Gratified by their reception, and delighted by the beauty of the town, the insurgents passed their time very pleasantly, and were reluctant to proceed on their march.
At Appleby, Mr. Wyburgh, captain of the train-bands, was taken prisoner, and Lord Nairn, a relation of Sir James Graham, wished to effect an exchange, but the Governor of Carlisle would not listen to the proposal.
Several persons, suspected of being spies, were seized and detained, and an impracticable officer was confined in the Moot Hall till he confessed where the excise money was lodged.
Their next march was to Kendal, where General Forster was quartered at the house of Alderman Simpson, in Strickland Gate. It chanced that his god-mother, Mrs. Bellingham, was staying there at the time, and hearing this the general desired to pay his respects to her, but she refused to see him. However, as he was going up-stairs to his room, she rushed forth, and met him on the landing. Alarmed by the furious expression of her countenance, Forster would have; turned back, but she commanded him to stay.
Thinking to deprecate her wrath, the general expressed his great pleasure at seeing her, and hoped she was quite well.
“Quite well!” she cried. “How can I be well when I'm driven almost out of my senses by your shameful proceedings. Oh! Tom, Tom! never did I think you would serve the Pretender!”
“I serve King James the Third, madam,” he replied. “And however disagreeable it may be to you to hear it, I must say that I look upon the Elector of Hanover as a usurper, and I shall do my best to drive him from the kingdom.”
“You may try, but you'll never succeed,” cried Mrs. Bellingham, becoming still more exasperated. “Now, I'll tell what you've lost by your folly. I meant to leave you all my fortune; but you shan't have a penny. I'll leave it all to Dorothy.”
“I'm sorry to have offended you, madam, but it can't be helped. I scarcely think you can have heard of our great success at Penrith Fells, or you wouldn't speak so disparagingly of us.”
“I've heard that you dispersed an army of peasants,” she rejoined, contemptuously. “But when you face a regular army, the result will be very different.”