Meantime the Jacobites were not idle. Gordon of Glenbucket, now aged seventy-two, had been bed-ridden for three years, but he no sooner heard of the Prince’s arrival than he experienced ‘a kind of new life.’[69] Although bent nearly double on horseback, he hurried off to the West Highlands, and met Prince Charles at Kinlochmoidart on August 18th. He was back in Banffshire raising men by September 5th.[70] John Hamilton, the Duke of Gordon’s factor in Strathbogie, also quickly raised a contingent, and ten days after Cope’s departure, on September 25th, he marched into Aberdeen, where he proclaimed King James at the Cross, and perpetrated the somewhat ludicrous outrage on the provost and magistrates narrated on page 119. From that time until the last week in February, Aberdeen was under Jacobite government. Men were hurriedly collected; and on October 4th Glenbucket joined Prince Charles at Edinburgh with 400 men from Strathavon and Glenlivet, Hamilton also arrived in the city with 480 from Strathbogie and the Enzie. On the 9th Lord Pitsligo followed with 132 horse and 248 foot. In the last week of October Lord Lewis Gordon, brother of the Duke of Gordon, a young naval officer who had joined the Prince in Edinburgh, was sent north as Lord-Lieutenant of the counties of Aberdeen and Banff. He found his task harder than he expected, being grossly thwarted by ‘the vile and malicious behaviour of the Prysbiterian ministers.’[71] Towards the end of November, to his intense surprise, his brother, the Duke, instructed his vassals to disregard Lord Lewis’s orders.[72] In spite of discouragement, Lord Lewis worked on. Moir of Lonmay was appointed deputy-governor of Aberdeenshire and Baird of Auchmedden of Banffshire. Three new regiments were raised under Moir of Stonywood (Lonmay’s brother), Gordon of Avochy (Glenbucket’s nephew), and Farquharson of Monaltrie, a cadet of Invercauld; rates and taxes were imposed and collected; and a good deal of hardship was inflicted on the lieges. After the battle of Prestonpans (September 21st) Lord Loudoun, who there acted as Cope’s adjutant-general, had gone to London, where he received a commission to return to Inverness to command an army of Highlanders friendly to the Government, then being organised by Duncan Forbes of Culloden. By December Loudoun was able to send an expedition under Munro of Culcairn and Macleod of Macleod to relieve Aberdeen. Lord Lewis Gordon, reinforced by some of the French troops of Lord John Drummond, which had landed in November at Stonehaven, Peterhead, and Montrose, met the invaders at Inverurie on December 23rd. He defeated Macleod completely, and forced him to retire across the Spey, thus freeing Aberdeen and Banff from all enemy troops.