I II 1 1
Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
JOSEPH BUIST
h
MEMOIRS
PRINCE CHARLES STUART,
(COUNT OF ALBANY,)
COMMONLY CALLED
THE YOUNG PRETENDER.
WITH NOTICES OF THE REBELLION IN 1745.
BY
CHARLES LOUIS KLOSE, ESQ.
" We are so constituted, that nothing so much commands our admiration
as a man who shows himself great in adversity." SENECA.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1846.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
CHAPTER XXI.
Battle of Culloden Defeat and dispersion of the High-
land Army Flight of Charles ....
CHAPTER XXII.
Adventures of the Prince in the Hebrides . 30
CHAPTER XXIII.
Charles in constant danger of being taken, meets with
Flora Macdonald, who assists in his escape from
South Uist to Skye 51
CHAPTER XXIV
Charles in Rasay Returns to Skye Wretched state to
which he is reduced- Escapes to the Main Land . 72
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXV. PAGB
Charles joins Lochiel Living like a Prince The Cage
Charles and his Friends embark in a French Vessel
for France 94
CHAPTER XXVI.
General Remarks on the Prince's Expedition to Scotland 107
CHAPTER XXVII.
Reception of Charles at Versailles His Journey to
Madrid Letter to his Father He returns to Paris
His Brother is created Cardinal Charles's afflic-
tion at this event 115
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle Humiliating terms imposed
on France Charles, refusing to leave Paris, is
seized, confined, and conveyed across the Frontiers
to Avignon 142
CHAPTER XXIX.
Reflections on the conduct of the French Government
Sympathy of the Public The King and the
Dauphin 161
CHAPTER XXX.
Conduct of the British Government after the Battle of
Culloden Barbarous Treatment of the Highlanders
Ingratitude to the Lord President, Duncan
Forbes Excesses of the Soldiery Wholesale Ex-
ecutions Trials and Execution of the Rebel Lords 171
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Charles's Peregrinations Abortive Conspiracies in Eng-
land Visits of Charles to England Apprehension
and Execution ' of Dr. Cameron Charles's Con-
nexion with Miss Walkenshaw . . . . 199
CHAPTER XXXII.
Charles settles at Florence and assumes the title of Count
of Albany Death of his Father His Marriage
Mutual Passion of Alfieri and the Countess She
leaves her Husband His Affliction His habi-
tual Intemperance 216
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Last years of Charles's Life and Residence at Rome
His last Illness and Death Surviving Members
of the Family The Countess of Albany Cardinal
York . 236
APPENDIX.
.No. I.
Letter of the Old Pretender to one of his Adherents in
Scotland . 255
No. II.
Extracts from the Young Chevalier ; or, a Genuine Nar-
rative of all that befel that unfortunate Adventurer.
By a Gentleman who was personally acquainted not
only with the scenes of action, but with many of the
Actors themselves 259
VOL. II. b
VI CONTENTS.
No. III.
Extracts from a Plain, Authentic, and Faithful Narra-
tive of the several passages of the Young Chevalier,
from the Battle of Culloden to his Embarkation for
France 333
No. IV.
Extracts from King's Political and Literary Anecdotes
of his own Times 351
No. V.
Memoirs of the late Cardinal York, the last, in a direct
line, of the Royal House of Stuart .... 360
MEMOIRS
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
CHAPTER XXI.
BATTLE OF CULLODEN DEFEAT AND DISPERSION OF THE
HIGHLAND ARMY FLIGHT OF CHARLES.
THAT this state of things could continue longer
than till the return of spring was not to be
expected. On the 19th of April, after a few days
of thaw, followed by a high wind that had made
the roads tolerably dry again, the Duke of
Cumberland broke up from Aberdeen with eight
thousand infantry and nine hundred horse, abun-
dantly provided with every thing, and supported
by a naval force, which accompanied his course
along the coast, ready to supply him with whatever
his army stood in need of. On the 21st, the Duke
arrived at Banff, where two Highlanders were
VOL. II.
Z MEMOIRS OF
hanged as spies, in consequence of their having
been observed to count the numbers of the army,
and to assist their memories by notching a stick.
Two days afterwards, the Duke crossed the Spey.
Lord John Drummond had been sent with a strong
detachment to dispute the passage of the river,
whose deep and rapid torrent had often in Scottish
story set bounds to the progress of an assailant.
For this purpose some batteries had even been
erected on the left bank, but Lord John soon
satisfied himself that his light pieces would soon
be silenced by the heavy artillery of the enemy,
and, accordingly, fell back upon Inverness ; while
the Duke's army forded the Spey in three divisions,
and on the 25th of April entered Nairn, where
they were separated by a distance of only ten miles
from the Jacobite head-quarters at Inverness.
Beyond Nairn some skirmishing took place between
the rear of the one army and the van of the other,
but this was quickly put an end to by the arrival
of Charles at the head of his guards, when the
Duke's van immediately fell back upon the main
body of his army.
Charles exulted in the prospect of an impending
battle, and even the chiefs forgot their mutual
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 3
bickerings in the fond hope that their enemy would
be unable to resist them on their native heaths.
On the morning of the 26th of April, the Jacobite
army was drawn up on the extensive moor of
Culloden, near Druramossie. By dint of exertion,
about six thousand men had been collected, but
several of the clans were at too great a distance to
allow of their being united to the main force ; and
thus was Charles deprived, at the decisive moment,
of the Mac Phersons, of the greater part of the
Frazers, of Glengyle and his Mac Gregors, of
Macdonald of Borrisdale, of the Earl of Cromarty,
and of several others. The army thus reduced,
and considerably inferior in numbers to that of the
Duke of Cumberland, was drawn up in two lines.
In the first line, the Athol brigade and Lochiel
occupied the right wing ; while, on the left, were
the three regiments of Macdonalds, named after
their leaders, Clanranald, Keppoch, and Glengarry.
The army faced the east its right wing covered
by the wall of a park its left leaning against a
hill which gently declined towards Culloden
House, the seat of Duncan Forbes, the most active
opponent of the Stuart interest, who sacrificed his
fortune to the support of the house of Hanover,
B 2
4 MEMOIRS OF
and is supposed to have died broken-hearted in
consequence of the ingratitude with which his
invaluable services were repaid.
Walter Scott estimates the strength of Charles's
army at 7000 men (4700 for the first, and 2300
for the second line), including 250 cavalry, but
adds, that this force had been considerably reduced
before the battle ; but what was perhaps of more
serious consequence to Charles than the absence of
some of his clans, was the offence given to the
Macdonalds by placing them in the left wing,
instead of allowing them to retain their hereditary
post of honour in the right wing, which they had
claimed since the battle of Bannockburn, and
which they had occupied as their right at Preston
and Falkirk.
The day on which the Highlanders were thus
drawn up to offer battle to their enemy was the
birthday of the Duke of Cumberland. The
English troops were carousing in honour of the
occasion, and the Jacobites vainly awaited the
attack, after having spent a cold night in the
field, where the heath served them at once for
fuel and for a couch. The Duke's army was
abundantly supplied with everything, whereas the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 5
Jacobites were in such severe straits, that one
biscuit a man was all that could be distributed
that day. Lord Elcho, who had been sent out
early in the morning with his cavalry to recon-
noitre, returned about noon, and reported that
the English would probably spend the remainder
of the day in drinking and feasting. Charles was
embarrassed by this information, the exigency of
his position making him desirous to bring about
a battle as soon as possible. He determined once
more to assemble a council of war. Two days
previously he had declared, that he would attack
the enemy if he had only a thousand men with
him, and such was still his feeling when he
opened the council. On this occasion, however,
his own opinion coincided perfectly with that of
Lord George Murray. The question was not
whether a battle should be fought, but how and
where. Lord George proposed a plan that was
entirely approved of by Charles. This was to
attempt a nocturnal surprise. Darkness and con-
fusion, his lordship said, deprived regular soldiers
of almost all their advantages, but had no such
effect on less disciplined troops. Lord George,
therefore, proposed, as soon as it was dusk, that
6 MEMOIRS OF
the first line should advance in two divisions.
With the right column he proposed to pass round
the town of Nairn, and to attack the enemy's
camp in the rear, while the Duke of Perth was to
make a simultaneous attack in front, and the
Prince to advance with the reserve. Charles
embraced Murray, against whom he had, so re-
cently and so unjustly, entertained suspicions, and
now declared that the proposal made by Lord
George was one that he had himself contemplated.
The account of this transaction is taken from a
rough draught, or rather a fragment, in Charles's
own writing, found among the Stuart Papers. It
runs thus : " When the enemy was so much
approaching, and seeming to be determined to
attack us lastly at Inverness, if we did not them,
the Prince called a council of war, when all the
chiefs were assembled, and Lord George Murray.
The Prince let every one speak before him.
Lord George Murray was the last, and he pro-
posed to attack that night, as the best expedient.
This was just what the Prince intended ; but he
kept it in his breast. The Prince then embraced
Lord George Murray, approved it, and owned it
was his project. It was agreed upon ; but then
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 7
it was question of the manner. It is to be
observed, that the Prince proposed to keep
Fort Augustus, and to make it serve as a place
of rallying in case of a defeat. But that was
unanimously rejected by the chiefs, so it was
blown up."
Orders were immediately given for the execution
of the proposed march. Charles directed that the
heath should be set on fire, that his troops might
appear still to occupy their former position. Many
soldiers, however, had, in the mean time, wan-
dered away from the ranks, arid had gone to Inver-
ness and other places in search of food. When
ordered by their officers to return, many of these
stragglers declared, that they would rather allow
themselves to be shot, than continue to endure
such severe privations. Several hours were lost
in the endeavour to collect the men, nor was the
effort even then completely successful. The con-
sequence was, that the march could not commence
before eight o'clock in the evening. Charles
appointed Murray to command the first line, and
led the second himself. The troops were ordered
to maintain the most profound silence during the
march, and, on arriving in the enemy's camp, to
8 MEMOIRS OF
make no use of their fire-arms, but to hew down
the tent poles with their Lochaber axes, with
their dirks and claymores to cut the ropes, and to
stab the enemy as they lay entangled under their
canvas. The watchword was to be " King James
the Eighth."
The extreme darkness of the night, while it,
in some measure, favoured the plan, delayed the
march of the troops, who, exhausted by hunger,
were the less able to bear up against the fatigue
of a night march through marshes and thickets.
Many threw themselves on the ground, and
declared themselves unable to go farther ; others
quitted the ranks to seek some place of conceal-
ment where they might abandon themselves to
repose. By the time the first line arrived at
Kilravock House, fifty messengers had arrived to
tell Lord George that the rear-guard was unable
to follow. It was now two o'clock in the morn-
ing, the hour at which it had been calculated
that the attack might commence, and they were
still four miles from the enemy's camp. To arrive
before dawn was impossible, and a surprise
therefore was out of the question. Some of the
Highland chiefs, indeed, were for marching 01^
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 9
saying that the claymores would not be the
worse for a little daylight to direct their opera-
tions ; but the Prince, with all the eagerness
for battles which has been laid to his charge,
was convinced of the inexpediency of a farther
advance.
The account given of this transaction by Lord
George Murray varies from that left us by
Charles himself; but there is not the least reason
to suspect either of intentional inaccuracy. Lord
George wrote within a brief period after the event
in question, whereas Charles's account was given
thirty years afterwards, in reply to some ques-
tions addressed to him in Italy. Murray, in a
letter dated the 5th of August, 1749, and ad-
dressed to William Hamilton, Esq., of Bangour,
says : " Mr. O'Sullivan also came up to the
front, and said, his Royal Highness would be very
glad to have the attack made ; but as Lord George
Murray was in the van^ he could best judge
whether it could be done in time or not." The
Prince's words are: "Upon the army's halting,
M. le Comte (the Prince) rode up to the front,
to inquire the occasion of the halt. Upon
his arrival, Lord George Murray convinced
10 MEMOIRS OF
M. le Comte of the unavoidable necessity of
retreating." *
While they were still deliberating at Kilravock
House, the Duke of Cumberland's drums were
heard : a sufficient proof that a surprise was out of
the question then, whatever it might have been
at an earlier hour. A retreat was therefore or-
dered. Some of the chiefs were for fighting the
enemy at once, instead of subjecting the harassed
troops to another fatiguing march ; but Lord
George Murray was of opinion that their num-
bers were too much reduced, and that a fresh
concentration was necessary. The morning dawn
allowed the retreat to be effected with much more
rapidity than the advance, and by five o'clock
the troops were enabled to resume their former
* Appendix to Home, p. 372. In the Jacobite Memoirs there is a
narrative by one Cap tain^O 'Neil, in which it is stated that Charles
rode up to the front, and pointed out to the officers the many advan-
tages to be hoped for from a surprise. Thereupon, he is related to
have drawn his sword, and to have declared himself ready to lead
them once more against an enemy whom they had so .often conquered.
When he found, however, that the majority of the officers were
opposed to the farther prosecution of the plan, Charles, according to
O'Neil, told them with the greatest concern that he lamented less
his own disappointment than their inevitable ruin. This version,
at variance with the statements both of Charles and of Lord George
Murray, can scarcely be allowed much weight.
PRIXCE CHARLES STUART. 11
position on Culloden Moor. In the camp of the
Duke of Cumberland, meanwhile, no one seems
to have been aware of the night march of the
Highlanders : a circumstance which makes it pro-
bable that the undertaking might have been suc-
cessful, had the progress of the Jacobites not been
delayed by the difficulty of the ground and the
exhausted condition of the men.
No sooner had the men returned to Culloden,
than it became evident that the night march
had materially deteriorated their condition. The
Highlanders left their ranks in great numbers, in
search of food at Inverness and in the neighbour-
ing villages. The only refreshment Charles him-
self could obtain was a little bread and whisky.
The exhaustion of the troops was such, that any
powerful exertions could hardly be looked for
from those who remained. Even the officers of
rank were so worn out, that when they assembled
in council at Culloden House, as on the preceding
day, they were unable to resist the inclination to
sleep, and most of them soon lay stretched on
benches, tables, and floor. Time, however, pressed;
and Lord George Murray renewed a proposal that
he had before made, to withdraw from the field
12 MEMOIRS OF
troops so little in a condition for fighting, and to
take up a position behind the Nairn river, where,
the ground being hilly and inaccessible to cavalry,
the Duke of Cumberland's army would operate to
great disadvantage.
The idea of another retreat, however, was
intolerable to Charles, whose daring spirit could
not brook the idea of seeming to avoid a battle.
The events of Preston and Falkirk had filled him
with unbounded confidence in his Highlanders,
and made him regardless of the inequality offeree
between the two armies. The want of supplies,
moreover, appeared to him to make an immediate
battle unavoidable ; and the counsellors on whom
he most relied, Sir Thomas Sheridan and the
French officers, encouraged him in his eagerness
for the conflict. It was urged to him, that if he
delayed the battle only for three days, his army
would be reinforced, perhaps doubled, by the
return of the absent clans and of the many strag-
glers, who in the mean time would be certain to join
their ranks again. If then the English rashly ven-
tured into the mountains, they would be destroyed
in detail in a series of skirmishes. The Marquis
d'Eguilles, in his report to the French court,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 13
declares that he went down upon his knees to the
Prince, to entreat him to delay the battle. Advice
and intreaties, however, were alike vain. The
resolution of Charles remained as unshaken as
his confidence in the issue of the day, and, having
received information, at about eight o'clock, that
the enemy was within four miles of him, he issued
the necessary orders for the fatal battle, which in
a few hours was to decide for ever the fate of the
house of Stuart.
The rolling drums and the shrill tones of the
bagpipes roused the wearied soldiers from their
slumbers, and the chiefs and their officers did
what they could to collect stragglers ; but it was
only too evident what serious gaps had been made
in the ranks by the night march. The position
of the troops was nearly the same as on the pre-
ceding day, but a little farther to the west ; the
right wing was covered as before by some strag-
gling walls, and the left by cavalry. Four pieces
of artillery were placed at the extremity of each
line, and the same number in the centre. The
Prince rode again through the lines to encourage
the troops, but his admonitions were scarcely
needed, the presence of the enemy having made
14 MEMOIRS OF
the Highlanders forget the fatigue and privations
they had so lately endured, and filled them with
the same ardour for battle, by which their young
leader was animated. Charles himself took up
his position on a slight elevation immediately
behind the rear. It was a spot from which,
having a complete view of the field, he was able
to direct his orders to the best advantage ; but he
was in the immediate line of the enemy's fire, and
had a horse shot under him, and a servant killed
by his side, and was even wounded himself in the
thigh. It was not, therefore, with a view to his
personal security, as has been insinuated by his
enemies, that the position was selected.
The Duke of Cumberland advanced to the
attack with full confidence in his superior num-
bers. He divided his troops into three lines,
with cavalry on each wing, and two pieces of
cannon between every two regiments of the first
line. The experience of Preston and Falkirk was
not lost on him. To obviate the effect of the
Highland target, he instructed his infantry to
thrust with their bayonets not in a straight but
in a slanting line, each soldier directing his
weapon not against the man immediately in front
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 15
of him, but against the one who fronted his right
hand comrade. The order of the day threat-
ened every soldier with death who fled from the
field ; but before the battle began, the Duke again
addressed his men, saying, he could not suppose
any man in the British army reluctant to fight,
but that if there were any, who either from disin-
clination to the cause, or from having relations in
the rebel army, would prefer to retire, he begged
them in God's name to do so, as he would rather
face the Highlanders with one thousand deter-
mined men at his back than have ten thousand
with a tithe who were lukewarm.* He was
answered by enthusiastic cheers and loud shouts
of "Flanders! Flanders!"
To excite the animosity of the soldiers more
strongly against the Jacobites, a paper was read,
said to have been found upon the person of a
Highlander, and in which the most bloodthirsty
sentiments were expressed in speaking of the
English. The Duke closed his address to his
men, by reminding them that they were sur-
rounded by marshes and mountain passes well
* Chambers's History, vol. ii. p. 103 ; from the personal narrative
of an English officer who was present.
16 MEMOIRS OF
known to the enemy, and that their only alter-
native now was to conquer or to die. It was
nearly one o'clock before his arrangements were
complete, and some of his officers proposed to let
the men dine before the battle. "No," replied
the Duke, " they will fight more actively with
empty bellies ; and besides it would be a bad
omen. You remember what a dessert they got
to their dinner at Falkirk ! "
The battle began with an act of assassination.
A Highlander of the name of Donald approached
the English lines, as though he had been a deserter,
and was sent to the rear, with many banterings on
the wretchedness of his appearance. He seemed
to examine the red uniforms and the heavy accou-
trements of the soldiers for some time with a kind
of childish curiosity ; but suddenly he snatched a
musket from a soldier who stood near him, and
shot an officer who was in the act of issuing com-
mands, and whom he probably mistook for the
Duke of Cumberland. Donald immediately paid
the penalty of his life for an act of treachery so
opposed to all the feelings of the Prince for whose
cause he sacrificed himself.
Two circumstances operated at the very outset
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 17
to the disadvantage of the Jacobites. The ground
occupied by them was somewhat lower than that on
which the enemy had formed, and a heavy fall of
rain and snow was driven by a strong north-west
wind right into the faces of the Highlanders.
Nevertheless, the Prince opened a cannonade,
which was immediately answered by the Duke's
artillery, but with a much more deadly effect,
opening wide gaps in the ranks of Charles's army.
