declined. 551 were to attack the post of Brigadier Macintosh, well pleased with the dispositions of Willis that he near the church; led by Brigadier Honeywood, the other three were to storm Captain Hunter's barricade, on the Liverpool Road. The cannon were discharged and the musketry from the houses opened, as the dismounted troopers, in their square-skirted coats, and huge hats and wigs, dashed gallantly up the street, and strove, but in vain, to storm the barricade of old Borlum, who drove them back with the loss of half their number. The assault made by Honeywood on the Highlanders at the Lancaster Road had nearly the same result. The windmill in that quarter was full of Celtic marksmen, whose long-barrelled guns picked off the leaders with such precision that the dragoons lost all heart, and fled out of range with precipitation. "Since you have had the merit of commencing the task," said he, "you shall have the glory of finishing it." The increase of forces now enabled Willis more completely to invest the town; preparations for a more formidable assault were made, and Forster completely lost heart. At two o'clock on Sunday he sent Colonel Oxburgh to ask terms of surrender. This step Forster took without consulting the other leaders; and the Highlanders, so far from having the least idea of capitulating, were at that very time proposing to break out, sword in hand, and by cutting a passage through the troops, attempting to reach their own country. They were so averse to the thought of surrender that, according to one who was present with them that day, they would unquestionably have shot Oxburgh had they been in the least aware of his humiliating errand. He was haughtily received by Willis. Colonel Oxburgh used many entreaties that Willis, as a gentleman and man of honour, would show mercy to such as were inclined to submit. General Willis now did what he should have done at first. He sent forward the whole Cameronian Regiment to attack the post of Brigadier Macintosh. This battalion, which was entirely "I cannot treat with rebels," said that officer. composed of strict and stern Presbyterians, was "You have killed a great number of His Majesty's led by the Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Forrester, of subjects, and must expect to undergo the same fate." Corstorphine, an officer of great experience, but also of reckless bravery, who, to encourage them, galloped his horse close to the barricade and back again, escaping, as if by a charm, the shower of balls that rained around him. Then, in a quarterdistance column, with bayonets fixed and colours flying, the regiment rushed in grim silence at the barricade, firing their muskets over each others' heads, and stabbing wildly with the bayonet. With musket, claymore, and Lochaber axe, the Highlanders met them, and after a rough and terrible conflict they were repulsed from the barricade and churchyard wall, and had to retire, while Highland yells, mingling with the cheers of the Lancashire | men, announced that the second attack on Preston had failed. For that night no more was done, save some platoon firing. Willis, according to "Salmon's Chronicle," "lost at least 300 of his men; nor could the common soldiers-who were most of them newly raised-be brought without difficulty to renew the attack." But it should be borne in mind that those to whom they were opposed were "newly raised" forces too. Next morning, November the 13th, the same day on which Sheriffmuir was fought, General Carpenter arrived with his troops, to which were now added the Welsh Fusiliers ("Records of 23rd Foot"), and Willis proposed to resign the command to him, as a senior officer; but Carpenter was so "If you will lay down your arms, and surrender as prisoners at discretion," replied Willis, “I shall prevent my soldiers from cutting you to pieces, till further orders." For the consideration of this proposal he allowed but a single hour. Before it was expired, the Honourable Mr. Dalzell, brother of the Earl of Carnwath, came forth to inquire what terms were offered to the Scots. "No other terms than such as were offered to the English," was the stern reply. Dalzell, however, obtained some hours' delay; and the Earl of Derwentwater and Brigadier Macintosh gave themselves up as hostages that no more intrenchments should be made, and that none would attempt to escape. During all that afternoon the most furious disputes prevailed among the luckless insurgents. Enraged at the dishonour put upon them, the fiery Highlanders were in open mutiny, and killed and wounded a great many in the course of their quarrels. Forster dared not appear in the streets, and in his own chamber a pistol was fired at him by one of the Murrays. At seven next morning he sent a message to General Willis, informing him "that the gentlemen assembled in Preston were disposed to submit to the terms proposed.” EXECUTION OF LORD DERWENTWATER ON TOWER HILL (FROM AN OLD PRINT). "Then go back to your people again," exclaimed Willis; "and I shall attack the town, not sparing a man of you!" thirteen other officers were killed or wounded. ("Universal Magazine.") There surrendered with General Forster only seventy-two Englishmen, among whom were the heads of the houses of Derwentwater, Widrington, Errington, Beaumont, Thornton, Swinburn, Clavering, Gascoigne, and Standish. With Brigadier Macintosh were 138 Scottish officers and nobles, with 1,500 men, who The British forces marched into Preston on two surrendered on the simple promise of quarter. According to the general's evidence, as given at the trial of the Earl of Winton, the brigadier went to Preston, and came back with Viscount Kenmure, to say that the Scots would surrender on the same terms as the English." Preston.] PRISONERS TREATED BARBAROUSLY. 