Onward moved the hunters, the circle steadily growing less, and the
terrified beasts becoming more crowded together, until at length they
were driven down some narrow defile, along whose course the lords and
gentlemen had been posted, lying in wait for the coming of the deer, and
ready to show their marksmanship by shooting such of the bucks as were
in season.
The hunt with which we are at present concerned, however, had other
purposes than the killing of deer. The latter ostensible object
concealed more secret designs, and to these we may confine our
attention. It was now near the end of August, 1715. At the beginning of
that month, the Earl of Mar, in company with General Hamilton and
Colonel Hay, had embarked at Gravesend, on the Thames, all in disguise
and under assumed names. To keep their secret the better, they had taken
passage on a coal sloop, agreeing to work their way like common seamen;
and in this humble guise they continued until Newcastle was reached,
where a vessel in which they could proceed with more comfort was
engaged. From this craft they landed at the small port of Elie, on the
coast of Fife, a country then well filled with Jacobites, or adherents
to the cause of the Stuart princes.
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