After this had lasted for nearly an hour, Lord
George Murray sent to request the Prince to
order a general advance to close quarters ; but
before an answer could be received, the Mac
Jritoshes, at a signal from Lady Mac Intosh,
rushed upon the English centre, and were fol-
lowed by the whole right wing of the Highland
army. Through smoke, snow, and rain, the
assailants pressed forward, sword in hand, with
their accustomed impetuosity, and, though re-
ceived with a warm fire of musketry and artillery,
they broke through the regiments of Monro and
Burrell, and took two pieces of artillery. But
the second line of the English army remained
unshaken, and received the Highlanders with
firmness. The Duke of Cumberland, anticipating
VOL. II. C
18 MEMOIRS OF
the attack, had carefully strengthened his second
line, which was drawn up three deep. As the
Highlanders advanced, the front rank of Sempill's
regiment knelt down, presenting a complete pali-
sade of bayonets, while the second rank bent
forward, and the third stood upright. These
reserved their fire till the Highlanders were close
upon them, and then poured in a murderous
volley, which threw the assailants into complete
disorder. A few of the latter broke into the
English ranks, where they were overwhelmed by
numbers, but the greater part were driven back
in confusion. The chief of Mac Lauchlan was
killed; the brave Lochiel was wounded, but
carried from the field by his two henchmen.
The call of the other chiefs remained unheeded,
and the whole right and centre of the Jacobite
army, irretrievably routed, were pursued by supe-
rior numbers, and drooping from the exhaustion
caused by previous fatigue, which, in the ardour
of battle, had for a moment been forgotten. " Yet
let it not be deemed," exclaims Lord Mahon,
" that even thus their courage failed. Not by
their forefathers at Bannockburn, not by them-
selves at Preston or at Falkirk, not in after years
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 19
when discipline had raised and refined their valour,
not on the shores of the Nile, not in those hours
of triumph and of glory, was displayed a more
firm and resolute bravery than now in the defeat
at Culloden. The right and centre had done
-all that human strength or human spirit could
do ; they had yielded only to necessity and
numbers, and, like the captive monarch at Pavia,
might boast, that everything was lost but their
honour."
Very different was the conduct of the left wing.
There the Macdonalds stood moody, motionless,
and irresolute, brooding over the disgrace to which
they imagined themselves to have been subjected,
and in which they persisted in beholding an omen
of evil augury to the whole army. The Duke of
Perth in vain summoned them to the attack with
the accustomed call of " Claymore : " the well-
known battle-cry was incapable of rousing them.
He called on them to remember that, by displaying
their hereditary bravery, they might soon convert
the left into a right wing, and vowed, if they would
follow him, he would himself, in future, take the
name of Macdonald. He was answered only by
murmurs of dissatisfaction. In vain Keppoch,
c 2
20 MEMOIRS OF
followed by a few of his kinsmen, rushed forward ;
the clan, with a pertinacity almost unprecedented
in Highland warfare, would not follow. He was
brought to the ground by several shots from the
enemy, still the clan stirred not, but calmly heard
the dying reproach of their chief: "My God!
have the children of my tribe forsaken me ! "
They remained motionless spectators of the repulse
of the centre and right wing, and then fell back
in good order upon the second line. Meanwhile,
a body of English horse and Argyleshire High-
landers had broken gaps through the walls that
had covered the right of the insurgents, arid,
forming again upon the open moor beyond, would,
if reinforced in time, have cut off the retreat of
the whole Jacobite army.
Charles gazed on the scene with wonder, nay,
almost with incredulity. Tears of anguish started
into his eyes, as he beheld the fruitless bravery of
the centre and the right, the unexampled conduct
of the Macdonalds, and the imminent dissolution
of his whole army. The second line, meanwhile,
though threatened in front and on its flanks, was
still unbroken, and many of the soldiers who com-
posed it had not yet fired a shot. The idea
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 21
naturally suggested itself, that the attempt in
which the first line had failed might yet be suc-
cessfully undertaken by the second ; and Charles
must have been altogether a different being from
what we have hitherto beheld him, had he not
immediately conceived a desire to retrieve the
fortunes of the day by a second attack. A mo-
merit's reflection, however, was sufficient to show
the hopelessness of such a design. It was scarcely
possible that one half of an army which, even
when complete, was nearly doubled by the enemy,
should be able to retrieve the battle against an
army flushed with victory, and so superior in
number, particularly when the exhausted condition
of the Highlanders was taken into account. An
unsuccessful attack might lead, moreover, to
the annihilation of what still remained of the
Jacobite army, and thus destroy every hope of
again making head against their enemies. The
officers who were about the Prince felt that
to continue the battle, without a prospect of
gaining it, could only serve to increase the
slaughter, and diminish the chance of collecting
the survivors.
The Duke of Cumberland, meanwhile, was
22 MEMOIRS OF
filling the gaps in his front by draughts from his
second line, and was evidently preparing for a
general attack. The Campbells threatened the
flank of the Jacobites, while the cavalry formed in
their rear might, from one moment to another, be
reinforced. Under such circumstances, it can
scarcely excite wonder if troops, almost surrounded
by an enemy superior in number, began to show
signs of apprehension and discontent. Many
began to depart singly to provide betimes for their
own safety. A portion of the second line effected
a retreat in perfect order, with colours flying and
bagpipes playing, while the French auxiliaries fell
back upon Inverness, where they obtained honour-
able terms of capitulation from the Duke of Cum-
berland. It can excite no surprise, therefore, that
those who were about the person of the Prince,
particularly his faithful companion, Sheridan,
should urge him to renounce the idea of renewing
the battle ; and we may easily believe the testimony
of a cornet, who was close by his side, and who,
when at the point of death, left an attestation, that
Charles was eager to place himself at the head of
the remaining Highlanders, and charge the victo-
rious enemy, but that Sheridan and O'Sullivan
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 23
seized his horse by the bridle, and forced him from
the fatal field.*
The remnant of the army, pressed by the vic-
torious enemy, broke into two portions. One,
* The accounts which have come down to us of Charles's conduct
during these closing scenes of the tragedy of Culloden, vary con-
siderably. Walter Scott, (Quarterly Review, No. LXXI.) relates,
on the authority of the manuscript memoirs of Lord Elcho, that the
latter, when the second line was still entire, rode up to the Prince,
and implored him to head a general and desperate charge in person ;
that, on the Prince's returning a negative, or at least an ambiguous
reply, Elcho called him an Italian coward, and a scoundrel, and
vowed he would never look upon his face again ; an oath, Scott
adds, which he religiously kept when in exile, always leaving Paris
whenever the Chevalier entered it, and carefully avoiding every
place where it was at all likely they might meet. In the official
account, however, of Charles's public audience at the French court,
after his return to France, Lord Elcho is particularly mentioned as
one of the Prince's suite (see LocJchart Papers, vol. ii. p. 567) ; so
that the latter portion of Scott's account is evidently inaccurate.
The remainder of Lord Elcho's accusation is at variance not only
with the testimony of eye-witnesses, still living at the commence-
ment of the present century (Home, p. 240), but with the whole
conduct and character of Charles throughout the course of those
memorable campaigns ; and, in addition to these reasons for discre-
diting the testimony of Lord Elcho, we have the personal character
of the man. He was violent of temper, and of no very constant
fidelity. Within two months after the battle of Culloden. he made
overtures for pardon to the British court, " but," says Horace
Walpole, " as he has distinguished himself beyond all the Jacobite
commanders by brutality, and insults, and cruelty to our prisoners,
I think he is likely to remain where he is ;" and so he did. The
account given by such a man, after he had quarrelled with Charles,
must be received with extreme caution.
24 MEMOIRS OF
as it has just been stated, fell back on Inver-
ness, while the other, preserving some degree
of order, but thinned continually by the depar-
ture of men hastening singly to their homes,
retreated to Ruthven in Badenoch. About one
fifth of the Highland army had perished in the
battle or during the pursuit, whereas the victors
reckoned their loss at only 310 men. Quarter
was given to few of the fugitives, and the few
prisoners who were spared were, for the most part,
only reserved for public execution. The trophies
of the Duke of Cumberland's victory were four-
teen standards, 2300 muskets, and the whole of
the artillery and baggage of the Highland army.
The Prince, on leaving the field of battle, was
accompanied by two troops of cavalry, with which
he crossed the river Nairn and rode to Fort Felie,
about three miles from Culloden. He halted on
the southern side of the river, where he dismissed
his escort, directing them, in the first instance, to
repair to Ruthven. Then, accompanied by
Sheridan, O'Sullivan, O'Neill, Hay, and a few
others, he repaired to Gortuleg, where Lord Lovat
was staying, and whom he now saw for the first
and the last time.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 25
The old man, throughout the war, had remained
faithful to his double-faced policy, with a view to
secure his own advantage whatever might be the
issue of the struggle. He had, therefore, kept
aloof from the Jacobite camp, but had sent the
Frasers, under his son's command, to fight for the
Stuart cause, and they had not been absent from
the sanguinary field of Culloden. He was anxiously
awaiting tidings of the issue of the battle, and
when these arrived, it became evident to the hoary
intriguer that he was caught in his own cunning
web, and that his ruin was unavoidable. He
received the Prince with the utmost respect,
kneeling to him and kissing his hand, arid
procuring for him the assistance of a surgeon to
examine the wound in his thigh, which was care-
fully dressed, after it had been ascertained that the
hurt was in no way dangerous ; but, when Charles
hoped, in his present reverse, to derive consolation
from the converse of an experienced politician, to
whom all the relations of Scotland were so inti-
mately known, nothing was to be obtained from
him but meanings and lamentations, not for the
loss of the battle, not for the failure of the cause
for which Charles and his Highlanders had so long
26 MEMOIRS OF
and so bravely fought, but for the danger with
which the octogenarian Lord Lovat was threatened.
Disgusted by this display of selfishness, the
Prince accepted Lady Gortuleg's invitation to take
some refreshment, and then lay down to enjoy an
hour's repose. On rising, he changed his garments,
which were covered with dust and blood, and
found Lord Lovat in the same state of mind as at
first, trembling at the prospect of a traitor's death,
and irresolute whether he should seek safety in
flight, or surrender himself to the mercy of the
Duke of Cumberland.
Charles consulted with the companions of his
flight as to the course which they ought to pursue.
It was agreed that there could be no security for
him in a place so near his enemies as Gortuleg ;
and it was, therefore, resolved immediately to set
off towards the western coast. At ten o'clock the
same evening, the little party mounted their horses
again, and at two o'clock in the morning of the
28th of April they passed Fort Augustus, and
arrived before day-break at Glengarry's castle of
Invergarry on Loch Garry, where the Prince was
not recognised by the solitary Highlander who had
been left in care of the house. Two salmon,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 27
caught in a neighbouring brook, constituted the
only food that the exhausted fugitives could
obtain, and their only beverage to this frugal meal
was derived from the same stream. Towards nine
in the evening, Charles arrived with his companions
at the house of a Cameron, but in such a state of
exhaustion that he fell asleep in a chair while his
servant Burke was unbuttoning his gaiters. On
the following morning, they were forced to resume
their flight, on hearing that a party of the Campbells
were on their way to' the house. The fugitives,
accompanied by their host, retired to the village of
Mewbill, where they remained twenty-four hours
in expectation of receiving intelligence from their
friends. They then departed in the direction of
Oban. Beyond that place no beaten track was to
be looked for, and their way Jed them over moun-
tain streams and amid rocky steeps. The ground
was no longer practicable for horses, and these were
accordingly left behind, a small hut on the edge
of a wood becoming the only place of concealment
for Charles and his little party. Accompanied by
only three of his adherents, Charles arrived, on the
1st of May, at the little village of Glenboisdale,
in the same district of Moidart, where, ten months
28 MEMOIRS OF
previously, he had landed rich in hopes, which
deceitful Fortune had for a while seemed willing to
fulfil, but which had all been blasted in a single
hour.
The idea of rallying the scattered army at
Ruthven had not been at first abandoned. Lord
George Murray even succeeded in collecting a force
of about twelve hundred men, and the Highland
chiefs adopted a series of Resolutions, by which they
pledged themselves " forthwith to raise in arms,
for the interest of his Royal Highness Charles
Prince of Wales, all the able-bodied men they
could collect within their respective interests or
properties;"* but the enemy's force was too
overwhelming, the terror caused by the battle of
Culloden too great, and the destitution of the
gallant remnant of his army too complete, to
allow Charles to indulge the hope of retrieving
his recent losses. Lord George Murray indeed
sent a messenger to urge Charles not to leave
Scotland yet ; but the Prince returned for answer
that he was determined to embark for France,
whence he hoped soon to return with fresh suc-
* The Resolutions, and the names of the chiefs by whom they were
adopted, are given in the Appendix to Home's History.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 29
cours. By the same messenger he addressed his
thanks to his adherents for the zeal and fidelity
which they had displayed in his cause ; advising
them, however, for the present, to think only of
providing for their own security. In obedience
to this message, the little army of Jacohites broke
up and dispersed ; the struggle was over and the
war at an end.
30 MEMOIRS OF
CHAPTER XXII.
ADVENTURES OF THE PRINCE IN THE HEBRIDES.
THE war was at an end, without having con-
ducted Charles Stuart either into the grave or to
the British throne, although, ever since the com-
mencement of the struggle, he had repeatedly
declared, both in writing and by word of mouth,
that he would either conquer or perish in the
conflict upon which he had entered. This decla-
ration has been made the theme of much censure
against its author. When he first landed on the
coast of Scotland with seven companions, and,
unsupported by an army, was preparing to under-
take the conquest of Great Britain, the world
called him a madman ; after he had conquered
Scotland, and had penetrated deep into the heart
of England, the world was forced to admit that
this madman might have effected a triumphal
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 31
entry into London, and might have re-established
the throne of the Stuarts ; but then it was added,
he would not have been able to maintain himself
there.* Others have accused the Prince of having
* Baron von Spittler (Samtliche Werke, dritter Band, S. 319)
says : " Fortunately for the country, he (Charles) did not know
how to turn his advantage to account." Whether or not it wa
fortunate for the country, that many important advantages gained
by Charles were only partially turned to account, is a question that
shall be more closely examined in the last section of this work.
K. F. Becker (Weltgeschichte, zehnter Theil, S. 59) after men-
tioning the Prince's entrance into Derby, says : " But injudicious
measures gave an adverse turn to his fortunes. He showed the
English people, that he brought with him all the old principles and
opinions of his family." If, under the description of " injudicious
measures," it is intended to include the retreat from Derby, Becker
is not perhaps far wrong, but the blame of that retreat rests not on
the Prince. With respect to the assertion that Charles entertained
the same principles which had led to the expulsion of his grand-
father from the throne, we are at a loss to guess by what act or word
he can be said to have justified such an accusation. The principles
and opinions alluded to will be vainly sought in the language put
forth in his proclamations and manifestoes, and all the acts of his
life breathe a contrary spirit to that imputed to him by the author
just quoted. On this subject also we shall have a word or two to
say towards the close. Opinions equally unfavourable had, it is
true, been expressed by former writers. Thus Lord Lyttelton, in
his History of England, speaks of "the young adventurer Charles
Edward " as of a man reared at a luxurious court without having been
infected by its effeminacy ; as of one ambitious and enterprising, but,
owing either to want of experience or natural inability, unequal to
so great an undertaking. By such a description one is naturally led
to suspect that Lord Lyttelton believed Charles to have been edu-
cated at the court of France ; for even supposing, with his lordship's
32 MEMOIRS OF
caused the unfortunate issue of the enterprise by
his own want of capacity, and have added that he
principles, that he would consent to recognise the court of James
at Rome as "a court," it is hardly to he supposed that anyone
would think of describing it as a " luxurious " court. To have
obtained for it such a character, James must have been more amply
provided with pecuniary means, or less disposed to parsimony. As
to Charles's want of experience, if a want of military experience is
meant, it cannot be denied that the campaign of 1745 was the first
in which he held a command of any importance, but in the course
of that campaign he can hardly be said to have shown himself in an
unfavourable light ; on the contrary, the campaign has justly been
called a brilliant one, and several modern writers, among others
Sir W. Scott and Lord Mahon, have not hesitated to acknowledge
that Charles displayed considerable military ability in the course of
the war. That he did not show himself unequal to his great under-
taking, but that, on the contrary, he proved himself singularly
qualified for it, has been sufficiently shown in the preceding part
of this narrative. Lord Lyttelton says also, that if " the Pretender"
had turned to account the general consternation which prevailed
after the battle of Preston, and had marched immediately into Eng-
land, the consequences might have been dangerous to the security of
the State, but that he wasted his time in Edinburgh, seemed to
take a delight in the vain pomp of royalty, and was delighted to
find himself at length treated as a king. We have already seen,
however, what it was that really detained Charles at Edinburgh,
and have had abundant opportunities of satisfying ourselves that, in
the pageantry of Holyrood, he did not forget, that he was never for a
moment unmindful of, the great task which he proposed to himself,
and that this very pageantry, properly understood, was requisite to
his success. J. M. Schroeck (Allgemeine Wcltgeschichte, Bd. XIII.
Abthlng. 2, S. 862) says : " Charles Edward had been educated in
a school in which principles were impressed upon him the very
reverse of those which then prevailed in England. He had been
taught that, even though he brought civil war and all its attendant
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 33
was wholly unequal to so arduous an undertaking
as that upon which he had entered. Others again
have maintained, that after his repeated pledges
he ought not to have survived his defeat at
Culloden, but to have sought an honourable
death by rushing into the midst of the hostile
ranks.* It ought not, however, to be forgotten,
that, by rushing into the ranks of the Duke of
horrors into the country, the assertion of his claim was an impera-
tive duty, and an eventual change in the constitution, perhaps also
in the religion of the State, would be a meritorious object to aim
at." These reproaches shall be more closely examined when
we come to treat of the question, whether the house of Stuart
would have been able permanently to maintain itself on the throne,
in case a second restoration had been effected.
* In the preceding part of the present narrative, it will have been
seen that Charles repeatedly declared, at the outset, that he would
not survive the failure of his enterprise. In his Instructions to
Hickson he expressly says, " Now or never is the word : I am
resolved to conquer or perish ;" and in his letter to his father,
dated the 12th of June, 1745 (see vol. i. p. [168), he says, "Let
what will happen, the stroke is struck, and I have taken a firm
resolution to conquer or to die." To those who take advantage
of these expressions to reproach Charles for not having kept his
word, it may suffice to observe, that not only at Culloden, but for
some days afterwards, hopes were entertained of being able to bring
a fresh army into the field, and to renew the war. Napoleon, not
only verbally and in private letters, but even in his order of the day
before the battle of Waterloo, said, " Pour tout Fran9ais qui a du
coaur, le moment est arrive de vaincre ou de perir !" yet Napoleon
did not conquer at Waterloo, and did not think it incumbent upon
him to perish there.
VOL. II. D
34 MEMOIRS OF
Cumberland's army, Charles might have rushed,
not upon death, but into captivity : an issue than
which none could have been more fatal to himself
or his family, even supposing that considerations
of humanity or state policy might have induced
the government of the day to refrain from offering
to the world another spectacle of a royal execu-
tion.* Taking it for granted, however, that
Charles might have relied on finding an honour-
able death in the ranks of the enemy, it should
be borne in mind, as it has already been stated,
that neither Charles nor his adherents considered
the struggle over till some days after the battle of
Culloden. It was only on the 1st of May, when
the Prince, from his temporary refuge at Glen-
boisdale, authorised the remnant of his army to
disperse and provide as best they could, each man
for his own safety, that the conflict with the
* According to Johnstone, the Prince, if taken prisoner, ran little
risk of being dragged to London, or of being paraded upon a scaffold,
for the Duke of Cumberland expressly said to the officers of the
several detachments sent out in pursuit of Charles, " Make no pri-
soners ; you understand me ! " and even ordered them, in plainer
words, "to stab the Prince if he fell into their hands." Such
instructions were perfectly consistent with all the rest of the Duke's
conduct in Scotland ; otherwise, it would scarcely be fair to receive
the charge on so [questionable an authority as that of the Chevalier
Johnstone.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
35
English government could fairly be said to have
been renounced. On that day, therefore, had he
been tempted to ape the conduct of some of the
heroes of antiquity, Charles might have turned his
sword against his own breast, but it may well be
questioned whether by such an act he would have
strengthened his claim to the esteem or respect of
posterity. " Ancient heroes," says the author of
Anastasius, " have been praised for dying without
the least necessity, and modern worthies for living
without the smallest hopes." Napoleon, enduring
life at Longwood, presents a nobler picture to
history, than either Themistocles, Hannibal, or
Cato, in the manner of his death.
