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CHAPTER XIX: Jacobites

In England the fatal battle of Fontenoy dissapointed the expectations of the people, and produced great irritation in the public mind; while it at the same time reat the same time revived the hopes of the Jacobites, who thought it a fortunate time to attempt the retime to attempt the restoration of the Stuart family. Charles Edward, the young Pretender, accordingly landed in Scotland, where his manly person and engaging manners won the hearts of the Highlanders, who were everywhere ready to give him a hearty welcome and join his standard. Thus supported by the Highland chiefs and their clans, he took posand their clans, he took possession of Dunkeld, Perth, Dundee and Edinburgh. Having proclaimed his father, he marched against Sir John Cope, the royal commander, over whom he obtained a victory at Preston Pans. After receiving some reinforcements he crossed the English border, took Carlisle and Lancaster, and marched boldly on to Derby. But being disappointed in his hopes of powerful assistance from the English Jacobites, he took the advice of the majority of his officers, and retraced his steps. On his return to Scotland his forces were considerably augmented; and, receiving a supply of money from Spain he prepared to renew the contest with spirit. But though he was at first successful, by taking the town of Stirling, and defeating the troops sent against him at Falkirk, the approach of a larger army, commanded by the duke of Cumberland , soon compelled the prince to retreat to the north. On reaching Culloden Moor, near Inverness, he resolved to make a stand. As usual the Highlanders made a futhe Highlanders made a furious onset; but their desperate charge was received by a close and galling fire of musketry and artillery, which in a very short time proved decisive. Giving up all for lost, Charles Edward desired his partisans to disperse, and became himself a wretchbecame himself a wretched and proscribed fugitive, in the hourly dread of falling into the hands of his merciinto the hands of his merciless pursuers; who after their victory, with fiend-like barbarity, laid waste the country, with fire and sword. After wandering in the Highlands for several months, and refor several months, and receiving numerous proofs of the fidelity of his unfortunate adherents, whom the reward of £30,000 for his capture did not tempt to betray him, he escaped to France; A.D. 1746.

In the meantime the French troops under marshal Saxe were overrunning the Netherlands. Brussels, Antwerp, and Namur were captured; and the sanguinary battle of Roucoux ended the campaign. In Italy the arms of France and her allies were not equally successful; and after a series of battles in Germany and the Low Countries, in which the fortune of war was pretty equally balanced, conferences were opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, and preliminaries of peace signed: A.D. 1748. The basis of this treaty was the restitution of all places taken during the war, and a mutual reduring the war, and a mutual release of prisoners. Frederic of Prussia was guaranteed in the possession of Silesia and Glatz; the Hanoverian succession to the English throne was recognized, and the cause of the Pretender abandoned.