for the executioner, who, on approaching, was about to ask his lordship's forgiveness; but Balmerino stopped him by saying, that the performance of his duty was commendable. "Friend," continued he, presenting the man with three guineas, "I never had much money : this is all I possess at present." He regretted that the gift was so small, but observed that he could add nothing to it except his coat and waistcoat, of which he immediately divested himself, and placed them upon his coffin.

On taking his last farewell of his friends, he said to one of them, “I am afraid there are some who may think my behaviour too bold: but remember, sir, what I tell you; it arises from a confidence in God, and a clear conscience.” He then took the axe in his hand, and having felt the edge, returned it to the executioner, whom he clapped on the shoulder, and tucking down the collar of his shirt, showed him where to aim, encouraging and requesting him to strike with resolution; "for in that, friend," added he, "will consist your

mercy." Immediately after, without trembling or changing countenance, he knelt down before the block, and exclaimed, with outstretched arms, "O Lord! reward my friends, forgive my enemies, and receive my soul!" Having uttered these words, he gave the preconcerted signal (dropping his hands) for the executioner, to strike: but the latter was so unnerved by the earl's coolness and intrepidity, or flurried by the unexpected suddenness of the signal, that it was only on the third fall of the axe that Balmerino was decapitated.

In compliance with a desire which he had expressed, the coffin containing his remains was placed on that of the Marquess of Tullibardine, in St. Peter's church, in the Tower. "It is but justice to the memory of Lord Balmerino," says Douglas, "a great, but unhappy man, to assure the world, that his whole deportment, previous to his tragical end, was graceful without affectation, and cheerful without presumption."

In

He

THIS nobleman was born in 1690: he married during his minority, and had several daughters, but no son. October, 1715, he joined the insurgent forces under Forster, a division of which was subsequently denominated The Earl of Wintoun's troop. soon became obnoxious to the English commanders, by his resolute independence of opinion. In opposition to the Northumbrian gentlemen, he invariably recommended a march towards the west of Scotland, in order to join the insurgent clans. Had this counsel been adopted, the united forces of the rebels might have become formidable; but it was vehemently and successfully opposed, as was also the earl's project to attack General Carpenter's troops when fatigued with their laborious march towards Kelso.

The obstinacy of the Highlanders, who peremptorily refused to march southward, and numbers of whom abandoned the rebel standard when the

main body had determined to cross the border, was attributed, by his associates, to the earl's advice; and he was consequently treated with such coolness, that he retired in disgust; but, after a brief absence, feeling, perhaps, that he could not elsewhere obtain even temporary security, he returned to the camp of the insurgents; and, although dissatisfied with their proceedings, and excluded from their councils, he continued to act with them until the capitulation at Preston, when he was conveyed, with the other prisoners of quality, to the metropolis.

Being impeached for high treason, he was found guilty, and sentenced to death; but, unlike several of his unfortunate associates, he disdained to implore the king's mercy, and would not sanction any application to government for his pardon. Great exertions were, however, made to save his life; and they were so far successful, that the earl was respited during the royal

treason, and on the 16th of the same month, thus addressed his peers, previously to pleading guilty:-" My lords, -The terrors of your just sentence, which will at once deprive me of my life and estate, and complete the misfortunes of my wife and innocent children, are so heavy on my mind, that I am scarce able to allege what may extenuate my offence, if any thing can do it: my guilt was rashly incurred, without any premeditation; for I beg to observe, that I was wholly unprovided of men, horses, or arms, which I could easily have provided, had I formed any previous design. As my offence was sudden, so my submission was prompt; for when the king's general demanded hostages for ensuring a cessation of arms, I voluntarily offered myself; and it was the repeated promises of mercy which I received, that induced me afterwards to remain with the royal army. I humbly entreat your intercession with the king, and solemnly protest that my future conduct shall shew me not unworthy of your generous compassion."

He received sentence of death on the 9th of February, and a warrant was soon afterwards issued for his execution. On the morning after it had been signed, the countess obtained an interview with the king in his bed-chamber, and pathetically entreated his majesty to spare her husband's life; and she subsequently went down to Westminster, accompanied by a great number of ladies, and personally implored both houses of parliament to intercede with the sovereign on his behalf. The public were strongly excited in favour of the condemned earl, and his friends entertained a hope, that he would have been pardoned. But, notwithstanding several peers and commoners of distinction endeavoured to procure a remission of his sentence, it was carried into effect.

