w the curious
apathy with which a large proportion of the people regarded the whole
proceeding, people who were as willing to accept one king as another,
and who would have witnessed with absolute unconcern "George the
Elector" scuttling away from the Tower stairs at one end of the town,
while "Charles the Prince" entered it from another. These factors in his
favor he did not know, could not know, could hardly be expected even to
guess.

But what he could know, what he did know, was this: he was at the head
of a devoted army, which if it was small had hitherto found its career
marked by triumph after triumph. He was in the heart of England, and had
already found that the Stuart war-cry was powerful enough to rally many
an English gentleman to his standard. Sir Walter Williams Wynn, whom men
called the "King of Wales," was on his way to join the Prince of Wales.
So was Lord Barrymore, the member of Parliament; so was many another
gallant gentleman of name, of position, of wealth. Manchester had given
him the heroic, the ill-fated, James Dawson, and a regiment three
hundred strong. Lord James Drummond had landed at Montrose with men,
money, and supplies. The Young Chevalier's troops were eager to advance;
they were flushed with victories, their hearts were high; they believed,
in the wild Gaelic way, in the sanctity of their cause; they believed
that the Lord of Hosts was on their side, and such a belief strengthened
their hands.

For a prince seeking his principality it would seem that there was one
course, and one only, to pursue. He might go and take it, and win the
great game he played for; or, failing that, he might die as became a
royal gentleman, sword in hand and fighting for his rights. The
might-have-beens are indeed for the most part a vanity, but we can
fairly venture to assert now that if Charles had pushed on he would, for
the time at least, have restored the throne of England to the house of
Stuart. We may doubt, and doubt with reason, whether any fortuitous
succession of events could have confirmed the Stuart hold upon the
English crown; but we can scarcely doubt that the hold would have been
for the time established, that the Old Pretender would have been King
James III, and that George the Elector would have been posting, bag and
baggage, to the rococo shades of Herrenhausen. But, as we have said,
failing that, if Charles had fallen in battle at the head of his
defeated army, how much better that end w