. Major Fairburn, on the other hand, was first and last a
soldier, and he hoped some day to have further opportunities of rising
in his profession.

The Queen was in a very bad state of health; she might die any day.
But the Electress Sophia died first, and her son, Prince George of
Hanover, became the next heir to the throne, a prospect not much to
the liking of many in England. Some of the leading Tories were making
preparations for a revolution in favour of the Pretender, but the
death of Anne came before their preparations were complete, and George
of Hanover was quietly proclaimed as George I.

Before Marlborough died George Fairburn was a lieutenant-colonel, and,
as he happened to be stationed for a time at Windsor, he and his wife,
the Mary Blackett of old, had more than once the honour of an
invitation to Windsor Park, the Duke's favourite abode, his great
palace of Blenheim being not yet ready for him.

* * * * *

We hear of our hero, many long years after all this, a stout old
soldier, General Sir George Fairburn, taking part in the memorable
chase after the Young Pretender in 1745, and the subsequent great
fight at Culloden.

"And I tell you, sir," said Mr. Matthew Blackett, member for Langkirk,
as he told the story to a crony in the smoking-room of his club,
White's, "I tell you, sir, he trod Culloden Moor with all the vigour
and fire he had when we marched with Marlborough to Malplaquet."

REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS AND MOVEMENTS

1. THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN

This question, especially after the death of all Anne's children,
became a most important one. The Whigs and the country in general were
bent upon securing a Protestant succession, but there were some,
especially amongst the Tories, who were secret supporters of the
Pretender, James Stuart, son of James II. The Act of Settlement had
provided for the accession of Sophia as the nearest Protestant
descendant of James I, on the failure of Anne's issue. At one time the
Scotch Parliament threatened to elect as king a different sovereign
from that of England, unless Scotland should be given the same
commercial privileges as England possessed. The Act of Security,
passed in 1704, declared as much. Both Bolingbroke and Harley were in
correspondence with the Pretender, and it was only through the death
of the Queen earlier than had been expected that a revolution in
favour of the exiled Stuarts