My Lord Derwentwater thus fiercely said.”
But the hero of my tale is the ill-fated Earl of Derwentwater—by far the most striking figure in the Northumbrian insurrection.
The portrait I have given of him I believe to be in the main correct, though coloured for the purposes of the story. Young, handsome, chivalrous, wealthy, Lord Derwentwater was loyal and devoted to him whom he believed his rightful and lawful sovereign.
His death was consistent with his life. On the scaffold he declared, “I intended wrong to none, but to serve my king and country, and without self-interest, hoping by the example I gave to induce others to do their duty.”
“My Lord Derwentwater he is dead,
And from his body they took his head;
But Mackintosh and the rest are fled
To fit his hat on another man's head.”
Lord Derwentwater was strongly attached to his ancestral mansion, and deeply mourned by his tenants and retainers. In the “Farewell to Dilston,” by Surtees, he is made to say:
“Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall.