lips, she exclaimed with affectionate rapture, in the words of Simeon, Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!' It is added that she did not survive the shock, when, a few days afterwards, she was told of the retreat."

On leaving Macclesfield, Lord George Murray found means to deceive the Duke of Cumberland into a belief that the Jacobite army was disposed to give him battle, or to seek to effect a junction with the friends of the Stuarts in Wales. Under this impression the duke made a rapid movement in the direction of Stone, whereupon Murray, who in the mean time had obtained full information of the position and force of his enemy,* made a sudden turn to the left, and by a forced march reached Ashbourne, where he formed a junction with the column under the command of Charles. On the following day (15th December) the army occupied Derby, where Charles held his entry towards evening.

The object of all our hero's efforts lay now apparently so near at hand, that one step only

The communication was obtained from a man of the name of Weir, one of the Duke of Cumberland's principal spies. This man was taken at Congleton, and in his terror told everything he knew. His life was spared at the interposition of the Prince, who was always averse to bloodshed.

seemed wanting to complete the task which he had proposed to himself. The distance from Derby to London is less than a hundred and thirty miles; and by the rapidity of his movements he had obtained a start of the two armies commanded by Marshal Wade and the Duke of Cumberland. The road to the metropolis lay open before him, and the news of his approach was likely to produce an impression calculated at once to paralyse the government preparations for defence, and to encourage the Jacobites, who had hitherto been held in check, to declare themselves. The Prince had also received intelligence from Scotland that Lord John Drummond, the Duke of Perth's brother, had landed at Montrose, with his regiment (Royal Ecossais), with two squadrons of the Duke of Fitzjames's horse, and with the piquets of the Irish brigade. These troops, in the pay of the French government, were under the command of Count Lally, a man of indefatigable zeal for the Stuart cause. These reinforcements, added to the corps at Perth, exceeded numbers the Jacobite army at Derby. Drummond's despatches, moreover, confirmed, what the Marquis d'Eguilles had been constantly assuring, that within a little time ten thousand French

troops, accompanied by the Duke of York and the Duke of Richelieu, would sail from Calais and Dunkirk, where they were only awaiting a favourable wind. Charles had at the same time received letters from his partisans in Wales, in the southern counties, and in the metropolis, announcing that they were ready for a rising. In a letter written several months afterwards, Charles says, speaking of a Mr. Barry, he "arrived at Derby two days after I parted. He had been sent by Sir Watkin Wynn and Lord Barrymore, to assure me, in the name of my friends, that they were ready to join me in what manner I pleased, either in the capital, or every one to rise in his own country."

It is not to be wondered at if, under these circumstances, the courage and confidence of Charles had risen to the highest point. He was less disposed now than ever to shrink from bold measures; and so intent was he, on his arrival at Derby, to push forward without delay and at all hazards towards London, that his whole conversation during supper was turned to the subject of his triumphal entry into his father's capital, deliberating whether it would be better to appear on the occasion on horseback or on foot, in an English or a Highland dress.

CHAPTER XVI.

ANGRY DISCUSSIONS IN A COUNCIL OF WAR ON THE PROPRIETY OF ADVANCING TOWARDS LONDON-OPPOSITION OF THE HIGHLAND CHIEFS TO THE PLAN-A RETREAT DETERMINED UPON.

FLATTERING as the prospects of Charles appeared to be on his arrival at Derby, the period of reverse was not less certainly at hand; and from the lips of his adherents was he to learn the disappointment of his hopes. The favourable tidings mentioned at the close of the last chapter, and of which some had reached him on his march, and some on his arrival at Derby, induced Charles to call a council of war, in order to communicate the intelligence to his chiefs. He entertained no doubt of the determination of the council to take the last step that seemed alone necessary to seize upon the prize now all but within his grasp. enterprise had, hitherto, been attended by uniform

His

success, and the communications which he had to make appeared to him calculated to fill his adherents with fresh hope and confidence. His astonishment, therefore, was all the greater, to find his address received by an ominous silence, which was only broken to insist on the necessity of an immediate retreat to Scotland.

Lord George Murray put himself forward as spokesman for the rest. He began by observing, that the English Jacobites had displayed none of the zeal that had been expected from them; that the looked-for landing of a French corps had not taken place; that longer to act upon the hope of either of those events would be inconsistent with their own safety, as Marshal Wade was already marching through Yorkshire, to occupy their rear, while the Duke of Cumberland was before them at Lichfield; that, in case of a farther advance, they would have to encounter a third army, assembled at Finchley; that the Prince had only five thousand fighting men to oppose to these three corps, whose joint force could scarcely fall short of thirty thousand; that the army at Finchley, formed of the guards and new levies, was said to consist of twenty thousand men, and that, how