ses that attended upon the
Prince's progress, as the capacity of the town seemed weaker for holding
out, and as the prospect of reenforcements seemed to grow fainter and
fainter, the opinion of Hanoverian Edinburgh concerning the clans
changed mightily. Had the Highlanders been a race of giants, endowed
with more than mortal prowess, and invulnerable as Achilles, they could
hardly have struck more terror into the hearts of loyal and respectable
Edinburgh citizens.

Still, there were some stout hearts in Edinburgh who did their best to
keep up the courage of the rest and to keep out the enemy. Andrew
Fletcher and Duncan Forbes were of the number. M'Laurin, the
mathematician, turned his genius to the bettering of the fortifications.
Old Dr. Stevenson, bedridden but heroic, kept guard in his arm-chair for
many days at the Netherbow gate. The great question was, would Cope come
in time? Cope was at Aberdeen. Cope had put his army upon transports.
Cope might be here to-morrow, the day after to-morrow, to-day, who
knows? But in the mean time the King's Dragoons, whom Cope had left
behind him when he first started out to meet the Pretender, had steadily
and persistently retreated before the Highland advance. They had now
halted--they can hardly be said to have made a stand--at Corstorphine,
some three miles from Edinburgh, and here it was resolved to do
something to stay the tide of invasion. Hamilton's Dragoons were at
Leith. These were ordered to join the King's Dragoons at Corstorphine
and to collect as many Edinburgh volunteers as they could on their way.
Inside the walls of Edinburgh it was easy enough to collect volunteers,
and quite a little army of them marched out with drums beating and
colors flying at the heels of Hamilton's Dragoons. But on the way to the
town gates the temper of the volunteers changed, and by the time that
the town gates were reached and passed the volunteers had dwindled to so
pitiable a handful that they were dismissed, and Hamilton's Dragoons
proceeded alone to join Cope's King's Dragoons at Corstorphine.

But the united force of dragoons did not stay long at Corstorphine. The
fame of the fierce Highlanders had unhinged their valor, and it only
needed a few of the Prince's supporters to ride within pistol-shot and
discharge their pieces at the royal troops to set them into as
disgraceful a panic as ever animated frightened men. The dragoons,
ludicrously unmanned, turned tail and rode for their