His execution took place on the 24th of February. While ascending the scaffold he looked particularly pale: but in a few moments he regained his natural firmness and composure. After performing a solemn act of devotion, he advanced to the rails of the scaffold, and read an address to those who had assembled for the purpose of witnessing

his execution, in which he eulogized the Pretender, and asked pardon of those whom he had scandalized by his plea of guilty, which, he stated, was a breach of loyalty to his lawful and rightful sovereign, King James the Third. He concluded by saying that, had his life been spared, he should have considered himself bound in honour never again to take up arms against the reigning prince.

The earl handed a copy of this declaration to the sheriff, observing that he had given another to a friend. He then examined the block, and finding a rough part on the surface, desired that it might be chipped away with the axe, as it would probably hurt his neck if suffered to remain. Having stripped off his coat and waistcoat, he prepared to receive the fatal blow, and on giving a signal which he had previously arranged with the executioner, his head was severed from his body at a single stroke of the axe.

It is said, that, on the preceding afternoon, he had sent for Roome, an undertaker, to receive directions for his funeral; but Roome having refused to prepare a plate for his coffin, bearing an inscription to the effect that he died a sacrifice for his lawful sovereign, the earl immediately dismissed him, and made no subsequent preparations for his sepulture; so that, instead of being deposited in a coffin, and carried away in a hearse, his remains were wrapped up in a cloth, and borne by some of his servants to the Tower, where they were soon afterwards interred.

The earl appears to have been possessed of many good qualities. "He was formed by nature," says Patten, "to be universally beloved; for his benevolence was so unbounded, that he seemed only to live for others. He resided among his own people, spent his estate among them, and continually did them kind

nesses.

His hospitality was princely, and none in that country came up to it. He was very charitable to the poor, whether known to him or not, and whether papists or protestants. fate was a misfortune to many, who had no kindness for the cause in which he died."

His

THIS gentleman, a brother of the Earl of Derwentwater, was born in 1693, and evinced, from his boyhood, a most enthusiastic attachment to the exiled Stuarts. Utterly reckless of consequences, he joined one of those straggling parties of Jacobites, that appeared in arms for the Pretender late in the summer of 1715. He acted with Forster throughout the whole of that inefficient leader's campaign;-displaying, whenever an opportunity occurred, a total disregard of personal danger, and a sincere devotion to the cause he had espoused, which threw a lustre over his rashness.

Having surrendered with his confederates, at Preston, he was arraigned for high treason, in May, 1716, and was soon afterwards found guilty. He disdained to petition for mercy, or to permit any interest to be used with the king in his behalf. But the blood of one brother being deemed a sufficient atonement for the offences of both, soon after the Earl of Derwentwater had been executed, a free pardon was granted to Ratcliffe; which, however, he obstinately refused to accept. He was, consequently, detained in Newgate until the 11th of December, 1716, when he contrived to effect his escape, as it is supposed, by breaking through the chimney of his apartment to the roof of the prison, and thence lowering himself, with the aid of a rope, into the

street.

Patten, speaking of him about this period, says, "He is young and bold, but too forward: he has a great deal of courage, which wants a few more years and a better cause to improve it. There is room to hope he will never employ it in such an adventure again." Unfortunately, however, for himself, he continued to be an active partisan of the exiled prince; and frequently ventured to quit his asylum on the continent, for the purpose of fomenting the discontents of the Highlanders.

