the hedges were also unoccupied, he came to the conclusion that the insurgents had evacuated the town altogether, and were endeavouring by forced marches to return to Scotland. As he approached the town, however, he saw the barricades which Foster had thrown up, and learned the real state of the case. Having taken a survey of the defences, he prepared for an immediate onset; and to make the assault with more effect, he determined to attack only two of the barricades at once. His troops were accordingly divided into two parties, one under Brigadier Honeyman, the other under Brigadier Dormer. The former, at the head of five different companies of dismounted dragoons, one from each of five regiments, made a furious attack on the barrier below the church, defended by Brigadier Mackintosh. But their intrepid assault was met with equal courage; and so destructive a fire was poured upon them not only from the barricades, but from the adjacent houses, that they were beaten off with considerable loss.

During this hot attack, the Earl of Derwentwater and his brother displayed great bravery, animating their men, by words and example, to maintain their ground with undaunted resolution. His lordship not only kept his post, but was able to send fifty men to assist Lord Charles Murray, with which timely aid the Highlanders were enabled to maintain their difficult position. At all points, Willis was beaten back, and he was finally obliged to withdraw his forces, having suffered considerable loss.

When the government forces retired from the various points of attack, they set fire to the houses between them and the barricades; and had not the weather been uncommonly serene, the whole town must have been burned to the ground. During the evening of Saturday, and all the subsequent night, the royalists kept up an almost incessant firing at the posts of the besieged, but with very little effect, as they were in general secure under cover from the shot. Early next morning, November 12, the same day on which the Earl of Mar had fought the indecisive battle of Sheriffmuir, General Carpenter arrived with a part of his cavalry, accompanied by the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Lumley, and a considerable number of the gentry of the country. His arrival of course greatly brightened the hopes of the government troops, and left the besieged no hope of escape or relief. Willis immediately proceeded to explain his dispositions to Carpenter; and then, as the inferior in rank, offered to resign the chief command to his superior officer. But General Carpenter generously refused to take the charge of the siege, observing, that as Willis had begun the affair so auspiciously, he deserved the honour of finishing it. Various alterations were now made in the disposition of the forces: the town was completely invested on all sides; and preparations were made for a renewed assault.

The situation of the insurgents had now become desperate. They

had, it is true, succeeded in repulsing their assailants in the previous attack; but it was evident that, cut off from all assistance, and cooped up in the streets of a burning town, where they had few men to maintain an extended circle of defence, their fate was inevitable. Every avenue of flight was now closely guarded; and of those who made a desperate attempt to sally, the greater part were cut in pieces, and only a very few escaped by hewing their way through the enemy. 'The scene of unavoidable destruction,' says Sir Walter Scott, 'had different effects upon the different characters of the unfortunate insurgents in Preston; in like manner as the approach of imminent peril has upon domesticated and savage animals when they are brought to extremity-the former are cowed into submission, while the latter, brought to bay, become more desperately ferocious in, their resistance. The English gentlemen began to think upon the possibility of saving their lives, and entertained the hope of returning once more to the domestic enjoyments of their homes and their estates; while the Highlanders, and most of the Scottish insurgents, even of the higher classes, declared for sallying out, and dying like men of honour, with sword in hand, rather than holding their lives on the base tenure of submission.' The only one of the English leaders who seems to have joined the Scots in this opinion was Charles Radcliffe, who, with his usual intrepidity, declared 'he would rather die, sword in hand, like a man of honour, than yield to be dragged like a felon to the gallows, there to be hanged like a dog.' Foster, however, was completely disheartened; and at the instigation of Lord Widdrington and a few others, Colonel Oxburgh, who was an Irish Catholic, and had been Foster's principal adviser in military matters, went out to ask terms of surrender. This step, it must be observed, was taken without the advice, and even without the knowledge, of the leading men in the army. And the common soldiers were so exceedingly adverse to the idea of a surrender, that, according to the report of an eye-witness, they would have unquestionably shot Colonel Oxburgh before he had gone out of the barrier, if they had been aware of the message with which he was charged. Oxburgh's mission was coldly received by the English general, who, irritated by the loss he had sustained on the preceding evening, seemed at first disposed to reject the proposition altogether, and declared that 'he would not treat with rebels who had killed several of the king's subjects, and must expect to undergo the same fate.' Oxburgh employed many arguments to soften the general; and entreated him, as 'a man of honour and an officer, to shew mercy to people who were willing to submit.' Willis at last relented so far as to say, 'that if the rebels would lay down their arms, and surrender at discretion, he would protect them from being cut to pieces by the soldiers, until further orders from government.' An hour was allowed them for the consideration of this proposal.

