[Illustration: Drop-O]n the first day of the year 1746, the parole given at the Duke of Cumberland’s headquarters, at Carlisle, was ‘London.’ He well knew the joy the metropolis would soon receive. Part of the general orders then issued was thus expressed: ‘The Rebels that have or shall be taken, either concealed or attempting their escape, or in any ways evading the Capitulation, to be immediately put in Irons, in order to be hanged.’ After publishing this order, the duke, leaving Hawley to cross the border in pursuit of the young Chevalier, returned to London. There was great fear of a French invasion; and the duke was to have the command of a southern army to repel it. The invaders were expected in Suffolk, and the Jacobites hoped that the expectation would be realised. They often reported it as an established fact. Fielding’s Jacobite squire in ‘Tom Jones’ is made to exclaim to the landlord of the inn at Upton: ‘All’s our own, boy! ten thousand honest Frenchmen are landed in Suffolk. Old England for ever! Ten thousand French, my brave lad! I am going to tap away directly!’ [Sidenote: _WAR CRITICISM._] Carlisle being recaptured, London breathed again, and considered its past perils and future prospects. The fire-side critics of the war concluded, as the Earl of Shaftesbury did with his friends in London, ‘that _eminus_, we exceeded the ancients, but _cominus_ we fell below them; and this was the result of our having, it was said, learnt the art of war from the Spaniards. We never used bayonets in our service till after the battle of Steinkirk, in King William’s time. Now the Highlanders by their way of attacking (new to our troops) make a quick impression and throw our men into confusion. This I imagine to be the principal reason of the Highlanders gaining such repeated advantages.’ Walpole wrote from Arlington Street: ‘With many other glories, the English courage seems gone too.’ Yet the old spirit was not extinct. When the Ministry tried to prevent Mr. Conway going as aide-de-camp with the Duke of Cumberland, on the ground of his being in Parliament, the duke informed the young soldier of the fact. ‘He burst into tears,’ says Walpole, ‘and protested that nothing should hinder his going――and he is gone.’ [Sidenote: _BREAKING AN OFFICER._]