more from the failure of assistance, from abroad, for his abandoning the present enterprise. He appointed Gordon commander of the army, and gave him full powers to treat with the enemy or to seek their safety in the hills, as they should deem the most advisable. The latter was their only alternative, and most of the leaders set the example of every man helping himself, by making off for Peterhead, where the pretender had landed, in order to embark there. Amongst these were the earl of Teignmouth, the duke of Berwick's son, whom the pretender had left behind, the earl marshal, lord Southesk, and many other noblemen and gentlemen. But Argyll, with all the slowness charged against him, was too quick for them. He entered Aberdeen on the 8th, and the fugitives continued their flight to Frazerburgh, and thence towards Banff. At Frazerburgh the pretender's physician, whom, in his haste, he had left behind, was taken. Some other prisoners were taken on the road to Banff, but none of the leaders, who all escaped. Colonel Gordon turned off at Aberdeen into the Highlands with about a thousand men; and, as Argyll and Cadogan had agreed not to follow them into the mountains, the men gradually dispersed to their homes; and thus melted this insurrection before the snows of their own hills. A hundred and twenty gentlemen, however, who did not feel themselves safe anywhere in the kingdom, made for the Orkneys in open boats; forty-seven of these fugitives perished, and the rest embarked in a ship belonging to the pretender, and followed him to France. The pretender himself had first struck across to the Norwegian coast, and sailed for Holland, and finally reached Gravelines on the seventh day after leaving Montrose. He went thence to St. Germains. The next morning he received a visit from Bolingbroke, who must now have seen enough to convince any man of the least reflection of the hopelessness of the recovery of the English crown by the Stuart. Yet Bolingbroke is said to have endeavoured to cheer him up, and promise him better times. He advised him, however, to return to Bar-le-duc as quickly as possible, lest the duke of Lorraine should anticipate his arrival by a request for him to seek another retreat. In that case, he remarked, he would be obliged to seek shelter at Avignon, which would remove him farther from England. James appeared to acquiesce in this advice, but lingered several days in the hope of obtaining an interview with the regent, but in vain; and then bade Bolingbroke adieu, embracing him with much apparent affection at parting, and asking him to follow as soon as possible.
But whilst Bolingbroke imagined that he was on his journey to Lorraine, he had only removed to an obscure house in the Bois de Boulogne, amongst a set of intriguing women, where he received private visits from the ambassadors of Sweden and Spain. Three days after his farewell to Bolingbroke, Ormonde appeared with two orders from the chevalier; one dismissing him from his office of secretary of state, and the other ordering him to deliver to the duke all the papers in his office. These letters, Bolingbroke says, might all have been contained in a letter-case of moderate size, which ha handed to Ormonde with the seals, except certain letters from the pretender, in which he had spoken most disparagingly of Ormonde himself. These, he says, he sent by a safe hand, when he might have let Ormonde see what an opinion the chevalier had of his capacity.
The folly of sending the man whom he had abused in them — as may yet be seen in the Stuart papers — for these letters was only equalled by that of quarrelling with Bolingbroke, the shrewdest head that he had, and the man who, more than any other, kept alive an influence for him in England. "One must have lost one's reason," says the duke of Berwick, "if one did not see the enormous blunder made by king James in dismissing the only Englishman he had able to manage his affairs." It is said that this was effected by the women alluded to, who reported some expressions made by Bolingbroke respecting the pretender when he was drunk; but Bolingbroke had no friends amongst the miserable people who surrounded the pretender. Ormonde himself was by no means his friend; neither was Mar, who now sought to be at the head of the chevalier's affairs. Bolingbroke professed to feel no resentment at his treatment, but this was merely an assumption of philosophy. When the queen-mother sent to say that the dismissal had taken place without her knowledge, and that she was anxious to adjust matters, he replied that he was now a free man, and that he wished his arm might rot off if ever he again drew his sword or his pen in her son's cause.
The pretender found Bolingbroke's apprehensions only too fully verified. The duke of Lorraine met him at Chalons, in Champagne, by a letter, requesting him to remove his residence to Deux-Ponts, or some place equally distant, as he could no longer brave the remonstrances of the English government. The unhappy fugitive was, therefore, compelled to proceed to Avignon, where he was soon afterwards joined by Ormonde, Mar, and others of the English and Scottish refugees.
Gloomy as was his fortune, it was, nevertheless, infinitely better than that of thousands who had ventured their lives and fortunes in his cause. There were not many prisoners in Scotland, but the clans which had sided with the English government were hounded on to hunt down those who had been out with the pretender amongst their hills, and they were hunted about by the English troops under the guidance of these hostile clans; and where they themselves were not to be found, their estates suffered by troops being quartered in their houses and on their estates. In England the prisons of Chester, Liverpool, and other northern towns were crowded by the inferior class of prisoners from the surrender of Preston. Some half-pay officers were singled out as deserters, and shot by order of a court-martial; whilst five hundred of the ordinary soldiers were left to perish of cold and starvation in their dungeons. The leaders were conducted to London, where they arrived on the 9th of December. On arriving at Highgate Hill they were made to dismount. Their arms were tied like ordinary malefactors behind their backs; their horses were led by foot soldiers; and, amid the noise of drums and all the signs of military triumph, they were led into the city, amid the scoffs and jeers of the populace. The noblemen were conducted to the Tower; the rest were divided into the four common gaols.
On the 9th of January, a month after their arrival, lord Derwentwater was impeached of high treason by Mr. Lochmere in a bitter speech in the commons. Other members,