When Oxburgh returned, and reported the result of his mission,

Captain Dalzell, brother of the Earl of Carnwath, went out in the name of the Scots, to ascertain what terms would be granted to them; but Willis refused to give any other terms than those which he had already offered through Colonel Oxburgh. Dalzell then requested time to take the proposal into consideration, which was granted by Willis, on condition that the insurgents should give him hostages against their throwing up new intrenchments, or making any attempt to escape. Colonel Cotton accompanied Dalzell back to Preston, for the purpose of bringing out the hostages. He speedily returned to the general's tent, bringing with him the Earl of Derwentwater and Colonel Mackintosh, who had been selected for this service, and having received the parole of the other leaders of the rebel forces that they would observe the proposed conditions. The news of the intended surrender filled the great body of the common soldiers with the deepest indignation. The Highlanders especially were terribly enraged, declaring they would die sword in hand; and insisted on making an attempt to cut their way through the royal forces. 'Had Mr Foster,' says an eye-witness, appeared in the streets, he would have been slain, though he had had a hundred lives.' As it was, he narrowly escaped being killed in his own room. A Scottish gentleman named Murray, who had waited upon him to remonstrate against the surrender, was so enraged as to fire a pistol at him; and but for the prompt interposition of Mr Patten, who struck up Murray's arm at the moment of the discharge, the ball would certainly have pierced Foster's body.

Next morning, at seven o'clock, Mr Foster sent a message to General Willis, informing him that the insurgents were willing to surrender on the terms proposed. Colonel Mackintosh, who was present when the message was delivered, could not help expressing his conviction that the Scotch would not submit on such conditions. They were a people, he said, of desperate fortunes; and he, who had been a soldier himself, knew what it was to be a prisoner at discretion. Then go back to your people again,' exclaimed Willis, and I will attack the town, and not spare one man of you.' Mackintosh accordingly proceeded to Preston; but immediately came back with the assurance that Lord Kenmure and the rest of the Scottish leaders were willing to surrender on the same terms with the English.

The royal troops then entered Preston in two detachments, and meeting in the market-place, where the whole of the insurgents were drawn up, they disarmed and formally made them prisoners. By this final blow the rebellion in England was effectually terminated. In Scotland, the insurgents held out for two months longer, at the end of which period they dispersed.

Among the captives taken at Preston were Lords Derwentwater, Widdrington, Nithisdale, Wintoun, Carnwath, Kenmure, Nairn, and Charles Murray; and members of the ancient northern families of

Ord, Beaumont, Thornton, Clavering, Patten, Gascoigne, Standish, and Swinburne. The number of prisoners taken, of all kinds, was only 1400, amongst whom there were about 200 domestic servants, followers of the gentlemen who had assumed arms, and upwards of 200 gentlemen volunteers, the rest consisting of the Highlanders under the command of Brigadier Mackintosh. It is evident, therefore, that the greater part of the Lancashire peasants who had joined them at Preston, had either got out of the town during the blockade, or escaped recognition at the surrender. Of the insurgents, only seventeen had been killed in the defence; while between sixty and seventy of the royalists were slain, and as many more wounded.

FATE OF THE PRISONERS.

