ves condemned
unheard, and attainted, engaged in the service of the chevalier, and
corresponded with the tories of England.

DEATH OF LOUIS XIV.

All these intrigues and machinations were discovered and communicated
to the court of London by the earl of Stair, who then resided as English
ambassador at Paris. He was a nobleman of unquestioned honour and
integrity, generous, humane, discerning, and resolute. He had signalized
himself by his valour, intrepidity, and other military talents, during
the war in the Netherlands; and he now acted in another sphere with
uncommon vigour, vigilance, and address. He detected the chevalier's
scheme while it was yet in embryo, and gave such early notice of it
as enabled the king of Great Britain to take effectual measures for
defeating the design. All the pretender's interest in France expired
with Louis XIV., that ostentatious tyrant, who had for above half a
century sacrificed the repose of Christendom to his insatiate vanity and
ambition. At his death, which happened on the first day of September,
the regency of the kingdom devolved to the duke of Orleans, who adopted
a new system of politics, and had already entered into engagements with
the king of Great Britain. Instead of assisting the pretender, he amused
his agents with mysterious and equivocal expressions, calculated to
frustrate the design of the expedition. Nevertheless, the more violent
part of the Jacobites in Great Britain believed he was at bottom a
friend to their cause, and depended upon him for succour. They even
extorted from him a sum of money by dint of importunities, and some
arms; but the vessel was shipwrecked, and the cargo lost upon the coast
of Scotland.

THE EARL OF MAR SETS UP THE PRETENDER'S STANDARD.

The partisans of the pretender had proceeded too far to retreat with
safety, and therefore resolved to try their fortune in the field. The
earl of Mar repaired to the Highlands, where he held consultations with
the marquasses of Huntley and Tullibardine, the earls Marischal and
Southesk, the generals Hamilton and Gordon, with the chiefs of the
Jacobite clans. Then he assembled three hundred of his own vassals,
proclaimed the pretender at Castletown, and set up his standard at
Brae-Mar, on the sixth day of September. By this time the earls of Home,
Winton, and Kinnoul, lord Deskford, and Lockhart of Carnwath, with
other persons suspected of disaffection to the present government,
were commi