And, truly, there was enough to make him sad. All was lost. All his great estates would be confiscated, and the journey he had just commenced would inevitably end in the scaffold.
To add poignancy to his affliction, he could not help reflecting how different the result might have been, but for Forster's deplorable ignorance and obstinacy, and though he acquitted the general of absolute treachery, he could not help feeling that the insurgent army was entirely sacrificed by him.
These thoughts forced themselves upon the earl as he crossed the Ribble Bridge, and did not leave him till he reached Wigan.
Here Lord Derwentwater learnt that Forster had been allowed a carriage, and a seat was offered to him in the same conveyance, but he declined it—preferring to ride.
None of the Scottish lords would travel with Forster, but he found companions in his chaplain, Mr. Patten, Lord Widdrington, and Colonel Oxburgh.
The Earl of Derwentwater performed the whole journey on horseback.
From Wigan the rebel prisoners were conducted to Warrington, where a division took place, and upwards of a hundred were sent on to London, guarded by several detachments of horse. Amongst these prisoners were Sir Francis Anderton, Mr. Townley, Mr. Standish, Mr. Tyldesley, and other Lancashire gentlemen who had joined at Preston.
After a short halt at Warrington, they proceeded by slow stages to Coventry, and Lord Derwentwater in some degree recovered his spirits, being cheered by the society of Sir Francis Anderton and Mr. Townley.
At Coventry, the escort was relieved by another detachment of a hundred troopers commanded by Brigadier Ponton, by whom General Forster was deprived of his carriage.
As an excuse for the indignity thus offered to the late general, it was said that on his arrival at London an attempt would be made to rescue him by a High Church Tory mob.