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1719.

adventurers that always swarm in a lawless coun- CHAP. try, but there was no general gathering of the clans. During some weeks they appear to have remained unmolested; a strong proof of the unwillingness to give information, and of the thorough disaffection of that district to the existing government. At length some ships of war coming to that coast retook Donan castle, of which the rebels had made themselves masters; and General, now Lord, Carpenter, who commanded in Scotland, directed some forces against them from Inverness. The officer employed in this service was General Wightman; he had with him about 1000 men, and found the insurgents above 2000 strong, occupying a strong position at Glenshiel. Making the best disposition of his scanty force, he began the attack on the evening of the 10th of June, the Pretender's birthday. The triumph of discipline over numbers was on this occasion easy and complete; the Highlanders did not venture to come to a close engagement, but were driven from rock to rock, until the summit of the hill, where they immediately dispersed. The loss of the King's troops

* "A resolution had been universally taken not to move in "Scotland till England was fairly engaged." (Lockhart's Mem. vol. ii. p. 22.) The Jacobites at Edinburgh were also on their guard against false rumours. An express came to them from Lord Stormont in Annandale, that Ormond's fleet had been "but I that coast; it no credit," says Lockpass gave hart, "when I perceived his lordship's letter was dated at one "in the morning, about which time I knew he was apt to credit "any news that pleased him."

seen to

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CHAP. scarcely exceeded 20 killed and 120 wounded. The Highlanders, swift of foot and familiar with the country, easily made their escape one by one to their homes; but the Spaniards, who had no such facilities, and who kept together as a body, were compelled to surrender at discretion. They were sent prisoners to Edinburgh, where the leading Jacobites vied with each other in showing civilities, and even advancing money to the officers.* As for General Wightman, "I am taking a tour," he writes, "through all the difficult passes of Sea"forth's country, to terrify the rebels by burning the "houses of the guilty, and preserving those of the "honest." It may be doubted, however, whether this delicate operation would be performed with the nice discrimination it required, and whether hasty and exasperated soldiers were always the best possible judges of who had and who had not a leaning to the Jacobites.

The three leaders of this forlorn hope, Lords Tullibardine, Marischal, and Seaforth (the last of whom had been wounded in the action), succeeded in escaping a surrender, which, in their case, would have been the first step to the scaffold. They took shelter in the Western Isles, where they lurked till the ardour of pursuit had abated, and then em

Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 23. "The great straits of "the officers," he says, " appeared even in their looks, though "their Spanish pride would not allow them to complain."

+ General Wightman to Lord Carpenter, June 17. 1719. London Gazette.

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barked in disguise for Spain. The further fate of CHAP. these eminent exiles was very various. Seaforth received the royal pardon in 1726, and returned to Scotland, where he passed the remainder of his days (till 1740) in quiet retirement. Tullibardine survived to share the enterprise of Charles Edward in 1745, and to die next year of a broken heart in the Tower. The Earl Marischal, with his brother, James Keith, after various vicissitudes entered the Prussian service; where the latter rose to the rank of Field Marshal, and to the friendship of Frederick, and closed his heroic life on the fatal field of Hochkirchen. On his part Lord Marischal was employed in civil affairs; went on missions into France and Spain; and in the evening of his life, when in need of repose, was appointed Governor of the little state of Neuchatel. It was there that, in 1762, he became the patron and friend of Rousseau, who has drawn an interesting portrait of his honoured old age. "He used," says that eloquent writer, "to call me his child, and I called him 66 my father. . . . . . When first I beheld this vener"able man, my first feeling was to grieve over his "sunk and wasted frame; but when I raised my

eyes on his noble features, so full of fire, and so "expressive of truth, I was struck with admiration. My Lord Marischal, though a wise man, "is not free from defects. With the most penetrating glance, with the nicest judgment, with "the deepest knowledge of mankind, he yet is

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CHAP. "sometimes misled by prejudices, and can never "be disabused of them. There is something "strange and wayward in his turn of mind. He "appears to forget the persons he sees every day, "and remembers them at the moment when they "least expect it; his attentions appear unseason"able, and his presents capricious. He gives or "sends away on the spur of the moment whatever "strikes his fancy, whether of value or whether "a trifle.

A young Genevese who wished to "enter the service of the King of Prussia, being "one day introduced to him, my Lord gave him, "instead of a letter, a small satchel full of peas, "which he desired him to deliver to his Majesty. "On receiving this singular recommendation, the

66

King immediately granted a commission to the "bearer. These high intellects have between "them a secret language which common minds never understand. Such little eccen"tricities, like the caprices of a pretty woman, "rendered the society of my Lord Marischal

"can

only the more interesting, and never warped in "his mind either the feelings or the duties of "friendship."*

After the failure of Ormond's expedition, the Pretender could no longer forward the views of Spain; his presence at Madrid was only an addi

tional bar to peace, and his entertainment an ad

* Rousseau, Confessions, livre xii. But I cannot swallow his peas.

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ditional burthen on the treasury. Alberoni, there- CHAP. fore, began to wish for his departure, and the Prince himself to be weary of his stay. A pretext 1719. alone was wanting on both sides, when news was brought that Princess Sobieski had contrived to make her escape from Inspruck, and to reach Bologna without further molestation.* James immediately took leave of the Spanish Court, and returned to Italy, to solemnize his marriage.

Alberoni had hoped that a few of the shattered ships of Ormond's fleet might be speedily repaired and sent out; not, indeed, for their original destination, but for the smaller object of rousing and exciting the malcontents in Brittany. Partly, however, from necessary repairs, and partly from the dilatory disposition of Don Blas de Loya, the officer entrusted with this enterprise, the proper time for it slipt by, and the French Government was enabled to pour troops into the disaffected province, and to quell every hope of a rising.t

Nor was the campaign on the Pyrenean frontier less adverse to the views of Alberoni. Early in

The King of Spain wrote himself to James from Tudela (June 8. 1719, Stuart Papers), announcing this event. In the same collection are many curious particulars of the Princess's escape.

+ "J'ai lu le procès de ceux qui furent executés à Nantes. "Je me suis entretenu plusieurs fois avec quelques uns des "juges et de ceux qui furent effigiés; je n'ai jamais vu de complot plus mal organisé. Plusieurs ne savaient pas exactement de quoi il était question ou ne s'accordaient pas les uns avec les "autres." (Duclos, Mém. vol. ii. p. 30. ed. 1791.)

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