The Tobacco Lords Trilogy

by Margaret Thomson-Davis

  Protected by the ravine in front of them, three regiments under Huske stood their ground and poured heavy fire on the flank of the pursuing clansmen, which threw them in great disorder. To add to this confusion, Colonel Roy Stewart, afraid that the Highlanders were racing into an ambush, called on them to stop. The cry flew from rank to rank and some of the men stood still. Others, uncertain of what to do, returned to the ground on which they had formed. Some even left the field and hurried back to Bannockburn and Stirling where they spread the word that the Highland army had been defeated.

  Out of sight on the ridge above, Lord George Murray and what remained with him of the MacDonalds were joined by the Atholl Brigade whose three battalions were the only ones who had kept their ranks. They advanced down the hill in good order. The enemy could be seen running off in forties and fifties to the right and left to get into Falkirk and Murray was determined to follow and attack them.

  At the other side what was left of the dragoons had rallied and were galloping up the hill at the rear of the Jacobite position, with the apparent objective of capturing the Prince, but the Irish picquets were immediately moved forward from the reserve and at the sight of their advance the dragoons fell back on their three right-wing regiments. Forming a rearguard, the dragoons retreated with them towards Falkirk.

  Lord George Murray halted at the foot of the hill. He had only about six or seven hundred men with him, the others being scattered on the face of the hill, but he was soon joined by Lord John Drummond and the Prince. It was getting dark and the urgent question now was where the Highland army would be quartered for the night. Most of the officers were for retreating towards Dunnipace and around that area where the men might be at least covered from the heavy rain, but Murray disagreed.

  ‘No, I say we must waste no time in marching into Falkirk. We mustn’t give the enemy the least time to line the houses or clean their guns. Like Count Mercy at the Battle of Parma, gentlemen, I say, I will either be in the town or in paradise.’

  It was agreed eventually that they would attempt the town, but the Prince was advised to stay at some house in the face of the hill until Lord George Murray sent him word of success.

  As it happened, this did not take long because it was discovered that the royal army was already hurrying away from Falkirk in full retreat. It was fortunate that this had happened because by the time Murray reached Falkirk, most of the Highland army were widely dispersed. Only fifteen hundred men came into the town that night and he was hard put to it to find enough guards for the place. Many of the Highlanders were too busy pillaging the dead and ransacking the deserted royal camp. Still larger numbers had returned to their old quarters near Bannockburn, knowing nothing of the outcome of the battle.

  Like Prestonpans, the Battle of Falkirk lasted a very short time and Annabella reckoned that not more than twenty minutes had elapsed between the firing of the first shot and the retreat of the royal army.

  Next day she cantered out to survey what was left of the scene, with Nancy and Regina following close behind her.

  The Prince had given orders to the Highlanders to bury all the dead, the English dead as well as their own, and crowds of tartan-clad men were busily digging a pit.

  The dead had been stripped of everything by the Highlanders and by women camp-followers and by local boys and beggars. Their naked bodies now lay on the hillside like a flock of sheep. Soon the Highlanders began tossing them into the pit and as Annabella passed she noticed that some of the bodies were in fact still moving and groaning. She called out immediately:

  ‘Stay your hand, sir! These men are alive.’

  One of the Highlanders drew his dirk and began stabbing the bodies, calling back to her as he did so:

  ‘Ton’t worry, mistress. They pe tead now.’

  Another said to a groaning, struggling man as he forced him into the pit: ‘Och, will you pe lying down for the Prince like a tecent fellow.’

  ‘Animals,’ said Regina. ‘Bloody animals.’

  ‘Oh, be quiet, girl,’ Annabella said. ‘This is war. What do you expect?’

  She was no longer sure what she herself expected. There was now uncertainty and anxiety at the central core of her excitement. The uncertainty and anxiety kept beating in and out like a heart and pushing all her pleasurable feelings further and further towards a superficial circumference. She tried to ignore this discomfort at the root of herself. She held fast to her bright, brave appearance and mischievous, impudent stare and when she met Lavelle again at Bannockburn House he could detect no change in her. He shook his head.

  ‘Mademoiselle, you continue to astonish me. You do not seem in the least put out by the recent activities.’

  ‘Not in the least, sir,’ she agreed. ‘But did I not tell you that I was a woman of prodigious spirit?’

  He laughed.

  ‘You did indeed. Maybe you will survive this “adventure”, as you call it, better than any of us.’

  ‘Well?’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘Tell me! What happens now? Where are we headed?’

  Lavelle shrugged.

  ‘Some of the officers were for going after Hawley’s army or even marching to London. Others voted for the siege of Stirling Castle and Stirling Castle won.’ He looked worried. ‘I personally feel that we should not allow Hawley any breathing space. I cannot see of what importance this petty fort at Stirling can be to us. However …’ He shrugged again.

  ‘Jean-Paul, the only way that I can be disturbed is to see you so unhappy.’

  His face immediately crinkled into one of his most charming smiles.

