"he caught her"- the machinery having in fact stopped. for want of winding up! Another man exchanged a horse for a horse-pistol! Uncouth old Highlanders were seen strutting about in the officers' fine clothes; others appeared hurrying away with a large military saddle upon their backs; and a great number immediately set off, without leave or notice, to their mountains on purpose to secure their spoil.

Of the dragoons who had fled from the field of battle, a small party made their way to Edinburgh, where they rode up the High Street at full gallop, and with prodigious confusion and uproar. They continued their race up the hill to the Castle as their surest place of refuge; but the Governor, so far from admitting them, sent them word to begone, or he would open his guns upon them as cowards who had deserted their colours. Scared at this new peril, they turned their horses, and pursued their flight towards the west. But the greater number having been collected, though not rallied, by Sir John Cope and the Earls of Loudon and Home, were seized with a fresh panic the same morning, and in spite of every exertion of their chiefs, went off again at full speed towards Coldstream. Even at Coldstream they did not feel secure, but after a night's rest sought shelter behind the ramparts of Berwick. There they arrived in the most disgraceful disorder; and Sir John was received by his brother officer Lord Mark Kerr with the sarcastic compliment, that he believed he was the first general on record who had carried the tidings of his own defeat!

This battle, called of Preston, or sometimes of Preston Pans, by the well-affected party, received the name of Gladsmuir from the insurgents, out of respect, as it would seem, to certain ancient predictions. "On Gladsmuir "shall the battle be," says a Book of Prophecies printed at Edinburgh in 1615; but Gladsmuira large open heath lies a full mile to the east of the actual scene of conflict.

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*

CHAP. II.

(CHAPTER XXVIII. OF THE HISTORY.)

AT the news of the growing insurrection, King George had set out from Hanover, and on the 31st of August arrived in London. He found that the Regency in his absence had not neglected any measure of precaution; even on the mere apprehension of the troubles a warrant (though, as we have seen, in vain) was issued against the Duke of Perth; and with better success were Sir Hector Maclean and two or three others brought prisoners to England. A requisition had been sent to the Dutch for the 6000 auxiliaries they were bound to furnish; a resolution taken to recall some of the English regiments from Flanders. Marshal Wade had likewise been directed to collect as many troops as he could at Newcastle, and the militia of several counties was called out. But the spirit of the people in no degree responded to the efforts of the government; they remained cold lookers on, not indeed apparently favouring the rebellion, but as little disposed to strive against it. A member of the administration, and a man of no desponding temper, Henry Fox, in his confidential letters at this period, admits and deplores the passive state of public feeling: "England, Wade says, "and I believe, is for the first comer; and if you can tell "whether the 6000 Dutch and the ten battalions of "English, or 5000 French or Spaniards, will be here first, you know our fate.t The French are not come, "God be thanked! But had 5000 landed in any part of "this island a week ago, I verily believe the entire conquest would not have cost them a battle." +

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On the King's return, moreover, the factions of the Court aggravated the difficulties of the country. His Majesty's whole confidence was centered on the fallen minister Granville, who awaited only some favourable

*Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 171.

To Sir C. H. Williams, Sept. 5. 1745.

To the same, Sept. 19. 1745. Coxe's Lord Walpole of Wolterton.

opening to drive the Pelhams from power, and who, from rivalry to them, continued till the battle of Preston to make light of the rebellion. According to Horace Walpole, "Lord Granville and his faction persist in persuading "the King that it is an affair of no consequence; and "for the Duke of Newcastle, he is glad when the rebels "make any progress, in order to confute Lord Granville's "assertions!"*-It was amidst such feuds and jealousies that the ministry had to make their preparations for retrieving the lost battle, and for meeting the Parliament which was summoned for the 17th of October.

On departing from France without permission from its Government, Charles had left a letter of apology and solicitation for the King, which was delivered after he had sailed, and was seconded by the warm entreaties of his friend the Duke de Bouillon.† Still more effectual were the tidings of his first successes. Louis became well disposed, both in self-interest and generosity, to aid him, and continued to despatch several small supplies of arms and money, some of which were intercepted by the English cruizers, while others safely reached their destination. But another far more important diversion in his favour was meditated by the Court of France. His young brother, Henry of York, having arrived from Rome, it was designed to put him at the head of the Irish regiments in the French service, and of several others, and enable him to effect a landing in England; and already were preparations for that object in active progress in Dunkirk.

