ers. These
went to supply the recruits whom the Marquis of Tullibardine and others
were sending daily to the camp. No enemy was left in the field to oppose
the progress of Charles Edward's victorious troops.[48] When, having, as
the Chevalier Johnstone asserts, escaped from the field of battle by
placing a white cockade on his head, Cope arrived at Coldstream with
his troops in great disorder, he was greeted by Lord Mark Ker, one of a
family who had long had hereditary claims to wit as well as courage,
with the bitter remark, that "he believed he was the first general in
Europe that had brought tidings of his own defeat."

"The Prince," writes Maxwell of Kirkconnel, "was now, properly speaking,
master of Scotland." The militia, which had been raised in some parts of
Scotland for the service of Government, was dismissed; and the
Chevalier's orders were obeyed in many places far from his army. These
advantages were, however, rather glaring than solid and permanent.

After the battle of Preston, it became a serious and important question
what step was to be taken. It was the Prince's earnest desire to push
the advantages thus gained by an immediate invasion of England, before
the Hanoverians had time to recover from their surprise. But this
spirited and, as the event proved, sagacious opinion was objected to on
the score of the smallness of the forces, and the probability of an
accession of strength before marching southwards. Lastly, the fatal hope
of aid from France, that _ignis fatuus_ which had misled the Jacobite
party before, and on which it was their misfortune to depend, was
adduced as an argument. The Prince yielded to his counsellors, and
consented to remain some time in Edinburgh. Upon this decision Lord
George Murray offers no opinion.

The castle of Edinburgh remained still unsubdued; and the Prince, upon
his return to that city, resolved on blockading the fortress. This was a
very unpopular step, but Charles had no alternative; since it was of
vital importance to reduce a place of so great strength and consequence.
Accordingly a proclamation was issued, forbidding, under pain of death,
that any provisions should be sent up to the castle; and the management
of this blockade was entrusted to Lord George Murray.[49]

This able General now proposed to place guards in such a manner as
should prevent the garrison in the castle marching out to surprise him,
but his exertions were baffled by the want of judgment a