The Journey Home

No strains, but those of sorrow, flow,

And nought be heard but sounds of woe,

While the pale phantoms of the slain

Glide nightly o’er the silent plain.

O baneful cause, oh, fatal morn,

Accursed to ages yet unborn.

The sons against their fathers stood;

The parent shed his children’s blood.

Yet, when the rage of battle ceased,

The victor’s soul was not appeased:

The naked and forlorn must feel

Devouring flames, and murdering steel.

The pious mother doomed to death,

Forsaken, wanders o’er the heath,

The bleak wind whistles round her head,

Her helpless orphans cry for bread,

Bereft of shelter, food, and friend,

She views the shades of night descend,

And, stretched beneath the inclement skies,

Weeps o’er her tender babes, and dies.

Whilst the warm blood bedews my veins,

And unimpaired remembrance reigns,

Resentment of my country’s fate

Within my filial breast shall beat;

And, spite of her insulting foe,

My sympathizing verse shall flow,

“Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn

Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn.”

—Tobias Smollett, 1746

This poem was written by the poet and satirist Tobias Smollett shortly after the Battle of Culloden, and expresses Scottish rage at the treatment of the vanquished Jacobites.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to all those wonderful friends who have been there all along the way. Emilio Lopez, for lending me my first laptop, David d’Albis, for his patience and long suffering teaching me about computers, and Simon di Rollo, for his Scottish legal expertise. Special thanks to Heather Graham Pozzessere, Sally Fairchild and Joan Johnston, whose encouragement and faith in me have been so precious. Thanks also to the lovely ladies at MIRA: Dianne Moggy, Amy Moore-Benson and Martha Keenan. Last but not least, my deepest thanks to Jean Marie Grimsley, for her tireless assistance, and Sondra Schneider for helping me see more clearly.

Contents

Prologue (#u1041d5f9-e34f-5afd-8d2f-64c2a937b366)

Chapter 1 (#u45fcb0b4-7109-5c38-b21b-0cd6990108bf)

Chapter 2 (#ue00dbe2b-f195-5070-a0e2-162ff473ae9f)

Chapter 3 (#u811c8470-231f-5329-83bf-9f61335b4b75)

Chapter 4 (#udb1c9d9d-1fd1-5ea8-8ded-a523b78f44f0)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)