, for the English fleet
had time to make preparations. A storm drove the French fleet
northwards; in the tempest the unfortunate adventurer passed the Firth
of Forth and Aberdeen; and although the fleet retraced its course to the
Isle of May, it was only to flee back to France, daunted as the French
admirals were by the proximity of Sir George Byng and the English fleet,
who chased the enemy along the coasts of Fife and Angus. It was shortly
after this event that the Pretender, upon whose head a price of a
hundred thousand pounds was set by the English Government, first
assumed the title of Chevalier of St. George, in order to spare himself
the expense of field equipage in the campaign in Flanders.

The conduct of the Earl of Mar, in relation to conspiracy, has been
alluded to rather than declared by historians. He is supposed not to
have been, in secret, unfavourable to the undertaking. He was,
nevertheless, active in giving to the Earl of Sunderland the names of
the disaffected with whom he was generally supposed to be too well
acquainted. Many of those who were suspected were brought to London, and
were in some instances committed to prison, in others confined to their
own houses. On this occasion the advice of the great Marlborough was
followed, and the guilty were not proceeded against with more severity
than was necessary for the Queen's safety. The same generous policy was
in after times remembered, in mournful contrast with a very different
spirit.

It was the ill-fortune of Mar to give satisfaction to none of those who
had looked on the course of public affairs during the recent
transactions; nor was it ever his good fortune to inspire confidence in
his motives. Some notion may be formed of the thraldom of party in
Scotland by the following anecdote:--

In 1711-12 the Queen conferred upon the Duke of Hamilton a patent for an
English dukedom; but this, according to a vote of the House of Lords,
did not entitle him to sit as a British Peer. Indignant at being
thought incapable of receiving a grace which the King might confer on
the meanest commoner, the Scotch Peers took the first opportunity of
walking out of the House in a body, and refusing to vote or sit in that
House. In addition to the affront implied by their incapacity of
becoming British Peers, it was more than hinted that it would not be
advisable for the independence of the House if the King could confer the
privileges of British Peers upon a set of