Whether Charles was equal to the mighty under-
taking upon which he entered, and whether its
failure is to be attributed to his own misconduct,
are questions very different from that which we
have just been discussing. Jn entering upon this
inquiry, however, we must bear in mind that the
two questions are entirely distinct. Charles may
have been fully equal to the enterprise, and yet in
its execution may not have avoided serious errors.
What were the qualities required in one who
undertook so great a task ? Surely courage,
D 2
36 MEMOIRS OF
bordering on temerity, robust health, some know-
ledge of military affairs, a natural talent for com-
mand, an acquaintance with the domestic relations
of England, and with the state of society in
Scotland, the gift of inspiring his followers with
devotion to his person and cause, surely these
must be among the first requisites to be looked for
in the author of so perilous and chivalrous an
enterprise ? and it would be difficult to mention any
desirable qualification not included in those that
have just been enumerated, and all of which
Charles Stuart possessed in an eminent degree.
So far, therefore, from admitting that Charles was
not qualified for the due performance of his task,
we should be disposed to maintain that centuries
may pass away without presenting us with an
individual of royal birth equally fitted to recover a
crown lost by the faults of others ; and to do so by
the aid of an army to be formed in an enemy's
land, under all the impending terrors of the
scaffold.
The second question also may give rise to more
considerations than one. Charles may have com-
mitted errors in the course of the campaign, and
yet not have incurred the chief blame of its failure.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 37
The fruitless loss of time in the siege of Stirling
Castle, and his refusal to retreat over the river
Nairn instead of fighting Cumberland on Culloden
Moor, were not only great faults, but the latter, it
may even be contended, was followed not only by
the loss of the battle, but by the almost immediate
ruin of the cause. Another fault was committed
when the blockade of Edinburgh Castle was raised,
lest the commandant should carry into effect his
menace to destroy the town ; arid his refusal to
retaliate upon his own prisoners the treatment
experienced by those of his adherents who fell into
the hands of the English government, might on
prudential grounds be censured, could we withhold
our commendation from the motives that dictated
the refusal. These, however, and similar errors,
arose from those very qualities which so eminently
fitted the prince for his undertaking namely,
humanity and a firmness of purpose ; but which, it
must be admitted, were in some instances carried
beyond the just line. Nor were these the errors
to which the failure of the undertaking ought
really to be ascribed. The great mistake was the
retreat from Derby, for which, we have already
seen, Charles was in no way responsible. Had he
38 MEMOIRS OF
obtained the most signal victory at Culloden, his
chance of ever entering London, as Prince of Wales,
would still have been infinitely more remote than
was his prospect, on the day he entered Derby, of
recovering the crown of his ancestors. It is time,
however, that we should resume the narrative of
our hero's adventures.
From Glenboisdale Charles repaired to Borro-
dale, where Macdonald of Borrodale procured him
a boat, in which he embarked on the 7th of May
for Long Island, under which name a considerable
cluster of the Hebrides are included. The boat
was crowded, for, including Charles, Sullivan,
O'Neill, and the Prince's faithful servant Burke,
it contained ten persons. Soon after their departure
the sky became overcast, and a storm, accompanied
by thunder, lightning, and rain, arose, so violent
that the sailors said they did not remember ever
to have experienced its fellow. This lasted the
whole night, and the fugitives were driven before
the wind more than a hundred miles. They had
neither compass nor lantern, and were in momentary
dread of seeing their boat swamped.* Towards
* Donald MacLeod, who was one of the party, has left a full
account of the horrors of that night. (Jacobite Memoirs, p. 382.)
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 39
daybreak* however, they observed that the boat
had fortunately drifted towards the Long Island,
and about seven in the morning they landed, not
without much difficulty, at Rossinish, in Benbecula.
Here they had to suffer great privations from the
want of food, but Charles was not the less glad to
be away from the mainland, where he was every
moment in danger of being taken. In his present
place of refuge he could not, however, hope to
remain long in security. That, on the destruction
of his army, he should proceed to the Hebrides, in
the hope of getting on board of some French
vessel, was so extremely -probable, that the English
He had foreseen the storm, and had warned the Prince of the
danger to which he exposed himself, but Charles was impatient to
leave the mainland, where emissaries were out in every direc-
tion in search of him. Donald's anticipations, however, were
justified by ihe result, for the tempest became so violent, that
Charles himself said in the course of it, " I had far rather face
cannons and muskets than be in such a storm as this." He was
even at one time for returning, but that was impossible, as the
wind blew from shore, and in the dark the boat might easily have
been dashed against a rock, in which case the whole party must
have perished. After this, MacLeod goes on to say, a dead silence
prevailed, no one uttering a single word, for every moment it seemed
as if the boat must go to pieces or be overwhelmed by the waves.
Another danger to which they were exposed was, that the boat
might be driven to some part of the coast, as, for instance, to the
Isle of Skye, where numerous parties of militia were out in quest
of fugitive Jacobites.
40 MEMOIRS OF
government could not but immediately have its
attention turned to those islands, where it would
be extremely difficult for the Prince to remain
concealed, if, in addition to the high reward already
offered for his head, a diligent search were made for
him by a number of military parties. The condi-
tion of the Hebrides was then much the same as
it is now ; arid the following picture, recently
drawn by a popular writer,* would probably have
applied with somewhat more force a hundred years
ago:
" The condition of the people differs much in
different islands, but, speaking generally, it is
exceedingly depressed. Pennant's account of the
inhabitants of Islay, though no longer applicable
to them, Islay having been materially improved in
the interim, is still strictly so to those of most of
the other islands : ' A set of people worn down
by poverty, their habitations scenes of misery,
made of loose stones, without chimneys, without
doors, excepting the faggot opposed to the wind
at one or other of the apertures, permitting the
smoke to escape through the other, in order to
* See M'Culloch's Statistical Account of the British Empire,
vol. i. p. 321.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 41
prevent the pains of suffocation. The furniture
perfectly corresponds : a pot-hook hangs from the
middle of the roof, with a pot pendent over a
grateless fire, rilled with fare that may rather be
called a permission to exist than a support of
vigorous life : the inmates, as may be expected,
lean, withered, dusky, and smoke-dried.' But
even this striking description is, in numerous
instances, short of the reality. The huts fre-
quently afford shelter in winter to the cattle of
the cottier as well as to his family ; and the dung
and other filth gathered during the season is
allowed to accumulate untouched till May, when
it is removed, and when it is not unusual also
to unroof the hut. From September to May, the
inhabitants live chiefly on the potato, with some
coarse oat or barley bread, and occasional but
scanty supplies of fish and flesh. In summer,
they subsist principally on bread and milk ; but
in some of the islands it is so deficient, that, at
this period, they have, for the most part, a very
emaciated appearance, and are obliged to resort to
the shores in search of sand-eels and shell-fish."
In many of these islands, even at the present day,
but few roads exist, and the traveller can seldom
42 MEMOIRS OF
reach his place of destination without the aid of a
guide, the way leading along narrow paths, over
bogs and rocks, that make it difficult to travel
more than a few leagues between sunrise and sun-
set. In such a country it was that Charles Stuart
was to seek concealment from his foes ; and those
who were to assist in his escape were men who
would have thought themselves wealthy, if pos-
sessed of the one-hundredth part of the price set
upon his head.
On landing at Benbecula, the fugitives found a
deserted hut, in which they immediately lighted a
fire to dry their drenched garments. An old piece
of sailcloth laid on the bare floor became the
Prince's couch, but, exhausted by fatigue, he was
soon buried in a profound sleep. A cow was
caught and killed, and a few pieces of meat were
boiled in a pot that Donald had bought, and on
these the party subsisted for two days and two
nights. Charles hoped to find a French vessel off
the island of Lewis, for which place he started
again in his boat on the 9th of May, but the fugi-
tives were again overtaken by a gale of wind,
which drove them about forty miles to the north
of Benbecula ; at two o'clock, on the following
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 43
morning, however, they landed in safety on the
little island of Gless. There Sullivan took the
name of Sinclair, and Charles passed for his son,
and they gave themselves out for merchants who
had been shipwrecked on their passage to the
Orkneys. They were hospitably received by a
friend of MacLeod's, one Donald Campbell, in
whose house the Prince' remained four days and
nights, and in after-life he frequently made grate-
ful mention of the kindness he had experienced
there.
On the morning after his arrival, he sent
Donald MacLeod to Stornaway, in a boat be-
longing to his host, for the purpose of hiring a
vessel under some plausible pretext. Charles
soon received intelligence that MacLeod had
hired a vessel of forty tons, for the use of which
he was to pay a hundred pounds ; and, on the 14th
of May, the prince departed again, accompanied
by O'Sullivan and O'Neill. A contrary wind
forced them to land in Loch Seaforth, whence
they started on foot in a rainy night, and, having
been led eight miles out of their way, in conse-
quence of a mistake of their guide, they reached
Stornaway only at eleven o'clock on the following
44 MEMOIRS OF
morning. Charles had sent the guide on before,
to apprise MacLeod of their arrival, and to re-
quest him to meet them with a bottle of spirits
and some bread and cheese, as they were all
exhausted from the want of nourishment. Mac
Leod started with the required supply, and found
the Prince on a bog, wet to the skin, and worn
out by the fatigue of his night's march. Mac
Leod conducted the tired wayfarers to the house
of Mrs. MacKerizie of Killdun, at Ayrnish, and
returned to Stornaway, to make the last prepara-
tions for their departure. In Stornaway, mean-
while, the aspect of affairs had changed. Mac
Leod found several hundred men under arms, not
so much with a view to arrest the Prince as to
protect themselves ; for a rumour had got into
circulation, that Charles was coining at the head
of fifteen hundred men, to take the town and
seize upon some ships.*
* According to some accounts, the circumstance of Charles being in
Lewis became accidentally known to some Presbyterian clergymen,
and, as these were at all times hostile to his cause, they lost no time
in giving the alarm. Other accounts (see Power, p. 219) say that
the secret was betrayed by a brother of MacLeod's, who had been
concerned in hiring the vessel. This indiscreet agent threw him-
self at the Prince's feet, and acknowledged his offence ; when
MacLeod drew his sword, and, but for the interference of Charles,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 45
MacLeod was forced to confess that the Prince
was only a mile off, but described to them at the
same time the condition in which he was ; and
added, " If Lord Seaforth himself (the owner of
the island) were here, he should riot lay a hand on
him ! " MacLeod knew the spirit of the men
whom he addressed. As soon as they were re-
lieved from all anxiety for their own security,
they declared that they had no wish to harm the
Prince, and only wished him to leave the island as
soon as possible. That they might not in any way
connect themselves with his affairs, they refused
to furnish a steersman for the boat ; and MacLeod
himself said, that if he had offered five hun-
dred pounds he could not have obtained one.
The master of the vessel, likewise, who had been
hired at Stornaway, refused to receive the party on
board, when he learned who were to be his passen-
gers. MacLeod hastened to acquaint Charles of
the altered state of affairs, but found him and his
companions altogether unable to resume their
flight. Their scanty apparel was soaked with
would have sacrificed the tell-tale on the spot. No mention of this
anecdote, however, occurs in Home, in Johnstone, or in the Jacobite
Memoirs.
46 MEMOIRS OF
rain ; and so completely were they jaded by the
fatigue of the preceding night, that it was
determined to take some repose during the next,
let the consequences be what they might. To
this course they were, in some measure, constrained
by the desertion of two of their boat's crew, who
had been frightened by the din of arms among the
islanders.
At eight in the morning of the 17th, the Prince,
O'Sullivan, O'Neill, and Donald MacLeod, with
six rowers, among whom were the faithful Ned
Burke and a son of Donald's, put to sea again in
Campbell's boat. They were in some danger of
being captured by the boat of a sloop of war that
lay in a harbour on the coast, but succeeded in
effecting their escape, and landed safely on a
small uninhabited island, about twelve miles from
Stornaway. To this island the people of Lewis
occasionally came to dry their fish on the rocks.
The Prince and his friends were, fortunately, not
unprovided with food. Before setting out he had
bought a cow of Mrs. Killdun, and had brought
with him a tolerable supply of meat, a quantity of
oatmeal, and some brandy and sugar. His kind
hostess, who had most unwillingly accepted money
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
47
for her cow, had secretly stowed a quantity of
bread, butter, and other articles in the boat ; and
upon the island were found some excellent dried
fish, and a stone pitcher, which was unfortunately
broken on the following day. In this pitcher
was made some warm punch, by the aid of which
they managed to put some warmth into their
chilled limbs. Burke acted as cook ; but his skill,
according to MacLeod's testimony, was far sur-
passed by that of Charles, who, on one occasion,
undertook to dress their fish and bake their oatmeal
Cakes.
Four days and four nights were thus passed in
a wretched fishing shed, over which apiece of sail-
cloth was stretched, to obtain some shelter from
the rain and cold ; and at night they lay down on
the bare ground without any other covering than
the clothes they had on. At the end of the fourth
day, the sea appearing to be clear of English
vessels, they re-embarked, and coasted for some
days along the Long Island, enduring the greatest
privations, and frequently in danger of being
captured by the British cruisers that were hover-
ing about. Sometimes, when, owing to a calm,
they were unable to land, they were even reduced
48 MEMOIRS OF
to the necessity of moistening their parched lips
with salt water, mixed with a few drops of brandy.
It was near the end of May that they landed on
South [list, and by that time their condition was
such, that it appeared impossible to prolong their
lives unless by surrendering themselves to their
pursuers. Enduring privations of every kind, flee-
ing from island to island and from rock to rock,
tormented by hunger and thirst, unprotected from
the cold, and constantly exposed to every kind of
weather, Charles had displayed throughout, not
only firmness, but cheerfulness. His companions
acknowledge with one voice, that not one of the
party displayed more courage amid dangers and
sufferings of every kind, or more readiness to
snatch at every little incident that might afford a
momentary diversion to his drooping crew. Men-
tion has already been made of his skill in dressing
fish and baking cakes. When their pipes were all
broken, he taught them to supply the loss by
means of quills, which he stuck into one another,
and thus frequently manufactured for himself a
hookah of very respectable length. When the rest
of the party were sinking under their sufferings,
he frequently succeeded in reviving their courage,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 49
by holding out the hopes of more fortunate times,
or by singing to them some of their own inspiring
national airs.* With all his efforts, however, to
bear up against his sufferings, it became evident
to his faithful followers that his health was begin-
ing to give way. He had hitherto escaped his
pursuers only by constantly changing his place of
refuge, but how was he to continue to do so, if he
fell seriously ill ?
After the battle of Culloden, as soon as the Duke
of Cumberland had satisfied himself that the last
remnant of the Jacobite army had broken up and
dispersed, he divided his troops into small detach-
ments, that were sent through Scotland in all
directions, in search of fugitive Jacobites, and
particularly of the " Young Pretender." Several
* See " The Prince's Wanderings and Escape" in the Jacobite
Memoirs, and the "Account of the Young Pretender's Escape" in the
Appendix to the Lockhart Papers. A still more glowing account of
Charles's conduct is given in a work published under the title of
Ascanius, from which Pichot appears to have borrowed somewhat
incautiously. The Prince is there made to deliver a number of very
fine and very long speeches, which are altogether inconsistent with
Charles's general character, seeing that he was at all times a man of
deeds rather than of words. This alone would be sufficient to inspire
doubts of the authority of the work, and these doubts are confirmed
by its material variation, in many parts, from the accounts furnished
by those who were the Prince's constant companions during those
days of peril and suffering.
VOL. II. E
50 MEMOIRS OF
of these detachments were under the command of
General Campbell (afterwards Duke of Argyle)
and of his son, Lieutenant Colonel Campbell.
General Campbell had likewise some small ships
of war placed at his disposal, with the aid of which
he searched several of the islands, made a number
of prisoners at Barra, and even ransacked the
distant islet of St. Kilda, whose inhabitants had
scarcely even heard of the war of which Great
Britain had, for nearly a year, been the theatre.
Going from place to place, General Campbell
arrived at South Uist, whither he had reason to
believe he had tracked the fugitives, and where he
felt confident the objects of his pursuit would not
again escape him. Success seemed, indeed, almost
certain. South Uist is only twenty miles long,
and three or four miles broad ; hilly on the east-
ern, but flat and arable on the western side. Over
this narrow space two thousand soldiers now dis-
persed themselves, in hopes of earning the promised
blood-money. The only chance of escape for
Charles appeared to be the coast, but that was
guarded by ships of war of every size. Every
boat was strictly examined, at every ferry there
was a guard, and any one leaving the island with-
out a passport was declared guilty of high treason.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 51
CHAPTER XXIII.
CHARLES IN CONSTANT DANGER OF BEING TAKEN, MEETS
WITH FLORA MACDONALD, WHO ASSISTS IN HIS ESCAPE
FROM SOUTH UIST TO SKYE.
ON arriving in South Uist, Charles sent his
honest attendant Burke to the old Laird of
Clanranald, the owner of the greater part of the
island, whose son had fought at Culloden. The
aged chief fully justified the confidence reposed in
him. No sooner had he been informed of the
melancholy plight in which the Prince had arrived,
than he went in quest of him. Charles, mean-
while, had found refuge in a small hut, the
entrance to which was so low that it was necessary
to creep in on all fours. In this mean shed he and
his companions subsisted sparingly on shell-fish.
Clanranald supplied them with better food and with
fresh apparel, of which the Prince stood sorely in
need; for, after all that he had endured in the course
E 2
52 MEMOIRS OF
of the month which had elapsed since the battle of
Culloden, it may easily be believed that his
garments were reduced to mere tatters. Clanranald
did not, however, confine himself to these acts of
service. He removed Charles from his wretched
abode to a small house at Corodale, in the centre
of the island, where he was likely to enjoy greater
security. He could there receive early information
of any danger which threatened him, and to this
end he had appointed a number of the inhabit-
ants to keep a close watch on the movement of the
troops, so that Charles might always be apprized
in time when it was necessary for him to take to
the hills, or to go over to some other point of the
island. For this purpose, guides and a boat were
always kept in readiness. From South Uist he
sent the faithful MacLeod in Campbell's boat to
the mainland, to Lochiel and Secretary Murray,
partly to obtain information how matters stood,
and partly to procure from the latter a fresh supply
of money.
At Corodale his health improved, and he was
able, occasionally, to amuse himself in fishing and
shooting. He was constantly in danger, however,
of being taken, had often to change his quarters
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 53
more than once during the same night, and was at
times close to his pursuers. Mac Leod returned,
after an absence of eighteen days. He had seen
both Lochiel and Murray, but had obtained neither
good tidings from the one nor money from the
other.
v
This painful state of things, it was evident,
could not last much longer. It was scarcely
possible that the troops should not sooner or later
succeed in their search, however great might be
the vigilance of the Prince's friends, or his own
activity and presence of mind. To make conceal-
ment more easy, he dismissed O'Sullivan and
MacLeod, the latter of whom was afterwards
arrested at Benbecula. O'Neil alone now remained
with the Prince. Painful as it was for him at
such a time to separate from two such trusty
followers, the sacrifice was still insufficient, for the
search was now carried on with such diligence that,
to escape capture, it was absolutely necessary that
means should be found to enable him to leave the
island. Yet, surrounded as it was by a fleet of the
enemy's ships, the meditated escape seemed hope-
less. Nevertheless, the attempt was made, and it
succeeded by means that made history, for a while,
54 MEMOIRS OF
assume all the characteristics of romance. The
preservation of Charles Stuart was to be the work,
not of men, whose devotion to the principles of
their fathers and whose personal attachment to
their Prince would have led them cheerfully to
brave death for his sake, but of a girl, to whose
faith, to whose high-minded courage, to whose
prudence and presence of mind, it was reserved to
accomplish a purpose, which brave men shrunk
from undertaking.
