SIR W. SCOTT.]

THE HUNTING OF BRAEMAR.

had their effect on the assembled guests; and every one felt that to oppose the current
of the earl's discourse by remonstrance or objection, would be to expose himself to the
It was agreed that all of
charge of cowardice, or of disaffection to the common cause.
them should return home, and raise, under various pretexts, whatever forces they
could individually command against a day, fixed for the third of September, on which
they were to hold a second meeting at Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire, in order to settle
The marquis of Huntly alone declined to be
how they were to take the field.
bound to any limited time; and in consequence of his high rank and importance,
he was allowed to regulate his own motions at his own pleasure.

Thus ended that celebrated hunting in Braemar, which, as the old bard says of that of Chevy Chace, might, from its consequences, be wept by a generation which There was a circumstance mentioned at the time, which tended was yet unborn. to show that all men had not forgotten that the earl of Mar, on whose warrant this rash enterprise was undertaken, was considered by some as rather too versatile to be fully trusted. As the castle of Braemar was overflowing with guests, it chanced that, as was not unusual on such occasions, many of the gentlemen of the secondary class could not obtain beds, but were obliged to spend the night around the kitchen fire, which was then accounted no great grievance. An English footman, a domestic of the earl, was of a very different opinion. Accustomed to the accommodations of the south, he came bustling in among the gentlemen, and complained bitterly of being obliged to sit up all night, notwithstanding he shared the hardship with his betters, saying, that rather than again expose himself to such a strait, he would However, he soon after comforted himreturn to his own country and turn whig. self by resolving to trust to his master's dexterity for escaping every great danger. "Let my lord alone," he said; "if he finds it necessary, he can turn cat-in-pan with any man in England."

While the lowland gentlemen were assembling their squadrons, and the highland chiefs levying their men, an incident took place in the metropolis of Scotland which showed that the spirit of the enterprise which animated the Jacobites, had extended to the capital itself.

This ensign

James, lord Drummond, son of that unfortunate earl of Perth, who, having served James VII. as chancellor of Scotland, had shared the exile of his still more unforaunate master, and been rewarded with the barren title of duke of Perth, was at present in Edinburgh; and by means of one Mr. Arthur, who had been formerly an ensign in the Scots Guards, and quartered in the castle, had formed a plan of surprising that inaccessible fortress, which resembled an exploit of Thomas Randolph, or the Black lord James of Douglas, rather than a feat of modern war. Arthur found means of seducing, by money and promises, a sergeant named Ainslie and two privates, who engaged that, when it was their duty to watch on the walls which rise from the precipice looking northward, near the sally-port, they would be prepared to pull up from the bottom certain rope-ladders prepared for the purpose, and furnished with iron grapplings to make them fast to the battlements. By means of these, it was concluded that a select party of Jacobites might easily scale the walls and make themselves masters of the place. By a beacon placed on a particular part of the castle, three rounds of artillery, and a succession of fires made from hill to hill through Fife and Angus shires, the signal of success was to be communicated to the earl of Mar, who was to hasten forward with such forces as he had collected, and take possession of the capital city and chief strength of Scotland.

There was no difficulty in finding agents in this perilous and important enterprise. Fifty highlanders, picked men, were summoned up from lord Drummond's estates in Perthshire, and fifty more were selected among the Jacobites of the metropolis. These last were disbanded officers, writers' clerks and apprentices, and other youths

GG 2

of a class considerably above the mere vulgar. Drummond, otherwise called MacGregor, of Bahaldie, a highland gentleman of great courage, was named to command the enterprise. If successful, this achievement must have given the earl of Mar and his forces the command of the greater part of Scotland, and afforded them a safe and ready means of communication with the English malcontents, the want of which was afterwards so severely felt. He would also have obtained a large supply of money, arms, and ammunition, deposited in the fortress, all of which were most needful for his enterprise. And the apathy of lieutenant-colonel Stewart, then deputy-governor of the castle, was so great that, in spite of numerous blunders on the part of the conspirators, and an absolute revelation on the subject made to government, the surprise had very nearly taken place.

