ny instances in the army of Charles the First,) composed
of gentlemen solely, was planted in the churchyard of Old St. Wilfred,
as the parish-church of Preston was then called: their leaders were the
Earl of Derwentwater, Lord Kenmure, the Earl of Nithisdale, and the Earl
of Wintoun,--a truehearted band as ever braved the terrors of an
encounter with their countrymen. At a little distance from the
churchyard and at the extremity of a lane leading into the fields, Lord
Charles Murray defended another post. The third was at a windmill, and
that Colonel Mackintosh was appointed to command. The fourth was in the
town.

Lord Derwentwater and his brothers were the objects, even before the
action began, of universal approbation. Whatever may have been the real
or supposed reluctance of the former to engage in the cause, it vanished
as he came into action. There he stood, having stripped off his clothes
to his waistcoat, encouraging the men, giving them money to induce them
to cast up the trenches, and animating them to a vigorous defence. His
brother addressed the soldiers also, and displayed all the ardour of his
fearless spirit. "No man of distinction," wrote a Scottish prisoner in
the Marshalsea to his friend in the North, "behaved himself better than
the Earl of Derwentwater. He kept himself most with the Scots,
abundantly exposing himself."[200] But all this was in vain, if we dare
to call any manifestations of heroic devotion in vain.

With singular incapacity, Mr. Forster had failed in procuring the
necessary intelligence of the movements of the enemy. He had been
assured by the Lancashire gentlemen, that General Wills, who headed the
King's forces, could not come within forty miles of Preston without
their knowledge. On Saturday, the twelfth of November, after he had
ordered the forces to march toward Manchester, the intelligence reached
him that General Wills had advanced as far as Wigan to attack the
rebels. Even at this crisis affairs might have been retrieved: a body of
the Jacobites was, indeed, sent forward to defend the Ribble bridge,
whilst Mr. Forster went on with a party of horse to reconnoitre. He soon
saw the enemy's dragoons; but instead of disputing the bridge, or
allowing Colonel Farquharson, belonging to Mackintosh's battalion, to
keep the pass, he ordered a retreat to the town. Then all was confusion,
slaughter, disgrace. General Wills advanced; he remembered the disaster
of Oliver Cromwell; he looked