I design to march to-morrow, and hope my next

shall be from Edinburgh.

"I am your Majesty's, &c. &c."

It can scarcely be necessary to direct the reader's attention to the fact, that maxims of government are adopted in this letter very different from any by which the monarchs of the Stuart dynasty had been guided. For Charles, at least, there is every reason to believe that the past had not been a barren instructor; nor is it possible to read the unstudied effusions of the preceding letter, which was never calculated for the public eye, without feeling that it speaks the sentiments of an upright and a truly noble mind.

CHAPTER XI.

PANIC IN EDINBURGH-CHARLES GAINS POSSESSION OF THE CITY WITHOUT RESISTANCE-HE TAKES UP HIS RESIDENCE IN HOLYROOD PALACE.

AT Dumblane Charles was joined by the remainder of his army, with which he arrived on the 24th of September at the Fords of Frew, on the Forth, about eight miles above Stirling. The Forth, which had offered an insurmountable obstacle to the Earl of Mar, was passed by Charles and his Highlanders without difficulty, the river being low, in consequence of dry autumnal weather; while a party of Gardiner's dragoons, stationed to defend the ford, galloped away to Leith, without making the slightest attempt to impede the Highlanders. Charles could not have attempted to cross the Forth below Stirling, several English ships of war being stationed at the head of the Frith; nor could he have made his way over

Stirling Bridge, which was commanded by the guns of the castle. As his army marched by Stirling Castle, several cannon-shot were fired, aimed, it is said, at the Prince himself, but without doing mischief to anybody. The town readily opened its gates, and furnished the troops with provisions, which were paid for in ready money. The strictest discipline was maintained by the exertions of the chiefs; and so far was this carried, that Lochiel, with his own hand, instantly shot a Highlander whom he detected in the act of plundering.

After crossing the plain of Bannockburn, the army reached Falkirk on the evening of the 25th; there Charles was entertained at Callender House, the adjoining seat of the Earl of Kilmarnock, who hailed him as his sovereign, and assured him of his future services. The earl apprised Charles that the dragoons intended to dispute the passage of Linlithgow Bridge next day; whereupon Charles, hoping to surprise them, sent forward Lord George Murray with a thousand Highlanders. The nest, however, was found empty. The dragoons had decamped, and Lord George took quiet possession of the town and ancient palace of Linlithgow,

where the Prince soon after arrived in person, his entrance into Linlithgow assuming all the characteristics of a popular festivity, in consequence of the enthusiasm with which the inhabitants received him. The vanguard, in the mean time, pushed on to Kirkliston, only eight miles from Edinburgh.

Since their departure from Perth, Charles and his Highlanders had been constantly marching over ground memorable in Scottish history. Near Dumblane, thirty years previously, the battle of Sheriffmuir had been fought by the fathers of those who now followed the standard of Charles; and many even of those who now marched along to assert the rights of the Stuarts to their ancestral throne, had shed their blood upon that ground in vindication of the same cause. At Bannockburn, under Robert Bruce, the freedom of Scotland had been achieved. The battlements of Stirling had guarded the cradle of James VI.; the Forth had often presented an insuperable barrier against the incursions of the wild Highlander; and the castle of Linlithgow had been the birth-place of the ill-fated Mary, and afterwards her residence during the few brief intervals of peaceful sovereignty that marked her unhappy reign. "Even a

passing stranger could never gaze on such scenes without emotion, still less any one intent on like deeds of chivalrous renown, least of all the youthful heir of Robert Bruce, and of the long line of Stuart kings." The most memorable epoch of his own life was, however, at hand; for, on the 28th of September, Edinburgh, the ancient capital of the Stuarts, stood exposed to his delighted gaze, as he ascended the heights of Corstorphine.

Since the arrival of the first certain intelligence of the Prince's landing, the capital had been agitated by a constant alternation of confidence and terror, according to the various rumours that arrived. The first news excited but little apprehension, and the Jacobite party did what they could to confirm the feeling of security to which the inhabitants of Edinburgh abandoned themselves. James Macgregor returned to Edinburgh from Lochaber on the 5th of September, and, being called upon by the authorities to communicate every information he had received respecting the Jacobite army, he endeavoured to represent the whole enterprise as an insignificant one; while he was, in secret, printing and circulating the proclamations of James and Charles. On the 11th of September,