Flora Macdonald was the noble-spirited maiden
whose name was henceforth to be so honourably
associated with that of Charles; whose memory,
Dr. Johnson might well say, will not perish as
long as history survives. The Scottish ballads
of the time speak of her as the beautiful Flora,
and the European Magazine (October, 1785)
applies to her the same complimentary epithet ;
but works of a more earnest character do not
even acquaint us with her age, leaving us only
to conclude that she must have been a young girl,
of a slight figure, " of a genteel appearance, and
uncommonly mild and well bred."* She had lost
her father a few years before. Her mother had
* Boswell. Tour to the Western Isles.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 55
married again, and Flora's stepfather, Macdonald
of Armadale, of the Isle of Skye, happened to be
the senior captain of the Highland troops that were
daily engaged in tracking the footsteps of the
Prince. A kinswoman of the Clanranalds, she
frequently crossed over from Skye to South Uist, to
visit them, or to see her brother Angus Macdonald
of Milton. She happened at this time to be at
Clanranald's house, where Colonel O'Neil was
speaking of the misery to which so many of the
Jacobites had been reduced, and particularly of the
hopeless condition of Prince Charles. The colonel
did not fail to observe the lively interest with
which Miss Macdonald followed his narrative, and
rejoiced to hear her declaration that, if she could
do anything to relieve the Prince's sufferings, or
to rescue him from the fury of his enemies, she
would do it with all her heart.
O'Neil immediately replied that it was in her
power to render the Prince the most signal service
if she could convey him from South Uist to Skye,
and proposed that he should accompany her in
female attire, as her maid. Flora called the pro-
posal a whimsical one, and declined becoming a
party to it ; but she could not resist the wish to
56 MEMOIRS OF
see Charles, to whom she was accordingly intro-
duced at her brother's house. The Prince presented
himself to her in the form of a sickly emaciated
young man, afflicted, at the time, with a severe
cutaneous malady, but preserving, amid all his
sufferings, a firm and majestic bearing, and even
a kind of cheerfulness and gaiety which no one,
who had not seen him, would have believed pos-
sible. The spectacle was an appeal which Flora
was unable to withstand. She immediately de-
clared herself ready to convey the Prince to Skye,
in the manner proposed by O'Neil, since no better
plan suggested itself to any of the party.
The amiable girl repaired immediately to the
house of Clanranald, to prepare everything for her
departure, but on her way an accident occurred,
which might easily have baffled the whole under-
taking. Flora and her servant, Neil MacKechan,
were stopped by a party of militia, and, being
unprovided with a pass, they were placed under
arrest. The soldiers, fortunately, belonged to her
stepfather's company, and she desired to be im-
mediately taken before him. This was, of course,
complied with, but the most difficult part of her
task remained, namely, to obtain from her step-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 57
father a pass for three persons to Skye ; for her-
self, for her servant Neil, and for Betty Burke, an
Irish maid, for such, it was intended, should be
the travelling disguise of the Prince. By what
arguments Flora prevailed upon her stepfather to
give the pass has remained matter of doubt. Thus
much only is certain, that the pass was given, and
that, moreover, Macdonald of Armadale wrote a
letter to his wife, in which he particularly recom-
mended Betty Burke to her as an honest girl and
a good spinner of flax ; but whether Flora ventured
to admit him into her confidence, or whether
she really succeeded in imposing on him, it is not
now possible to determine. Walter Scott speaks
of Flora's stepfather as animated by the most
hostile sentiments against the Prince, in which
case it is scarcely to be supposed that the secret
would have been entrusted to him ; on the other
hand, we are told in the Jacobite Memoirs (p. 400),
on the authority of two witnesses, Donald and
Malcolm, " They likewise agreed in saying, they
had good reason to believe that honest Hugh Mac-
donald, of Armadale^ in Skye, had a meeting with
the Prince, at Rushness, in Benbecula, that he got
the Prince's pistols in keeping, and that he had
58 MEMOIRS OF
them still in his custody. They added, farther,
they were persuaded he would sooner part with his
life than with these pistols, unless they were to
the proper owner, and that he was the grand con-
triver in laying and executing the scheme for the
Prince's escape in woman's clothes, from the Long
Isle to the Isle of Skye."
This testimony would not, indeed, go far to
implicate Armadale in the Prince's escape, but
certainly the terms of his letter to his wife,* and
his subsequent conduct, argue that he was a party
to the plan ; for, in a later part of the Jacobite
Memoirs we are told, "Armadale, immediately
upon Miss Macdonald's being made prisoner, began
a-skulking, because a report had gone about that he
had given a pass to her, though it consisted with
his knowledge that the Young Pretender was in
company with her in disguise as a woman servant.
General Campbell, upon this account, was much in
search of honest and brave Armadale, being not a
* The terms of the letter are these : " I have sent your daughter
from this country, lest she should be any way frightened with the
troops lying here. She has got one Betty Burke, an Irish girl, who,
as she tells me, is a good spinster. If her spinning pleases you, you
may keep her till she spins all your lint ; or, if you have any wool
to spin, you may employ her. I am, your dutiful husband,
" HUGH MACDONALD."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 59
little chagrined that Armadale should have out-
witted him."
Furnished with the required pass, Flora's next
care was to provide the garments for the Prince's
disguise. These she procured through the aid of
old Lady Clanranald, and, on the 8th of July, the
two ladies, accompanied by O'Neil and Neil Mac-
Kechan, repaired to the Prince's hiding place, a
small hut situated near the sea-coast. They
found Charles cooking his dinner, a sheep's heart,
which he was roasting on a wooden spit. The
ladies wept at this spectacle of adverse fortune ;
but the Prince's cheerfulness did not even then
desert him. It would, perhaps, be well for all
kings, he observed with a smile, if they had to
pass through such an ordeal as he was now en-
during. He even pressed his friends to partake
of his fare, and in a few minutes he succeeded in
inspiring the little circle with a share of his own
gaiety, by picturing to them the brilliant pro-
spects in which he continued to indulge. O'Neil
was the least cheerful of the whole circle.
Anxious as he was to remain by the Prince's
side, the impossibility of now avoiding a separa-
tion was obvious. Flora was aware of the
60 MEMOIRS OF
dangers to which she exposed herself, and could
not undertake to do more than she had promised,
namely, to convey Charles to Skye. Indeed, on
the very same day, she was reminded by a fresh
occurrence of the necessity of observing the
utmost caution, for messengers arrived to inform
Lady Clanranald that General Campbell had re-
turned to the island, and that Captain Ferguson,
with a party of soldiers, had taken possession of
her house. On receiving this information, she
took leave of the Prince, and returned home,
where she was subjected to a multitude of ques-
tions, which showed but too clearly that her
family had become objects of suspicion, and that
the slightest imprudence might involve them all
in ruin. Lady Clanranald, indeed, had scarcely
left the Prince, when four cutters, filled with
armed men, were seen sailing along the coast,
close by the hut in which he lay concealed. He
was, in consequence, obliged to hide himself
among the rocks, and to postpone his departure
till the following day. At eight in the evening,
on the 9th of July, he left the island in an
eight-oared boat, which had been provided by
Miss Macdonald, who, with Lady Clanranald,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 61
officiated in arraying Charles for the new character
which he was about to personate. The dress was
such as was usually worn by Irish peasant girls ;
a printed cotton gown, a white apron, a large
coarse cloak, and a linen cap. In this costume
he embarked, accompanied by Miss Macdonald
and her trusty Highland attendant, Neil Mac-
Kechan, at Kilbride, in Troternish.
When they had got about a mile from the
shore, the sea became rough, and the wind fresh-
ened into a gale ; but Charles kept up the spirits
of the little party by singing Highland airs, till
Flora fell asleep, when he showed the most
anxious care lest she should be hurt by the care-
lessness of the rowers, as she lay in the bottom of
the boat. At daybreak, the black mountains of
Skye rose in sight ; but, on approaching the coast
near Weternish, they found the place occupied
by three boats full of armed men, by whom they
were hailed, and ordered immediately to come on
shore. Not obeying the summons, they imme-
diately received a volley of musketry, but, by
the exertions of their rowers, they succeeded in
escaping this new danger. In a small inlet of
the sea, they lay to for a short while, and made
62 MEMOIRS OF
their dinner on such provisions as they had
brought with them, after which they continued
their course, apprehensive that the armed party
by whom they had been so roughly saluted, might
have alarmed that part of the island. The water
by this time had become smooth again, and they
soon afterwards effected their landing about twelve
miles farther north.
The royal fugitive was now upon the land
of Sir Alexander Macdonald, who had been a
waverer at the beginning of the contest, but had
become a decided foe to the Stuart cause in
proportion as fortune seemed to declare against
it, and had even raised his clan in support of
the government. He was at this time on the
mainland, in attendance on the Duke of Cum-
berland, but his house at Mouygetstot was
occupied by the officers of the militia. The
militia had all along been more dangerous to
Charles than the regular troops, from their
knowing the country, and being better able to
judge in what holes and corners the most con-
venient places of concealment were likely to be
found. There were not indeed so many troops
in Skye as in South Uist ; but among the troops
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 63
that were in Skye was a detachment of cavalry ;
the two principal chiefs, Macdonald and MacLeod,
were partizans of the government ; and the only
friend on the island on whom Charles knew that he
could rely, was a young girl, who had no means
of assisting him to prosecute his flight, but must
seek to obtain those means through the inter-
vention of others. Flora did this ; but the
measure to which she had recourse was scarcely
less perilous than the position from which she
sought to extricate the object of her generous
solicitude, for whom she applied for succour in
the house of his most dangerous enemy.
Lady Margaret Macdonald, the wife of Sir
Alexander Macdonaid, was a daughter of the
Earl of Eglinton, and had been reared by her
mother in principles of the most entire devotion
to the house of Stuart. This was known to
Flora, and upon this knowledge she proceeded,
determining to rely upon Lady Margaret for
the means of rescuing Charles from his present
danger. Leaving Charles and MacKechan at
the landing-place, Flora immediately proceeded
to Lady Margaret's residence. She had apprized
the lady some days before that she meditated
64 MEMOIRS OF
paying her a visit, and now confessed, without
reserve, whom she had brought to the island, with
a view of claiming the protection of the Countess
of Eglinton's daughter. Lady Margaret received
the news with pain and surprise,* but did not
disappoint the confidence reposed in her gene-
rosity. Her house was full of militia officers,
and she could not, therefore, with common
prudence, have received the Prince within its
walls. She sent, however, Macdonald of Kings-
burgh, a kinsman of her husband's, to carry
the necessary refreshments to Charles, but kept
Flora to dine with her. The young lady was
subjected to many searching questions by the
English officers, but was able to answer them
all without exciting suspicion. After dinner
Flora set off again with another lady of the
name of Macdonald, Neil MacKechan, and two
other servants, to whom the Prince was not
known. They found him with Kingsburgh, on
* All accounts agree in saying that it was at this interview that
Flora first let Lady Margaret into the secret. Sir Alexander
Macdonald, in a letter to the Lord President, writes, on the 29th
of July, 1746 : " Miss Macdonald went and made a visit to Lady
Margaret, dined with her, and put her into the utmost distress by
telling her of the cargo that she had brought from Uist." (Culloden
Papers, p. 291.)
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 65
the way to the house of the latter, but Charles
had nearly betrayed himself by his awkwardness
in female attire. As they went along, they had
several streams to wade through, when Charles
held up his petticoats so high as to excite the
surprise and laughter of some country-people on
the road. Being admonished by his friends, he
promised to be more careful in future ; and,
accordingly, in passing the next stream, he
allowed his skirts to hang down and float upon
the water. " Your enemies," said Kingsburgh,
turning to the Prince, " call you a pretender ;
but if you be, I can tell you, you are the worst
of your trade I ever saw." The servants who
were not in the secret were particularly struck
by the manners and appearance of the supposed
Betty Burke ; and one of them even declared
that she had never seen so impudent a woman
as the Irish maid, and at last went so far as
to declare that the creature looked just like a
man in woman's clothes. These remarks ex-
cited Flora's uneasiness, and she prevailed on
Mrs. Macdonald, who, like herself, was on
horseback, to ride on, leaving Kingsburgh and
Charles to bring up the rear, and to find
VOL. II. F
66 MEMOIRS OF
their way along byroads to the house of the
former.*
The ladies arrived at Kingsburgh's house some
time before Charles and his guide. The Prince
was wet and weary, but a good supper soon put
him into spirits again, and made him the life
of the little circle of friends. It was long since
he had lain in a comfortable bed, and when
he got into one it costr some trouble to rouse
him from it on the following morning ; but it
was necessary that he should leave the house as
he had entered it, in female attire ; and at some
distance from Kingsburgh's he was enabled to
exchange his inconvenient costume for that of
a native of the Hebrides, consisting of a short
green coat, short breeches, a wig and a bonnet.
Under the conduct of a trusty guide, he arrived
* Sir Alexander Macdonald afterwards wrote an apologetic letter
to screen his kinsman of Kingsburgh. " The Pretender," says Sir
Alexander, "accosted Kingsburgh with telling him, that his life
was now in his hands, which he might dispose of ; that he was in
the utmost distress, having had no meal or sleep for two days and
two nights, sitting upon a rock, beat upon by the rains, and when
they ceased, eat up by flies ; conjured him to show compassion but
for one night, and he should be gone. This moving speech pre-
vailed, and the visible distress, for he was meagre, ill-coloured, and
overrun with the scab. So they went to Kingsburgh's house," &c.
Culkden Papers, p. 291.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 67
at Portree, fourteen Scottish miles from Mony-
getstot. Flora Macdonald, Kingsburgh, and
MacKechan, had arrived before him, and took
an affectionate leave of a revered Prince, who,
after what they had ventured for his sake, had
grown doubly dear to them. " For alii that has
happened," said Charles, as he bade adieu to
Flora, " I hope, madam, we shall meet at St.
James's." It was not his destiny, however, to
see any of the party again.
To have remained longer in Skye would have
been dangerous for Charles, as a rumour was
already in circulation, not only of his escape from
Uist, but even of the disguise in which he had got
away. On the island of Rasay, however, five or
six miles off, there happened at the time to be no
troops, and there, it was thought, the Prince might
be much more easily concealed. Kingsburgh had,
accordingly, sent a messenger to Rasay, to apprise
MacLeod, of Rasay, how matters stood. The
latter, who had been present at Falkirk arid Cullo-
den, was not then at home, but young MacLeod
of Rasay, and Malcolm MacLeod, came to conduct
the Prince to their island. He remained about
two hours at Portree, to take a little refreshment
68 MEMOIRS OF
and dry his clothes, and then, (12th of July) left
the island on which two women had heen his
guardian angels.* That same day he arrived at
* According to Power (p. 231) Charles had only been four days
in Lady Margaret's house, when his enemies sent a detachment
thither in search of him. Lady Margaret, Flora, and the Prince,
were together in a room, the latter not having had time to get out
of the way. When the soldiers knocked at the door, Charles, we
are told, opened the door, when his delicate features, and the soft-
ness of his voice, harmonised so well with his feminine garments,
that the soldiers were completely imposed on, and retired in a very
ill-humour at having found nothing but three women. Sevelinges
has copied this anecdote, and various k other inaccuracies, into the
Biographic Universelle. In none of the authentic Jacobite records
is any allusion made to such an occurrence ; which is the less
entitled to belief, as it happens that Charles never set foot in Lady
Margaret's house. Many other anecdotes respecting this period of
Charles's life, have obtained currency, without resting upon much
better authority. In the European Magazine (October, 1785), we
are told that, when Charles was changing his clothes, his worn-out
shoes were taken possession of by Kingsburgh, who said they should
serve him one day to obtain an audience at St. James's ; whereupon
Charles smiled, and bade Kingsburgh not forget to keep his word.
Kingsburgh, it is added, kept these shoes most carefully, and after
his death they were bought by a zealous Jacobite for twenty guineas.
The European Magazine goes on to say, that Mrs. Macdonald of
Kingsburgh kept the sheets in which the Prince had slept, ordered
that they might never again be washed, but that when dead she
might be buried in them : an injunction which, eventually, was
strictly fulfilled. Pichot repeats these anecdotes, with a few
embellishments. According to his version, the shoes were cut up
and the fragments distributed among a number of Jacobite ladies,
and the sheets equally divided between Mrs. Macdonald and Flora.
Pichot also relates, that while these two ladies were busy adjusting
the Prince's cap, they expressed a wish to have a lock of his hair ;
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
69
Rasay, in company with his new friends, whose
respect was quickly changed into the most devoted
whereupon Charles made Flora sit down, brought her a pair of
scissors, and laid his head in her lap while she cut off a lock, which
she divided with her friend. Pichot tells us, moreover, that, when
Charles took leave of Flora, she bestowed a sisterly kiss upon him,
and that he gave her his picture, bidding her keep it for his sake.
No trace of any of these anecdotes is to be found, either in the
Jacobite Memoirs or in Flora Macdonald's own brief narrative,
which is given in the Appendix to Home, and it is difficult to
believe, after what Charles had gone through, that he should have
kept his own picture about him. Pichot copies from the European
Magazine two other anecdotes, in which there is nothing impro-
bable, but which rest on no better authority than the preceding.
When preparations were making for Charles's passage to Rasay,
great difficulty, we are told, was experienced in finding a suitable
"boat. It was not thought prudent to trust the boatmen of Portree, and
at Rasay most of the boats had been destroyed or carried away by
the English soldiers. At last a small boat was found at Rasay, so
small as to be scarcely fitted for the voyage. This boat, however,
was on a lake, and to launch it on the sea it required to be carried
a good Scottish mile over bog and mountain. The faithful Jacobites
undertook and performed the laborious office, but, in the mean time,
Malcolm MacLeod had found a boat much better suited for their
purpose. Malcolm then sought to persuade young MacLeod of
Rasay to remain at home, since, as he had taken no active part in
the struggle so far, it would be better not to entangle himself in any
unnecessary responsibility. The young man, however, spurned all
such considerations, declaring himself perfectly [ready to sacrifice
life and fortune in the Prince's service. When they were about to
start for Portree to fetch the Prince, it became necessary to let the
boatmen into their confidence, but the honest fellows kept the
secret faithfully. When the Prince was about to leave the inn at
'Portree, to embark for Rasay, we are farther told, the landlord was
unable to give change for a guinea which Charles tendered in pay-
70 MEMOIRS OF
attachment. He was to pass for their servant,
under the name of Lewis Caw, the name of a
young surgeon who had lately been attached to his
service. Many of the preservers of Charles were
afterwards exposed to persecution in consequence
of their participation in his escape. Both Kings-
burgh and Flora Macdonald were arrested, and
conveyed, the former to Edinburgh, the latter to
London. The conduct of Lady Margaret also was
censured at court : but once, when the Princess of
Wales had been speaking with some harshness on
the subject to her husband, Frederick asked, " And
would not you, madam, in like circumstances have
done the same ? I hope, I am sure, you would.'*
It is said to have been at the intercession of
Frederick that Flora was released from prison, after
a confinement of twelve months. A collection was
made for her among the Jacobite ladies in London,
ment for his entertainment. Charles would have let the man keep
the difference, but Kingsburgh prevented so imprudent a display of
liberality, which was calculated to excite suspicions, and found
another way of satisfying his host. This last anecdote has found a
place likewise in the Jacobite Memoirs, from which it appears that,
notwithstanding Kingsburgh's caution, the landlord had a shrewd
suspicion of the rank of his guest. " The landlord said he had
entertained a strong notion that the gentleman might happen to be
the Prince in disguise, for that he had something about him that
looked very noble."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 71
to the amount of nearly 1500/. She then married
Kingsburgh's son, with whom she afterwards went
to America ; but both returned during the civil
war, and died in their native Isle of Skye.*
* Tales of a Grandfather. Chambers' History.
72 MEMOIRS OF
CHAPTER XXIV.
CHARLES IN RASAY RETURNS TO SKYE WRETCHED
STATE TO WHICH HE IS REDUCED ESCAPES TO THE
MAIN LAND.