Charles, conscious how much his final success would depend upon French succour, had determined to lose no opportunity of pressing it. On his victory at Preston he sent over Mr. Kelly with letters to the Court of Versailles and to his father; three weeks later Sir James Stewart was despatched. Both these emissaries succeeded in safely

*To Sir H. Mann, September 20. 1745. He adds seven days later, after the battle, "Lord Granville still buoys up the King's spirits. . . . . "His Majesty uses his ministers as ill as possible, and discourages every body that would risk their lives and fortunes with him."

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† Culloden Papers, p. 206.

See these letters in the Appendix. I am surprised that Mr. Chambers should have been imposed upon by a clumsy forgery, which he inserts in his History, vol. i. p. 188.

PROJECTS AND PREPARATIONS.

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arriving at Paris; Kelly, however, narrowly escaping arrest from the British consul at Camp Veer in Zealand. But neither of them throve in his negotiations. Cabals were already at work against the intended expedition; some pretext of delay was always invented, some obstacle always interposed. Even the warmest partisan of the Stuarts, Cardinal Tencin, complained to Kelly of the backwardness of the English Jacobites, and insisted, as a pledge of their sincerity, that, before the armament sailed, Sir John Hinde Cotton should resign his office at Court. In vain did Kelly reply that Cotton could not reasonably be expected to incur that useless risk, since his resignation, at such a crisis, would at once be followed by his arrest and committal to the Tower.*. -Thus did the French Government long defer, and finally lose, the fairest opportunity it had ever seen since the Revolution of establishing its influence and principles in Britain.

Prince Charles's first wish and design upon his victory was to march immediately towards London, at the head of his little army. On the very next morning he despatched an agent into Northumberland, with instructions to stir up the country and prepare the way for his coming.† Had Charles really been able to push onwards with a body of two or three thousand men, there is strong reason to believe, from the state of things I have described in England-the previous apathy-and the recent terrorthe want of troops-and the distraction of councilsthat he might have reached the capital with but little opposition, and succeeded in at least a temporary restoration. There was no fortified place upon his way beyond the Tweed, except Newcastle, and even at Newcastle his arms had struck the deepest dismay. We learn from Wesley, who was there at the time, "The walls are "mounted with cannon, and all things prepared for sustaining an assault; but our poor neighbours on either "hand are busy in removing their goods, and most of

*Secret examination of Murray of Broughton, August 13. 1746. These and many other curious particulars were suppressed in his public evidence.

†This agent's name was Hickson; he was discovered and arrested at Newcastle. See his instructions in the Appendix, dated Sept. 22. 1745.

"the best houses in our street are left without either "furniture or inhabitants."* If such was the feeling behind ramparts, what must it have been in open and defenceless towns?

On the other hand, the Prince's Scottish advisers were nearly unanimous against an expedition into England. It was urged, as a reason for at least delaying it, that he might triple or quadruple his army by reinforcements from the Highlands, and obtain the advantage of the French supplies that were beginning to arrive at Montrose, Dundee, and other points of the eastern coast. But the motive, which more than any other weighed with Charles to forego his resolution, was the number of Highlanders who were already hastening towards their mountains in order to secure their plunder; so that, had he marched on from the field of battle, he could scarcely perhaps have mustered 1500 men beneath his standard.

Accordingly the young Adventurer, having passed the night of his victory at Pinkie House, returned next evening to fix his residence for some time at Holyrood. On the same day his army marched back into Edinburgh with every token of triumph, displaying the prisoners, the spoils, and the standards they had taken, while the multitude greeted them with repeated acclamations, and the pibrochs struck up the old Cavalier tune, "The King "shall enjoy his own again." Amidst the exulting licence of this tumultuous entry, many of the Highlanders fired their pieces into the air; but one of them having been accidentally loaded with ball, it grazed the forehead of Miss Nairn, an enthusiastic Jacobite, who was waving her handkerchief from a neighbouring balcony. She was stunned for some moments, but on coming to herself, her first words were, not of concern at the pain, or of resentment at the carelessness: "Thank God," she exclaimed, as soon as she could speak, "that the accident has "happened to me, whose principles are known. Had it "befallen a Whig, they would have said it was done on "purpose!"†

* Wesley's Journal, September 23. 1745.

Note to Waverley, revised ed. vol. ii. p. 202. Miss Nairn survived so long as to be an acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott in his younger days.