lished, and after it was broken up, the Park appears to {122} have
been little better than Bagshot Heath or Hounslow Heath. It was the
favorite parade-ground of highway robbers and murderers. The soldiers
themselves were occasionally suspected of playing the part of
highwaymen. "A man in those days," says Scott, "might have all the
external appearance of a gentleman, and yet turn out to be a
highwayman;" and "the profession of the polite and accomplished
adventurer who nicked you out of your money at White's, or bowled you
out of it at Marylebone, was often united with that of the professed
ruffian who, on Bagshot Heath or Finchley Common, commanded his brother
beau to stand and deliver." "Robbers--a fertile and alarming
theme--filled up every vacancy, and the names of the Golden Farmer, the
Flying Highwayman, Jack Needham, and other Beggars' Opera heroes, were
familiar in our mouths as household words." The revulsion of Jacobite
feeling actually showed itself sometimes among the soldiers in the
camp. Accounts published at the time tell us of men having been
flogged and shot for wearing Jacobite emblems in their caps. Perhaps
in mentioning this Hyde Park camp it may not be inappropriate to notice
the fact that General Macartney, who had figured in a terrible tragedy
in the Park two or three years before, returned to England, and
obtained the favor of George by bringing over six thousand soldiers
from Holland to assist the King. General Macartney was the man who had
acted as second to Lord Mohun in the fatal duel in Hyde Park on the
15th of November, 1712, when both Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton were
killed. Macartney escaped to Holland, and was charged by the Duke of
Hamilton's second with having stabbed the Duke through the heart while
Colonel Hamilton was endeavoring to raise him from the ground.
Macartney came back and took his trial, but was only found guilty of
manslaughter--that is to say, found guilty of having taken part in the
duel, and escaped without punishment. Probably Macartney, and
Hamilton, and Mohun, and the Duke are best remembered in our time
because of the {123} effect which that fatal meeting had upon the
fortunes of Beatrix Esmond.

[Sidenote: 1715--John Erskine of Mar]

The insurrection had already broken out in Scotland. John Erskine,
eleventh Earl of Mar, set himself up as lieutenant-general in the cause
of the Chevalier. Lord Mar was a man of much courage and some
capacity. He h