553 The Scottish lords, Carnwath, Nithsdale, Winton, cavaliers, and opened such ample subscriptions Kenmure, and Nairn, with Brigadier Macintosh for their benefit, that it soon became a jocular and others, were treated with all the severity of saying in town, when change was wanted for a their private soldiers; while Major Nairn, with guinea, "Try among the Scots in Newgate." Captains Erskine, Shaftoe, and Philip Lockhart of Dryden, were tried at the drum-head by order of Willis, and barbarously shot as deserters, for having served in the wars of the late Queen Anne, and being officers on half-pay. Goaded by others broke out of Newgate by the strong hand, The Earl of Derwentwater and Lord Kenmure sealed their faith on the scaffold; Lord Nithsdale escaped through the courage and tact of his countess. Old Brigadier Macintosh and eight bayonet and halberd, the mass of their men were driven like a herd of cattle into the old church of Preston; where, on a cold and bitter day, they were stripped of their tartans and other clothing by the soldiers of the cavalry, so that many of them were glad to tear the green-baize linings from the pews to cover their nakedness. and all reached France in safety, save one, who was retaken and summarily executed. And thus ended in bloodshed and humiliation the English portion of the Insurrection of 1715. It was only the better order of the prisoners taken at Preston that were marched to London in the degrading way we have described. When marched to Barnet, all those peers, The common men were mostly confined in the gentlemen, and privates were pinioned with cords various gaols nearest to the place where they were like malefactors, and exposed to every indignity taken; and it was in the January of the followthat a London mob could inflict; and that journey ing year that Mr. Lechmere, a leading speaker in of humiliation terminated only at the gates of the the House of Commons, moved the criminal Tower, of Newgate, and the Marshalsea. The impeachment of the captive peers and gentleladies of London took pity upon those fallen men. CHAPTER CV. CAPE PASSORA, 1718. THE year 1718 was to see more important work cut out for the fleet of Admiral Byng than bombarding the little town of Burntisland and guarding the Firth of Forth. For the sake of his native Hanover, George I. had embroiled Britain in a useless, destructive, and expensive war. The quadruple alliance was formed, by which Britain, Germany, France, and Holland leagued themselves against Philip of Spain, who had interfered with the Italian interests of the Emperor. Lord Stanhope had been sent to Madrid with a plan of pacification, which being rejected by Philip as partial and iniquitous, George determined to support his mediation by force of arms. In the middle of March, Sir George Byng was appointed Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the squadron destined for service in the Mediterranean; Sir Charles Wager was Vice-Admiral of the Red, and Captains Delaval and Mighells were made Rear-Admirals of the Fleet. Sir George hoisted his flag on board the Barfleur, 90 guns, and sailed from Spithead on the 4th of June, with twenty ships of the line, two fire-ships, and two bomb-ketches, having in all 1,440 guns and 9,070 men. He had ample instructions to act in all emergencies. Arriving off Cape St. Vincent on the 30th of the month, he sent his secretary ashore, with dispatches for Lord Stanhope, the king's envoy at Madrid. This noble he found at the Escurial, where he delivered to the King of Spain a letter from Sir George Byng, to the effect, "that as the King of Great Britain was a guarantee for the peace of Italy, he could not but maintain the same; and therefore his admiral had orders to act against those who might seek to violate it." Colonel Lord Stanhope made the same declaration verbally; and the King of Spain replied, curtly "Then the admiral may follow his orders." At midnight on the 21st of July, the fleet came to anchor in the Bay of Naples. Next morning Sir George, with the flag-officers, went ashore, and was received by the viceroy, Count Daun, with every honour; and was informed that the Spanish army, 30,000 strong, under the Marquis de Lede, had landed in Sicily, reduced Palermo and Messina, and were blockading the citadel of the latter; and that its garrison of Piedmontese, if not soon relieved, would be obliged to capitulate. Also, that an alliance was on the tapis between the Emperor and the King of Sicily, who had desired the assistance of the Imperial troops, and agreed to receive them into the citadel of Messina. Sir George Byng immediately resolved to sail thither, and took under his convoy 2,000 Germans, under General Wetzel, to reinforce the citadel. The 9th of August saw him off the Faro of Messina. There he dispatched Captain Saunders, of the Barfleur, with a polite message to the Marquis de Lede, proposing "a cessation of arms in Sicily for two months, that the powers of Europe might have time to concert measures for restoring a lasting peace;" and adding, "that should this proposal be rejected, he would, in pursuance of his instructions, use all his force to prevent further attempts to disturb the dominions his master had engaged to defend." "I have no powers to treat," was the reply of the Spanish general, "and, consequently, cannot agree to an armistice; but I must obey my orders, which are to reduce Sicily for my master the King of Spain." The Spanish fleet had sailed from the harbour of Messina on the day before the British armament appeared, and supposing it had gone to Malta, Admiral Byng directed his course towards the city of Messina, with the intention of assisting the Piedmontese in the citadel; but in doubling the point of Faro, he descried two Spanish scouts, and