  ‘Mais non, I flatter myself, mademoiselle, that I can disturb you in another way that is delightful.’

  She laughed.

  ‘Prove it, sir. Prove it here and now.’

  They were sitting in one of the public rooms of Bannockburn House under a magnificent seventeenth-century ceiling. It was very late, but the room was still bright with many silver candelabra.

  His wide mouth twisted up at one side.

  ‘You are a witch. I cannot match your courage.’

  ‘Huh!’ Annabella impatiently flapped her fan. ‘You are afraid your precious prince might stumble upon us fornicating on the carpet. Mark my words, sir, he is at this very moment riding high on the prodigiously ambitious and conniving Miss Walkinshaw.’

  ‘A witch!’ Lavelle repeated, eyes narrowing and glimmering with amusement. ‘But I have a duty to attend to before retiring. I did warn you, mademoiselle, that duty came first.’

  They both rose. He bowed as he backed through the door while she curtsied slowly and elegantly.

  Before leaving the room he murmured: ‘May I see you later?’

  ‘You may try, sir,’ Annabella said.

  She felt secretly hurt, yet her common sense told her that what Lavelle said was perfectly true. He had warned her and she still agreed with him that his duty must come first. She admired his strength of character and his conscientiousness. At the same time, she recognised her unexpected vulnerability and was disturbed again. Her heart was saying, ‘I hate to be separated from you even for a few minutes. To hell with your bloody duty. Put me first!’

  Lurking at the back of her mind was the new knowledge born of the realities she was now aware of, that her Jean-Paul Lavelle could be hurt or even killed. He could be separated from her for ever. Firmly she crushed the thought. She refused to fall prey to cowardly fears and debilitating emotions. With head held high, she swished from the room and along the corridors to the bedroom that had been allocated to her.

  On her way, she came upon Clementine Walkinshaw, who was just about to enter the Prince’s bedroom.

  Annabella said: ‘Nobody better to show him what houghmagandie means than you, Miss Walkinshaw.’

  Then, with a rustle of skirts, she swept past.

  Once in her own bedroom she could not settle. She paced the floor, the enormous hoops of her frilled blue satin gown swinging and seesawing.

  Then she stopped abruptly a
nd stared at herself in the pier glass.

  ‘Hell and damnation!’ she said, ‘you really do love that man!’

  18

  AFTER the rebel army left the town, Glasgow had returned to more or less normal. Griselle Halyburton married Douglas Ramsay. John Glassford’s tobacco fleet had returned from Virginia. Survivors of the Glasgow militia had been honourably discharged and come home. They were no longer needed because now the Duke of Cumberland and most of his army had arrived at Edinburgh to take over command from Hawley. Since Falkirk, the royal army had been joined by the artillery train from Newcastle with a complement of regular gunners. Cavalry reinforcements had also arrived and others were on their way.

  Lord George Murray and the chiefs of the clan regiments stationed at Falkirk presented the Prince with an address. It said that the Highland army, owing to desertion, was in no fit state to meet Cumberland’s forces. They advised that an immediate retreat to the Highlands should be made and winter spent reducing the government’s forts. An army of ten thousand men could be assembled in the spring. It continued:

  ‘The greatest difficulty that occurs to us is the saving of the artillery, particularly the heavy cannon; but better some of these were thrown into the River Forth as that your Royal Highness, besides the danger to your own person, should risk the flower of your army …’

  Charles argued indignantly in reply.

  ‘A retreat, gentlemen, will result in nothing but ruin and destruction and will raise the morale of the enemy and proportionately lower that of the Highland army. It will destroy all hopes of further foreign aid, and in particular any prospects of a large-scale French landing. Not only will it result in the loss of the heavy cannon, but by retreating, the Highland army will throw away all the advantages it has previously gained. In any case, the enemy is no more formidable than it has been earlier and is still smarting from its defeat.’

  But Lord George and the chiefs were concerned at what was happening at the siege of Stirling. With nothing to do, the Highlanders were sauntering about all the villages in the neighbourhood of their quarters and an ever-growing number of them were absent from their colours.

  Finding that his arguments failed to win the chiefs over, the Prince recorded them in a letter which contained no recrimination but disclaimed all personal responsibility for the retreat.

  It was agreed that the army would rendezvous near St Ninian’s at nine o’clock in the morning of February 2nd, where a rearguard would be chosen to be commanded by Lord George Murray. But, according to Murray, someone altered his order and before daybreak the Highlanders began streaming westwards instead towards the Fords of Frew. It was said:

  ‘Never was there a retreat resembling so much a flight, for there was nowhere one thousand men together, and in great confusion, leaving carts and cannon upon the road behind them.’

  It was with astonishment and anger that Lord George arrived at the rendezvous to find that not one man was in sight. He had no alternative then but to take the road to Frew.

