to add a word or two. It was, as I am informed, in younger life, remarkably graceful and amiable; and I can easily believe it, from what I knew him to be when our acquaintance began, though he was then turned of fifty, and had gone through so many fatigues as well as dangers, which could not but leave some traces on his countenance. He was tall-I suppose something more than six feet, well proportioned, and strongly built; his eyes of a dark grey, and not very large; his forehead pretty high; his nose of a length and height no way remarkable, but very well suited to his other features; his cheeks not very prominent, his mouth moderately large, and his chin rather a little inclining, when I knew him, to

« AnteriorContinuar »