Balloch, as governor for Prince Charles;
he was a man of property near Callander. This castle became at that time
the actual scene of a romantic escape made by John Home, the author of
Douglas, and some other prisoners, who, having been taken at the battle
of Falkirk, were confined there by the insurgents. The poet, who had in
his own mind a large stock of that romantic and enthusiastic spirit of
adventure which he has described as animating the youthful hero of his
drama, devised and undertook the perilous enterprise of escaping from his
prison. He inspired his companions with his sentiments, and when every
attempt at open force was deemed hopeless, they resolved to twist their
bed-clothes into ropes and thus to descend. Four persons, with Home
himself, reached the ground in safety. But the rope broke with the fifth,
who was a tall, lusty man. The sixth was Thomas Barrow, a brave young
Englishman, a particular friend of Home's. Determined to take the risk,
even in such unfavourable circumstances, Barrow committed himself to the
broken rope, slid down on it as far as it could assist him, and then let
himself drop. His friends beneath succeeded in breaking his fall.
Nevertheless, he dislocated his ankle and had several of his ribs broken.
His companions, however, were able to bear him off in safety.

The Highlanders next morning sought for their prisoners with great
activity. An old gentleman told the author he remembered seeing the
commandant Stewart
Bloody with spurring, fiery red with haste,
riding furiously through the country in quest of the fugitives.

NOTE 28

To go out, or to have been out, in Scotland was a conventional phrase
similar to that of the Irish respecting a man having been up, both having
reference to an individual who had been engaged in insurrection. It was
accounted ill-breeding in Scotland about forty years since to use the
phrase rebellion or rebel, which might be interpreted by some of the
parties present as a personal insult. It was also esteemed more polite,
even for stanch Whigs, to denominate Charles Edward the Chevalier than to
speak of him as the Pretender; and this kind of accommodating courtesy
was usually observed in society where individuals of each party mixed on
friendly terms.

NOTE 29

The Jacobite sentiments were general among the western counties and in
Wales. But although the great families of the Wynnes, the Wyndhams, and
others had come under an actual obligation to