On laying down their arms, the unhappy garrison were confined in one of the churches, and treated with considerable rigour, being stripped and ill-used by the soldiery. In consequence of these outrages, many of the prisoners were so much in want of decent clothing, that they were obliged to strip the pews of their baize linings, to protect themselves from the severity of the weather. Six of their number were condemned to be shot by martial law, as holding commissions under the government against which they had borne arms. Little mercy was shewn to the private men, who had merely followed what was in their eyes the paramount duty of yielding obedience to their chiefs. A great number of them were banished to the plantations in America, the very fate the dread of which made them so unwilling to enter England. About five hundred of the inferior prisoners were sent to Chester jail, and many others to Liverpool, and various prisons near the place where they were taken; but those of most note were conveyed to London, where they arrived on the 9th of December. They were introduced into the city in a kind of triumphal procession, which was much less dishonourable to the unfortunate sufferers, than to the mean minds who pandered to the passions of the mob by planning such an ignoble triumph. When the prisoners had reached Barnet, they were all pinioned with cords like the vilest criminals. At Highgate they were met by a strong detachment of horse-grenadiers and footguards-halters were put upon their horses, and each man's horse was led by a private soldier, and their ears were stunned by the drums of their escort beating a triumphal march, and by the shouts of the multitude, who loaded them with every kind of scurrilous abuse and insult. In this manner they were led through the streets of the city, and divided among the four principal prisons, the noblemen being secured in the Tower.

They were not long suffered to remain in uncertainty regarding their fate. On the day of the opening of parliament, Mr Lechmere, in a long and vehement speech, descanted upon the guilt of the

insurgents, and the 'many miraculous providences' which had baffled their designs; and ended by impeaching James, Earl of Derwentwater, of high treason. No opposition was offered, and the impeachment was carried up to the House of Lords on the same day. On the 9th of February 1716, the earl was carried to the bar of the House of Lords, and the articles of impeachment having been read, he requested time to prepare his answer, and was allowed till the 19th. On that day he was taken to Westminster Hall for trial, and pleaded guilty, acknowledging his guilt, and throwing himself upon the king's mercy. In his defence, he pleads his youth and inexperience, and various other palliating circumstances with which his case was attended-affirms that his temper and inclination disposed him to live peaceably under his majesty's government, and that he had never had any previous connection with any designs to subvert the reigning family-that he rashly, and without premeditation, engaged in this unhappy undertaking that the truth of this was evinced by his having no preparation of men, horses, arms, or other warlike accoutrements-that he took the first opportunity of submitting to the king's mercy, and was solicitous to prevent any further destruction of the lives of his majesty's subjects, but rather to induce all who had taken up arms to submit-that one of his majesty's officers sent from the general gave them encouragement to believe that their surrender would be the ready way to obtain the king's mercy that, in reliance on this advice, he offered himself as one of the hostages, and while with the royal forces, received further assurances from the officers that the king was a prince of known clemency, and that the free surrender to mercy would be the most likely way to obtain it-that it was quite practicable for the besieged at Preston to have cut their way through his majesty's 'forces; but as this would have occasioned much bloodshed, which he was anxious to prevent, he had exhorted his associates to surrender, and had declared to General Willis and the other officers, that whatever happened, he was determined to continue with them, and to rely entirely on his majesty's clemency and goodness, which he had encouragement to expect and concludes with a hope that their lordships will use their mediation for mercy on his behalf, which will lay him under the highest obligations of duty and affection to his majesty, and perpetual gratitude to both houses of parliament. In spite of this appeal, however, he was condemned to suffer death as a traitor, according to its ancient barbarous form. But his sentence was afterwards mitigated, and orders were issued that he should be merely beheaded, and his body given up to his friends. Great interest was made with the court and both Houses of parliament in behalf of the earl. His countess, accompanied by the Duchesses of Cleveland and Bolton, and other ladies of the first rank, was, by the Dukes of Richmond and St Albans, introduced into the king's bedchamber, where she humbly implored his clemency