They were aided, however, by the discontent which showed itself in another quarter. In Northumberland the spirit of rebellion was fermented by Thomas Forster, then one of the members of parliament for that county; who, being joined by several noblemen and gentlemen, attempted to seize the large and commercial town of Newcastle, but was driven back by the friends of the government. Forster now set up the standard of the Pretender, and proclaimed him the lawful king of Great Britain and Scotland, wherever he went; and, eventually joining the Scotch rebels, he marched with them to Preston, in Lancashire. They were there attacked by Generals Carpenter and Wills, who succeeded in routing them, and in making 1500 persons prisoners; amongst whom were the Earl of Derwentwater and Lord Widrington, English peers; and the Earls of Nithisdale, Winton, and Carnwarth, Viscount Kenmore, and Lord Nairn, Scotch peers. These noblemen, with about three hundred more rebels, were conveyed to London; while the remainder, taken at the battle of Preston, were sent to Liverpool, and its adjacent towns. At Highgate, the party intended for trial in London was met by a strong detachment of foot-guards, who tied them back to back, and placed two on each horse; and in this ignominious manner were they held up to the derision of the populace, the lords being conveyed to the Tower, and the others to Newgate and other prisons. The Earl of Mar, on the day of the battle, attempted to cross the Forth, but was prevented by a squadron of the British fleet, which had anchored off Edinburgh; and Sir John Mackenzie, on the part of the Pretender, having fortified the town of Inverness, Lord Lovat, (at this time an adherent of the reigning monarch, but subsequently a friend to the cause of the Stuarts, for aiding whose rebellion in 1745 he was beheaded,) armed his tenants, and drove him from his fortifications. The Pretender subsequently managed to elude the vigilance of the British ships appointed to prevent his landing, and crossing the Channel in a small French vessel, disembarked in Scotland, with only six followers; but having obtained the assistance of a few half-armed Highlanders, on the 9th of January 1716, he made a public entry into the palace of Scone, the ancient place of coronation for the Scottish kings. He there assumed the functions of a king, and so much of the powers of royalty as he was able to secure, and issued a proclamation for his coronation. The Duke of Argyle, at this time with his army in winter quarters at Stirling, however, determined to attack the rebel forces, and advancing upon them, they fled at his approach. The Pretender having been encouraged to rebel by France, was in anticipation of receiving succour at the hands of the French king, and in the hope of some aid reaching him, he proceeded to Dundee, and thence to Montrose, where, soon rendered hopeless by receiving no news of the approach of the foreigners, he dismissed his adherents.