Page:Sketches of the History of the Church of Scotland.djvu/30

 Castletown of Brae Mar and proclaimed James the Eighth. The Earl Marischal did the same in Aberdeen on the 20th of September, attended by a large representation of the nobility and gentry of the shire, the Clergy, and the Professors of the two universities. Among the concourse of loyalists were the Marquis of Huntly,—the Head of the noble House staying quietly at home, but his sympathies were well known, and his power in the north was almost regal;—the Earl of Aboyne, the Lord Forbes of Pitsligo, Sir Robert Gordon who carried the Royal Standard, and a numerous retinue of the lesser Barons and Lairds, among whom were Invercauld, Pittodrie, Stoneywood, Drum, Pitullie, Turherhall, and upwards of two hundred of the chief burgesses of the city. Aberdeen, ever true to Church and King, was delirious with joy. The mouth of the stone Lion which surmounts the market cross was made to spout forth wine for the delectation of the crowd, who drank the King's health, many of them, on their knees. The Whig magistrates were summarily deposed; and others, well affected to the cause, reigned in their stead. The Presbyterian ministers were turned out of the churches,and the dispossessed Clergy were re-installed. The Prayer Book Service was said in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas, which the Professors of the University, the Magistrates and Town Council, and the Incorporated Trades attended in state, arrayed in their robes of office. The "braif toune of Bon-Accord" was en fete; and "the auld Stuarts back again" was on every tongue! On the 22nd of December James landed at Peterhead, then little more than a fishing village, but every man and woman in it his devoted partisans. Next day he passed on through Aberdeen to Fetteresso, near Stonehaven, one of the castles of the Earl Marischal. During the halt in Aberdeen, loyal addresses were presented to him by the Professors of the two universities, by the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese, and the Jacobite magistracy. But soon the gleam of gladness vanished. Sheriffmuir was fought and lost; or rather the battle was a drawn game; for, in the words of the song:—

But Mar, the leader of the enterprise, was incompetent, if not a poltroon. He made little or no attempt to keep his army together, although the bulk of it marched off the field unbroken. The two Marischal Keiths,—the younger brother, James, afterwards the great Field Marshall of Frederic of Prussia, and both of them the bravest of the brave,—failed to prevail with Mar to persevere in the attempt, although they urged him on the field with passionate tears, and so it took end. In the battle, a gray-headed Highlander, who had fought at Killiecrankie, was heard, shouting at every blow of his Lochaber axe, "Och! for an 'oor o' Dundee!" James himself was not made of the stuff which creates enthusiasm among soldiers. He seeemedseemed [sic] but