Part 15

"Sir,

"I wrote to you yesterday by one that used to come here from Mr. Hall, which I hope will come safe to your hands. At night I had yours of the fourteenth, and this night that of the tenth. The caps do pritty well, and I have orders to thank you for them. I send you one of his own; if you can get such paper t'is well, and if not, the other is what he likes best of any that you sent; so let some of either one or other come when you have an occasion.

"I am sorry Mr. Brewer is ill, for his presence here wou'd be of great use; and as soon as he is able I wish he wou'd come, which I am ordered to tel you, and also that you may endeavour to get a copie of the coronation of King Charles the First and Second, which certainly are to be had in Edinburgh. Willie Wilson had them, and perhaps some of his friends may have got copies of them from him, which may be had.

"I spoke to one some time ago about makeing a crown in pices at Edinburgh and bringing it over here to be put togither, who, I believe, talkt to you of it. That man was here some days ago, but went away before I knew it is wisht that such a thing could yet be done, which is left to your care.

"In case there be occasion for it here, as I wish there may, bulion gold is what I'm afraid will be wanting, but it will not take much. Had not the misfortune I wrote to you of hapn'd to Sir J. Erskine there had been no want of that. We have got no farther account of that affair, tho' we have people about it; but if they do not succeed this night or to-morrow when the spring tide is, it is lost for ever. There is more by the way tho', and I hope will have better fate. I have ordered more papers to be sent you, and certainly you have more of them before now. It is mighty well taken what that lady (the letters from London say) has ordered, as to those you sent her, which you are desired to let her have; and I do not doubt she will do the same as to those concerning E----d. Adieu."

By the next letter it appears that the good opinion entertained by Lord Mar of the Chevalier was real; since the whole of the epistle has the tone of being a natural effusion of feeling, and is a simple statement of what actually took place, and not the letter of a diplomatist.

"Sir,

"I have seen a letter from Mr. S----g, who had spoke with you on the subject I formerly wrote to you of, concerning that fo--f--y of the D----h to a gentleman with us, Mr. S----q's friend, and upon it our master has thought fit to write the enclosed to him, and orders me to tell you that you must cause give him an hundred guineas at the delivery of the letter. The letter is left open for your perusal, and I wish it may have effect, as perhaps it may. There's no time to be lost in it, and I'll long to know what passes in it, and what hopes you have of him. I sent you credit for five hundred pounds, which I hope you got safe; but if by any accident it should not come to your hands, Mr. S----q there, is a certain goldsmith that will advance what there is occasion for this way. I send you enclosed a letter, which may be of use in an affair I wrote of in my last.

"We have got severall deserters since the K. came and last night nine came in with their clothes and arms, and says many more will follow soon, which I wish we may see. They say, too, that the two regiments of dragoons are marcht from Glasgow for England, and that two are to go from Stirling to replace them. Were they designing to march against Scoon, sure they would not do this, nor is it possible they can do anything in this weather; but if they, notwithstanding, attempt it, perhaps they may find frost in it.

"As I am writing I have received yours of the thirteenth. I read it to the K----g, and delivered him the enclosed letter from Mr. Holmes, which was very well taken, as you will see by the enclosed return, which you'll take care to forward safely; and pray do me the favour to make my compliments there.

"Perhaps you'll hear things of the two northern powers that will look odd to your other friends, as no wonder; but all will come right again--the time they had taken being out in a few days. There's one sent some days ago to assist them, so I hope things will be soon right there, tho' they have done much to spoil them, and each of them makes an excuse of one another as they have done from the begining. The K----, you will see by all the enclosed, is not spareing of his pains. You must fall on the right way of having them all delivered.

"That to Seaforth he writes upon the great professions he made when in France; he is such a fellow that I'm afraid it will do little good.

"I have nothing else material to say just now, but I cannot give over without telling a thing which I'm sure will please you--that the longer one knows the King the better he's liked, and the more good qualities are found in him; that of good-nature is very eminent, and so much good sense that he might be a first minister to any king in Europe, had he not been born a king himself. He has allowed Neil Campbell to go to Edinburgh t'other day on his parole, he being ill, and it was with so much good nature that was evident in his doing of it, that it charmed me. I wish you could get notice how Neil represents it or expresses himself when he gets there; for I wrote it at length to the gentleman who wrote to me about him. Adieu.

"If people from S----q be designing to come to us, they should either do it soon or give us assurances of doing it soon as we are in view of each other; and these assurances must be such that we can depend on, for our conduct must in a great measure be regulated by what we expect that way.

"It were highly necessary that methods and measures were concerted for the right way of doing this, which you should let such of them as you know are so trusted know, and it is absolutely necessary that they either send one to me about this, or let me know it certainly some other way, that we may not be drawing different ways when we are designing the same thing.

"We have no return of the last message which was sent to the good man of the house you wrote of, and t'is above eight days ago. I believe he designs right, tho' t'is odd."

