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Few Scottish
families have shown greater loyalty and fidelity to a lost cause, and few
have suffered more severely for that loyalty, than the Ogilvies, Lords
Ogilvy and Earls of Airlie. It was only in 1826 that the titles forfeited
by his ancestors in the rebellions of 1715 and 1745 were restored to the
present earl's grandfather, whose uncle, David, Lord Ogilvy, joined the
standard of the young Chevalier, Charles Edward, at Edinburgh, at the head
of a regiment of six hundred men, mostly of his own clan and name, from
Forfarshire and Perthshire. For this he was attainted by Act of
Parliament, as had been his uncle, John, the fourth earl, just thirty
years before. After the battle of Culloden, he effected his escape to
France, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, and had the
command of a regiment called 'Ogilvy's own.' It is the story of the escape
of this lord's life, a fair daughter of the noble house of Johnston of Westerhall, that' I am about to elate. It will be seen that Margaret, Lady
Ogilvy, was no bad counterpart of another Scottish woman, Lady Nithsdale,
whose clever ccontrivance of her husband's escape
from the scaffold and the axe I have already related in, previous work.*
In August, 1746,
Margaret Lady Ogilvy was lying a prisoner, under sentence of death, in the
castle of Edinburgh, on the charge of having levied open war upon his
Majesty King George II., and she was almost daily expecting her execution.
But she was a brave and a ready witted woman,
too, and she was resolved that, It all events, she would try how she could
defeat the law of its victim. It is needless to add that she was as
enthusiastic a partisan of the Stuart cause, and as willing as her lord
himself to risk and to sacrifice fortune and life, and everything
save honor, if only she could secure the triumph of the Stuart
tartan; for had she not urged and persuaded her husband to take the field
in aid of the ' bonny Prince Charlie'? and had she not ridden by his side
at the head of his clan to the fatal field of Culloden? and, if she did
not actually join in the battle fray, had she not remained a spectator of
the battle? and, when the rout came, had she not held a spare horse, fleet
of foot, all ready for her husband to mount, and so to find his way to the
sea-coast, and escape to France? Yes, she had done all this, and more
besides; and when he had made good his flight, she was arrested and thrown
into gaol, and tried and condemned to suffer death as a traitor. The
Government of the Duke of Cumberland, however, were determined to make her
an example and a warning to the rest of her sea, whose influence, it must
be owned, had been very powerfully exerted by the Gordons, Erskines,
Drummonds, and others in the lost cause. She was therefore sentenced to be
beheaded at the Edinburgh Toll-booth six weeks after her trial. Her
friends spared no efforts to procure a remission of her sentence: but her
wit and her talents were such that the King and his ministers turned a
deaf ear to all appeals for mercy, and there appeared to be no chance of
her escape from a death of public disgrace in the very flower of her youth
and beauty.
But ' there is many a
slip 'twist the cup and the lip,' and Lady Ogilvy was well aware of the
proverb. Fortunately she was not so strictly and closely confined in her
prison cell, but that many of her friends and acquaintances were allowed
to visit her in prison, and they used their privilege of access to
surround her with comforts, and to lighten by various artifices the burden
of her captivity. Although her friends were making such efforts as they
could on her behalf at Kensington Palace and St. James's, she knew that
she had no sisterly ‘Jeanie Deans' to gain access to the Queen and to
extort from her a promise that she would try and soften the King's heart;
so she resolved to help herself, and to be the author of her own
deliverance.
And an agent ready to help her she found in a poor, ugly, deformed
old woman, with an ungainly hitch in her walk, who brought to the prison
her clean linen once or twice a week. As she was about to leave the cell
after one of her regular visits, the captive detained her, saying that she
was anxious to learn how she managed that hobbling gait. Would the old
lady mind telling her how it was done? Though much surprised at such a
bonnie lady taking such a whim into her head, and especially at such a
time, when death was almost staring her in the face, yet the old crone
willingly gave her the required lesson, and then took her departure. Lady
Ogilvy kept practicing the step, though by no means a graceful one, until
she became quite proficient in it. She then communicated to her friends
her design of using it and the poor old woman's clothes to effect her
escape; and her friends, male and female, we may be sure, did their best
to have everything in readiness, including a relay of horses, to aid her
flight on the evening which she fixed for the attempt.
When the old woman made her appearance, as usual, at
sundown on the Saturday before the day fixed for the execution, Lady
Ogilvy persuaded her to change clothes with her. ' Give me your dress and
you take mine in its place.' The old crone was not unwilling to play the
part of Glaucus to her Diomede, and the exchange was promptly made.
`Now,' added the fair
prisoner, ' do you remain here; nobody will harm you; you will save my
life, and I shall not forget the kindness.' Then, taking up the basket,
she assumed the old washerwoman's limping gait, left the room, walked
coolly and calmly past the sentinel on guard, and joined the girl who had
been waiting outside the castle gate while her mistress went inside.
Fortunately, as they passed out, they were not challenged; and once well
away from the castle precinct, they turned into one of the back streets,
or wynds, and were soon out of sight. The girl was surprised at her
mistress's silence, but said not a word, doubtless ascribing it to the
pain and grief of parting with the dear young lady who was so soon to die.
But what was the girl's surprise when she saw the crooked little creature
suddenly throw aside her basket and reveal herself in her real character
and person! Off ran the lady-not, however, till she had slipped a piece of
silver into the girl's hands, adding a request that she would go quietly
home and say not a word about what she had seen.
Lady Ogilvy made her way to the Abbey
Hill, where she found her friends, according to their promise, most
anxiously awaiting her with a change of dress and a pair of saddle-bosses.
Hurrying over her 'farewell,' she was soon far away on one of the southern
roads; not, however, on the main road to London, for fear of being
recognized and her flight being intercepted, in which case, it may be
presumed, she would have figured on Tower Hill or on Kennington Common
instead of at the Tolbooth at Edinburgh.
Though at every town
through which she passed she found that the news of her flight was known,
and was the talk of the common people, yet she contrived to stave off
inquiries, and to make her way unmolested to the sea coast, crossing over
the bridge at Kingston-on-Thames because she knew London Bridge t., be
guarded. It is not said from what port she effected her escape from
England; but, as a matter of fact, wearied with her long and perilous
journey, she contrived to get a place on board a vessel bound for France.
Lady Ogilvy lived
little more than ten years after effecting this gallant escape from the
block, and she never returned to the land that she had quitted; she died
in exile in 1757. In all probability she lies buried at St. Germains. Her
husband, after the accession of George III., obtained a free pardon,
quietly laid down his arms, and returned to Scotland. He lived to a green
old age-indeed, on into the third year of the present century, so that be
must have been known personally to many of the fathers of the present
generation. In all probability he was acquainted with Sir Walter Scott.
His son, ' the Master of Ogilvy,' died soon after him; of his daughters,
one lived till 1826, the other, who died young, was the wife of Sir John
Wedderburn, who had held a cornet's commission in Lord Ogilvy's regiment
at the battle of Culloden.
*See ' Tales
of Great Families, ‘series, vol. ii., p. 53.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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