The younger conspirators who were to go on this forlorn hope, had not discretion in proportion to their courage. Eighteen of them, on the night appointed, were engaged drinking in a tippling-house, and were so careless in their communications that the hostess was able to tell some person who inquired what the meeting was about, that it consisted of young gentlemen who were in the act of having their hair powdered in order to go to the attack of the castle. At last the full secret was intrusted to a woman. Arthur, their guide, had communicated the plot to his brother, a medical man, and engaged him in the enterprise. But when the time for executing it drew nigh, the doctor's extreme melancholy was observed by his wife, who, like a second Belvidera or Portia, suffered him not to rest until she extorted the secret from him, which she communicated in an anonymous letter to sir Adam Cockburn of Ormiston, then lord justice-clerk, who instantly despatched the intelligence to the castle. The news arrived so critically, that it was with difficulty the messenger obtained entrance to the castle; and even then the deputygovernor, disbelieving the intelligence, or secretly well affected to the cause of the pretender, contented himself with directing the rounds and patrols to be made with peculiar care, and retired to rest.

The

In the meantime the Jacobite storming party had rendezvoused at the churchyard of the West Kirk, and proceeded to post themselves beneath the castle wall. They had a part of their rope ladders in readiness, but the artificer, one Charles Forbes, a merchant in Edinburgh, who ought to have been there with the remainder, which had been made under his direction, was nowhere to be seen. Nothing could be done during his absence; but, actuated by their impatience, the party scrambled up the rock, and stationed themselves beneath the wall at the point where their accomplice kept sentry. Here they found him ready to perform his stipulated part of the bargain, by pulling up the ladder of ropes which was designed to give them admittance. He exhorted them, however, to be speedy, telling them he was to be relieved by the patrol at twelve o'clock, and if the affair were not completed before that hour, that he could give no further assistance. time was fast flying, when Bahaldie, the commander of the storming party, persuaded the sentinel to pull up the grapnel and make it fast to the battlements, that it might appear whether or not they had length of ladder sufficient to make the attempt. But it proved, as indeed they had expected, more than a fathom too short. At half-past eleven o'clock the steps of the patrol, who had been sent their rounds earlier than usual, owing to the message of the lord justice-clerk, were heart approaching, on which the sentinel exclaimed with an oath, "Here come the rounds I have been telling you of this half-hour; you have ruined both yourself and me; I can serve you no longer." With that he threw down the grappling-iron and ladders, and in the hope of covering his own guilt, fired his musket and cried "Enemy! Every man was then compelled to shift for himself, the patrol firing on them from the wall. Twelve soldiers of the burgher guard, who had been directed by the lord

justice-clerk to make the round of the castle on the outside, took prisoners three youths, who insisted that they were found there by mere accident, and an old man, Captain MacLean, an officer of James VII., who was much bruised by a fall from the rocks. The rest of the party escaped alongst the north bank of the North Loch, through the fields called Barefoord's Parks, on which the new town of Edinburgh now stands. In their retreat they met their tardy engineer, Charles Forbes, loaded with the ladders which were so much wanted a quarter of an hour before. Had it not been for his want of punctuality, the information and precautions of the lord justice-clerk would have been insufficient for the safety of the place. It does not appear that any of the conspirators were punished, nor would it have been easy to obtain proof of their guilt. The treacherous sergeant was hanged by sentence of court-martial, and the deputy-governor (whose name of Stewart might perhaps aggravate the suspicion that attached to him) was deprived of his office, and imprisoned for some time.

It needed not this open attack on the castle of Edinburgh, or the general news of lord Mar's highland armament, and the rising of the disaffected gentlemen in arms throughout most of the counties of Scotland, to call the attention of king George's government to the disturbed state of that part of his dominions. Measures for defence were hastily adopted. The small number of regular troops who were then in Scotland were concentrated for the purpose of forming a camp at Stirling, in order to prevent the rebels from seizing the bridge over the Forth, and thereby forcing their way into the Low country. But four regiments, on the peace establishment, only mustered two hundred and fifty-seven men each; four regiments of dragoons were considerably under two hundred to a regiment-a total of only fifteen hundred men at the utmost.

