ed, and my cousin Tom Errington to come in for a quarter part,
as I promised him he should. In letting him know this, your ladyship
will oblige your humble and obedient servant and kinsman,

"DERWENTWATER.

"My dear wife presents her humble service to your ladyship, and
desires the same may be made acceptable to all with you. We expect
Lord Wald and my lady to make my sister happy, who will do the same
by them."

The felicity which Lord Derwentwater enjoyed was of brief duration.
According to tradition among his descendants, he was urged on to those
steps which ended in his death by the violent counsels of his brother
Charles, whose impetuosity the unfortunate earl often regretted,
expressing, in his private correspondence, how much his rash and
intemperate spirit distressed and alarmed him. Of the progress, and the
principal features of the insurrection of 1715, and of the part which
Lord Derwentwater took in that event, an account has already been
given.[404] "Happy," observes the biographer of Charles Radcliffe, "had
it been for him, happy for his lady, and happy for his family, had the
earl staid at home, and suffered himself to be withheld from that fatal
expedition."[405]

Charles Radcliffe was at that time twenty-two years of age; he had no
experience in military affairs, but was full of spirit and courage,
ready to offer himself for every daring, and even hopeless enterprise,
and seeming to set no value on his life where honour was to be won. Such
a character soon became popular with the leaders of the movement in the
north; and Lord Derwentwater gave the conduct of his tenantry into his
brother's hands, Captain Shaftoe commanding under Mr. Radcliffe.

The behaviour of this young commander throughout the whole of the
expedition was consistent with this character of intrepidity; but that
which surprised many persons in a man who had never before engaged in
war, was the judgment, as well as courage, which he displayed. And
perhaps, had his counsels been followed, the result of that ill-starred
rising, in which so many brave men perished, might have been less
disastrous to the party whom he espoused. When the insurgents were at
Hexham, and intelligence was brought that General Carpenter was
approaching, Mr. Radcliffe proposed that the Jacobite troops should go
out and fight the English before they had recovered from their long
march;