that, according to the rigour of the law, the life of the heroic Countess was considered as responsible for that of the husband whom she had saved; but she contrived to conceal herself.

Lord Winton received sentence of death after trial, but also made his escape from the Tower, 4th August, 1716. As Charles Ratcliff had already broke prison about the same time, we may conclude either that the jailors and marshals did not exhibit much vigilance on this occasion, or that the prisoners found means of lulling it to sleep. The Earl of Carnwath, Lords Widdrington and Nairne, were, after a long imprisonment, pardoned as far as their lives were concerned, in consequence of a general bill of indemnity.

Of inferior persons, about twenty of the most resolute of the Preston prisoners were executed at that place and at Manchester, and four or five suffered at Tyburn. Amongst these the execution of William Paul, a clergyman, a true friend, as he

["When waiting his fate in the Tower, he made good use of his mechanical skill, sawing through, with great ingenuity, the bars of the windows through which he made his escape He ended his motley life at Rome in 1749 [aged 70], and with him terminated the long and illustrious line of Seton, whose male descendants have, by intermarriage, come to represent the great houses of Gordon, Aboyne, and Eglinton. Their estate was forfeited, and has since passed through several hands."-SIR WALTER SCOTT, ante, vol. vii. p. 401; Wood's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 648.]

[The Reverend William Paul, of St John's College, Cambridge. "He came boldly up to Mr Forster, as he was at dinner with Mr Patten, at the Recorder of Lancaster's house. He entered the room in a blue coat, with a long wig and a sword, and Mr John Cotton of Cambridgeshire with him. They let him

boasted himself, of the anti-revolutionary church of England, made a strong impression on those of his party.

Thus closed the Rebellion and its consequences, as far as England was concerned. We must now take a view of its last scenes as exhibited in Scotland.

know who they were, and in a flourishing way made a tender of their services for the cause; which Mr Forster accepting, they withdrew."-PATTEN, p. 92.—Mr Paul ardently begged life, in letters and petitions of recantation and penitence. To the Archbishop of Canterbury he says, "I humbly desire your Grace to use your utmost endeavours to save a poor clergyman's life. If it will not be granted to spend the remainder of it in England, I beg you will be pleased to send me to the Plantations, or any where rather than Tyburn." His petitions to the King, and others, speak of "the late unnatural rebellion against his Majesty which he detests and abhors. He humbly begs leave, in all sorrow of heart, to acknowledge his great and heinous offence; and from the bottom of his soul, asks pardon of God, his Majesty, and the Church and nation." And, at the place of execution, being interrupted in reading, he handed to the Sheriff of London a paper addressed to the people, which has, "I exhort you all to return to your duty. Remember that King James the Third is your only rightful Sovereign, by the laws of the land, and therefore, if you would perform the duty of justice to him, which is due to all mankind, you are obliged in conscience to do all you can to restore him to his crown."-Faithful Register, &c., pp. 305, 312, 323.]

CHAPTER LXXII.

The Arrival of Dutch Troops-Simon Fraser of LovatDesertion of the Clan Fraser to the Whig Interest—A General Council of the Jacobite Leaders breaks up without coming to any Conclusion-An Offer of Submission upon Terms, made to Argyle, and Rejected—Arrival of the Chevalier-Exertions of Argyle to put an end to the Rebellion-His March towards Perth-Exultation of the Jacobite Highlanders in the Prospect of another Battletheir Fury and Despair on its being hinted that it was intended to Retreat-A Retreat resolved on.

[1715-1716.]

WE left the insurgents when the melancholy news of the termination of the campaign of Forster, with his Highland auxiliaries, at the barricades of Preston, had not yet reached them; the moment it did, all hopes of a general insurrection in England, or any advantage being obtained there, were for ever ended.

The regular troops which had been detained in England to suppress the northern insurgents, were now set at liberty, and Mar could no longer rely upon Argyle's remaining inactive for want of men. Besides, the Estates of the United Provinces had now, upon the remonstrance of General Cadogan, despatched for Britain the auxiliary forces which

they were bound by treaty to furnish in case of invasion, and three thousand of them had landed at Deptford. The other three thousand Dutch troops, designed for ports in the north, had been dispersed by a storm, and driven into Harwich, Yarmouth, and elsewhere, which induced the Government to order those at Deptford, as the most disposable part of this auxiliary force, to move instantly down to Scotland.

Events equally unfavourable to the rebels were taking place in the North of Scotland; and, in order to ascertain the progress of these, it is necessary to trace some passages of the life of Simon Fraser, one of the most remarkable characters of his time.

men.

He was by birth the nearest male heir to the estate of Lovat, and to the dignity of Chief of the Frasers-no empty honour, since the clan contained a following of from seven hundred to a thousand The chief last deceased, however, had left a daughter, and Simon was desirous, by marriage with this young lady, to unite her pretensions to the chieftainship and estate with his own. As his character was bad, and his circumstances accounted desperate, the widowed mother of the young heiress, a lady of the house of Athole, was averse to this match, and her powerful family countenanced her repugnance.2

["Simon was the son of Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, next male heir to the house of Lovat after the death of Hugh, Lord Lovat, without male issue."-SIR WALTER SCOTT, ante, vol. xx. p. 61.]

["The Dowager Lady Lovat was a daughter of the Marquis of Athole; and that powerful family was, therefore, induced to

Being a man of a daring character, deep powers of dissimulation, and master of the tempers of the lower class of Highlanders, Simon found it no difficult matter to obtain the assistance of a strong party of Frasers, chiefly desperate men, to assist in a scheme of seizing on the person of the young heiress. She escaped his grasp, but her mother, the widow of the late Lord Lovat, fell into his power. Equally short-sighted as unprincipled, Fraser imagined that by marrying this lady, instead of her daughter, he would secure, through her large jointure, some legal interest in the estate. With this view he accomplished a forced marriage betwixt the Dowager Lady Lovat and himself, and enforced his rights as her pretended husband with the most brutal violence. For this abominable and atrocious outrage against a matron widow of his own near connexion, and a sister of the powerful Marquis of Athole, letters of fire and sword were granted against Fraser and his adherents, and being

take great interest in disposing of the young lady in marriage. Various quarrels, during the time that Simon of Beaufort held a commission in his regiment, had made him particularly unacceptable to the Marquis of Athole and his family, who viewed his assuming the title of Master of Lovat, and proposing himself as a husband for their kinswoman, with a very evil eye."-Ibid.]

["Having raised a gallows on the green before Castle Downie, where she then resided, to intimidate all who might protect the object of his violence—a lady advanced in life, and whose person is said to have been as little inviting as her character was respectable, he went through the mock ceremony of a wedding, had her dress cut from her person with a dirk, and subjected her to the last extremity of brutal violence, while the pipes played in the next apartment to drown her screams."-SIR WALTER SCOTT, ante, vol. xx. p. 62.]