XVI.—CAPTAIN SHAFTOE IS SHOT.
Preston might well be full. Without counting the Government troops, fifteen hundred and fifty prisoners of all ranks were detained within the town.
Some few escapes took place, and amongst those who got off was Tom Syddall. Unfortunately, he was afterwards captured.
After a few days' detention, General Forster, Lord Derwentwater, Lord Widdrington, Brigadier Mackintosh, the Scottish lords and chiefs, with the leading Northumbrian officers, were sent under a strong guard to Wigan on the way to London.
Other less important prisoners were sent to Lancaster, Chester, and Liverpool, and confined in the jails of those towns.
Six insurgent officers were detained at Preston, and subsequently tried by court-martial for desertion and taking up arms against the king.
These were Lord Charles Murray, Captain Dalziel, Major Nairn, Captain Philip Lockhart, Ensign Erskine, and Captain Shaftoe. The lives of the two first were spared, but the others were condemned to be shot next day.
As Captain Shaftoe was a great favourite in Preston, his sentence caused profound grief, and application was made for a reprieve, but General Wills refused to grant it unless Shaftoe would acknowledge that he had been guilty of rebellion, and sue for mercy from King George.
Captain Shaftoe, however, absolutely refused, declaring he had simply done his duty, and would not renounce King James, even if a pardon were offered him.
Next morning, at an early hour, the rebel officers were taken by a party of foot soldiers to a field below the church. Among the spectators, were some young women, whose distressed condition touched the hearts of all who beheld them.
A few moments were spent by the rebel officers in preparation. After they had embraced, and bade each other farewell, Major Nairn came forward, and begged of the officer in command that his eyes might not be bandaged, and that he himself might give the order to the men to fire.
Neither request was accorded.
Not till he had laid Major Nairn in his coffin, with his own hands, would Captain Lockhart submit to his fate and when all was over, he was cared for as anxiously as his friend.
Only one was left.
As the spectators beheld the tall handsome figure standing erect before them an irrepressible murmur arose.
Looking around, Shaftoe at once discovered the young women, and as his eye settled upon one of them he called out:
“Do not forget.”
A white kerchief was waved in reply.
A proud smile lighted up his handsome countenance when his eyes were bound, and his last words, distinctly heard by all were:
“Long live King James the Third.”
Half a dozen bullets were instantly lodged in his breast. For a moment he stood erect, and then fell.
Thereupon a very beautiful young woman, whose features were as white as her attire, stepped quickly forward, followed by two others, and motioning back the soldiers, took up Shaftoe's body and placed it in his coffin.
This done, she who had first come forward, and who was no other than Dryope, knelt down, and fixing a look of unalterable affection upon her dead lover, kissed his brow.
Placing a few flowers beside him, she then arose and disappeared with her companions.
Thus died, and thus was mourned, one of the most gallant gentlemen of the rebel army.