  The Highland army crossed the Forth with Annabella and some wives of the chiefs and other women splashing behind them on horseback. Then the army headed towards Inverness. Horse and the low-country regiments, under Murray, marched along the more dangerous coast road, a route he offered to take after others had refused it. The Prince with the clans took the Highland road. On the day the divisions went their separate ways, Cumberland and the royal army, following in pursuit, left Stirling and on the 6th of February they reached Perth.

  News kept seeping back to Glasgow by means of official riders and also with ordinary travellers arriving by horse or coach, or with packmen coming in from the country to sell their wares. Gypsies and sorners too added to the town’s store of news and gossip which was conscientiously passed on in lusty voice by McMurdo the bellman. But despite the exciting news of what was going on outside of Glasgow there were other important things happening of more immediate interest and concern. Business was getting back to normal. Shops, warerooms and counting-houses were open again and supplies were pouring in.

  McMurdo shouting around the streets the announcement that new table delicacies or toilet preparations had arrived by ship caused just as much stir and commotion as the latest move of the Highland army or of Cumberland’s troops.

  ‘The best eating oil, cucumbers, capers,

  Oh what a ploy,

  Olives, anchovies, Indian Soy,

  Barberries, vermicelli, everything to please,

  Fine salt loaves, split and whole peas.

  London pomat, true French hungary water,

  Things tae beautify yersel’ and yer daughter,

  There’s plain and there’s scented hair powder,

  There’s things needed—even by fops,

  There’s steel wig-machines, powder-machines,

  There’s razors, hones and razor strops.’

  There were other business-type announcements too.

  ‘If any young lads who can read and write,

  Who are strong and healthy, virtuous and bright,

  Want a life of adventure in a far off land,

  Listen tae me, for the news is at hand,

  The Glasgow Lass and the Mary Heron are snows,

  Sturdy ships as everyone knows;

  Kilfuddy and Daidles are their captains true,

  And from Port Glasgow with cargo and crew,

  To James River, Virginia they’re waiting to go,

  But canna leave yet and how is that so,

  Because they need lads and they’re waiting with patience,

  For indentured servants to work the plantations.

  So if a plantation job to you would be great,

  And if you’re a lad who can write and read,

  Skelp away doon with a’ your speed,

  To Maister Ramsay, the merchant, Briggait.’

  The facts of this announcement were not quite true because the ships had not yet unloaded their cargo of tobacco, far less taken on the goods that had to be shipped back across to Virginia. There were some repairs to be made to the vessels because they had run into bad weather on the journey and the storms had played havoc with both sail and timber. But it was the return cargo, or rather the lack of it, that threatened to cause the longest delay. The enormous amount of goods and money that had been supplied to the Highland army had crippled the tradespeople and it would be some time before they could recover sufficiently to supply what was required for the Virginia trade. But it was true that indentured servants were urgently needed and it was thought wise to start right away to try and get boys, and girls too if possible, to sign up.

  Slave labour was employed on the plantations not because it was cheap, because it was not, but for the most part it was the only labour force available. But unless the Negroes were plantation born and trained, they were clumsy and slow.

  As soon as it began to rain everyone had to rush to the tobacco beds where the delicate tobacco seedlings had already been planted. Careless handling could destroy the seed, yet the workers had, at feverish speed, to lift the small tobacco plants and transplant them to the raised tobacco beds or hills nearby. The plants could only be moved when it rained and sudden spells of frenzied activity were typical of a plantation and the reason why so many workers were needed.

  The only Glasgow tobacco lord who owned a plantation and was therefore a planter as well as merchant and sea adventurer was Andrew Buchanan. He employed slave labour. Others dealt in the slave trade, buying and selling slaves, but Ramsay dealt only in indentured servants. This was not because of any principles involved. He never gave a thought to slave trading and only dealt in white servants from Glasgow because for him it was better business to do so. His ships took them out to masters in Virginia and he also employed them in his company stores and offices.

  He and his colleagues had managed to get a hold on the tobacco supplies of Virginia so that they were the only people who could supply it in bulk to the French. The main reason for this lay in the chains of
small stores they had set up in the interior. All the Glasgow tobacco lords had started trading stores to serve the many small plantation owners.

  The idea was that the store offered credit to its customers and paid for the planters’ tobacco crops in money, goods or a mixture of both. But owing to a shortage of coin in the country, the Virginians rarely had any money and this meant that the planters could not do their shopping anywhere except at the tobacco company’s store where they were allowed to buy goods up to the limit of their tobacco produce.

  Every store displayed its goods under two different price tags, ‘cash price’ and a higher ‘goods price’. Those who paid in money or tobacco were allowed goods at the cash price. Those who wanted credit, however, or were paying off old debts, had to pay the higher goods price. Once a planter got into debt it was, as a result, difficult for him to pay it off. He had to keep paying for all the things he bought at the higher price, so his debts kept increasing. Most of the Virginians were heavily in debt and their next year’s crop of tobacco already mortgaged to the store.

  Goods valued in Britain at one hundred pounds were selling in Virginia at one hundred and seventy-five pounds, so even if they sold tobacco at a loss, men like Ramsay would make huge profits from their retail stores.