FOOTNOTES TO BOOK II, CHAPTER IV:
[61] Mémoires de Berwick, vol. ii.
[62] Sir Walter Scott’s note to Sinclair’s MS.
[63] True account of the proceedings at Perth, by “A Rebel,” 1716.
[64] True account of the proceedings at Perth, by “A Rebel,” 1716.
[65] The original letter is printed in Chambers’s History.
CHAPTER V.
AFTER THE RISING. 1716.
When James landed in France he proceeded to St. Germains, but the Regent declined to receive him, and desired him to withdraw to Lorraine. Instead of doing so, he went for a time to Versailles, to “a little house,” according to Bolingbroke, “where his female ministers resided”. Here James gave Bolingbroke audience, and received him graciously. “No Italian ever embraced the man he was going to stab with a greater show of affection and confidence,” wrote Bolingbroke after. The next morning Bolingbroke received a visit from Ormonde, who handed him a paper in James’s writing, which curtly intimated that he had no further occasion for his services, and desiring him to give up the papers of the secretary’s office. “These papers,” Bolingbroke said contemptuously, “might have been contained in a small letter case.” The reason of James’s extraordinary conduct to the man who was his ablest adherent has always remained a mystery. Some said it was because of Bolingbroke’s not raising supplies, others that James had never trusted him, and in some way blamed him for the failure of his enterprise, others that it was due to the influence of James’s woman advisers and the jealousy of Mar. It was probably a combination of all these. Lord Stair has another reason: “They use poor Harry (Bolingbroke) most unmercifully, and call him knave and traitor, and God knows what. I believe all poor Harry’s fault was, that he could not play his part with a grave enough face; he could not help laughing now and then at such kings and queens.”[66]
Be the reason what it may, Bolingbroke never forgave the insult, and when the Queen-Mother, Mary Beatrice, sent him a message later saying that his dismissal was against her advice and without her approval, and expressing the wish that he would continue to work for her son’s cause, he returned an answer saying that he hoped his arm would rot off and his brain fail if he ever again devoted either to the restoration of the Stuarts. Henceforth he concentrated his energies on getting his attainder reversed and returning to England.
The Jacobite rising had a painful sequel in England in the punishment of its leaders. In Scotland no men of note were taken. But in England many fell into the hands of the Government at the surrender of Preston. These were treated with great severity, some of the inferior officers were tried by court martial and shot forthwith. The leaders were sent to London, where they met with every possible ignominy. They came into London with their arms tied behind their backs, seated on horses whose bridles had been taken off, each led by a soldier. “The mob insulted them terribly,” says Lady Cowper, “carrying a warming-pan before them, and saying a thousand barbarous things, which some of the prisoners returned with spirit; the chief of my father’s family was amongst them; he was about seventy years old. Desperate fortune drove him from home in hopes to have repaired it. I did not see them come into town, nor let any of my children do so. I thought it would be an insulting of my relations I had there, though almost everybody went to see them.” Lords Derwentwater, Kenmure, Nithisdale, Widdrington, Nairn, Carnwath and Wintoun were impeached. All these, except Wintoun, who was sent to trial, pleaded guilty and threw themselves on the King’s mercy, and sentence of death was pronounced on them. The peers were all confined to the Tower, but Forster and Macintosh were thrust into Newgate, and both of them eventually managed to make their escape.