Louis XIV. died on the 1st of September, 1715. "He was the best friend of the Chevalier," said Bolingbroke, "and my hopes sunk as he declined, and died when he expired." The most blind as well as the most ardent among the Jacobites could not be seriously deluded regarding the disposition of the regent; he was indifferent and careless, and naturally inclined to oppose any policy that the late king had followed, and was also reasonably sensible of the dangers of a new war with England. The vessels which, with the connivance of Louis XIV., had been armed at Havre, under false names, for the service of the projected expedition, were demanded by Lord Stair; their cargoes of arms were at once disembarked. Admiral Sir George Byng appeared in the channel with a squadron. Orders were sent to Lord Mar, who had charge of the Pretender's affairs in Scotland, not to give the signal for the rising, but to wait for new instructions. He had already left London. On the 27th of August, a grand re-union of the chief Jacobites took place at Mar's castle, in the county of Aberdeen. On the 6th of September, the royal standard of the Stuarts was raised in the little village of Braemar. Sixty men only then surrounded it, but soon the contagion spread from village to village, from fortress to fortress. Some days later the country north of the Tay was almost entirely in the hands of the insurgents. The time for hesitation and prudence on the part of the chevalier had passed; in fact he had already hesitated too long, in the opinion of those who generously risked, for him, all that they possessed. The inclemency of the weather, contradictory advice, snares and enticements held out to him by Lord Stair, the return of the Duke of Ormond, who had attempted, without success, to land upon the coast of Devonshire, all these had retarded his movements. It was not until the middle of December that the Pretender, accompanied by six gentlemen, finally landed at Dunkirk. {142} The unfortunate fate of his partisans in England had already been decided. In Scotland it trembled in the balance; and the gloomy forebodings of the most faithful servants of the house of Stuart began to be realized. The Earl of Mar, restless and cunning, clever in court intrigues, but destitute of all military talent, as of all military knowledge, had lingered in the Highlands, remaining for some time at Perth, where his forces increased daily. The Duke of Argyle, placed by the government at the head of the royal troops, found himself at Stirling menaced on all sides by the Jacobites, who, however, did not advance. "When at last Lord Mar drew the sword, he did not know what to do with it," says the Duke of Berwick; "and thus was lost the most favorable opportunity which has presented itself since 1688."