his age he could hardly bear the fatigues of a campaign. In
Aberdeenshire--always Jacobite and Episcopalian--Lord Lewis Gordon
collected a large force; in Perthshire Lord Ogilvy raised his clan,
though neither of these arrived in time to join the march South. Even a
Highland army could not start in mid-winter to march through a hostile
country without any preparations. Tents and shoes were provided by the
city of Edinburgh, and all the horses in the neighbourhood were pressed
for the Prince's service.

On the first day of November the army, numbering 6,000 men, started for
the Border. Lord George led one division, carrying the supplies by
Moffat and Annandale to the West Border. Charles himself commanded the
other division. They pretended to be moving on Newcastle, marched down
Tweedside and then turned suddenly westward and reached England through
Liddesdale.

On the 8th they crossed the Border. The men unsheathed their swords and
raised a great shout. Unfortunately, as he drew his claymore, Locheil
wounded his hand, and his men, seeing the blood flow, declared it to be
a bad omen.

But fortune still seemed to follow the arms of the Adventurer. Carlisle
was the first strong town on the English Border, and though
insufficiently garrisoned, was both walled and defended by a Castle. The
mayor, a vain-glorious fellow, was ambitious of being the first man to
stay the victorious army, and published a proclamation saying that he
was not 'Patterson, a Scotchman, but Pattieson, a true-hearted
Englishman, who would defend his town against all comers.'

A false report that Wade was advancing from the West made Charles turn
aside and advance to Brampton in the hope of meeting him, but the roads
were rough, the weather was wild and cold, the Hanoverian general was
old, and again, as at Corryarack, Charles prepared to meet an enemy that
never appeared.

In the meantime a division of the army had returned to Carlisle and was
laying siege to it with great vigour. Lord George Murray and the Duke of
Perth worked in the trenches in their shirt sleeves. The sound of
bullets in their ears, the sight of formidable preparations for an
assault, were too much for the mayor and his citizens; on the 13th, the
'true-hearted Englishmen' hung out a white flag, and the Prince's army
marched in and took possession. It was another success, as sudden and
complete as any of the former ones. But there were ominous signs even
at this happy moment.