James assisted them with clothes, arms, and ammunition, together with some officers, amongst whom was colonel Bucan, appointed to act as their chief commander.

This officer, at the head of fifteen hundred men, advanced into the shire of Murray, in hopes of being joined by other malcontents; but he was surprised and routed by sir Thomas Livingstone, while major Ferguson destroyed the places they possessed in the Isle of Mull; so that the highlanders were obliged to retire and conceal themselves among their hills and fastnesses.

The friends of James, despairing of doing any thing effectual for his service in the field, converted all their attention to the proceedings in parliament; where they imagined their interest was much stronger than it appeared to be upon trial.

They took the oaths without hesitation, and hoped, by the assistance of their new allies, to embroil the government in such a manner that the majority of the people would declare for a restoration.

But the views of these new cemented parties were altogether incompatible, and their principles diametrically opposite.