ters, or fighting him in the field; at all events, their great superiority of numbers would have compelled the English general either to hazard an action at very great disadvantage, or to retreat. In either case, the Northumbrian gentlemen would have remained masters of their native province, and might have made themselves masters of Newcastle, and interrupted the coal trade; and, finally, the great possessions and influence of Lord Derwentwater and others would have enabled them to add to their force as many infantry as they might find means of arming, without which, the gentry who were in arms could only be considered as a soul without a body, or a hilt without a blade. But Forster and his friends would not agree to a measure which had so much to recommend it, but lost time in empty debates, remaining at Kelso from the 22d to the 27th of October, until it became impossible to put the plan in execution. For they learned, that while they were deliberating, General Carpenter was acting; and his little army, being reinforced and refreshed, was now advanced to Wooler, to seek them out and give them battle.

Forster and the English officers then insisted on another scheme, which should still make England the scene of the campaign. They proposed that, eluding the battle which General Carpenter seemed willing to offer, they should march westward along the middle and west Borders of Scotland, till they could turn southward into Lancashire, where they assured their Scottish confederates that their friends were ready to rise in numbers, to the amount of

twenty thousand men at least, which would be sufficient to enable them to march to London in defiance of all opposition.

Upon this important occasion the insurgents gave a decided proof of that species of credulity which disposes men to receive, upon very slight evidence, such tidings as flatter their hopes and feelings, and which induced Addison to term the Jacobites of that period a race of men who live in a dream, daily nourished by fiction and delusion, and whom he compares to the obstinate old knight in Rabelais, who every morning swallowed a chimera for breakfast.

The Scottish gentlemen, and Lord Winton in particular, were not convinced by the reasoning of their Southern friends, nor do they appear to have been participant of their sanguine hopes of a general rising in Lancashire; accordingly, they strongly opposed the movement in that direction. All, therefore, which the rebels, in their divided counsels, were able to decide upon with certainty, was to move westward along the Border, a course which might advance them equally on their road, whether they should finally determine to take the route to the west of Scotland or to Lancashire. We must refer to a future part of this history for the progress and ultimate fate of this ill-starred expedition.

CHAPTER LXIX.

The Earl of Mar remains inactive at Perth-his Resolu tion to march upon Stirling—his Advance, Abandonment of the Plan, and Return to Perth—Surprisal of a Jacobite Detachment at Dunfermline—Argyle joined by Reinforcements-Mar also joined by Seaforth, General Gordon, with the Clans of the West, and Breadalbane Both Armies, being now fully reinforced, have no further pretext for postponing Active Operations.

[1715.]

We must now return to the Earl of Mar's army, which must be considered as the centre and focus of the insurrection. Since his occupation of Perth, Lord Mar had undertaken little which had the appearance of military enterprise. His possession even of Fifeshire and Kinross had been in some degree contested by the supporters of Government. The Earl of Rothes, with a few dragoons and volunteers, had garrisoned his own house of Lesly, near Falkland, and was active in harassing those parties of horse which Mar sent into the country to proclaim James VIII., and levy the cess and public taxes. Upon one of these occasions, (28th September) he surprised Sir Thomas Bruce, while in the act of making the proclamation in the

town of Kinross, and carried him off a prisoner. The Earl of Rothes retained possession of his garrison till Mar's army became very strong, when he was obliged to withdraw it. But Mar continued to experience occasional checks, even in the military promenades in which he employed the gentlemen who composed his cavalry. It is true, these generally arose from nothing worse than the loose discipline observed by troops of this condition, their carelessness in mounting guards, or in other similar duties, to which their rank and habits of life had not accustomed them.

The only important manœuvre attempted by the Earl of Mar, was the expedition across the frith under Brigadier MacIntosh, of which the details are given in the last chapter. Its consequences were such as to force the General himself into measures of immediate activity, by which he had not hitherto seemed much disposed to distinguish himself, but which became now inevitable.

It happened that, on the second day after MacIntosh's departure from Fife, a general review of the troops in Perth was held in the vicinity of that town, and the Earl Marischal's brother, James (afterwards the celebrated Field-Marshal Keith), galloped along the line, disseminating some of those favourable reports which were the growth of the day, and, as one succeeded as fast as another dropped, might be termed the fuel which supplied the fire of the insurrection, or rather, perhaps, the bellows which kept it in excitation. The apocryphal tidings of this day were, that Sir William Wyndham had

surprised Bristol for King James III., and that Sir William Blacket had taken both Berwick and Newcastle-intelligence received by the hearers with acclamations, which, if it had been true, were no less than it deserved.

But from these visions the principal persons in the insurrection were soon recalled to sad realities. A meeting of the noblemen, chiefs of clans, and commanders of corps, was summoned, and particular care taken to exclude all intruders of inferior rank. To this species of council of war Mar announced, with a dejected countenance, that Brigadier MacIntosh, having, contrary to his orders, thrown himself into the citadel of Leith, was invested there by the Duke of Argyle. He laid before them the letter he had received from the Brigadier, which stated that a few hours would determine his fate, but that he was determined to do his duty to the last. The writer expressed his apprehension that cannons and mortars were about to be brought against him. The Earl of Mar said that he gave the detachment up for lost, but suggested it might be possible to operate a diversion in its favour, by making a feint towards Stirling. The proposal was seconded by General Hamilton, who said that such a movement might possibly do good, and could produce no harm.

The movement being determined upon, Mar marched with a large body of foot to Auchterarder, and pushed two squadrons of horse as far forward as Dunblane, which had the appearance of a meditated attack upon Stirling. It is said to have been