JACOBITE RISING, 1715.

TOBIAS SMOLLETT.

The earl of Mar was at the head of 10,000 men well armed: he had secured the pass of the Tay at Perth, where his headquarters were established, and made himself master of the whole fruitful province of Fife, and all the seacoast on that side of the Frith to Edinburgh. He selected 2,500 men, commanded by brigadier Mackintosh, to make a descent on the Lothian side, and join the Jacobites in that country, or such as should take arms on the borders of England; boats were assembled for this purpose; and, notwithstanding all the precautions that could be taken by the king's ships on the Frith to prevent the design, above 1,500 chosen men made good their passage in the night, and landed on the coast of Lothian, having crossed an arm of the sea about sixteen miles broad in open boats that passed through the midst of the king's cruisers. Nothing could be better concerted, or executed with more conduct and courage, than was this hazardous enterprise. They amused the king's ships with marches and countermarches along the coast in such a manner that they could not possibly know where they intended to embark. earl of Mar, in the meantime, marched from Perth to Dumblane as if he had intended to cross the Forth at Stirling Bridge; but his real design was to divert the duke of Argyle from attacking his detachment which had landed in Lothian. So far the scheme succeeded. The duke, who had assembled some troops near Lothian, returned to Stirling with the utmost expedition, after having secured Edinburgh, and obliged Mackintosh to abandon his design on that city.

The

This partisan had actually taken possession of Leith, from whence he retired to

Seaton house, near Prestonpans, which he fortified in such a manner that he could not be forced without artillery; here he remained until he received an order across the Forth from the earl of Mar to join lord Kenmuir and the English at Kelso, for which place he immediately began his march, and reached it on the 22nd of October, though a good many of his men had deserted on the route. The lord Kenmuir, with the carls of Wintoun, Nithsdale, and Carnworth, the earl of Derwentwater and Mr. Forster, with the English insurgents, arriving at the same time, a council of war was immediately called. Wintoun proposed that they should march immediately into the western parts of Scotland and join general Gordon, who commanded a strong body of highlanders in Argyleshire; the English insisted on crossing the Tweed and attacking general Carpenter, whose troops did not exceed 900 dragoons: neither scheme was executed. They took the route to Jedburgh, where they resolved to leave Carpenter on one side, and penetrate into England by the western border; the highlanders declared they would not quit their own country; but were ready to execute the scheme proposed by the earl of Wintoun; means were, however, found to prevail on one half of them to advance, while the rest returned to the highlands.

At Brampton Forster opened his commission of general, which had been sent to him from the earl of Mar, and proclaimed the pretender; they continued their march to Penrith, where the sheriff, assisted by lord Lonsdale and the bishop of Carlisle, had assembled the whole posse comitatus of Cumberland, amounting to 12,000 men, who dispersed with the utmost precipitation at the approach of the rebels. From Penrith Forster proceeded by the way of Kendal and Lancaster to Preston, from whence Stanhope's regiment of dragoons and another of militia immnediately retired, so that he took possession of the place without resistance. General Wills marched against the enemy with six regiments of horse and dragoons and one battalion of foot commanded by colonel Preston. They had advanced to the bridge of Ribble before Forster received intelligence of their approach; he forthwith proceeded to raise barricades and put the place in a posture of defence. On the 12th of November the town was briskly attacked in two different places; but the king's troops met with a very warm reception, and were repulsed with considerable loss. Next day general Carpenter arrived with a reinforcement of three regiments of dragoons, and the rebels were invested on all sides. The highlanders declared they would make a sally, sword in hand, and either cut their way through the king's troops or perish in the attempt; but they were overruled. Forster sent colonel Oxburgh with a trumpet to general Wills to propose a capitulation. He was given to understand that the general would not treat with rebels; but in case of their surrendering at discretion, he would prevent his soldiers from putting them to the sword until he should receive further orders; he granted them time to consider till next morning on their delivering the earl of Derwentwater and Mackintosh as hostages. When Forster submitted, this highlander declared he could not promise the Scots would surrender in that manner; the general desired him to return to his people, and he would forthwith attack the town, in which case every man of them would be cut to pieces. The Scottish noblemen did not choose to run the risk, and persuaded the highlanders to accept the terms that were offered. They accordingly laid down their arms and were put under a strong guard. All the noblemen and leaders were secured. Major Nairn, captain Lockhart, and ensign Erskine were tried by a court-martial as deserters and executed; lord Charles Murray, son of the duke of Athole, was likewise condemned for the same crime, but reprieved; the common men were imprisoned at Chester and Liverpool, the noblemen and considerable officers were sent to London, conveyed through the streets pinioned like malefactors, and committed to the Tower and Newgate.

