mie: from this epistle, so characteristic
of the politic Earl of Mar, it was manifest that his own followers were
more tardy in the field than those of the other chieftains of the
Highlands. The means taken to intimidate and compel them are strongly
characteristic of the state of society in Scotland at that period.[94]
The reluctance of his clan must have been a subject of deep
mortification to Lord Mar, when, in one evening, the summons of the
Fiery Cross, paraded round Loch Tay, a distance of thirty-two miles,
could assemble five hundred men, at the bidding of the Laird of
Glenlyon, to join the Earl of Mar.[95]

A few days after the assembling of the forces, the Earl of Mar, assisted
by his Jacobite friends, published a manifesto, asserting the right of
James the Eighth, by the grace of God, King of Scotland, &c., and
pointing to the relief of the kingdom from oppression and
grievances.[96]

Whilst the adherents of James were thus assembling in the North, a brave
but unsuccessful attempt was made to surprise the castle of Edinburgh.
Ninety chosen men, under the command of Lord Drummond, were engaged in
this undertaking, of which the design was, to seize the citadel and to
place it under the command of Lord Drummond; then the artillery within
the castle was to be employed in firing their rounds by way of signal to
different posts, in concert. Fires were to be lighted up on the hills as
a signal to Lord Mar to march and take possession of the city. The
failure of this design was owing to the disclosure of one Dr. Arthur, a
physician in Edinburgh, to his wife, who gave information of the whole
plan to the Lord Justice Clerk, to whom she sent an unsigned letter the
evening she had gained from her unwilling husband intelligence of the
scheme. This failure, the first of those adverse events which
disheartened the spirits of the Jacobites, was, however, less deplored
than it would have been, had not the progress of the Earl of Mar's
exertions borne the most flattering aspect. In September, the Earl
marched to Logaret, where his forces still increased, and thence into
the beautiful region around Dunkeld; here he was joined, with fourteen
hundred men, by the Marquis of Tullibardine, and by five hundred
Campbells from the Breadalbane territory, headed, not by their chief,
but by Campbell of Glenderule, Campbell of Glenlyon, and John Campbell,
the Earl's chamberlain. Enforced also by the addition of two hundred
Highlanders fro