make his friends at home declare in his favour, and cause those abroad
to send him assistance. All he wanted was that the Highlanders should
begin the war. Locheill still resisted, entreating Charles to be more
temperate, and consent to remain concealed where he was, till his
friends should meet together and concert what was best to be done.
Charles, whose mind was wound up to the utmost pitch of impatience, paid
no regard to this proposal, but answered that he was determined to put
all to the hazard. 'In a few days,' said he, 'with the few friends I
have, I will raise the royal standard, and proclaim to the people of
Britain that Charles Stuart is come over to claim the crown of his
ancestors--to win it, or to perish in the attempt! Locheill--who, my
father has often told me, was our firmest friend--may stay at home, and
learn from the newspapers the fate of his Prince!' 'No!' said Locheill,
stung by so poignant a reproach, and hurried away by the enthusiasm of
the moment; 'I will share the fate of my Prince, and so shall every man
over whom nature or fortune has given me any power.' Such was the
juncture upon which depended the civil war of 1745; for it is a point
agreed, says Mr. Home, who narrates this conversation, that if Locheill
had persisted in his refusal to take arms, no other chief would have
joined the standard, and the spark of rebellion must have been instantly
extinguished." Not more than twelve hundred men were assembled in
Glenfinnan on the day when the standard was unfurled by the Marquis of
Tullibardine, and, at the head of this mere handful of followers,
Charles Edward commenced the stupendous enterprise of reconquering the
dominions of his fathers.

With a force which, at the battle of Preston, did not double the above
numbers, the Prince descended upon the Lowlands, having baffled the
attempts of General Cope to intercept his march--occupied the city of
Perth and the town of Dundee, and finally, after a faint show of