CHARLES enjoyed greater security in Rasay
than he could have hoped for in Skye, but his new
abode was calculated to awaken the most painful
sentiments. The Laird of MacKinnon had taken
an active part in the insurrection, and, when the
war was over, a party of soldiers had been sent to
Rasay, with orders to lay the island waste, to burn
the houses, and to carry away the cattle. These
orders had been but too well executed, and when
Charles arrived on the island, he found it plunged
in the deepest misery. The personal privations
which he had, in consequence, to endure, were
cheerfully borne, but the wretchedness to which
he saw so many of his faithful adherents reduced
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 73
for his sake preyed upon his mind, and in his
sleep he was more than once heard to exclaim :
" Oh God ! Poor Scotland ! Poor England ! "
His only shelter in Rasay was a cow-house, where
his guides supplied him with food. There was a
stranger on the island who was looked upon by
the inhabitants as a spy, for he had come thither
under the pretext of selling tobacco ; and when he
had disposed of his merchandise he did not leave
the place, but amused himself by very leisurely
exploring the island from one end to the other.
While Charles lay concealed in his cow-house, this
man came close up to the place ; whereupon one of
the Prince's companions recommended that the
stranger should be immediately shot, and volun-
teered his own services for the occasion. Charles
refused his consent to such an act of violence, and
was rewarded for his humanity by seeing the man
pass unsuspectingly along, without even looking
into the shed. The limits of Rasay were, however
so confined, the distress so great, and the necessity
of a frequent change of place appeared to Charles
so urgent, that he had been there only one day
when he resolved on returning to Skye, whither,
accordingly, his two former companions conveyed
74 MEMOIRS OF
him in their boat on the 13th of July.* The
weather was again stormy, and the passage so
dangerous, that his two friends at first advised him
to postpone his design. Throughout his whole
life, indeed, the verses of Claudian (De Cons.
Hon. 98)
" nimium dilecte Deo, cui militat aether,
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica nimbi ! "
could never be addressed to Charles ; and on this
day, likewise, he was for two hours in momentary
danger of being swallowed up by the waves. At
nine in the evening, however, he landed in Skye
* According to the European Magazine, Charles was induced to
leave Rasay by an occurrence which Sevelinges, in the Biographie
Universette, relates in the following words : " Apres avoir march e
long-temps, epuise par la faim et la fatigue, il se resout a frapper a
la porte d'une maison. Au nom que prononcent les domestiques, il
voit qu'il est tombe dans des mains ennemies. II se present e
neanmoins devant le maitre de la maison. ' Le fils de votre roi,'
lui dit-il, l vient vous demander du pain et un habit ; prenez les
miserables vetements qui me couvrent, vous pourrez me les rap-
porter un jour dans le palais des rois de la Grande-Bretagne ! ' Ces
nobles et touchantes paroles desarment 1'ennemi des Stuarts. II
aide le prince a repasser en Ecosse." The version in the European
Magazine varies slightly from the foregoing, but the more authentic
Jacobite records make no allusion to any occurrence of the kind,
and Malcolm MacLeod's own account is : " The Prince began to be
anxious to be out of Rasay, alleging the island to be too narrow and
confined in its bounds for the purpose, and proposed setting out for
Troternish in Skye." Jacobite Memoirs, p. 470.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 75
in safety, though thoroughly drenched with sea-
water. He kept MacLeod as a guide, arid requested
to be conducted to the territory of old MacKinnon,
whose people had fought in the Highland army.
The old laird's house was from twenty-four to
thirty miles distant from the spot where they
landed, and the greater part of the way Charles
and MacLeod walked during the night, the latter
walking on before, the Prince, with a bundle on
his shoulders, following as a servant. At this
period of his wanderings, Charles appeared to his
guide to have reached the last stage of misery, for,
owing to the filthy holes in which, during the last
two months, he had often been obliged to take
shelter, he was now covered with vermin. His
firmness and cheerfulness, however, continued
unshaken. MacLeod related a number of the
atrocities committed after the battle of Culloden,
but Charles refused to believe that the Duke of
Cumberland had been a party to such barbarity.
MacLeod then turned the conversation to Charles's
own sufferings, but the generous young man
immediately replied, " that] the fatigues and dis-
tresses he underwent signified nothing at all,
because he was only a single person ; but when he
76 MEMOIRS OF
reflected upon the many brave fellows who suffered
in his cause, that, he behoved to own, did strike
him to the heart, and did sink very deep within
him."* When his fortunes were at the lowest ebb,
he still derived consolation from the hope of
ultimate success in his great design. This is
evident from a number of chance remarks that
escaped him ; some of which, made during this
fatiguing night march, have been carefully re-
corded by his companion. " Do you not think,
MacLeod," he said at one time, " that the Almighty
must have preserved me thus far for some especial
purpose ?" And at another time, when his costume
was the subject of discourse, he said, " I hope to
God I may one day walk through the streets of
London in the philabeg that I am now wearing !"
As they were then in a part of the country
where the Prince's person must necessarily be
known to many, he made his appearance as
wretched as he could. He tied a dirty white
handkerchief round his head, as low over his
brow as possible, arid over this he drew his
Highland bonnet ; still, MacLeod assures us,
the native dignity of Charles's bearing could not
* Jacobite Memoirs, p. 476.
PIIINCE CHARLES STUART. 77
be wholly disguised. Thus apparelled they ar-
rived at the house of John Mac Kinnon, who had
served under the laird of Mac Kinnon, and had
married a sister of Mac Leod's, who happened to
be alone in the house when her brother arrived.
Without at once letting her into his secret, Mac
Leod only expressed a wish to repose himself
with his servant for a short while ; and, till the
return of Mac Kinnon, Charles continued to
support the humble character assigned to him,
though tempted more than once to throw off his
incognito. His appearance at this time must
certainly have been calculated to disguise him
even from the most curious glance, for during the
night he had sunk into a bog, from which he had
been extricated with some difficulty by his guide,
but not without bringing away with him abundant
marks of the accident. To remove the traces of
the night's disaster from his person, Mac Leod
applied to the servant girl to wash his feet for
him, and then requested her to perform the same
kind office to his poor sick follower, Lewis Caw.
This the indignant damsel at first refused to do ;
and when, at last, she was prevailed on to comply,
she set about her task in so rough a fashion, that
78 MEMOIRS OF
MacLeod fully expected the Prince would betray
himself.
That night Charles and Mac Leod slept in
Mac Kinnon's house, the wife of the latter watch-
ing to prevent a surprise. On the following
morning, John Mac Kinnon returned, and Mac
Leod told him, after a brief preface, who the
guest was that had taken shelter under his roof.
Mac Kinnon was agreeably surprised by the in-
telligence, but could not refrain from tears, a few
moments afterwards, when he saw the fugitive
Prince singing to one of the children whom he
was carrying about in his arms, telling the boy
he hoped to see him one day a brave officer in
Prince Charles's army.
After a short consultation, it was agreed that
the most prudent course for the Prince would be
to return to the mainland, for which purpose Mac
Kinnon should furnish a boat, but that the whole
matter should be kept a secret from the old laird
of Mac Kinnon, whom they were desirous of
sparing, on account of his age and of the excite-
ment which the knowledge might cause him,
though they entertained not the slightest doubt
of his fidelity and friendly disposition. John Mac
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 79
Kinnon could not, however, keep the secret from
the laird, but though the Prince at this period of
his life scarcely passed a day in which he was not
subjected to the severest fatigues and privations,
and in which he was not hourly in danger of
falling into the hands of his pursuers, yet, from
young and old, from men and women, from rich
and poor, from gentle and simple, he received
constant marks of disinterested kindness and de-
voted affection, for which we may vainly look in
history for a parallel. In the course of the five
months that he was hunted from place to place
by his enemies, the secret of his concealment be-
came known to hundreds, most of them poor, and
some of them even of very questionable integrity
in their general dealings ; but not in a single
instance does it appear that any of those in whom
confidence was placed, was tempted, even for a
moment, to betray the trust, by the tempting bait
of the promised government reward of 30,000/.
The aged laird of Mac Kinnon was animated by
the spirit of his nation. Regardless of the respon-
sibility which he incurred, as a lord of the soil, by
merely concealing the fugitive, the old man not
merely undertook to provide a suitable boat with
80 MEMOIRS OF
a proper crew, but even declared his readiness to
accompany his guest in person.
During the few days of misery that Charles and
Mac Leod had spent together, a mutual feeling of
friendship had grown up between them, such as
under ordinary circumstances would have required
the ripening influence of years. Their parting
was a painful one to both. The Prince with some
difficulty forced a present of ten guineas upon his
late guide, who resisted as long as he could with-
out giving offence ; and who perhaps received with
much more pleasure a common pipe from which
the Prince had smoked during his flight, and
which Mac^Leod ever afterwards preserved as a
sacred relic.
Charles embarked at Ellegol. The weather was
again stormy, and two English ships of war were
in sight. The wind, however, soon afterwards fell,
and the English vessels sailed away without taking
any notice of the boat.
It is impossible, at this distance of time, to say
what motive it was that induced Charles to return
to the mainland of Scotland, which he had so
carefully avoided since the battle of Culloden.
Perhaps it was found impossible to conceal him
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 81
on Skye; perhaps lie thought it might be less
difficult, on the coast of Scotland, to obtain early
intelligence of any French vessel sent to his
assistance. At all events, his position was ren-
dered worse by this step than it had ever been
before, the perils by which he was surrounded
more imminent, the chance of escape more remote.
He arrived at Loch Nevis on the 16th of July
the passage from Ellegol having been made during
the night. Immediately after landing, he as-
cended the nearest hill, where he lay down for
a few hours to sleep. He was in the costume of
a Highland boatman, and was still accompanied
by the Mac Kinnons, who would not leave him
till they had entrusted him to safe hands. He
first repaired to Macdonald of Moror, who lived
seven or eight miles from the landing-place,
but without finding the refuge he had looked
for. During the night between the 25th and
the 26th of July, Charles went four miles
farther, to the honest old ./Eneas Macdonald at
Borodale. The Prince had spent three nights
in the open air ; the fourth he passed in one of
those wretched huts in which the Jacobite lairds
had been reduced to live, in consequence of the
VOL. II. G
82 MEMOIRS OF
destruction of their houses by the soldiery. Such
too had been the fate of Macdonald of Borodale,
but his sufferings in the cause had in no way
weakened his devotion to the son of his king, and
his zeal was surpassed if possible by that of his
wife. The Prince knew that one of her sons had
perished at Culloden. He approached her, there-
fore, with some diffidence, and asked her whether
she could endure the sight of one who had brought
such severe affliction over her house. " Ay," re-
plied the heroic lady, " though all my sons have
fallen for your Royal Highness ! " The two Mac
Kinnons, who till then had remained with Charles,
fell on their return into the hands of the soldiery,
and were thrown into prison.
Charles was now in that part of the country
where the insurrection had first broken out, and
whither, immediately after the battle of Culloden,
strong detachments of troops had been sent, partly
to punish the inhabitants for the attachment they
had shown to the Stuarts, and partly in the hope
of taking the " Young Pretender," in case he
should attempt to conceal himself there. The
English officers by some means obtained early
information that Charles had landed somewhere
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 83
in Loch Nevis, and they thought that they might
insure his capture, by cutting off the district by
means of a line of sentinels, posted so closely to
one another, that no person could pass the line
anywhere unperceived. At night each sentinel
was to walk backward and forward between his
own post and that of his neighbour, and by night
or day, every stranger whose appearance excited
suspicion, was immediately to be arrested. Mac-
donald of Borodale had, in the first instance,
concealed the Prince in a wood near the coast,
and, on receiving intelligence of the Mac Kinnons'
arrest, he had conveyed him to an almost inacces-
sible place, the secret of which was known only to
a few, and where he awaited the arrival of Mac-
donald of Glenaladale, to whom Charles had
written to request him to come. The faithful
adherent did not let the Prince wait long, and
brought with him another Macdonald, who, as
an officer in French pay, had accompanied Charles
in both his campaigns. It was at once agreed,
that the first thing to be done was to extricate
the Prince from the line of sentinels by whom he
was surrounded. The thing did not appear im-
possible, for, in one place, between two adjoining
G2
84 MEMOIRS OF
posts, there was a narrow dark ravine, the bed
of a winter stream, and through this passage, it
was thought, that the vigilance of the soldiers
might be eluded. After having remained two
days with his friends, completely surrounded by
soldiers, and not venturing either to light a fire
or to come forth in search of provisions, nothing
remained but for Charles to try the hollow way.
He crept through in safety, but not without tearing
his clothes into mere rags, and even then it was
only the more immediate danger that had been sur-
mounted, for the whole of the western Highlands
were continually traversed by military detachments.
Under these circumstances, it was thought that
Ross-shire might afford a more secure place of
refuge, and thither Charles and his companions
directed their march, during which they were
exposed to severe sufferings, chiefly from the want
of food, so much so, that more than once there
seemed for the fugitive Prince no alternative but
to die of hunger, or to surrender himself to one or
other of the parties that were out in pursuit of
him. In this way the wanderers reached Kintail,
where they were forced to ask a night's shelter
of Christopher Macraw, who, in the course of
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 85
conversation, declared without reserve that it
was madness to hold any longer with Prince
Charles, since, by giving him up, a large sum
of money might be gained, and the country
relieved from much of the oppression under
which it was suffering. Fortunately Macraw
did not know Charles, who had been presented
to him as the younger Clanranald, but that same
evening another stranger arrived, who immediately
recognised the Prince.
This stranger, fortunately, was a Macdonald,
who had served in the Jacobite army, and from
whom no treason was to be apprehended. He
took an early opportunity to warn the Prince of
the opinions of his host, and to offer his own
views as to the means most advisable to be
adopted. To remain among the MacKenzies in
Ross-shire, with parties of the military constantly
on the move, did not, he thought, hold out
much prospect of security. He related, however,
how he had passed the preceding night on the
mountain of Corado, between Kintail and Glen-
moriston, where, in the most sequestered part
of the mountain, there dwelt seven trustworthy
fellows, most of whom had served in the High-
MEMOIRS OF
land army, and upon whose fidelity the Prince
might place the most entire reliance. Charles,
who wished to be nearer to Badenoch and Loch-
aber, where Lochiel and Cluny were at the time,
immediately embraced the proposal, and, on the
following morning, accompanied by his com-
panions and their new guide, started for the
mountain. Their road lay through the wildest
part of the country, where they had to spend
one night in a cleft of the rock, so narrow that
Charles could not even stretch himself out at
full length, and so little sheltered, that he was
drenched by the rain, which fell in torrents, his
only means of obtaining a little warmth being
to srnoke a pipe of tobacco.
They at length reached the place of refuge of
the seven outlawed Jacobites. These were men of
the humblest rank, having neither house nor hut,
but holding themselves concealed in a cavern,
where they subsisted on the cattle that they were
able from time to time to " lift." Charles was pre-
sented to his new hosts as the younger Clanranald,
but was immediately recognised by them. His
appearance corresponded with the sufferings which
he had recently undergone. His coat was of coarse
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 87
dark cloth, with a ragged tartan waistcoat, tartan
hose, and Highland brogues, that were all but
dropping from his feet. A Highland bonnet was
drawn over an old flaxen wig, a ragged cloth was
bound round his neck, and his last remaining shirt
was of the colour of saffron. His plaid was the
only article of his wardrobe still in tolerable
preservation. Neither his wretched appearance,
however, nor the condition to which they had been
reduced for his sake, prevented these rude men
from immediately falling on their knees before
their young Prince. They invited him and his
companions immediately to join their meal, com-
posed of a sheep that they had caught and killed ;
and, during the subsequent period that he spent
in their company, they omitted nothing in their
power to contribute to his security and convenience :
in short, a more faithful and efficient body guard
could not have been obtained for Charles than
these rude and lawless men. Their unceasing
vigilance baffled all the pursuits of his enemies ;
from a portmanteau which they captured from the
servant of an English officer, they provided the
Prince with linen and better apparel, and, singly
and in various disguises, they even ventured to
88 MEMOIRS OF
Fort Augustus, whence they brought, now and
then, a newspaper and certain intelligence respect-
ing the movements of the troops.
The affection and devotion of these men to their
royal guest, afforded a singular contrast to their
way of life, and to the levity even with which
worse crimes than robbery were committed by them.
The same man, who, to obtain possession of a
portmanteau, had not hesitated to commit a
murder, a little while afterwards went to Fort
Augustus, and brought the Prince a pennyworth of
gingerbread, as the greatest dainty he could think
of. One of these men, Hugh Chisholm, was
some years afterwards, as we are told by Home,
well known at Edinburgh. " Several people had
the curiosity to see him, and hear his story. Some
of them gave him money. He shook hands with
his benefactors, and hoped they would excuse him
for giving them his left hand, as, when he parted
with the Prince, he had got a shake of his hand,
and was resolved never to give his right hand to
any man till he saw the Prince again."
Charles had already spent several weeks under
the protection of these men ; when, one day, he
expressed a wish to Glenaladale to change his
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 89
quarters, and take up his residence at the house of
some gentleman in the neighbourhood. He could
hardly entertain a suspicion of the fidelity of his
hosts, and there was consequently no immediate
reason why he should change the place of his
retreat, and a desire for better society was not
likely to influence Charles greatly at such a time ;
but he seems, throughout his wanderings, to have
always felt restless, and more than once he quitted
a secure retreat without the slightest necessity.
Glenaladale, to satisfy the Prince, endeavoured to
ascertain, in conversation with the outlaws, who
the neighbouring gentry were, what their relative
circumstances, and their political attachments.
The men were not long in guessing, from these
questions, what was the intention of their guest.
They conjured Glenaladale to dissuade him from
his design. No reward, they said, could be any
temptation to them, for, if they betrayed the
Prince, they must leave their country, where
nobody would speak to them except to curse
them ; whereas 30,000/. was a great reward to a
poor gentleman, who could go to Edinburgh or
London with his money, where he would find
90 MEMOIRS OF
people enough to live with him, and eat his meat
and drink his wine.
A proof of devotion still more romantic was
about this time (13th of August) afforded by
Roderick MacKenzie. He was the son of a gold-
smith of Edinburgh, had served in the Jacobite
army, and was at this time hiding among the
wilds of Glenmoriston. His retreat was discovered,
and a party of soldiers was sent to seize him. He
defended himself valiantly for some time, but, at
last, he sunk overpowered by numbers, and, in his
dying moments, told the soldiers he was the Prince.
His object was, no doubt, to cause a less active
search after Charles, by leading the government
to believe that the man they had so long hunted
from hill to hill, and from isle to isle, was no more.
The intended effect, there is little doubt, was in
some measure attained. The head of Roderick
was brought to the Duke of Cumberland, who
sent it to London, where a number of persons, who
had seen Charles when living, declared the head
to be that of " the Pretender." Richard Morison,
the Prince's valet, who was lying in prison at
Carlisle, under sentence of death, was sent up
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 91
to London, for the purpose of setting all doubts at
rest. Morison, however, fell ill on his way, and
continued for several weeks in a state of delirium;
when at last he arrived in London, his evidence
was no longer of any value.*
Peter Grant, the most active and intelligent of
the seven outlaws of Glenmoriston, was sent to
Lochaber, to find out some of the Camerons, and
to communicate to them the Prince's wish to come
among them. At Lochaber, Grant found Cameron
of Cluries, who agreed to meet Charles on a cer-
* Jolmstone (p. 154) is our chief authority for this memorable
instance of self-devotion, which has been adopted by W. Scott and
by Pichot as a well-known fact. Lord Mahon refuses to attach any
credit to the anecdote, on account of the little reliance to which
Johnstone is entitled, and this consideration, no doubt, has its
weight ; but there is nothing improbable about the story, and Scott
sanctions it in a great measure by adopting it as a known fact. We
have no proof indeed of the truth of the occurrence, but it seems to
have been so generally believed at the time, both in England and
Scotland, that it is difficult to suppose there was no foundation for
it. The above version is that of Scott. According to Johnstone 's,
Charles at the moment of the attack was in the same hut with
MacKenzie ; both prepared to sell their lives as dearly as they could,
and MacKenzie, by thus drawing the entire attention of the soldiers
upon himself, not only saved Charles's life, but enabled him to effect
his escape. Pichot says the head was shown to Charles's servant,
who declared immediately it was not his master's, but whence
Pichot may have derived this piece of information it is not easy
to guess.
