ot risk another war; but if he saw
his opportunity to interfere, he was not likely to neglect it. The
Pretender would be advised by his brother, Berwick, the victor of
Almanza. The insurgent forces would be led by the Duke of Ormonde,
who had succeeded Marlborough as commander-in-chief. Marlborough
himself had advanced money for the Jacobite rising, and was so much
suspected by the ministers that they would not let him take the
command.

The hopefulness of the situation darkened somewhat before the time for
action arrived. Lewis XIV died, and the Regent, having Philip of
Spain for a rival, required the good-will of England. Two miscreants,
to whom James had offered L20,000 if they would shoot the king and the
Prince of Wales, failed to earn their reward. The arrest of a leading
Jacobite, Sir William Wyndham, so scared his partisans, that Ormonde,
having sailed into Torbay, returned to St. Malo without landing. The
Highlanders rose, but there was no Dundee and no Montrose to make them
superior to regular troops. They fought with doubtful fortune at
Sheriffmuir, while the Borderers, finding no support in Lancashire,
surrendered at Preston. When James Stuart landed in Aberdeenshire,
the struggle was over. Cadogan was approaching at the head of the
Dutch auxiliaries, and the Pretender escaped by a back door from his
own men, and made his way to Gravelines. He had proved unequal to the
occasion, and was not gifted with political understanding. But he had
been instructed by Fenelon, and had learnt from him the doctrine of
toleration.

The strongest part of the case against the new order in England was
the treatment of the Irish Catholics; and James saw the whole thing in
the light of a religious conflict. Bolingbroke, who had been an
oppressor of Nonconformists, and had no sympathy with the prince's
motives, fell into disgrace. He was made responsible for the failure,
and was suspected of having told secrets to the ambassador, Stair, in
order to make his peace at home. He was allowed to return, and did
far more harm to the House of Hanover as a loyal subject than he had
done as a manager of insurrection.

Seven peers had been taken with arms in their hands; and, in order to
avoid questions which might have injured their friends, they pleaded
guilty, and threw themselves on the mercy of the king. As they were
more guilty than the followers whom they had led to their destruction,
they could not be pardoned.