is said, to make her a Jacobite; and she hoped, by the
favour of Charles Edward, to obtain the restoration of her father's
title. Her entreaties to the Earl of Kilmarnock to join the standard of
the Prince were stimulated, therefore, by a double motive; and, indeed,
to a generous and romantic mind, there required neither the inducements
of ambition, nor of gratified vanity, to espouse that part which seemed
most natural to the Scotch. After the battle of Preston Pans, Lady
Kilmarnock's persuasions took effect: her husband presented himself to
the young Chevalier, who received him with every mark of esteem and
distinction, declared him a member of the privy council, raised him to
the rank of a general, and appointed him colonel of his guards.[330]

Another occurrence is, however, stated to have had a considerable
influence in forming the Earl's decision.

During the course of the conflict, he met, at Linlithgow, that
incomparable man, and excellent officer, Colonel Gardiner. This
individual, whose character forms so fine a relief to the party-spirited
and debased condition of the British army in the time of George the
Second, was a native of Linlithgowshire, having been born at Carriden,
in the year of the Revolution, 1688. His life commencing in that
important era, had been one of events. He had first entered the Dutch
service; then had served in Marlborough's army at Ramilies. Until this
incident of his life, the young soldier, then only nineteen, had run a
course of dissolute pleasure, and had obtained, from the frankness and
gaiety of his disposition, the name of the _happy rake_. Being in the
Forlorn hope, he was wounded, and left in a state hovering between life
and death, on the field, and in state of partial insensibility, from
which he was aroused at times to perfect consciousness.

The ball which had struck Gardiner, had entered his mouth; and without
breaking a single tooth, or touching the forepart of his tongue, had
passed through his neck, coming out above an inch and a half on the left
side of the vertebrae. He was abandoned by Marlborough's troops, who,
according to their custom, left the wounded to their fate, while they
pursued their advantages against the French.

In this state, the first serious emotions of gratitude, the first
convictions of a peculiar Providence suggested themselves to the mind of
the young officer: and although they did not, for some years, produce an
absolute amendment of life,