had served under Lord Dundee were transhipped to France, and,
immediately upon their landing, the officers and others had their rank
confirmed according to the tenor of the commissions and characters which
they bore in Scotland. They were distributed throughout the different
garrisons in the north of France, and, though nominally in the service
of King James, derived their whole means of subsistence from the bounty
of the French monarch. So long as it appeared probable that another
descent was meditated, those gentlemen, who were almost without
exception men of considerable family, assented to this arrangement, but
the destruction of the French fleet under Admiral Tourville, off La
Hogue, led to a material change in their views. After that naval
engagement it became obvious that the cause of the fugitive King was in
the mean time desperate, and the Scottish officers, with no less
gallantry than honour, volunteered a sacrifice which, so far as I know,
has hardly been equalled.

The old and interesting pamphlet written by one of the corps,[2] from
which I have extracted most of the following details, but which is
seldom perused except by the antiquary, states that, "The Scottish
officers, considering that, by the loss of the French Fleet, King
James's restoration would be retarded for some time, and that they were
burdensome to the King of France, being entertained in garrisons on
whole pay, without doing duty, when he had almost all Europe in
confederacy against him, therefore humbly entreated King James to have
them reduced into a company of private sentinels, and choose officers
amongst themselves to command them, assuring his majesty that they would
serve in the meanest circumstances, and undergo the greatest hardships
and fatigues that reason could imagine, or misfortunes inflict, until it
pleased God to restore him. King James commended their generosity and
loyalty, but disapproved of what they proposed, and told them it was