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hope of returning to England. His subsequent career was chequered and sad. The French Government at first deluded him with hopes of assistance; but when his presence in Paris threatened to embroil them with England, they even imprisoned him in the Bastille, and in the castle of Vincennes.

One faithful servant was then with the hapless Prince, Neil Mackechan, his companion in Skye. He has left on record that in the mortification and agony of the moment, Charles Edward exclaimed with emotion, 'Ah, my faithful mountaineers! you would never have treated me thus. Would I were still with you!'

Although his imprisonment was but short, it was long enough to crush his spirit. He disappeared about the time of his liberation, in 1748, and his habits then appear to have become very bad. He married the Princess Louisa of Stolberg in 1774, but had no legitimate children by the union. The faulty but generous Prince died at Florence, January 30th, 1788. His brother Henry laid his remains in the cathedral at Frescati. Perhaps nothing truer was ever said of the last of the Stuarts, Prince Charles Edward, when his sad and chequered career was over, than the words spoken of him by that same brother. Well may I use them in closing the story of his romantic life: He was a king by the grace of God, not by the will of man.'

CHAPTER VII.

THE ESCAPE OF THE EARL OF NITHSDALE FROM THE TOWER, AND THE FATE OF THE EARL OF DERWENTWATER.

"Here's to the king, sir!

Ye ken wha I mean, sir."'

JACOBITE SONG.

HE Rebellion of 1715 began with a great hunting match in the Braes of Mar, on the 27th of August in that year. The Jacobites were watched so narrowly by the Government, that it was a usual expedient to meet in that way to discuss the plots and designs that were constantly being set on foot for the restoration of the exiled family, for then the diversion of chasing the deer was generally succeeded by an entertainment in the castle hall of the nobleman who summoned the guests.

This celebrated hunting match of Braemar was assembled by John Erskine, Earl of Mar; and a gallant band of Highland chiefs and chieftains,

The Earl of Nithsdale.

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Jacobite noblemen and gentlemen, responded to the call. Among the number was a Scottish nobleman, William Maxwell, Earl of Nithsdale, whose romantic escape from the Tower of London is among the most curious and interesting episodes of the enterprise that originated at Braemar in 1715. He was loyal by inheritance, being descended from a long line of brave warriors, beginning with an ancestor who fought at Bannockburn; and the Earl could reckon as among his forefathers, heroes who had been true patriots, from the days of Robert Bruce and Flodden down to the disastrous times of Charles I.

The Earl of Nithsdale was blessed with both fortune and station. He succeeded his grandfather in 1696, and came into a patrimonial estate in one of the most luxuriant and cultivated counties of Scotland-Dumfriesshire, and took his title from the valley of the Nith. As early as 1707 he was mentioned as one who could raise 300 men' for James Stuart. The year before Lord Mar summoned the adherents of the Stuarts to Braemar, several of the Maxwell clan had attended some horse-races at Lochmaben, where, after the prizes had been given away, Lord Burleigh pledged the king's health at the cross of Lochmaben, with drums beating and colours flying. It was at Braemar, however, that the final measures for

erecting James Stuart's standard were concerted. Lord Mar's old castle was as full of guests as it could hold that memorable day. There were Lowland and Highland chieftains, with numerous retainers, who, for want of better quarters, were forced to sit up all night round the huge kitchen fire, talking of the Earl's intentions and proceedings, and speculating as to the course he intended to take. Next day that celebrated leader of the insurrection unfolded his plans, and made a long address in favour of James VIII., as the elder Chevalier was called. When the Earl's speech was over, all the persons present took an oath of fidelity to Mar as the Chevalier's representative, and then returned home to prepare for the contest.

The Earl of Mar next summoned them on the 3d of September to meet him at Aboyne, after which the Chevalier's standard was unfurled at Castletown. The day on which it was erected was stormy, and the gilded ball on the top of the standard spear was blown down, which threw a gloom over the proceedings, for, as I have told you in a previous chapter, the Highlanders had the most superstitious belief in omens, whether for good or for evil; and very dark and anxious were several faces among Mar's followers, when they recalled how the same misfortune had happened to Charles I.'s flag when put up at Notting

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ham. James VIII.'s standard was blue in colour, bearing the Scottish arms on one side, with the thistle and motto, Nemo me impune lacesset,' and 'No Union' on the other. White ribbons floated in the breeze from the top of the standard. Of all the Jacobite gentlemen who pledged their word to embrace the Stuart cause, none was more willing to do so than Lord Nithsdale. His wife was, like himself, also a firm and devoted Jacobite, believing in the words of the old ditty

'There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.'

Lady Nithsdale was a granddaughter of the second Marquis of Worcester, who invented the steam-engine. She was very beautiful, having large soft eyes, regular features, fair hair and skin, and looked very fragile and delicate. Like her husband, she was a Roman Catholic, having been educated in a convent at Bruges; for her father, the Marquis of Powis, had followed James II. to France, and had remained near that monarch till 1696, when he died, preferring a lifelong exile to abjuring Jacobite politics.

When a general rising in the north of England took place under the Earl of Derwentwater and Mr. Forster, Lord Nithsdale joined Lord Kenmure, and quitted his Scottish home for ever. He accompanied Lord Kenmure into England, was made prisoner after the battle of Preston, and taken to