sailing of the Dunkirk fleet, had intelligence arrived that the camp at Finchley had been broken up, or that Charles had entered London in triumph. It may be doubted whether the troops at Finchley would have opposed any very serious resistance to the Jacobite army; but there cannot be a doubt that the retreat from Derby was certain to be the forerunner of disasters to Charles and his adherents the retrograde movement was in itself a calamity little inferior to a defeat, while an onward movement might have led to the occupation of London, and the dethronement of George the Second.* In war it is impossible for the most clear-sighted leader to say what the issue of an undertaking may be. He can at most calculate probabilities, and must always rely, in some measure, upon fortune. If, in the council of war at Derby, Charles was the only one who raised his voice against the retreat, it may not perhaps be too much to say, that he alone took a just view of

Smollett says (chap. viii.) "Had Charles proceeded in his career, with that expedition which he had hitherto used, he might have made himself master of the metropolis, where he would certainly have been joined by a considerable number of his well-wishers, who waited impatiently for his arrival." Mahon comes to the same conclusion. "I believe," he says, "that, had Charles marched onward from Derby, he would have gained the British throne."

the position of his own party. He might well exclaim, that it was the decree of his evil genius that was pronounced through the medium of that council; that by the lips of his own friends sentence was passed upon the whole of his future

career.

CHAPTER XVII.

RETREAT OF THE REBEL ARMY FROM DERBY-DEJECTION OF CHARLES-SKIRMISH NEAR PENRITH-REDUCTION OF CARLISLE BY THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND-HARD FATE OF THE GARRISON.

FROM the moment the retreat commenced, the fate of Charles could no longer be doubtful, least of all to his enemies. The court of London received the intelligence as equivalent to a victory. The two houses of parliament lost no time in addressing the throne with renewed assurances of duty and devotion; those who had been standing aloof, to watch the progress of events, came thronging to the court; from the pulpits of the churches, and in the columns of the newspapers, the people were congratulated on their escape from popery; and George the Second found all at once his most faithful and devoted adherents among those who, but a week before, had passed for

zealous Jacobites, but who now were loudest in their assurances of loyalty, and most liberal in their contributions of free gifts for the public service.

Charles had foreseen the effect which his retreat would produce on his enemies, nor had he judged, less accurately of the impression which it would make on his own army. James III. had just been solemnly proclaimed at Derby, and the public moneys had been seized in his name, when, on the 6th of December, before daybreak, the Jacobite army. commenced its retreat. The Highlanders, unacquainted with the result to which the deliberations of the last night's council had come, marched on in the belief that every step was bringing them nearer to the accomplishment of their wishes. For a while, a thick mist concealed surrounding objects. from their view, and it was some time before they became conscious of the fact that they were returning over the same road by which they had come. Unwillingly as the majority of the Highlanders had in the first instance crossed the border, they were not the less loud in their expressions of disappointment, when they discovered that the prize, which they had deemed all but within their

grasp, had been suddenly abandoned. It required all the efforts of the leaders to restore anything like order among the troops. All were full of bitterness and rage-feelings that could least of all excite wonder, when expressed by those English Jacobites who had joined the army since the taking of Carlisle, and who now saw nothing before them but the melancholy alternative of exile from their native land, or an unqualified submission to the vengeance of the house of Hanover. The Prince's own appearance was little calculated to remove this melancholy impression. He, who had always been the first in the morning to place himself at the head of his column, now followed the army with the air of a captive rather than of a leader; and the cheering animation which till then had always distinguished him, gave way to evident mortification and dejection.

The Jacobite army halted for the night at Ashbourn, arrived on the 7th of December at Leek, the following day at Macclesfield, and re-entered Manchester on the 9th. Though the march betrayed none of the characteristics of a flight, yet the retreat was effected with such rapidity, that the Duke of Cumberland, who on hearing