a mitigation of the order in
council.

Meantime, on the first of October, the Highlanders fired; whether at
some people who were carrying provisions to the castle, or at the castle
itself, is uncertain. Reprisals were instantly made by a heavy
cannonading and small shot. The firing continued for some days, bringing
terror to the hearts of those who lived remote from the scene of danger;
whilst the aged and infirm were carried out of that noble city, thus
threatened with destruction. Sir Walter Scott observes, that the
generation of his own time alone can remember Edinburgh in peace,
undisturbed by civil commotion. The fathers of that generation
remembered the days of 1745--_their_ fathers the disturbances of 1715.
The fathers of those who had witnessed the rebellion of 1715 could
remember the revolution of 1688.

The merciful temper of the young Chevalier saved the city of Edinburgh.
At first he resolved to continue the blockade; and he renewed his former
orders, prohibiting any person from going to the castle without a pass
from his secretary, and threatening any one who was disobedient to this
proclamation with instant death. But, when he beheld the distress to
which the firing had already reduced the city,--then, let it be
remembered, comprised within boundaries of very moderate extent,--he
issued another proclamation, expressing his deep concern for the many
murders which were committed upon the innocent inhabitants of the city,
so contrary to the laws of war, to the truce granted to the city, and
even exceeding the powers given. His humanity had, therefore, yielded to
the barbarity of his enemy; the blockade of the castle was taken off,
and the threatened punishment suspended.[52]

The army of Charles Edward was now increasing daily; and, in consequence
of the reports which were circulated in the metropolis, a panic spread
there, of which no estimate can be made without consulting the
newspapers of that time. Among other writers who employed their talents
in inveighing against the cause of James Stuart, was the celebrated
Henry Fielding, whose papers in the _True Patriot_ upon the subject
present a curious insight into those transient states of public feeling,
which perished almost as soon as expressed. The rapidity of the progress
made by the insurgents is declared by his powerful pen to have been
unprecedented. "Can History," he writes, "produce an instance parallel
to this,--of six or seven men landing in a p