Such were the mysterious
preliminary steps towards the hunting-party in the forest of Braemar.
In truth, the hunt was little more than a pretence. While the clansmen
were out forming the tinchel, the lords were assembled in secret
convocation, in which the Earl of Mar eloquently counselled resistance
to the rule of King George, and the taking of arms in the cause of James
Francis Edward, son of the exiled James II., and, as he argued, the only
true heir to the English throne. He told them that he had been promised
abundant aid in men and money from France, and assured them that a
rising in Scotland would be followed by a general insurrection in
England against the Hanoverian dynasty. He is said to have shown letters
from the Stuart prince, the Chevalier de St. George, as he was called,
making the earl his lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of the
armies of Scotland.
How many red deer were killed on this occasion no one can say. The noble
guests of Mar had other things to think of than singling out fat bucks.
None of them opposed the earl in his arguments, and in the end it was
agreed that all should return home, raise what forces they could by the
3d of September, and meet again on that day at Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire,
where it would be settled how they were to take the field.
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