[The day on which the rebels surrendered at Preston was remarkable for the battle of Dumblane, fought between the duke of Argyle and the earl of Mar, who commanded the pretender's forces.]

Mar, having been joined by the northern clans, under the earl of Seaforth, and those of the west, commanded by general Gordon, who had signalised himself in the service of the czar of Muscovy, resolved to pass the Forth, in order to join his southern friends, that they might march together into England. With this view he advanced to Auchterarder, where he reviewed his army, and rested on the 11th of November. The duke of Argyle, apprised of his intention, and being joined by some regiments of dragoons from Ireland, determined to give him battle in the neighbourhood of Dumblane. On the 12th of the month, Argyle passed the Forth at Stirling, and encamped, with his left at the village of Dumblane and his right towards Sheriffmuir. The earl of Mar advanced within two miles of his camp, and remained till daybreak in order of battle. His army consisted of 9,000 effective men, cavalry as well as infantry. In the morning the duke, understanding they were in motion, drew up his forces, which did not exceed 3,500 men, on the heights to the north-east of Dumblane; but he was outflanked both on the right and left. The clans that formed part of the centre and right wing of the enemy, with Glengarry and Clanranald at their head, charged the left of the king's army, sword in hand, with such impetuosity, that in seven minutes both horse and foot were totally routed with great slaughter, and general Whetham, who commanded them, fled at full gallop to Stirling, where he declared the royal army was totally defeated. In the meantime the duke of Argyle, who commanded in person on the right, attacked the left of the enemy, at the head of Stair's and Evans's dragoons, and drove them two miles before him, as far as the water of Allan. Yet in that space they wheeled about, and attempted to rally ten times, so that he was obliged to press them hard that they might not recover from their confusion. Brigadier Wightman followed in order to sustain him, with three battalions of infantry; while the victorious right wing of the rebels, having pursued Whetham a considerable way, returned to the field, and formed in the rear of Wightman to the amount of 5,000 men. The duke of Argyle, returning from the pursuit, joined Wightman, who had faced about and taken possession of some enclosures and mud-walls, in expectation of being attacked. In this posture both armies fronted each other till evening, when the duke drew off towards Dumblane, and the rebels retired to Ardoch without mutual molestation. Next day the duke marched back to the field of battle, carried off the wounded, with four pieces of cannon left by the enemy, and retreated to Stirling. Few prisoners were taken on either side; the number of slain might be about five hundred of each army, and both generals claimed the victory. This battle was not so fatal to the highlanders as the loss of Inverness, from which sir John Mackenzie was driven by Simon Frazer, lord Lovat, who, contrary to the principles he had hitherto professed, secured this important post for the government, by which means a free communication was opened with the north of Scotland, where the earl of Sutherland had raised a considerable body of vassals. The marquis of Huntly and the earl of Seaforth were obliged to quit the rebel army in order to defend their own territories, and in a little time submitted to king George; the marquis of Tullibardine withdrew from the army to cover his own country, and the clans, seeing no likelihood of another action, begun to disperse according to custom.

The Government was now in a condition to send strong reinforcements to Scotland; 6,000 men, that were claimed of the states-general by virtue of the treaty, landed in England and began their march to Edinburgh. General Cadogan set out for the same place with brigadier Petit, and six other engineers; and a train of