378 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxix. 



certain rope ladders prepared for the purpose, and furnished 

 with iron grapplings to make them fast to the battlements. 

 By means of these, it was concluded that a select party 

 of Jacobites might easily scale the walls, and make them- 

 selves masters of the place. By a beacon placed on a 

 particular part of the Castle, three rounds of artillery, and 

 a succession of tires made from hill to hill through Fife and 

 Angus shires, the signal of success was to be communicated 

 to the Earl of Mar, who was to hasten forward with such 

 forces as he had collected, and take possession of the capital 

 city and chief strength of Scotland. 



" There was no difficulty in finding agents in this perilous 

 and important enterprise. Fifty Highlanders, picked men, 

 were summoned up from Lord Drummond's estates in Perth- 

 shire, and fifty more were selected among the Jacobites of 

 the metropolis. These last were disbanded officers, writers' 

 clerks and apprentices, and other youths of a class con- 

 siderably above the mere vulgar. Drummond, otherwise 

 called MacGreo'or, of Bahaldie, a Hio-hland gentleman of 

 great courage, was named to command the enterprise. If 

 successful, this achievement must have given the Earl 

 of Mar and his forces the command of the greater part 

 of Scotland, and afforded them a safe and ready means of 

 communication with the English malecontents, the want 

 of which was afterwards so severely felt. He would also 

 have obtained a large supply of money, arms, and ammu- 

 nition deposited in the fortress, all of which were most 

 needful for his enterprise. And the apathy of Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Stewart, then Deputy-Governor of the Castle, was 

 so great that, in spite of numerous blunders on the part of 

 the conspirators, and an absolute revelation on the subject 

 made to Government, the surprise had very nearly taken 

 place. 



" The younger conspirators who were to go on this forlorn 

 hope, had not discretion in proportion to their courage. 

 Eighteen of them, on the night appointed, were engaged 

 drinking in a tippling-house, and were so careless in their 

 communications, that the hostess was able to tell some 

 person who inquired what the meeting was about, that it 

 consisted of young gentlemen who were in the act of 

 having their hair powdered, in order to go to the attack of 



