less with some exceptions, in contrast with the licentiousness of
Charles the Second, there were still no high hopes to be entertained of
the young Prince; his character had little energy, and consequently
little interest: he was affable, just, free from bigotry although firm
in his faith, and capable of great application to business; but he
wanted ardour. From his negative qualities, the pitying world were
disposed to judge him favourably. "He began the world," says Lockhart,
"with the general esteem of mankind; but he sank year by year in public
estimation: his Court subsequently displayed the worst features of the
Stuart propensities, an intense love of prerogative; and his mind, never
strong, became weaker and weaker under the dominion of favourites."

The ship in which James had sailed returned to France immediately to
give the news of his safe arrival, and at the same time Lieutenant
Cameron, the son of Cameron of Lochiel, was dispatched to Perth to
apprise the Earl of Mar of the event. Upon the spur of the moment the
Earl, accompanied by the Earl Marischal and General Hamilton, and
attended by twenty or thirty persons of quality, on horseback, set out
with a guard of horse to attend him whom they considered as their
rightful Sovereign. The cavalcade met the Chevalier at Fetteresso, the
principal seat of the Earl Marischal. "Here," says Reay, "the Chevalier
dressed, and discovered himself," and they all kissed his hand, and
owned him as their King, causing him to be proclaimed at the gates of
the house. At Fetteresso the Prince was detained during some days by
that inconvenient malady the ague. Meantime, the declaration which he
had prepared, and which was dated from Commercy, was disseminated, and
was dropped in some loyal towns by his adherents in the night-time,
there being danger in promulgating it openly.[130]

On the second of January, 1715-16, the Chevalier proceeded to Brechin,
and thence to Kinnaird; and on Thursday to Glammis Castle, the seat of
the Earl of Strathmore. On the sixth of January he made his public entry
into Dundee on horseback, at an early hour. Three hundred followers
attended him, and the Earl of Mar rode on his right hand, the Earl
Marischal on his left. At the suggestion of his friends, the Prince
shewed himself in the market-place of Dundee for nearly an hour and a
half, the people kissing his hands. The following extract from a letter
among the Mar Papers affords a more minute and gr