learned from the people of a felucca from the coast of Calabria that they had seen from the hills the whole Spanish fleet lying-to in order of battle. The admiral immediately detached the German troops to Reggio, under convoy of two ships of war, and then stood through the Faro after the Spanish scouts, who led him direct to their main fleet, which, before noon, he saw in order for action, amounting to twenty-seven sail, besides two fire-ships, four bomb-ketches and seven galleys, having on board in all 1,221 guns and 8,390 men; thus the strength of the two fleets was nearly equal. The Spaniards were commanded in chief by Don Antonio de Castanita, under whom were four rear-admirals, Chacon, Mari, Guevara, and George Cammock. The latter was an Irishman, who had been a captain, in 1702, in the British Navy, from which he was dismissed, in 1714, for his attachment to the House of Stuart. He had on this day his flag on board the San Ferdinand, 60 guns; and in the Spanish list, "Wacup (Wauchope ?), a Scotchman," appears as captain of the St. Francis Arves, 22 guns and 100 men (" Schomberg, Appendix"). They were lying in wait off Cape Passora, anciently Pachinus, the most remote and southerly point of Sicily. It is not a peninsula, as represented in many maps, but an island, and was then bare and barren, with a small fort and garrison, to protect the shore from the then frequent incursions of the Barbary corsairs. It was also used as a place of exile for military delinquents, as Brydone tells us, in his "Tour through Sicily and Malta." The British line-of-battle ship, Canterbury, 60 guns, Captain Walton, was ordered to lead, with her starboard tacks on board; and the Rochester, 50 guns, Captain Wyndham, with the larboard. On the appearance of the British fleet, the Spaniards, though in order of battle, "stood away large" (ie., with the wind abaft the beam), steering straight for the Sicilian shore. On this Sir George Byng instructed Captain Walton, with the Kent, Superb, Grafton, and Orford, being his swiftest sailers, to steer in pursuit and bring them to action; ordering also "that the ship which could get ahead most, and nearest to them, should carry the lights usually borne by the admiral, that he might not lose sight of them in the night." Meanwhile he made all sail, to keep up with the swift squadron under Walton. The wind became very light, and the great row-galleys of the Spanish fleet, with their well-manned benches of oars, towed their heaviest sailers all night. On the morning of the 31st they were closer to Cape Passora; and Rear-Admiral the Marquis de Mari, with six ships of war, and the galleys, fireships, and bomb-ketches, separated from the main fleet, and stood with all sail in-shore. Captain Walton, with the Canterbury, the Argyle, 50 guns, and six other vessels, was dispatched in pursuit ; and on coming within range, one of the Spaniards shortened sail, and poured a tremendous broadside into the Argyle. 555 Smollett says that the Spaniards were distracted in their councils, and acted in confusion; that they made a running fight; and yet that their admirals behaved with courage and activity. Sir George Byng, on seeing the leading ships engaged with those Spaniards which were creeping in-shore, sent orders to Captain Walton to rendezvous after the action at Syracuse, which the viceroy of the King of Sicily occupied with a garrison. The same orders he dispatched to the flags, and to as many ships as were within his reach; for Syracuse, being defended against the Spaniards, was the most proper port on the Sicilian coast for the fleet to assemble together in again. The chase continued alongshore after Don Antonio de Castanita, with three of his rearadmirals and the largest of his ships; the captains of the Kent, Superb, Grafton, and Orford having still orders to get ahead of the fugitives if they could, but not to fire unless the Spaniards repeated their fire; and on the guns of the Santa Rosa, under Don Antonio Gonzales, opening, she was at once engaged by the Orford, a seventygun ship, whose crew soon took her. The San Carlos, of 60 guns, under Prince Chalay, next struck, almost without opposition, to the Kent. The Grafton lay alongside the Prince of the Asturias, the rear-admiral's ship, and after a sharp engagement, on the Breda and Captain coming up, she left her for them to take (which they soon did), and then stretched ahead after another sixty-gun ship, which had lain to starboard of her while she was engaged with the rearadmiral. The fighting was now becoming general among both fleets, and was visible to the people along the whole coast, from Passora to the little town and fort of Vindicari. The Prince of the Asturias was repeatedly boarded. Admiral Chacun defended her bravely, driving the assailants from his deck again and again; but being severely wounded, having most of his men killed, and his ship shot fairly through and through, he was compelled, after disabling one man-of-war, to haul down his flag. By one o'clock the Kent and Superb engaged the ship of Don Antonio Castanita, and two others, maintaining a running fight until three in the afternoon, The Spaniards thus, though fugitives, had the when the first-named ship, "bearing down upon honour of beginning the action. "My ship," says the marquis, in his letter to the Cardinal Acquiviva, "being separated from the line, six English sail followed me, and gave me a signal to surrender, but I answered it with the fire of all my artillery." and under her stern," says Lediard, in his “Naval History," "gave her a broadside, and went away to leeward of her. Then the Superb put in for it, and laid the Spanish admiral on board, falling on her weather quarter. But the Spanish admiral shifting helm and avoiding her, the Superb ranged up |