Two of the prisoners had,
however, many powerful friends--Kilmarnock and Cromarty; and the charm
of Kilmarnock's presence had raised up for him many more friends, whose
influence was exerted with the King. For Balmerino nobody seems to
have taken the trouble to plead, and even King George, whose clemency
was not conspicuously displayed in his treatment of his prisoners,
appears to have expressed some surprise at this, though he did not
allow his regret to carry him so far as to extend his pardon to the
stout old soldier. The exertions of Lord Cromarty's friends, and
especially of Lady Cromarty, saved that prisoner's life. It is said
that when the child which Lady Cromarty bore in her body during the
terrible period in which she was pleading for her husband's life came
into the world, it carried a mark like the stroke of the executioner's
axe upon its neck. Kilmarnock and Balmerino died on Tower Hill on
August 18, 1746. Both died, as they had lived, like gentlemen and
brave soldiers. It is, perhaps, to be regretted that Kilmarnock should
on the scaffold have expressed any regret for the part he had played in
supporting the Young Pretender against the House of Hanover. He {229}
had gone gallantly into the game of insurrection, and he might as well
have played it out to the end. At least he was the only one of all the
seven-and-seventy rebels who were executed, from James Dawson to Simon
Lovat, who made upon the scaffold any retractation of the acts that he
had done. It is impossible not to contrast Balmerino's dying words,
and to like them better than the apologies of Kilmarnock. Balmerino
was no subject of King George; he was his prince's man. "If I had a
thousand lives I would give them all for him" were his dying words, and
braver dying words were never spoken. It was the old heroic spirit of
absolute loyalty to the annointed king which was of necessity dying
out; which was to be repeated again half a century later in the hills
and the forests of La Vendee. The Stuarts were as bad, as worthless,
as kings could well be, but they did possess the royal prerogative of
inspiring men with an extraordinary devotion. There was something to
be said for the cause which could send a man like Balmerino so
gallantly to his death with such a brave piece of soldierly bluster
upon his dying lips.

[Sidenote: 1746--Lord Lovat]

A very different man died for the same cause upon the same scaffold a
little later. Histor