In 1746, he received a naval commission from the King of France, and took the command of a vessel, laden with arms for the use of the Jacobites in Scotland; which, however, never reached its destination, being captured at sea by an English cruizer. Ratcliffe was brought a prisoner to London, and arraigned on his previous conviction, which had never been reversed. He boldly denied the authority of the court, avowed himself to be a subject of the King of France, produced his commission, and declared that he was not Charles Ratcliffe, but the Earl of Derwentwater. After some further quibbling on these and other points, his identity being satisfactorily proved, the attorney-general moved for the execution of his former sentence. The

prisoner now attempted to set up his pardon in bar, but the judges being of opinion that such a plea could not, under the circumstances, be legally received, a writ was issued for his decapitation. His person and appearance, on this occasion, are thus described in the British Chronologist :-" He was about five feet ten inches high, upwards of fifty, dressed in scarlet, faced with black velvet, and gold buttons,-a gold-laced waistcoat,-bag wig, and had a hat with a white feather." He wore precisely the same dress on the scaffold, where he conducted himself with great fortitude. He was beheaded on Tower hill, on the 8th of December, 1746.

The courage of Charles Ratcliffe appears to have been a mere animal quality; he was evidently the creature of impulse, an inconsiderate slave to his feelings, who possessed none of the mental attributes of a hero. His dogged rejection of mercy, in 1716, was even more foolish than his attempt, on being taken in arms at a subsequent period, to avoid the execution of his sentence, by a series of absurd evasions, was mean and contemptible.

THIS gallant chieftain, the head of the Camerons, who idolized him for his bravery, his social virtues, and, to use the words of the talented author of Lochiel's Warning, his loyal, though mistaken, magnanimity, was born in 1696.

As he grew up, he imbibed all the enthusiastic feelings of his family in favour of the Stuarts. James Frederick is said to have described him to the young Chevalier, as being among their most trusty and influential adherents; and he was, accordingly, one of the first whose aid Charles Edward endeavoured to procure, on his arrival at Boradale, in 1745. Lochiel, however, had sufficient wisdom to foresee, that, unsupported as he was by foreign troops, the young adventurer could have but little chance of success, in the enterprise which he had so daringly undertaken. He, accordingly, endeavoured, with all the eloquence he possessed, to prevail on him to abandon it; but finding Charles Edward invulnerable either to entreaty or argument, the brave chieftain, at length, generously, although against his better judgment, determined on sharing those perils, which the prince would evidently

have to encounter.

His followers, amounting to seven hundred men, were the first of the insurgents to commence hostilities; having surrounded and captured two companies of the king's troops, before the Jacobite standard was raised at Glenfinnin. They also distinguished themselves by obtaining possession of Edinburgh, by stratagem, pending the negotiations between Charles Edward and the inhabitants for its surrender. In common with the other Highlanders, Lochiel, and his clan, displayed great bravery, and did astonishing execution at the battle of Preston-Pans. It is related, that, on this occasion, a Highlander captured ten dismounted dragoons, on whom the mere sound of his voice produced so appalling an effect, that he drove them before him like sheep; and a lad in the rebel army, under fourteen years of age, is reported

to have cut down, if he did not actually kill, twelve of his opponents.

These, and other equally improbable stories, obtained credence among the English peasantry, who, in some parts, are said to have considered the Highlanders as monsters and cannibals, who scarcely bore even an outward similitude to humanity. During the march to Derby, the Chevalier Johnstone relates, (but the story is almost incredible) that one evening, as Lochiel entered the lodgings assigned to him, in an English village, his landlady threw herself at his feet, and, with uplifted hands, and tears in her eyes, supplicated him to take her life but to spare her two little children. "He asked her," continues Johnstone, "if she was in her senses, and told her to explain herself; when she answered, that every body said the Highlanders ate children, and made them their common food. Mr. Cameron having assured her that they would not injure either her or her children, or any person whatever, she looked at him, for some moments, with an air of surprise, and then opened a press, calling out with a loud voice, Come out, children, the gentleman will not eat you.'"

Lochiel remained with the young Chevalier's army until the 18th of March, 1746, when he was despatched, with his own followers, and some auxiliaries from the clans of Macdonald and Stuart, to attempt the reduction of Fort William; but, after besieging it for several days, without making much progress, he was compelled to relinquish the enterprise, the Duke of Cumberland's movements having rendered his presence important at the head-quarters of the prince. He accordingly returned, with his followers, to the rebel army; and, a few days afterwards, displayed his usual intrepidity at the disastrous battle of Culloden; in which he was so severely wounded, that he must either have bled to death on the field, or been taken prisoner by the king's troops, but for the desperate courage of some of his clan, by whom he was