II.—MACKINTOSH'S ACHIEVEMENTS.
Before proceeding, it may be necessary briefly to explain what the brigadier had accomplished since he quitted Perth about ten days previously.
At that time, the detachment under his command consisted of six regiments, and with a number of gentlemen volunteers formed a total of two thousand five hundred men.
The brigadier's orders from the Earl of Mar were to get as many men as he could over the Firth, and though the channel was defended by ships of war, smacks, and boats filled with armed men, Mackintosh courageously made the attempt, and despite all the exertions of the cruisers to prevent him, succeeded in reaching the East Lothian coast with fifteen hundred men—the Earl of Strathmore's battalion being forced back and compelled to go on shore on the Isle of May. This was the exploit to which Lord Kenmure had referred in terms of such high admiration.
With the troops he had thus brought across the Firth, the brigadier at once marched to Haddington, where he was invited by the Scottish Jacobites to make an attempt on Edinburgh, and unhesitatingly complied with the request.
He advanced as far as Jock's Lodge, but not meeting with the promised support, he turned to Leith, and took possession of a partly-demolished fort, built by Oliver Cromwell, and proceeded to barricade it.
Next day the Duke of Argyle, who had hastened from Stirling to the protection of Edinburgh, summoned him to surrender. On his refusal, the duke threatened to bombard the fort on the morrow, but in the night Mackintosh withdrew, and conducted his men cautiously along the sands at low water to Seaton House—a castle belonging to Lord Wintoun.
Here he posted himself securely with his force, and laughed at the threats of Lord Torpichen and the Earl of Rothes, who came from Edinburgh to dislodge him with two hundred dragoons and three hundred volunteers.