Court, when Swift was allied with Bolingbroke and Oxford. From the
author of 'Gulliver' Charles no doubt hoped to get a trustworthy account
of their policy. The fated rising of 1715 was occasioned by the Duke of
Berwick's advice to James that he must set forth to Scotland or lose his
honour. The prince therefore, acting hastily on news which, two or three
days later, proved to be false, in a letter to Mar fixed August 10 for a
rising. The orders were at once countermanded, when news proving their
futility was received, but James's messenger, Allan Cameron, was detained
on the road, and Mar, not waiting for James's answer to his own last
despatch advising delay, left London for Scotland without a commission;
on August 27 held an Assembly of the chiefs, and, _still without a
commission from James_, raised the standard of the king on September 6.
{254a}

The folly of Mar was consummate. He knew that Ormonde, the hope of the
English Jacobites, had deserted his post and had fled to France.

Meanwhile Louis XIV. was dying; he died on August 30, and the Regent
d'Orleans, at the utmost, would only connive at, not assist, James's
enterprise.

Everything was contrary, everywhere was ignorance and confusion. Lord
John Drummond's hopeful scheme for seizing Edinburgh Castle (September 8)
was quieted _pulveris exigui jactu_, "the gentlemen were powdering their
hair"--drinking at a tavern--and bungled the business. The folly of
Government offered a chance: in Scotland they had but 2000 regulars at
Stirling, where "Forth bridles the wild Highlandman." Mar, who promptly
occupied Perth, though he had some 12,000 broadswords, continued till the
end to make Perth his headquarters. A Montrose, a Dundee, even a Prince
Charles, would have "masked" Argyll at Stirling and seized Edinburgh. In
October 21-November 3, Berwick, while urging James to sail, absolutely
refused to accompany him. The plans of Ormonde for a descent on England
were betrayed by Colonel Maclean, in French service (November 4). In
disguise and narrowly escaping from murderous agents of Stair (British
ambassador to France) on his road, {254b} James journeyed to St Malo
(November 8).

In Scotland the Macgregors made a futile attempt on Dumbarton Castle,
while Glengarry and the Macleans advanced on Inveraray Castle, negotiated
with Argyll's brother, the Earl of Islay, and marched back to
Strathfillan. In Northumberland Forster and Derwentwater, with some
Cathol