Charles
Edward's army encamped itself at Duddingston a little to the east of
the city. But its units came in numbers into the town. The warlike hue
diffused itself. Horsemen were frequent, and a continual entering of
new adherents, men in small or large clusters, marching in from the
country, asking the way to the Prince. For all the buzzing and
thronging, great order prevailed. Women sat or stood at windows, or
passed in and out of dark wynds, or, escorted, picked their way at
street crossings. Now and then went by a sedan-chair. Many women
showed in their faces a truly religious fervor, a passionate Jacobite
loyalty, lighting like a flame. Many sewed white cockades. All
Scotland, all England, would surely presently want these! Men of all
ranks, committed to the great venture, moved with a determined gaiety
and _elan_. "This is the stage, we are the actors; the piece is a
great piece, the world looks on!" The town of Edinburgh did present a
grandiose setting. Suspense, the die yet covered, the greatness of the
risk, gave, too, its glamour of height and stateliness. All these men
might see, in some bad moment at night, not only possible battle
death--that was in the counting--but, should the great enterprise
fail, scaffolds and hangmen. Many who went up and down were merely
thoughtless, ignorant, reckless, or held in a vanity of good fortune,
yet to the eye of history all might come into the sweep of great
drama.
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