92 MEMOIRS OF
tain day at a place near the head of Glencoich,
where Clunes had a little secret hut for his own
security. Having received this notice, Charles
started on a stormy night, attended by all those
who had of late been his companions, and went in
search of an older, though not a truer, friend.
Travelling along the tops of the mountains, they
reached Drumnadial, a high mountain on the side
of Loch Lochie, commanding an extensive view
of the surrounding country. There the party
remained all day, while Grant went on to see
whether Clunes had come to the appointed place.
They had no provisions with them, and suffered
much from want of food. Grant, on his return,
said he had been at the hut, but Clunes was not
there. The fact was, he had kept his appoint-
ment, but had been unable to wait. Grant, on
his way back, had met a herd of deer, one of
which he had killed and concealed ; and, as soon
as it was night, the hungry wanderers set out in
search of the hidden treasure.
A second messenger, sent on the following
morning, succeeded in finding Clunes, who imme-
diately came with his three sons ; after which the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 93
men of Glenmoriston took their leave of the Prince,
except Peter Grant and Hugh Chisholm, who
remained with him for some time longer.*
* Sir W. Scott says, he is ashamed to be obliged to relate that
one of these poor fellows, who had displayed such inflexible fidelity,
was afterwards hung at Inverness for stealing a cow. There is
nothing unlikely in the story that such a death overtook one who,
as we have seen, was constantly engaged in violations of the law ;
but Bishop Forbes, to whom we are indebted for the JacoUte
Memoirs, denies the fact.
94 MEMOIRS OF
CHAPTER XXV.
CHARLES JOINS LOCHIEL LIVING LIKE A PRINCE THE
CAGE CHARLES AND HIS FRIENDS EMBARK IN A
FRENCH VESSEL FOR FRANCE.
STILL no prospect presented itself to Charles
of being able to leave the country in which he
wandered about as an outlaw. Indeed, the first
intelligence he received from Clunes made it evi-
dent that, even to reach Badenoch and Rannoch,
where Cluny and Lochiel were keeping, was more
than it would be possible to effect under existing
circumstances, all the ferries of the lakes and
rivers being strictly guarded. It was necessary,
therefore, that Charles should remain where he
was, till the vigilance of his pursuers had in some
measure abated. In a wood, near the place of their
first meeting, Clunes possessed a secret hut, where
he and Charles found a shelter at night when the
weather was cold or rainy ; but, when the vicinity
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 95
of a military party seemed to threaten danger, or
when the weather was mild, they used to remain
all night on the mountain. Such was their con-
dition when Lochiel and Cluny, having reason to
believe that Charles must be somewhere to the
north of the lakes, and probably in great distress
and danger, sent Macdonald of Lochgary, and
Dr. Cameron (Lochiers brother), to learn what
they could respecting him. These gentlemen,
who were well acquainted with the country, soon
met with Clunes, who undertook to show them
where the Prince lay concealed.
Charles was at the time on the mountain, with
Peter Grant and a son of Clunes. Grant was
keeping watch while the other two slept, but,
being himself weary, he had been unable to resist
the inclination to slumber, so that Clunes, Loch-
gary, and Dr. Cameron, with two servants, were
close upon them before Grant was aware of their
approach. As soon as he saw the strangers he
roused the sleepers. Young Clunes and Grant
were for immediately hastening to the top of the
mountain, but Charles said if the strangers were
enemies, it would be impossible to escape out of
the reach of their fire-arms. The best plan,
06 MEMOIRS OF
therefore, would be to hide behind the rocks, and
fire upon the Argyleshiremen as they approached.
As Grant and he were excellent shots, they would
certainly do some execution, and here Charles
produced a pair of pocket pistols, which he had
kept in reserve for an emergency of this kind. As
the company that had alarmed them drew near,
they distinguished Clunes, and a mutual recog-
nition ensued, after which a council was held to
consider what was best to be done, and Lochgary
and Dr. Cameron agreed that it would still be too
hazardous for Charles to attempt the ferries. It
was, accordingly, determined that he must remain
some time longer where he was ; but Dr. Came-
ron undertook to go in search of intelligence
among his brother's people in Lochaber, while
Lochgary was to go to the eastern extremity of
Loch Lochie, and remain on the isthmus between
the two lakes, to watch the motions of the troops.
These arrangements having been made, the
party broke up ; but a rumour had, meanwhile,
reached the troops, that either Charles, or some
of the fugitive chiefs, were in that neighbourhood,
and one day, after the Prince had been spending
the night on the mountain, with Peter Grant and
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 97
one of Clunes's sons, they discovered, at day-
break, a number of soldiers in the valley, some
engaged in the destruction of the hut, and
others in searching the adjacent woods. There
was along the side of the mountain a covered
way formed by the winter rains. This channel
was now dry, and afforded Charles and his
companions an opportunity to pass over to
another mountain, called Mallentegart, a re-
markably steep and craggy place, where they
passed the whole day without food. Another
son of Clunes's came in the evening, to tell them
that his father would meet them at an appointed
place with provisions ; and, having delivered his
message, returned to let his father know that
the Prince would come. The place of ren-
dezvous was at some distance, but Charles set
out with his attendants as soon as it was night.
The way was dreadful, and their clothes and
limbs were torn more than once, as they climbed
over rocks and stumps of trees. His guides
would have prevailed on him more than once
to stop and halt till morning; but, exhausted
as he was, he insisted on going forward to meet
Clunes, though he was unable at last to proceed
VOL. II. H
98 MEMOIRS OF
without help, so that his two guides were
obliged each to hold him up by one of his arms,
and thus supported he performed the last part of
his arduous journey. Clunes and his son were
waiting for them at the appointed place, where
a cow had been killed, and a piece ready cooked
for the expected guests.
In this remote part of the mountain Charles
remained until the return of Dr. Cameron and
Lochgary, who reported that the passes were less
strictly guarded than they had been, and that
the Prince might easily cross Locharkaig and
reach the great fir-wood, belonging to Lochiel,
on the western side of the lake. In that wood
it was settled that Charles was to remain con-
cealed, till a place could be determined on where
he might meet Lochiel and Cluny. He accord-
ingly reached the wood, where he did not remain
long before he received a message that Lochiel
and Cluny were in Badenoch, and that Cluny
would meet him on a certain day at Achnacary,
to conduct him to their retreat. Charles, how-
ever, was too impatient to see his friends to be
able to await Cluny's arrival, and started with
his guides for Badenoch. On the 9th of Sep-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 99
tember, he arrived at Corinvuir, whence he
proceeded to Mellanuir, where he met Lochiel,
who was delighted to see his Prince again, and
conducted him to his rude habitation, which,
nevertheless, was a palace in comparison to any
that had of late sheltered the grandson of James
the Second. Cluny has himself left an account
of the meeting between Charles and Lochiel, and
the simple narrative would suffer by the slightest
alteration :
" The Prince lay the first night at Corinvuir,
after his coming to Badenoch, from which he was
conducted next day to Mellanuir, a sheiling of
very narrow compass, where Lochiel with Mac-
pherson of Breakachie, Allan Cameron, his prin-
cipal servant, and two servants of Cluny, were at
the time. It cannot but be remarked, that when
Lochiel saw five men approaching under arms,
being the Prince, Lochgary, Dr. Cameron, arid
two servants, he took the five men to be of the
army or militia, who lay encamped not above four
or five miles from them, and were probably in
search of them. As it was in vain to think of
flying, Lochiel at the time being quite lame, and
not in any condition to travel, much less to run
100 MEMOIRS OF
away, it was resolved that the enemy, as they
judged them to be, should be received with a
general discharge of all the arms, in number
twelve firelocks and some pistols, which they had
in the small sheiling, house, or bothie, (as such
small huts are commonly called,) in which they at
the time lodged. Whereupon all was made ready,
the pieces planted and levelled, and in short they
flattered themselves of getting the better of the
searchers, there being no more than their own
number. But the auspicious hand of Almighty
God, and his Providence, so apparent at all times
in the preservation of His Royal Highness, pre-
vented those within from firing at the Prince,
with his four attendants ; for they came at last so
near, that they were known by those within.
Lochiel, upon making this discovery, made the
best of his way, though lame, to meet His Royal
Highness, who received him very graciously.
The joy at this meeting is much easier to be con-
ceived than expressed ; and, when Lochiel would
have kneeled, on coming up to the Prince,
* Oh no, my dear Lochiel,' said His Royal High-
ness, clapping him on the shoulder, ' we do not
know who may be looking from the top of yonder
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 101
hills, and if they see any such motions, they '11
immediately conclude that I am here.'
" Lochiel then ushered him into his habitation,
which was indeed but a very poor one. The Prince
was gay, and in better spirits than it was possible
to think he could have been, considering the many
disasters, disappointments, fatigues, and diffi-
culties he had undergone. His Royal Highness,
with his retinue, went into the hut, and there was
more meat and drink provided for him than he
expected. There was plenty of mutton, an anker
of whisky, containing twenty Scotch pints, some
good beef sausages made the year before, with
plenty of butter and cheese, besides a large well-
cured bacon ham. Upon his entry, the Prince
took a hearty dram, which he sometimes called
for thereafter, to drink the healths of his friends.
When some minced collops were dressed with
butter in a large saucepan, which Lochiel and
Cluny carried always about with them, being the
only fire vessel they had, his Royal Highness eat
heartily ; and said, with a very cheerful coun-
tenance, * Now, gentlemen, I live like a prince ; '
though, at the same time, he was 110 otherwise
entertained than eating his collops out of the pan
102 MEMOIRS OF
with a silver spoon. After dinner, he asked
Lochiel if he had always lived here, during his
skulking, in such a good way. Yes, sir/
answered Lochiel, ' for near three months that
I have been hereabouts with my cousin Cluny,
he has provided for me so well, that I have had
plenty of such as you see ; and I thank Heaven
your Royal Highness has got through so many
dangers to take a part.'
" In two days after, his Royal Highness went
and lodged with Lochiel at Mellanuir, to which
place Cluny came to them from Auchincarry.
Upon his entering the hut, when he would have
kneeled, his Royal Highness prevented him, and
kissed him as if he had been an equal ; saying,
' I am sorry, Cluny, you and your regiment were
not at Culloden ; I did not hear till very lately
that you were so near us that day.'
" The day after Cluny arrived, he thought it
time to remove from Mellanuir, and took the
Prince about two miles farther into Benalder,
to a little sheil, called Uiskchibra, where the hut
or bothie was superlatively bad and smoky;
yet His Royal Highness put up with everything.
Here he remained for two or three nights, and
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 103
then removed to a very romantic habitation, made
for him by Cluny, two miles farther into Benalder,
called the Cage, which was a great curiosity, and
can scarcely be described to perfection. It was
situated in the face of a very rough, high and
rocky mountain, called Letternilichk, still a part
of Benalder, full of great stones and crevices, and
some scattered wood interspersed. The habitation
called the Cage, in the face of that mountain, was
within a small thick bush of wood. There were
first some rows of trees Jaid down, in order to
level a floor for the habitation ; and, as the place
was steep, this raised the lower side to an equal
height with the other ; and these trees, in the
way of joists or planks, were levelled with earth
and gravel. There were betwixt the trees, grow-
ing naturally on their own roots, some stakes
fixed in the earth, which, with the trees, were
interwoven with ropes, made of heath and birch-
twigs, up to the top of the Cage, it being of a
round, or rather of an oval shape, a nd the whole
thatched and covered over with fog. This whole
fabric hung, as it were, by a large tree, which
reclined from the one end, all along the roof to
the other, and which gave it the name of the
104 MEMOIRS OF
Cage ; and by chance there happened to be two
stones, at a small distance from one another, in
the side next the precipice, resembling the pillars
of a chimney, where the fire was placed. The
smoke had its vent out here, all along the face of
the rock, which was so much of the same colour,
that one could discover no difference in the clearest
day. The Cage was no larger than to contain six
or seven persons, four of whom were frequently
employed playing at cards, one idle looking on,
one baking, and another firing bread and cooking."
In this singular retreat, Charles remained in
comparative comfort till the 24th of September,
when he received intelligence from Glenaladale,
that two French frigates, the Conti, of 20 guns,
and the Heureux, of 30 guns, under the com-
mand of Colonel Warren, of Dillon's regiment,
had put into Lochnanuagh, having been sent by
the French government for the purpose of facili-
tating the escape of the Prince and his friends.
Charles took immediate measures to communicate
this good news to as many of his adherents as lay
concealed in that part of the country, and of whose
hiding-places he was informed. He set off with-
out loss of time, but, as he only travelled by
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 105
night, he reached Borodale, near Lochnanuagh,
only on the 30th, and emharked, on the following
day, with Lochiel, Barisdale, Lochgary, Colonel
Roy Stuart, and about a hundred more of his
late followers.
The crew of the French vessels, during the six-
teen days that they had been searching about the
coast, to obtain some news of the Prince, had taken
three English soldiers belonging to the different
parties that were hunting through every corner of
the country, in the hope of earning the promised
reward set upon his life. Charles, however, true
to the character he had maintained throughout the
whole momentous struggle, had no sooner set foot
on the deck of the Heureux, than, as a first favour,
he requested that these three prisoners might be
set on shore. The request, it may easily be
guessed, was immediately complied with. In the
hands of Cluny he left a paper, in which he
acknowledged the fidelity and attachment displayed
to him by that chief and his clan, in his endeavours
to maintain those rights which the Elector of
Hanover had usurped. Charles deplores, in this
document, the sufferings and losses endured by
his friends for his sake, and promises, should God
106 MEMOIRS OF
extend to him the power, to recompense and
indemnify them by every means within his reach.
Though now under the protection of the French
flag, Charles could hardly be said to have escaped
all danger of falling into the hands of his enemies.
The English fleet, off the coast of Scotland, had,
indeed, been dispersed by a storm, a circumstance
to which alone it had been owing that the two
French vessels had been able to make so long a
stay at Lochnanuagh, and the Heureux was now
running before a fair wind, along the Irish coast,
on her way to France ; but the sea was swarming
with British cruizers, and it seemed scarcely pro-
bable to avoid falling in with some of them. The
frigate that bore him, however, deserved her name,
and, favoured by foggy weather, reached France
in safety. A contrary wind prevented her from
making Brest, but one French port was as good
for her purpose as another, and, on the 10th
of October, 1746, a year ever memorable in the
annals of the house of Stuart, Charles landed, with
his friends, at Roscof, near Morlaix, in Bretagne.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 107
CHAPTER XXVI.
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE PRINCE'S EXPEDITION
TO SCOTLAND.
BEFORE we accompany to the luxurious court
of Louis XV. the Prince whom we have so
recently seen condemned to every species of pri-
vation, and rejoicing over his escape from hunger
in the Cage of Latternilichk, it may not be
superfluous to devote a few moments to a calm
consideration of his fate during the terrible
months that preceded his embarkation for France.
No narrative could be made to embrace a full
detail of all his sufferings during that period,
but enough has reached us to place his character
in a strong light, too much to allow his biographer
to pass over in silence a multitude of calumnies
of which Charles subsequently became the object,
and to which his conduct during his wanderings
108 MEMOIRS OF
through the Highlands of Scotland, offers the
most satisfactory contradiction. Before, however,
we proceed to speak on this point, let us render
homage to those to whom he so often stood
indebted for his preservation.
When Charles landed in Scotland, scarcely a
century had elapsed since the country had in-
curred the disgrace of having delivered her king
into the hands of his executioners ; but for the
crime against the First Charles (for which, in
point of fact, individuals only can be held respon-
sible), the whole nation may be said to have
nobly atoned by their conduct to his great grand-
son. Even granting that, in their conduct till
the battle of Culloden, the chiefs, in what they
did for Charles, were actuated by disappointed
ambition, and many of the common men impelled
by a hope of plunder ; and granting that the mor-
tification of national pride by the act of Union was
not without its share in producing the attachment
shown to him by many of the higher classes ; yet
their conduct after the battle of Culloden, and
their fidelity to their unfortunate Prince, are to be
attributed to the purest and most ennobling
motives. Ambition and avarice had alike nothing
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 109
more to hope for from Charles, but both might
have looked for ample gratification from the court of
St. James's, by simply delivering up a man, who,
if the entire /blame of what Scotland was suffering-
did not rest upon him, had at least been its
immediate cause. Even a regard for the welfare
of the country seemed to offer a pretext for
delivering the sough t-for victim into the hands
of the "Butcher" Cumberland; since it might
be anticipated that the ravages of the soldiery
would in a great measure cease, as soon as the
head of the insurrection was in the power of the
Government.
The more highly, however, the magnanimous
devotion of the Scots to the descendant and re-
presentative of so many of their kings deserves
our commendation, the more gratifying is it to
know, that the conduct of Charles throughout
this dark period of his life was not unworthy
of so rare a display of affection and fidelity.
We have seen how the magic of his manners
had gained for him the people and the soldiery
throughout the whole war, not only during the
flood-tide of his fortunes, but also during the
reverses that ensued after the ill-judged retreat
110 MEMOIRS OF
from Derby. The love which he manifested on
every occasion for the country of his ancestors ;
his attachment to its customs; the personal
courage with which he encountered every new
danger ; the cheerful temper with which the
descendant of so many kings endured the un-
wonted hardships of a military life ; the irresis-
tible attraction of his manners, set off as they
were by a remarkably handsome person ; his
facility of access ; his condescension to the
meanest of his followers ; the boldness and hu-
manity with which he hazarded his own life
unhesitatingly to preserve that of his soldiers
all this had not failed to produce a powerful
impression on minds predisposed by a sense of
duty to venerate the son of their king ; and that
respect which, had he been less amiable, would
not have been withheld from him, assumed the
character of zeal, of devotion, such as generous
minds alone can feel when love is measured by the
standard of enthusiasm.
These sentiments survived unimpaired the
disaster of Culloden, and followed their object
to a foreign land ; nor can it be denied, that the
spirit with which Charles bore up against the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. Ill
misery that he was forced to endure, while hunted
through the isles and mountains of Western Scot-
land, was calculated to heighten, if possible, the
love and veneration of his contemporaries, and to
force posterity to the admission that, in those
trying days, no less than in those that preceded
them, Charles proved himself worthy of the affec-
tion he had inspired ; worthy of a devotion not
less honourable to himself than to the nation that
displayed it. It was often with a bleeding heart
that he fled from one place of refuge to another ;
but his heart bled not for those personal sufferings
which for five months he endured uncomplainingly
and often jestingly; his sorrow and sympathy
were for the land he loved, and for the faithful
partisans who had sacrificed themselves for his
cause. The services constantly rendered to him
during his flight cannot be too highly estimated,
and without them it would have been impossible
for him to escape the pursuit of his enemies ; but
those services would have been unavailing, had it
not been for the courage, prudence, and presence
of mind of Charles himself.
