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battle was not immediately given them, that they would disperse or lose the fire-edge of their spirit. Besides, there was a sort of necessity on their part for some action of decided brilliancy, to strike the key-note, as it were, to the English Jacobites. Mar believed it necessary, that all men should be up before he struck a blow; but he should have struck the blow, that they might be induced to rise.

Yet some of the first movements of the insurgents showed vigour and address. They performed, for instance, one very dexterous enterprise against a vessel on the Frith of Forth. The Earl of Sutherland, it will be recollected, had gone North, to raise the loyalists of the country beyond Inverness. About the end of September, a vessel was freighted at Leith, with nearly four hundred stands of small arms, for the use of the recruits who might be raised by this nobleman.

After

standing out to sea, a north-east gale began to blow, and compelled the master of the vessel to take shelter under the Fife coast, near Burntisland. As that was the port to which the vessel belonged, and the place where the master usually resided, he thought there could be no harm in his going ashore, during the continuance of the gale, to see his wife and family. Mar learned at Perth the condition of the vessel, and the supine conduct of the skipper; and he determined to make a dash at the arms which were on board. On the evening of the 2d of October, he detached a party of five hundred horse, with each an additional man behind the rider, under the command of the Master of Sinclair. They arrived at Burntisland about mid

night, and immediately, to prevent intelligence of their arrival from being sent off to the vessel, possessed themselves of all the boats in the harbour. At the same time, the horse surrounded the town, to intercept any messenger who might be sent to alarm the adjacent sea-ports. A hundred and twenty select men were then sent off in boats to the vessel, which they found no difficulty in seizing. They at first attempted to bring her into the harbour; but, the wind not serving, they were obliged to drop anchor, and land the arms in boats. Carts were immediately pressed from the country round; and before the morning was far advanced, the whole booty was on its way to Perth. The Duke of Argyle soon learned what had taken place, and made an attempt to intercept the retiring insurgents. But the Earl of Mar succeeded in checking the advance of his Grace's party, by affecting a design of advancing with his whole army to Alva, for the purpose of coming to an action. The consequence was, that the arms were brought safe to Perth, where the exploit was hailed no less as affording a good supply for the unarmed Highlanders, than as partially disabling a powerful enemy, who threatened to do much mischief to their friends in the North. The whole transaction was favourable, in every respect, and in the highest degree, to the insurgents; for it gave a kind of lustre to their arms which they much wanted, and filled their opponents with no little alarm. Earl of Mar now found it possible to take under his control the whole of the wealthy little sea-port towns with which the coast of Fife is so thickly studded, and to plant garrisons in Burntisland and Falkland. Under favour of this arrangement, a

The

French vessel soon after entered the Firth of Forth with stores for the army, and, being chased by the English men of war, found refuge in Burntisland

harbour.

As the proceedings of the Earl of Mar, subsequent to this period, were influenced considerably by the insurrections which were now taking place in the south of Scotland and north of England, it will be necessary here to advert to these matters.

The dispersion of the forces over the disaffected districts of England had been attended with complete success in preventing the outburst of a general insurrection. Supplied with an excuse for keeping quiet, which seems to have been by no means unpalateable to them, the greater part of the English Jacobites sunk coolly upon their oars, and contented themselves with witnessing the exertions of their more fiery compatriots in the North. In one county alone, that of Northumberland, where a predominancy of Catholicism gave unusual spirit to the party, did the expected flame burst out. Even there, it seems to have been only in consequence of the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act, that an appearance was made on the field. Among those whom the Government resolved to apprehend, were Mr Forster, member of parliament for the county, and the Earl of Derwentwater, a young Catholic nobleman, who, partly from religious principle, and partly from the circumstance of his being son of one of Charles the Second's natural daughters, was inspired with an uncommonly large portion of the Jacobite spirit. These two individuals, on learning that a messenger was come to Durham to seize them, suddenly

resolved to take what they conceived the lesser peril of appearing in open rebellion.

By an appointment with their friends, they rendezvoused at a place called Greenrig, on Thursday the 6th of October; when at once they found themselves attended by sixty horsemen, chiefly gentlemen and their servants. Having consulted as to their future movements, they marched, first to a place called Plainfield on the river Cocquit, and afterwards to Rothbury, a small market town, where they quartered for the night.

Next morning, Friday, October 7th, they proceeded to Warkworth, where, on Saturday, they were joined by Lord Widdrington, with thirty horse. Mr Forster was now constituted their General, not because he was the man of highest rank or greatest influence, nor for any other reason of merit, but merely because he was a Protestant; it being judged inexpedient to have a Catholic at the head of the enterprise, seeing that it would give countenance to the prejudices of the common people against them. On Sunday morning, Mr Forster sent Mr Buxton, his chaplain, to the minister of the parish, with orders that he should pray for King James the Third and Eighth by name, and that, in the litany, he should introduce the names of Mary, the Queen-mother, and all the dutiful branches of the royal family, but omit the names of King George and his family. The parson more prudently quitted his charge altogether, and took refuge in Newcastle; on which Mr Buxton took possession of his church, and performed service.

This little party being reinforced, on Monday, by forty horse from the Scottish Border, Mr Forster,

in disguise, proclaimed the Chevalier, with sound of trumpet, and all other formalities which the circumstances of the place would admit. He left Warkworth on the 14th, and marched to Alnwick, where they renewed their proclamation, and received some more friends. Proceeding next to Morpeth, they were joined at Felton Bridge by seventy additional horse from the Scottish Border, so that they now amounted to three hundred. They had had, by the way, many offers of service from the country people; but were obliged to de. cline them, on account of their want of arms.

It is one of the most remarkable circumstances connected with the insurrection of 1715, that, while the general proceedings were, to the last degree, indecisive and paltry, some particular individuals exerted themselves with wonderful energy and success. Among other little brilliant episodes, diverging from the sombre epic of its general history, that of the capture of Holy Island, by a Newcastle skipper, of the name of Launcelot Errington, deserves particular notice. The small fort of Holy Island was then kept by a party of soldiers, who were exchanged once a week from the garrison of Berwick. It was of little importance to the Government; but the insurgents supposed it might have been of considerable service to them, as affording a station for making signals to such French vessels as might be designing for their coast with the expected supplies. Accordingly, Errington, having got a few Jacobite friends on board his little vessel, sailed, on the 10th of October, to make an attempt upon it. It appears that he was in the habit of sailing up to the port, with provisions for the supply of the garrison. Of

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