Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/524

510 over a rude wooden bridge, consisting of the trunks of trees thrown across, at Chorlton. That evening they reached Macclesfield. On the Cheshire bank of the Mersey Charles found a few country gentry waiting to pay their respects to him, and amongst them an enthusiastic old lady, a Mrs. Skyring, who, as a child, had witnessed the landing of Charles II. at Dover, and exclaimed, on seeing the prince, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!" It is said that on hearing, a few days after, of the retreat, the old lady died of the shock.

Notwithstanding this greeting, no one there joined the prince. Lord George pushed on with his division to Congleton, whence he sent on colonel Kerr, who met and routed a small body of the duke of Kingston's horse, and drove them towards Newcastle-under-Lyne. Kerr seized captain Weir, well known as one of Cumberland's principal spies; and, by threatening him with the gallows, drew from him the particulars of the duke's numbers and position. It appeared that the duke was under the impression that the prince was directing his march towards Wales to join his partisans there, and having encouraged this notion by this advance, and led the duke to proceed as far as Stone, lord George suddenly altered his route, and got to Ashbourne and thence to Derby, thus throwing the road to London quite open, and being two or three days' march in advance of the duke. Charles entered Derby the same day, the 4th of December, and took up his quarters at a house belonging to the earl of Exeter, at the bottom of Full Street.



Charles entered Derby as he had done all the other towns on his route, on foot, and surrounded by his guards, commanded by lord Elcho. An eye-witness, an inhabitant of Derby, describes the prince as tall, straight, slender, and handsome, dressed in a green bonnet laced with gold, a bob-wig, a Highland plaid, and with a broad-word; that his guards were fine fellows, well dressed, but their horses very jaded; that the main body of the array marched in six or eight abreast—a mixture of all sizes, from mere childhood to old age, from the dwarf to the giant, tired, dirty, and many ragged in their dress. They carried eight standards, white with red crosses, and had no music but bagpipes; they planted their artillery on Nun's Green, and then dispersed themselves through the town for quarters; they demanded billets for nine thousand men, and called for the magistrates, but were told that they had fled; they, however, found alderman Cooper, who was lame, and could not run away, and compelled him to proclaim James VIII. The Highlanders then began to help themselves to clothes, of which they stood in great need, paying for some, but omitting to pay for more; they demanded, according to their practice, the land-tax, excise, and other taxes, and