It has sometimes been asserted that every mark
of affectionate devotion rendered to him at this
112 MEMOIRS OF
trying period, was received by him as the unques-
tionable right of the legitimate prince ; but those
who approached his person during the war, and
all who were brought into contact with him
during his flight, are unanimous in their accounts
of the gratitude with which he received every act
of service, and which he manifested, not only by
words but by the whole of his demeanour, to those
who approached him. The feudal system, as it
existed in the ^Highlands of Scotland, may have
gone far to facilitate his first successes, and may
have deterred from betraying him some who,
in a different state of society, would not have
resisted the temptation held out to them ; but it
is only the personal character of Charles, and the
affection and^ respect which he inspired, that can
at all account for the enthusiasm which he
awakened in Scotland, and which long survived
the eventful period through which we have fol-
lowed him. A French vessel bore him away from
the Highlands that he loved, " but his remem-
brance," as Lord Mahon observes, " departed not
with him from the Highlanders. For years did his
name continue enshrined in their hearts, and
familiar to their tongues ; their plaintive ditties
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 113
resounding with his exploits, and inviting his
return. Again, in these strains, do they declare
themselves ready to risk life and fortune for his
cause ; and even maternal fondness the strongest,
perhaps, of all human feelings yields to the pas-
sionate devotion to ' Prince Charlie.' " *
As long as the hills of Scotland stand, says Sir
Walter Scott, the disinterested fidelity shown by
the Scots to Prince Charles will continue to shine
in the light of their own glory ; but it may with
equal justice be added that, as long as the sun
shall shine upon the unfortunate, the conduct of
Charles Stuart must continue a model to those
who would rise superior to the calamities by
which they are beset. The words of Seneca, which
have been placed as a motto to the title-page of
this work, could never perhaps have been more
aptly applied than to Charles and his Highlanders
during this period of his history.t
* In a Scottish ballad (" O'er the water to Charlie," No. 37 of
Mr. Hogg's Second Series) we find this stanza :
" I ance had sons, but now hae nane,
I bred them toiling sairly ;
And I wad bear them a' again,
And lose them a' for Charlie."
t Poetry and painting have alike seized upon the adventures of
Charles Stuart as a subject worthy of the illustration of genius.
VOL. II. I
114 MEMOIRS OF
Among the first of the works, half history half fiction, to which his
life has given rise, we may name Alexander Duval's drama of
Edouard en Ecosse, which, as Bourrienne tells us, was performed
two or three times at the Comedie Franfaise in Paris, about the
end of February, 1801, but in which some political allusions were
discovered, in consequence of which the piece disappeared from the
repertoire, and the author from Paris. Kotzebue has given us an
imitation of Duval's play in Eduard in Schottland, oder die Nacht
eines Fluchtlings. More recently, Paul Delaroche, who, from his
partiality for the dead and the dying as subjects for his pencil,
might fairly be called the painter of death, has given us a picture
which is generally described as " the last of the Stuarts dying of
hunger, and supported by Flora Macdonald." Historical truth, it
will be seen, has not been very closely followed by the artist. It
is singular, however, that poetry and painting should have hitherto
confined their attention to that part of Charles's life which relates
to his flight after the battle of Culloden. Surely the whole period
from his landing in Scotland to his embarkation at Lochnanuagh
is rich in materials for imagination to work upon. A little tale,
Der Pr'dtendent, by W. Alexis, has been published in the Urania,
for 1841, but the adventures of Charles are used in this work only
as a vehicle for allusions to modern events.
In the Appendix, No. 2 and 3, will be found many minute par-
ticulars respecting this eventful period in the life of Charles Stuart,
derived from books now become rare and not accessible to every
reader.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 115
CHAPTER XXVII.
RECEPTION OF CHARLES AT VERSAILLES HIS JOURNEY
TO MADRID LETTER TO HIS FATHERHE RETURNS
TO PARIS HIS BROTHER IS CREATED CARDINAL
CHARLES'S AFFLICTION AT THIS EVENT.
ON landing in France, Charles was hardly in a
condition to start immediately for Paris. His
health, indeed, he appears to have rapidly reco-
vered, either while in the Cage with Lochiel, or
during the passage from Scotland; but the
Prince, on his arrival, required not the less a few
days of repose. Neither he, nor any of his com-
panions, had been able to bring a well-appointed
wardrobe. Many had scarcely possessed the means
of changing their garments since the day of Cullo-
den, and some delay, therefore, was necessary, before
the Prince could appear with his retinue in a
suitable manner at the French court.
Immediately after his landing, Charles ad-
116 MEMOIRS OF
dressed the following letter to his brother
Henry :
" Morlaix, October 10, N. S., 1746.
"Dear Brother,
" As I am certain of your great concern for me,
I cannot; express the joy I have, on your account,
of my safe arrival in this country. I send here
inclosed two lines to my master,* just to show
him I am alive and safe, being fatigued not a
little, as you may imagine. It is my opinion you
should write immediately to the French king,
giving him notice of my safe arrival, and at the
same time excusing my not writing to him my-
self immediately, being so much fatigued, and
hoping soon to have the pleasure of seeing him.
I leave to your prudence the wording of this
letter, and would be glad no time should be lost
in writing and despatching it, as also that you
should consult nobody, without exception, upon
it, but Sir John Graham, and Sir Thomas, f the
reasons of which I will tell you on meeting. It
is an absolute necessity I must see the French
king as soon as possible, for to bring things to a
right head. Warren, the bearer, will instruct
* His father. t Sheridan.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 117
you of the way I would wish you should meet me
at Paris. I embrace you with all my heart, and
remain,
"Your most loving brother,
" CHARLES, P."
A few days sufficed to enable the Prince to
assume an appearance suitable to his rank. The
fame of his heroism and of his misfortunes had
preceded him to France, and the nobility of
Bretagne eagerly offered him their services, and
quickly provided Charles and his companions
with everything necessary for the supply of their
immediate wants. Forgetful as the French cabi-
net had been of the blood of the Bearnais, and of
the Sobieski that flowed in the veins of the young
Stuart, yet his conduct during the campaigns in
Scotland and England had too frequently re-
minded the world of his ancestry, and particularly
of the courage and chivalrous bearing of the
victor of Ivry, for the French nation not to have
manifested an interest in his fortunes ; and his
frequent declaration, that with a few thousand
French soldiers he could easily have expelled his
Hanoverian enemies from their ill-gotten throne,
118 MEMOIRS OF
had not failed to flatter the vanity, and win for
him the hearts of a people alike susceptible and
\\arm in its affection and its enmity.
Accordingly, after a few days spent on the
coast, Charles set off with post-horses for Paris ;
not, however, to remain there, though King
Louis had assigned him the Chateau de St. An-
toine for a residence, but to proceed immediately
to Versailles, to pay his respects to the king and
the royal family. The Duke of York, with seve-
ral Scottish, joined by a few French nobles,
hastened to congratulate, on his arrival on French
ground, the Prince for whom the events of the pre-
ceding months had for ever secured a prominent
place in history.
His appearance at this time is described in the
following letter addressed to his father by Charles's
brother :
chy, October \1, 17
" The very morning after I writ you my last,
I had the happiness of meeting with my dearest
brother. He did not know me at first sight, but
I am sure I knew him very well, for he is not in
the least altered since I saw him. except grown
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 119
somewhat broader and fatter, which is incompre-
hensible after all the fatigues he has endured.
Your Majesty may conceive, better than I can
express in writing, the tenderness of our first
meeting. Those that were present said they
never saw the like in their lives, and indeed I
defy the whole world to show another brother
so kind and loving as he is to me. For my part,
I can safely say, that all my endeavours tend to no
other end but that of deserving so much goodness
as he has for me. . . . The Prince sees and will
scarce see anybody but myself for a few days,
that he may have a little time to rest before he
is plagued by all the world, as to be sure he will
when once he sees company. I go every day to
dine with him. Yesterday, I brought him pri-
vately to see my house, and I perceive he has
as much gout for the chase as ever he had. Most
humbly asking your Majesty's blessing, I remain,
" Your most dutiful son,
" HENRY."
At the moment of Charles's arrival at Versailles,
King Louis was presiding over the deliberations
of an extraordinary council of state, but imme-
120 MEMOIRS OF
diately left the room on hearing of the Prince's
arrival. He passed through several rooms to meet
his guest, whom he embraced with these words :
" I thank Heaven for the joy it gives me to see
your Royal Highness again. The glory you have
earned will never die, and I trust you will one
day reap the harvest of such great efforts and so-
many dangers." These words were not perhaps
much in harmony with the treatment which the
heroic Stuart had experienced from the French
government during the two last eventful years ;
nor was the king's sincerity manifested by his
subsequent conduct ; still, at the moment the
speech was uttered, it may have been the expres-
sion of a real though not of a long enduring
sentiment ; but, even supposing the language of
Louis to have been used, according to the principle
of a modern statesman, to disguise his thoughts,
there is no reason to believe that the lively
interest shown by the queen was not perfectly
sincere/when, after an interview of a quarter of
an hour with the king, Charles went to pay his
respects to Maria Lesczinska. The queen, who
had spent some of her early years with the Prin-
cess Sobieski, the mother of Charles, beheld in>
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 121
the Prince the son of a dear friend, and not only
expressed the liveliest interest in his fate, but
continued for some time afterwards to distinguish
him by the most marked attention.
From that time till the conclusion of the peace,
Charles visited the soirees of the queen once or
twice every week, on which occasions she rarely
omitted an opportunity to lead him to narrate his
adventures and sufferings in Scotland and England,
never failing to afford him all that consolation
which unfeigned sympathy can alone bestow. The
interest shown him by Maria's daughters, the
princesses of the royal house, there is reason to
believe, was equally sincere. The romantic for-
tunes of our young hero, gifted, according to the
unvarying testimony of friends and foes, with a
handsome person and singularly winning manners,
could hardly fail of producing a lively impression
upon the imagination of these young ladies ; and
there is nothing, therefore, improbable in the state-
ment of several contemporary writers, that one of
these young princesses was animated towards him
by a softer sentiment than sympathy or admiration.*
* Allusion to this subject is also made in the letters written at
that time from Paris, and which are reprinted in the Appendix to
the Lockhart Papers. One of these letters says : " Nor were the
122 MEMOIRS OF
The attention shown to him by the royal family
naturally made Charles an object of assiduous
courtship to the nobility and the foreign ambas-
sadors, while the whole mob of courtiers were
emulous in displaying their respect for him. To
have seen him at Paris at this time, it has been
said, by those who witnessed his appearance there,
one would have supposed that the dauphin himself
had escaped the dangers and adventures which
Charles had so recently surmounted.
Some expressions in the letter written to his
brother, from Morlaix (see page 116), show that
Charles continued to entertain hopes of being soon
enabled to resume his attempts for the recovery
of the English throne ; but an additional proof
of this is afforded by the following memorial,
addressed to Louis, and which bears the date of
the 10th of November, 1746, just one month
after his landing in France :
" La situation dans laquelle j'ai laisse 1'Europe
a mon depart, m elite toute Tattention de votre
young princesses, one of them especially, less affected with the
melancholy story." For " one of them," we are told by Donald
Mac Leod, (Jacobite Memoirs, p. 391) " Charles often expressed
much affection when in Scotland, and when he proposed his favourite
toast, ' the Black Eyes,' the ' second daughter of France' was always
in his mind."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 123
Majeste. Ce royaume est a la veille de se voir
aneantir, et le gouvernement d'Angleterre est
resolu de confondre les sujets qui lui sont restes
fideles avec ceux qui ont pris les armes pour moi ;
d'ou il est aise de conclure que le mecontentement
de cette nation est general, et que j'y trouverais
aujourd'hui trois partisans pour un que j'y ai
trouve en debarquant.
" Ce serait tromper votre Majeste que de la
flatter que je pourrais encore soulever 1'Ecosse, si
le Parlement a le temps cet hiver d'y mettre les
lois penales en execution. Votre Majeste devrait
alors renoncer pour jamais au secours d'une revo-
lution dans ce pays la, et moi je n'aurais de
ressource que dans les coeurs des sujets de inon
pere, quand il plaira a la Providence de les
rappeller.
" Le nombre de sujets aguerres ne m'a jamais
manque en Ecosse. J'ai manque tout a la fois,
d'argent, de vivres, et d'une poignee de troupes
regulieres. Avec un seul de ces trois secours je
serais encore aujourd'hui maitre de 1'Ecosse, et
vraisemblablement de toute 1'Angleterre.
" Avec trois mille hommes de troupes regulieres,
124 MEMOIRS OF
j'aurais p^netre en Angleterre immediatement
apres avoir defait le sieur Cope ; et rien ne s'oppo-
sait alors a mon arrivee & Loridres, puisque TElec-
teur etait absent, et que les troupes Anglaises
n'avaient pas encore repasse.
" Avec des vivres, j'aurais ete en etat de pour-
suivre le general Hawley apres la bataille de Fal-
kirk, et de detruire toute son arme, qui etait la
fleur des troupes Anglaises.
" Si j'eusse re9u plutot la moitie seulement de
1' argent que votre Majeste m'a envoye, j'aurais
combattu le Due de Cumberland avec un nombre
egal, et je 1'aurais surement battu, puisque avec
quatre rnille hommes centre douze, j'ai long-temps
fait pencher la victoire, et que douze cent hommes
de troupes reglees Tauraient decide en ma faveur,
au vu et au su de toute mon armee. Ces contre-
temps peuvent encore se reparer si votre Majeste
veut encore me Conner un corps de dix-huit ou
vingt mille hommes. C'est dans son sein seul
que je deposerai 1'usage que j'en veux faire: je
1'emploierai utilernent pour ses interets et pour les
miens. Ces interets sont inseparables, et doivent
etre regardes comme tels par tons ceux qui ont
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 125
Thonneur d'approcher de votre Majeste, et qui ont
la gloire et 1'avantage de son royaume.
"CHARLES, P. R."*
Whatever may have been the King's ulterior
views, he did not allow the Prince Regent of
England, 'under which title Charles had been
received at the French court, to be without the
means of maintaining all the outward parade of
royalty. Considerable sums of money were placed
at his disposal ; and it has even been said, that, at
the intercession of the Marquise de Pompadour, a
yearly pension of 200,000 livres was assigned to
him, in addition to which, a handsome provision
was made for him by the Spanish court. These
marks of sympathy inspired him with fresh hopes
for what he looked upon as the main purpose of
his life.
On the tenth day after that on which he had
had his first interview with the king at Versailles,
took place the public reception of Charles at court.
* This memorial was originally published in the Appendix to
Lord Mahon's History. The omission of a word or two in the last
sentence obscures the meaning. The sentence should probably
have run thus : et qui ont ait cceur la gloire et 1'avantage de soi
royaume.
126 MEMOIRS OF
The description left behind by an eye-witness of
the pageant, affords a fresh proof of the growing
fondness of Louis for trifles and court etiquette, in
proportion as all sense of real greatness died within
him. The procession, in which the Prince drove
from the Chateau de St. Antoine to the palace,
consisted of three carriages. In the first were
Lords Ogilvie and Elcho, and Glenbucket and
Kellie, secretaries to the regency. In the second
carriage was the Prince himself, with Lord Lewis
Gordon and Lochiel the father. The third was
occupied by four chamberlains. The victor of
Preston had necessarily laid aside the simple but
graceful costume of the Highlands for a magni-
ficent court suit. He was dressed in a doublet of
pink velvet embroidered with silver ; his waistcoat
was of silk and gold ; his cockade and shoebuckles
were loaded with diamonds, and his stars of
St. George and St. Andrew presented a blaze of
jewels. By the side of the Prince's carriage were
two pages sumptuously dressed, arid ten footmen
in the royal livery of England. Young Lochiel
and a number of other nobles followed the proces-
sion on horseback. In the evening, the Prince
supped with the king and the royal family, and
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 127
his followers, according to their respective rank,
found each a place at some other table in the
palace.
Charles, while playing his part in this court
spectacle, suspected probably that the splendour
of a procession afforded but little security for that
active succour to which alone he could now look
for the realisation of his hopes. The thought
cannot but have suggested itself to him, that the
king of France was but desirous of enhancing the
splendour of his court by an additional pageant ;
but, even had Charles continued in doubt on the
subject, he was not long allowed to remain in
uncertainty. His banished partisans, indeed, who
had either accompanied him to France or had
found their way thither singly, were taken into
French pay, formed into regiments commanded
by Lochiel, Ogilvie, and other Jacobite officers,
and sent to Calais, Boulogne, and Dieppe, where
a new army was assembled, ostensibly for the inva-
sion of England ; but Charles saw plainly that
the means were wholly inadequate to the end, and
that, in the position in which Scotland had been
placed by the battle of Culloden, nothing could
have justified him, if, relying on so insufficient a
128 MEMOIRS OF
force, he had exposed his friends in Great Britain
to a fate which could scarcely have been deemed
a doubtful one. A visit, however, which he shortly
afterwards received from Cardinal Tencin, was
calculated to dissipate every remaining doubt.
The churchman pointed out to Charles, that the
surest way of prevailing upon the French minis-
try would be to undertake, in case of success, to
cede Ireland to France, as an indemnity for the
expenses of the war. Charles is said to have been
deeply mortified by a proposal which he felt as a
personal insult. He rejected the injurious over-
ture with much warmth, and the cardinal hastened
to assure him that the suggestion was an idea of
his own, for which the other members of the
government were not to be held responsible. It
has been said, that, in making the proposal, the
cardinal looked rather to his own interest than
to that of his most Christian Majesty, and flattered
himself, could the cession have been effected, with
the prospect of the dignity and revenues of
primate of Ireland. Be this as it may, and
supposing even the other ministers to have had
no cognizance of the proposal, it had proceeded
from one in whose person the whole power of the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 129
ministry centered ; and Charles justly felt that he
could have little to hope for from a man to the
level of whose baseness he had refused to descend.
Charles spent the year 1747 in Paris, with the
exception of a few weeks occupied by a journey to
Madrid, where Ferdinand the Sixth had, about
eight months previously, succeeded to the throne
on the death of his father Philip. At the Spanish
as at the French court, the assurances of sympathy
and good wishes were not wanting; but at the
Escurial even less than at Versailles did considera-
tions of state policy allow the Prince to receive
more than courteous treatment. Spain no longer
occupied the rank which she had held under her
first Charles, and which she maintained under the
second Philip. The empire on which the sun
never set had rapidly declined, and her ministers,
in awe of British power but let us hear from
Charles himself an account of his reception, as he
described it in a familiar letter to his father.
" Guadalaxara, March 12, 1747.
" Sir, I believe your Majesty will be as much
surprised as I am, to find that no sooner arrived,
I was hurried away without so much as allowing
VOL. ii. K
130 MEMOIRS OF
me time to rest. I thought there was not such
fools as the French court, but I find it here far
beyond it. Your Majesty must forgive me if I
speak here a little out of humour, for an angel
would take the spleen on this occasion. Notwith-
standing you will find I behaved towards them
with all the respect and civility imaginable, doing
a la lettre whatever they required of me, to give
them not the least reason of complaining of me,
and by that putting them entirely dans leur tort.
I shall now begin my narration of all that has
passed since my arrival in this country.
" For, to arrive with the greater secrecy and
diligence, so that this court should not hear of me
until I let them know it, I took post at Perpignan,
with Vaughan and Cameron, the rest not being
able to ride, and not to be so many together. I
arrived at Barcelona, and finding that, by the
indiscretion of some of our own people (which the
town happened then to be full of), it was imme-
diately spread I was there ; this hindered me to
wait here for the rest of my people coming up, as
I intended, and made me take the resolution to
leave even those that had come there with me,
for the greater blind and expedition, and to take
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 131
along with me only Colonel Nagle, who had been
with the Duke of Ormond.
