Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/353

A.D.1715] dignity, but had conferred honorary degrees exclusively on Jacobites or high tories. A letter was intercepted from an undergraduate, in which he boasted that at the university they feared nothing, but drank king James's health every day. Colonel Owen and several other disbanded officers were there, concerting with the heads of houses to unite with the insurgents of Bristol; but Stanhope dispatched thither an experienced officer, general Pepper, who, on the 6th of October, summoned the vice-chancellor and mayor to his presence, showed them his orders from Stanhope to seize eighteen suspected persons, and to keep order in the place. The vaunting Oxonians doffed their bravado at the sight of the soldiers, and were in a hurry to obey. They assisted to secure the persons named. Ten or twelve of them were taken, though Owen and some others escaped; and Pepper assured the authorities that if any disorders took place in the execution of his duty, he would fire on the disturbers. This produced a profound quietus at Oxford.

In the north matters went further. In Northumberland and Durham there were many catholics, and the earl of Derwentwater, a young nobleman of amiable character, who had largo estates both on the Tyne, where he lived, at Dilston Place, and at Derwentwater in Cumberland, and Mr. Forster, of Bamborough Castle, became their leaders. Derwentwater was only twenty-six at the time of the insurrection, and is said not to have entered willingly into it, but that he was incited to it by the reproaches of his wife, who told him that it was not fitting that the earl of Derwentwater should hide his head in hovels when the gentry were up in arms for the cause of their rightful sovereign; and throwing down her fan, she is reported to have said, "Take that, and give me your sword." This may account for the unprepared state in which he took the field, for though he had great numbers of men in his lead mines on Alston Moor, besides his numerous tenants, he joined the other insurgents with a very small following.

By appointment Derwentwater and Forster met at a place called Greenrig, whence the same day they marched to Rothbury. They had then together only sixty horse, but at Warkworth lord Widdrington joined them with thirty more. Foster was there appointed their general, simply because he was a protestant, and it was thought that this would have a good effect on the protestant population. At Warkworth, Forster, in disguise, himself proclaimed the chevalier by sound of trumpet. They marched to Aluwick, and thence to Morpeth, where their force amounted to about three hundred. Finding the gates of Newcastle closed against them, and the people up in arms, they turned aside to Hexham, where they expected to meet detachments from Lancashire. No forces arrived from that quarter, but a body of Scotch who had risen at Moffat under lord Kenmure, and others, sent them word that they were marching southwards, and they would meet them at Kelso. Kenmure proclaimed the chevalier at Moffat on the 12th of October, and the next day made an attempt on Dumfries; but the marquis of Annandale was before him, and secured it for the king. Being joined by the earls of Wintoun, Nithsdale, and Carnwath, Kenmure marched south to meet the Northumberland rebels. He had about two hundred horsemen, and, hastening into England, he met Derwentwater, Forster, and Widdrington at Rothbury on the 19th, whence they proceeded to the rendezvous at Kelso, where they expected another body of insurgents under brigadier Macintosh.

This detachment under Macintosh had been sent by Mar, who was still lingering at Perth to get into the rear of Argyll by crossing the Frith of Forth below Stirling, whilst another body, under general Gordon, was dispatched to seize on Inverary, and kept the clan Campbell in check. Macintosh had about two thousand men under his command, chiefly from his own clans, but supported by the regiments of the lords Nairn, Strathmore, and Charles Murray. To prevent these forces crossing, three English ships of war ascended the Forth to near Burntisland; but whilst a detachment of five hundred men kept the attention of the ships engaged at that point, the main body were embarking on the right in small boats lower down, and the greater part of them got across the channel, and landed at Aberlady and North Berwick. The city of Edinburgh was in great consternation at this daring manoœuvre, and at the proximity of such a force; and Macintosh, hearing of this panic, and of the miserable state of defence there, determined to attempt to surprise it. He staid one night at Haddington to rest his men, and on the 14th appeared at Jock's Lodge, within a mile of Edinburgh. But on the very first appearance of Macintosh's troops, Sir George Warrender, the provost of Edinburgh, had dispatched a messenger to summon the duke of Argyll from Stirling to the aid of the capital. The duke was already approaching Edinburgh, and therefore Macintosh, perceiving that he had no chance of surprising the town, turned aside to Leith, where he threw open the prisons and released forty of his men, who had been captured in crossing the Forth; after which he took possession of the citadel of Leith.

Argyll soon appeared before the citadel with two or three hundred dragoons and an equal number of foot, as well as the city guard and volunteers, and the horse militia of the neighbourhood, completing a force of about one thousand two hundred men. He summoned Macintosh to surrender, but was answered by a Highland gentleman, named Kinnachin, that they did not understand that word, and, he hoped, never would; that they had made up their minds neither to ask nor to give quarter; and that, if Argyll was ready to give an assault, they were ready to receive it. Argyll reconnoitered the defences of the citadel, and saw that he had no power to compel a surrender; and he was speedily recalled from the attempt by news that Mar, taking advantage of his absence, was marching on Stirling. Singularly enough, as he commenced his return to prevent the loss of Stirling, Macintosh, afraid of being surrounded by fresh forces, and attacked by artillery from the city, was stealing out of Leith by night, and directing his course southward. He crossed the head of Leith pier, his men wading to the knees in the water, reached Musselburgh before midnight, and early on Sunday morning, the 16th, was at Seton Place, the seat of the earl of Wintoun, about seven miles from Edinburgh, where he took position behind a strong old garden wall, and prepared for the attack of Argyll. This general, however, was already in motion in a reverse direction. He reached Stirling in time to re-occupy it, but Mar,