his own people with few
attendants. But the Jacobites were not idle during that interval. They
employed themselves in collecting their servants and kindred, but with
the utmost secrecy, until everything was ready to break out. Nor were
they long kept in suspense. On the third of September, another meeting
at Abbone, in Aberdeenshire, was held, and there the Earl directed his
adherents to collect their men without loss of time. He returned to
Braemar, and continued for several days gathering the people together,
until they amounted, according to Reay, to two thousand horse; although
some have said that there were only sixty followers at that time
assembled.[87]

On the sixth of September, the standard of the Pretender was set up at
Braemar, by the Earl of Mar, in the presence of the assembled forces.
The superstitious Highlanders remarked with dismay, that, as the
standard was erected, the ball on the top of it fell off; and they
regarded this accident as an ill omen. "The event," says a quaint
Scottish writer, "has proven that it was no less."[88]

This grave accordance in the verification of the omen, was a feature of
the times and country. "When a clan went upon any expedition," observes
Dr. Brown in his valuable work upon the Highlands, "they were much
addicted to omens. If they met an armed man they believed that good was
portended. If they observed a deer, fox, hare, or any four-footed beast
of game, and did not succeed in killing it, they prognosticated evil. If
a woman, barefooted, crossed the road before them, they seized her, and
drew blood from her forehead." This mixture of fear of visionary evils,
and courage in opposing real ones, of credulity and distrust, strength
and weakness, presents a singular view of the Highland character. It
had, however, in many respects, no inconsiderable influence upon the
contests of 1715 and 1745.

From Braemar the Earl proceeded to Kirk Michael, a small town, where he
proclaimed the Chevalier, and set up his standard. He then marched to
Moulin in Perthshire, where he rested some time, collecting his forces.

It is a remarkable fact, that up to this period the Earl of Mar was
acting without a commission from the Chevalier. The disposition which is
too predominant in society, and which leads men always to add the
bitterness of invective to the mortification of failure, has attributed
to the Earl of Mar, relatively to this commission, a line of conduct
from which it is agre