carefully around him, and caused the
hedges and fields to be viewed; but no enemy appeared to dispute his
progress. The dragoons advanced towards the town; at first, their
General conjectured that it must have been abandoned. When he
discovered his mistake, he ordered his troops to pass through a gate
which leads into the fields at the back of the town, and immediately
disposed his forces so as to prevent either a sally or a retreat.

The insurgents, meantime, were prepared to receive him. The ancient
church of St. Wilfred, which has since 1814 been replaced by a modern
structure, and endowed with another name, that of St. John, must have
been shaken to its foundations with the explosion of the cannon, as it
was discharged beneath its ancient walls. The besieged formed four main
barriers; one a little below the church, commanded by Brigadier
Mackintosh: the Earl of Derwentwater and his gallant volunteers were
commanded to support that barrier in particular, and here the first
attack was made; but it met with so fierce a reception, and such a fire
upon the assailants, that the dragoons were obliged to retreat to the
entrance of the town. Of this repulse Lord Derwentwater and his youthful
brother gained the chief credit. The scene that followed is a detail of
fruitless gallantry, and of an agonised but ill-concerted resistance.
The fatality which attended the Stuart cause, and which rendered the
bloodshed of its gallant champions unavailing to promote it, was here
conspicuous. That fatality was doubtless resolvable into a want of
common sense, in entrusting the command of the forces into incompetent
hands. All night, indeed, the Jacobite forces met their opponents with
a determined resistance, that made up, in some measure, for inequality
of numbers: the besieged were in many instances sheltered from the
enemy's shot, and they had also the advantage on their side of cannon,
with which General Wills was not supplied. In the course of that night
of horrors, whilst the brave were carried away, mangled or dying, Lord
Charles Murray, who was attacked late in the evening, wanted a
reinforcement of men. He sent Mr. Patten to the Earl of Derwentwater to
ask for aid; it was granted; Mr. Patten passing in safety on account of
his black coat, upon which neither party would fire, conducted a troop
of fifty volunteers to Lord Charles, who maintained his post, and
obliged the enemy to retire with loss. Had it not been for another of
M