The countess began to think she had conversed long enough with the trusty messenger, especially after his supper at the buttery-hatch; and repeating her thanks in the manner most satisfactory to the worthy Dickon, she dismissed him to seek the repose he must need after his journey. The Chevalier's arrival, which Lord Nithsdale in his letter had considered almost certain, had not yet taken place: and although the Earl of Mar was resolved, by keeping possession of Perth, to retain at least one town where his master might be sure of an honourable and safe reception, the defection of the whole clan of Fraser, the advance of the Earl of Sutherland, the reinforcements which strengthened the Duke of Argyle's army from the regular troops, whose presence was no longer required in England, rendered each day the situation of the Jacobite general more desperate. Still, having formally invited the Chevalier to put himself at the head of the insurrectionary army, Mar felt himself under the necessity of keeping his remaining troops together, to protect the person of the prince when he should effect his landing. In this dilemma, he proposed a military oath in the name of King James the Eighth; but the attempt to bind together those who were only waiting for an excuse to disperse proved as unavailing as his previous proposal of an association. All the principal chiefs and leaders complained that they had been deluded by promises which had never been fulfilled. They insisted--and there was much reason in their arguments--that they had no more grounds for now believing the king was on the point of arriving, than that the long promised arms, ammunition, and treasure, should be sent from France; and from this period a party was established in the very army of the Earl of Mar which declared for opening a negotiation with the Duke of Argyle. CHAPTER XIV. ----Since I parted hence, I have beheld misfortune face to face; Have mark'd the ills of desolating war In all the sad details kings never see. The sun that rises on the peasant's toil In happy lands not visited by war, And gilds their waving harvests with his beams, With barren splendour glares on desert fields Depopulated by the sword.--The gale Sweeps sullen o'er them, loaded with the cries Of frantic widows and of orphan babes, That else had borne upon its gladsome wing The careless carol of the husbandman, Tilling in peace and liberty his field. _Gonzalvo of Cordova._ Reports of the indignities to which the noble prisoners had been exposed on their journey to London failed not to reach Scotland; indignities which, galling enough in themselves, were not likely to be softened in the recounting.