The enthusiasm which was at first displayed towards the Chevalier was soon cooled, not only by his grave and discouraging aspect, but by his fearless and impolitic display of his religious faith. He never allowed any Protestant even to say grace for him, but employed his own confessor "to repeat the Pater nosters and Ave Marias:" and he also shewed an invincible objection to the usual coronation oath,--a circumstance which deferred the ceremony of coronation,--Bishop Mosse declaring that he would not consent to crown him unless that oath were taken. This sincerity of disposition--for it cannot be called by a more severe name--especially diminished the affections of the Chevalier's female episcopal friends, who had excited their male relations to bear arms in his favour. But the circumstance which weighed the most heavily against James, was the order which he published, on hearing that the Duke of Argyle was making preparations to march against him, for burning the towns and villages, and destroying the corn and forage, between Dumblane and Perth. This act of destruction, from the effects of which the desolate village of Auchterarder has never recovered, was determined on, in order that the enemy might be incommoded as much as possible upon their march; it added to the miseries of a people already impoverished by the taxes and contributions which the Jacobites had levied. It appears, however, from a letter of James's, since discovered, or perhaps, only suppressed at the time, to have been an act which he bitterly regretted, and the order for which he signed most unwillingly. He was desirous of making every reparation in his power for the ravages which were committed in his name.

On the ninth of January a council of war was held by the Duke of Argyle at Stirling, where, by a singular coincidence, the council sat in the same room in which James the Second, then Duke of York, had, in 1680, been entertained by the Earl of Argyle, to whom he had proposed the repeal of the sanguinary laws against Papists. The refusal of Argyle to concur in that measure, the consequences of his conduct, and his subsequent death, are circumstances which, doubtless, arose to the remembrance of his descendant, as he discussed, in that apartment, the march towards Perth.

The country between Stirling and Perth was covered with a deep snow; the weather was one continual storm; it was therefore impossible for the army of Argyle to proceed until the roads were cleared,--a process which required some time to effect. It is asserted, nevertheless, by an historian, that upon Colonel Ghest being sent with two hundred dragoons to reconnoitre the road leading to Perth, that the greatest panic prevailed in that town: immediate preparations were made for defence, and nothing was to be seen except planting of guns, marking out breastworks and trenches, and digging up stones, and laying them with sand to prevent the effects of a bombardment. The Earl of Mar, nevertheless, does not appear, if we may accredit his own words, to have even then despaired of a favourable issue. The following letter betrays no fear, but speaks of some minor inconvenience, which is far from being of a melancholy description. The difficulty of procuring the right sort of ribbon for the decoration of the Garter, is altogether a new feature among the adversities of royal personages. It seems strange that James should not have provided himself, before quitting France, with all that was necessary to preserve the external semblance of majesty.

"January 20th, 1715-16.

"Sir,

"I wrote to you the eighteenth, and sent severall others enclosed, which I hope will come safe to you. The inclosed, markt D. F., is from the King to Davie Floid at London, which he desires you may take care to gett conveid to him safly and soon, it being of consequence. The other is for my wife, which I beg you may forward as usewall.

"We are told that ther's some foot come to Dumblain, and that ther's more expected there. And they still talk as if they designed to march their whole armie against us nixt week. Perhaps they intend it, but with this weather I see not how 'tis in their power. If they do tho', upon their expecting we are to abandon Perth upon their aproach, as I'm told they believe, they will find themselves mistaken, for all here are resolved to stand it to the last, and perhaps we will not wait their comeing the lenth, but meet them by the way. We might have left it indeed, some time ago; but that time is past, and the King's being with us alters the case in every respect. After all, I cannot get myself to belive that they will actually come to us in haste, and if they do they may mistake their reckning. Sure I am, it were impossible for us to march to them in this snow, and our folks are as good at that as they. The snow puts me in mind of the children of Israel's pillar of smoke and pillar of fire; and to say truth, ther's something in the weather very odd and singular; I never saw such.

"My cloathes are almost all worn out, haveing left some at the battle: I know not if you could get me any made and sent from Edinburgh; but if you could, I should be glad of it. Ther's one Bird was my tayler and I belive has my measur, or some old cloathes of mine, that he could make them by. Perhaps he's a whig tho', and will not do it. I would have them deep blew, laced with gold, but not on the seams. I have but one starr and no riban, but 'tis no great matter for that, a better man than I is in the same case; he has only one scrub, one which he got made since he came, and no right riban. I believe ther's neither of that kind of blew nor green riban to be got at Edinburgh; but if you could get some tolorablie like it, you send some of both. Wine is like to be a more sensible want. We got a little Burgundy for the King, but it is out; and tho' we know of a little more, I'm affraid we shall scarce get it brought here; and he does not like clarit, but what you'l think odd, he likes ale tolorably well. I hope they will send us some from France, but with this wind nothing can come from thence. George Hamilton saild on Saturday last, and I belive is there long e'er now, which I heartily wish he may, and I hope you shall soon see the effects of his going with what he caried with him.

"I am affraid Macintosh's men in England may be in hard circumstances for want of money. The King has ordred some for them, which is this daye given to a friend of theirs who was sent to me from the North, who sayes he knows how to get it remitted to them.

"By the news I see the Parliament is to have no mercie on our Preston folks, but I hope God will send them salvation in time.

"I wish you would send us the newspapers oftner for we get them but seldome; the soonest way of sending them is by A. W. at Kirkaldy, who will find some way of sending them to us, notwithstanding of their garisons in Fife.

"I'm affraid what I wrote to you of formerly to be in danger will never be recovered, for it could not at this time, tho' it was try'd; and I fear shall not the next either, tho' we are to do all we can about it, and it was too much to go that way.