On October 30 the Prince held a council of war.  French supplies and guns had been landed at Stonehaven, and news came that 6000 French were ready at Dunkirk:  at Dunkirk they were, but they never were ready.  The news probably decided Charles to cross the Border; while it appears that his men preferred to be content with simply making Scotland again an independent kingdom, with a Catholic king.  But to do this, with French aid, was to return to the state of things under Mary of Guise!

The Prince, judging correctly, wished to deal his “decisive stroke” near home, at the old and now futile Wade in Northumberland.  A victory would have disheartened England, and left Newcastle open to France.  If Charles were defeated, his own escape by sea, in a country where he had many well-wishers, was possible, and the clans would have retreated through the Cheviots.  Lord George Murray insisted on a march by the western road, Lancashire being expected to rise and join the Prince.  But this plan left Wade, with a superior force, on Charles’s flank!  The one difficulty, that of holding a bridge, say Kelso Bridge, over Tweed, was not insuperable.  Rivers could not stop the Highlanders.  Macdonald of Morar thought Charles the best general in the army, and to the layman, considering the necessity for an instant stroke, and the advantages of the east, as regards France, the Prince’s strategy appears better than Lord George’s.  But Lord George had his way.

On October 31, Charles, reinforced by Cluny with 400 Macphersons, concentrated at Dalkeith.  On November 1, the less trusted part of his force, under Tullibardine, with the Atholl men, moved south by Peebles and Moffat to Lockerbie, menacing Carlisle; while the Prince, Lord George, and the fighting clans marched to Kelso—­a feint to deceive Wade.  The main body then moved by Jedburgh, up Rule Water and down through Liddesdale, joining hands with Tullibardine on November 9, and bivouacking within two miles of Carlisle.  On the 10th the Atholl men went to work at the trenches; on the 11th the army moved seven miles towards Newcastle, hoping to discuss Wade at Brampton on hilly ground.  But Wade did not gratify them by arriving.

On the 13th the Atholl men were kept at their spade-work, and Lord George in dudgeon resigned his command (November 14), but at night Carlisle surrendered, Murray and Perth negotiating.  Lord George expressed his anger and jealousy to his brother, Tullibardine, but Perth resigned his command to pacify his rival.  Wade feebly tried to cross country, failed, and went back to Newcastle.  On November 10, with some 4500 men (there had been many desertions), the march through Lancashire was decreed.  Save for Mr Townley and two Vaughans, the Catholics did not stir.  Charles marched on foot in the van; he was a trained pedestrian; the townspeople stared at him and his Highlanders, but only at Manchester (November 29- 30) had he a welcome, enlisting about 150 doomed men.  On November 27 Cumberland took over command at Lichfield; his foot were distributed between Tamworth and Stafford; his cavalry was at Newcastle-under-Lyme.  Lord George was moving on Derby, but learning Cumberland’s dispositions he led a column to Congleton, inducing Cumberland to concentrate at Lichfield, while he himself, by way of Leek and Ashburn, joined the Prince at Derby.