" I arrived at Madrid the 2nd instant, and
addressed myself immediately to Geraldine, Sir
Charles Wogan being at his government ; and it
happened better so, for I find they are not well
together, and Geraldine is all in all with the
ministers. I gave him immediately a letter for
Caravajal, which inclosed one for the king, of
which I send here a copy ; this was the channel
he advised me to go by. Upon that I got an
appointment with the said minister; and he
carried me to him in his coach, with a great
many ridiculous precautions, for I find all here
like the pheasants, that it is enough to hide their
heads to cover the rest of the body, as they
think. After I made Caravajal many compli-
ments, I asked him that I supposed he had
delivered my letter to the king, and had received
his orders what I should do ? To which he said
he had not, telling me it was better he should not
give it, and that I should go back immediately;
that he was very sorry the situation of affairs was
such, that he advised rne to do so. This he
endeavoured to persuade me to by several very
K2
132 MEMOIRS OF
nonsensical reasons. I answered them all, so that
he had nothing in the world to say, but that he
would deliver my letter. I told him that my
sudden resolution of coming here was upon one of
my friends coming just before I parted from Paris
to me, from the rest, assuring me that they were
ready as much as ever, if they had the assistance
necessary, to allow them time to come to a head ;
at the same time expressing what a conceit that
nation had for the Spaniards' good inclinations,
and how popular it would be for me to take a
jaunt in that country, out of gratitude for all they
had endeavoured to do for us ; that I could be
back at any event for any expedition of effect, for
that, with reason, none could be undertook till
the month of April or May. I added to that my
personal inclinations, which hit with theirs. I
parted, after all compliments were over, and was
never in the world more surprised than when
Caravajal himself came at the door of the auberge
I was lodged in, at eleven at night and a half, to
tell me that the king wanted to see me imme-
diately. I went instantly, and saw the king and
queen together, who made me a great many
civilities, but at the same time desiring me to go
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 133
back as soon as possible ; that, unluckily, circum-
stances of affairs required so at present ; that
nothing in the world they desired more than to
have the occasion of showing me proofs of their
friendship and regard. (One finds in old histories,
that the greatest proofs of showing such things
are to help people in distress ; but this, I find, is
not now a la mode, according to French fashion.)
I asked the king leave, in the first place, to see
the queen dowager, and the rest of the royal
family, to which he answered there was no need
to do it. Upon my repeating, how mortifying it
would be for me, at least, not to make my respects
to the old queen, to thank her for her goodness
towards us, he said I might speak of that to
Caravajal. I found by that he had got his
lesson, and was a weak man just put in motion
like a clock-work. At last, after many respectful
compliments, and that the chief motive of my
coming was to thank his Majesty for all the
services his royal family had done for ours, at the
same time to desire the continuation of them ; to
which he said, if occasion offered he would even
do more ; after that I asked him, for not to trouble
him longer, which was the minister he would
134 MEMOIRS OF
leave me to speak to of my affairs, and of what I
wanted ? to which he said, that he had an entire
confidence in Caravajal, and that to him alone I
might speak as to himself. I spoke then, that
Caravajal might hear, that there was nobody that
could be more acceptable to me than him : says I,
in laughing, he is half an Englishman, being
called Lancaster. I parted ; and who does I make
out at the door but Farinelli, who took me by
the hand with effrontery. I thought at first it
was some grandee, or captain of the guards, that
had seen me in Italy, and was never so much sur-
prised as when he named himself, saying that he
had seen me formerly, which he was sure I could
not remember.
" From thence I went in the minister's apart-
ment, and staid some time with him ; but I per-
ceived immediately that he battait la campagne,
and concluded nothing to the purpose, but pressing
me ardently to go out of the town and away imme-
diately. I told him, though I had made a long
journey, notwithstanding, being young and strong,
I would be ready to go away that very same night ;
but that, if he cared to assist me in the least, he
must allow me a little time to explain and settle
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 135
things with him; that, if he pleased, I would be
next day with him again. He agreed to that,
but that absolutely it was necessary, to do a
pleasure to the king, I should part the day after.
I went to him as agreed upon, and brought a note
of what I was to speak to him about, which, after
explaining, I gave to him a copy of, which I enclose
here, along with the answer he made before me in
writing, which seems to me not to say much. He
pressed me again to part next day. I represented
it was an impossibility, in a manner, for me to go
before any of my people coming up. At last he
agreed to send along with me Sir Thomas Geral-
dine, as far as Guadalaxara, where I might wait
for my family.
4t We parted, loading one another with com-
pliments."
Within a fortnight from the date of the above,
Charles was again in Paris, for, on the 26th of
March, we find him writing to Lord Clancarty in
the following terms :
" Paris, March 26, 1747.
" I thought it proper to come back again in this
country (but intend to keep myself absolutely in
136 MEMOIRS OF
private) as the season is now favourable to make
another attempt, and to bring these people here
to reason if possible. On our side, we must leave
no stone unturned, and leave the rest to Providence.
If you have anything to let me know of. you have
only to write to me under cover to young Waters,
who will always know where to find me. At
present I have nothing more particular to add, so
remain, assuring you anew of my constant regard
and friendship.
" CHARLES, P. R."
The year was not to close without being marked
by an event which affected Charles the more pain-
fully, as it was not the result of untoward acci-
dent, but of the free determination of a brother,
who next to himself had the strongest claims to
the British throne. On the 3d of July, the Duke
of York was metamorphosed into the Cardinal
d'York, and in doing so abandoned all idea of
aiming at the possession of an earthly crown.
With this view, Prince Henry* had some time
previously left Paris, in secret, for Rome, and
the first hint which Charles received of his
brother's design was contained in a letter from
PRIN 7 CE CHARLES STUART. 137
their father, dated the 13th of June. This event,
in the eyes of the partisans of the Stuart cause,
was a severer blow to Jacobitism than even the
disaster of Culloden, and so deeply was Charles
afflicted that, though till then he had ever shown
the tenderest affection to his brother, he broke off
all correspondence with him, and even the few
letters of a later date, from Charles to his father,
that have reached us, are couched in a style of
coldness and reserve, of which we should vainly
seek a trace in any portion of their earlier corres-
pondence. The following is the letter from his
father, in which Charles was first apprised of
what he deemed, not without reason, a domestic
calamity :
" Albano, June 13, 1747.
" I know not whether you will be surprised, my
dearest Carluccio, when I tell you, that your
brother will be made a cardinal the first day of
next month. Naturally speaking, you should
have been consulted about a resolution of that
kind, before it had been executed ; but as the
Duke and I were unalterably determined on the
matter, and we foresaw that you might pro-
bably not approve of it, we thought it would be
138 MEMOIRS OF
showing you more regard, and that it would even
be more agreeable to you, that the thing should
be done before your answer could come here, and
to have it infyour power to say it was done with-
out your knowledge and approbation. It is very
true, I did ? not expect to see the Duke here so
soon, and that his tenderness and affection for me
prompted^ him to undertake that journey ; but
after I had seen him, I soon found that his chief
motive for it was to discourse with me fully and
freely on the vocation he had long had to embrace
an ecclesiastical state, and which he had so long
concealed from" me and kept to himself, with a
view, no doubt, of having it in his power of being
of some use to you in the late conjunctures. But
the case is now altered ; and, as I am fully convinced
of the sincerity and solidity of his vocation, I
should think it a resisting the will of God, and
acting directly against my conscience, if I should
pretend to constrain him in a matter which so
nearly concerns him. The maxims I have bred
you up in, and have always followed, of not con-
straining others in matters of religion, did not a
little help to determine me on the present occasion,
since it would be a monstrous proposition that a
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 139
king should be a father to his people and a tyrant
to his children. After this, I will not conceal
from you, my dearest Carluccio, that motives of
conscience and equity have not alone determined me
in this particular ; and that, when I seriously con-
sider all that has passed in relation to the Duke
for some years bygone, had he not had the voca-
tion he has, I should have used my best endea-
vours, and all arguments,, to have induced him to
embrace that state. If Providence has made you
the elder brother, he is as much my son as you,
and my paternal care and affection are equally to
be extended to you and him ; so that I should
have thought I had greatly failed in both towards
him, had I not endeavoured by all means to secure
to him, as much as in me lay, that tranquillity
and happiness which I was sensible it was impos-
sible for him to enjoy in any other state. You
will understand all that I mean, without my
enlarging farther on this last so disagreeable
article ; and you cannot, I am sure, complain that
I deprive you of any service the Duke might have
been to you, since you must be sensible that, all
things considered, he would have been useless to
you remaining in the world. But let us look
140 MEMOIRS OF
forward and not backward. The resolution is
taken, and will be executed before your answer to
this can come here. If you think proper to say
you were ignorant of it, and do not approve it, I
shall not take it amiss of you ; but, for God's sake,
let not a step, which naturally should secure peace
and union to us for the rest of our days, become
a subject of scandal and eclat, which would fall
heavier upon you than upon us in our present
situation, and which a filial and brotherly conduct
in you will easily prevent. Your silence towards
your brother, and what you writ to me about him
since he left Paris, would do you little honour if
they were known, and are mortifications your
brother did not deserve, but which cannot alter
his sentiments towards you. He now writes to
you a few lines himself, but I forbid him entering
into any particulars, since it would be giving him-
self and you a useless trouble after all I have said
about him here.
" You must be sensible that on many occasions
I have had reason to complain of you, and that I
have acted for this long while towards you more
like a son than a father ; but I can assure you,
my dear child, nothing of all that sticks with me,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 141
and I forgive you the more sincerely and cordially
all the trouble you have given me, that I am per-
suaded it was not your intention to fail towards
me, and that I shall have reason to be pleased
with you for the time to come, since all I request
of you hereafter is your personal love and affection
for me and your brother. Those who may have
had their own views in endeavouring to remove us
from your affairs, have compassed Jheir end. We
are satisfied, and you remain master ; so that I
see no bone of contention remaining, nor any pos-
sible obstacle to a perfect peace and union amongst
us for the future. God bless my dearest Carluccio,
whom I tenderly embrace. I am all yours,
" JAMES R."
142 MEMOIRS OF
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PEACE OF A1X-LA-CHAPELLE HUMILIATING TERMS IM-
POSED ON FRANCE CHARLES, REFUSING TO LEAVE
PARIS, IS SEIZED, CONFINED, AND CONVEYED ACROSS
THE FRONTIERS TO AVIGNON.
FRANCE, whose resources had been exhausted
by an eight years' war, longed ardently for peace ;
and, considering the successes by which, on many
occasions, the French arms had been crowned, she
might, notwithstanding some recent reverses, have
expected to conclude one alike honourable and
advantageous to the nation. The peace con-
cluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, on the 18th of October,
1748, can certainly not be looked on as bearing
such a character, and the terms of that treaty
may not unfairly be deemed a punishment for the
ambiguous conduct pursued by France towards
Charles during the eventful years 1745 and
1746. Had the Prince been cordially supported
at the proper time, by the landing of a French
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 143
army in Scotland or England, it is scarcely to be
doubted that the ministers of Louis might have
dictated their own terms at Aix-la-Chapelle,
instead of being obliged to treat upon the basis of
the status quo before the war, notwithstanding
the victories of the Marshals de Saxe, Belleisle,
and Richelieu.
Among the conditions of the peace was one
that can hardly be looked on in any other
light than as deeply humiliating. As early as
April, 1748, on the first meeting of the pleni-
potentiaries of England, France and Holland,
it became evident that no peace was to be hoped
for, unless the King of France would bind him-
self, in compliance with the demands of England,
that no member of the Stuart family should
thenceforth reside within the French territory.
Louis and his counsellors were willing enough to
yield to this demand ; but, desirous to preserve
appearances, they were anxious that the removal
of Charles should, at least, seem to be a voluntary
act of his own. He was, accordingly, offered,
probably with the consent of the British govern-
ment, a residence at Freiburg in Switzerland,
where, as Prince of Wales, a suitable pension was
144 MEMOIRS OF
to be allowed him, with the privilege of main-
taining a body-guard. Charles declined an offer
which bore to him too much the air of a com-
mand from the Hanoverian court, and his father
was thereupon prevailed upon to call upon him to
leave France. This device failed entirely.
Charles, aware that his father was wholly under
the hated influence of the Earl of Dunbar, had deter-
mined, under existing circumstances, not to return
to Rome, and, having been invited to France under
the positive promise of active assistance, he was
unwilling to leave the country, till he had shown
to the world the full extent to which he had been
deceived by the French cabinet. This last consi-
deration induced him to remain in Paris, even
after it had been intimated to him that the Earl
of Dunbar had been directed to retire from
James's court, and to fix his residence at Avig-
non. In the mean time, Charles made several
vain efforts to obtain an audience of King Louis,
with a view of reminding him of all the argu-
ments that might be opposed to the terms of the
treaty then under negotiation. The French
minister, the Marquis de Puisieux, had his own
reasons for preventing such an interview; and this
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 145
it was the more easy for him to effect, as Louis
was daily becoming, more and more, a mere tool
in the hands of his ministers, his favourites, and
his mistresses.
By the eighteenth article of the treaty, the
contracting powers bound themselves to the con-
dition already described, respecting the members
of the house of Stuart, and guaranteed to the
Hanoverian dynasty the possession of the British
crown. While the negotiations were going on,
Charles and his father entered a protest against
any measure by which the claims of the Stuarts
to the English throne might be infringed ; and
the Prince added a declaration that he would
accept of no offer, nor consent to any terms, by
which he might be constrained to renounce his
legitimate rights, or to separate himself from his
adherents and dependents. When the terms o^
the peace became publicly known, he deemed it
fitting to take no notice of the circumstance. He
appeared, indeed, less frequently at Versailles,
Fontainebleau, andChoisy; and, when he appeared
at court, shortened his visits as much as possible.
He avoided instead of seeking an opportunity to
speak with the king alone; and if the peace
YOL. II. L
146 MEMOIRS OF
happened to be spoken of in his presence, he
generally found means to give another turn to
the conversation ; but where he could not do so,
he kept himself entirely aloof from it. On the
other hand, he showed himself more frequently
at the different public places of amusement, where
he thought, or affected to think, himself more
secure than in his own house. He even hired a
handsome hotel on the Quai des Theatins, for the
purpose, as he said, of being nearer the opera.
If by this conduct he sought to mark his dis-
pleasure at the recent treaty and his contempt for
the French ministry, he displayed, at the same
time, on more than one occasion, a solicitude for
the land of his fathers, more honourable to his
patriotism than was perhaps consistent with pru-
dence. The treaty was clogged with a condition
most unwelcome to British pride, that Cape Breton
should be restored to France, and that hostages
should be given for its restitution. In this
character, two noblemen of high rank, the Earl
of Sussex and Lord Cathcart, were sent to Paris.
At the news of their arrival, Charles is said to
have displayed the utmost indignation, and to
have exclaimed, " If ever I mount the throne of
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 147
my ancestors, Europe shall see me use my utmost
endeavours to force France in her turn to send
hostages to England." * On another occasion,
the Prince de Conti, meeting him in the gardens
of the Luxembourg, said, in a sneering tone, " I
am astonished at your magnanimity in taking up
the cause of the English navy, seeing that the
English ships have displayed so little kindness to
your Royal Highness in return." " Very true,"
replied Charles, " but I shall not the less always
defend the British navy against all its enemies.
The glory of England I shall always consider as
my own, and the glory of England reposes on her
navy." This conversation referred to a medal
which Charles had caused to be struck. The
medal bore his own bust, with the inscription,
Carolus VallicR Princeps, and on the reverse was
a ship, with these words, Amor et Spes Britan-
nia. The medal was struck in silver and copper,
and numbers were distributed by the Prince.
The French ministers would have resented an act
which they looked upon as an insult to France,
the inference being that the peace had been
extorted by the successes of the British navy;
* Lockhart Papers.
L 2
148 MEMOIRS OF
King Louis, however, deemed it the wiser course
to take no notice of the matter.
The French court had hoped from time to
time that Charles would leave Paris of his own
accord, but, seeing no prospect of this, began to
hint to him that disagreeable measures might
be resorted to if he remained longer. Cardinal
de Tencin and the Due de Gesvres visited him
for the purpose of communicating these menaces
in a courtier- like manner. Charles, who affected
not to understand his guests, told them he had
not yet resolved on the course he should take,
and in the end dismissed them, saying that the
King of France had bound himself to the cause
of the Stuarts by his honour, a far weightier
obligation than any considerations of state.
King Louis, about this time, had ordered a
service of plate, to the value of about 100,000
crowns; but, hearing that his goldsmith had
received a similar order from Charles, with an
urgent request to have it promptly executed,
the king commanded that the Prince's order
should be first attended to, and, at the same time,
guaranteed the punctual payment. Louis had
imagined the order to have been given with a
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 149
view to an early departure from Paris, a step
which he was willing to facilitate by every means
in his power; but, to his annoyance, he found
that the plate had been ordered for a splendid
entertainment which Charles was about to give to
the Princesse de Talmont, Madame de Maisieux,
the Due de Bouillon, and about thirty other
persons of distinction.
The French court was seriously embarrassed
by the conduct of the Prince, but his spirited
bearing gained great favour for him in the eyes
of the Parisians, and whenever he appeared in
public he never failed to receive signal marks of
public sympathy and admiration. Manyv persons
of high rank, among others the Princesse de
Talmont, manifested their sentiments in such a
manner as to draw down upon them the severe
displeasure of the court. The English govern-
ment began to complain loudly of the non-
execution of the treaty, and the Marquis de
Puisieux had some trouble to excuse his govern-
ment. He promised, however, that immediately
on the return of a courier, who had been sent to
Rome, the French cabinet would come to a deter-
mination that should fully satisfy the King of
150 MEMOIRS OF
England. Nor was this promise given in vain.
Another attempt had been vainly made by the
Due de Gesvres, in the king's name, to prevail
on Charles to remove to Freiburg, where the
canton, he was assured, was ready to receive
him in a manner suitable to his rank and merit.
James had also been induced to address another
letter to his son, entreating him to yield to the
force of circumstances, and not to incense the
King of France by farther resistance. This letter
was transmitted from Rome open to King Louis,
who sent it with an autograph letter of his own
offering the Prince a pension to be spent out of
France, and leaving a blank for the amount to
be filled up by Charles himself. These letters,
delivered by the Due de Gesvres, failed to pro-
duce the intended effect ; and a similar message
from the king, conveyed subsequently by the
Comte de Maurepas, was equally ineffectual. A
regular council of war was thereupon called, on
the 21st of December, 1748, at which it was
resolved that the more serious measures with
which he had been repeatedly threatened, should
be put into execution.
On the afternoon of the same day, as Charles
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
151
was walking in the garden of the Tuileries, an
anonymous letter was handed to him, in which
he was informed of every particular that had
occurred in the council ; but the intelligence thus
conveyed was incapable of altering his determi-
nation to yield only to open force. At the usual
hour, he drove to the Opera. On his way through
the Rue St. Horiore, some unknown person
warned him, in a loud voice, that he was about to
be arrested, but this did not prevent him from pro-
ceeding as he had intended. In the vicinity of the
theatre, all the requisite measures had been taken
to secure the Prince's person without danger.
The opera house was surrounded by twelve hun-
dred men under the command of the Due de
Biron. The guards at all the avenues had been
doubled, and the sentinels at the doors received
orders to let no one pass out of the theatre. In
case Charles should take refuge in an adjoining
house, scaling-ladders had been provided, and
battering-rams to force in doors and windows.
Three surgeons even, and a physician, had been
ordered to be in attendance in case of accident.
All these preparations having been made, Major
de Vaudreuil, of the French guard, attended by a
152 MEMOIRS OF
number of non-commissioned officers in plain
clothes, placed himself at the entrance of the
theatre, and, as soon as the Prince had stepped
out of his carriage, two sergeants, at a precon-
certed signal, seized his arms from behind, two
caught hold of his hands, his thighs were grasped
by the arms of a fifth, and his feet secured by a
sixth. In this manner he was carried through a
long passage into an alley, or cul-de-sac, near the
theatre, where de Vaudreuil declared him a pri-
soner in the king's name. The attendants of
Charles had, in the mean time, delivered up their
swords, and, with one exception, been conveyed
to the Bastille, orders having been sent to the
governor to treat them with respect. The livery
servants were sent to a prison, and all the Prince's
effects were placed under seal. In the cul-de-sac,
after the Prince had delivered up his sword, his
pistols, and a double-bladed knife, arms which,
since his return from Scotland, he had been con-
stantly in the habit of carrying about him, he
was bound hand and foot by Vaudreuil, on a
signal given by the Due de Biron. When this
indignity was offered him, Charles had already
pledged his word that he would attempt na
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 153
violence either on his own person or against
others. By an absurd affectation of respect for
the prisoner's rank, ten ells of crimson silk ribbon
had been provided for the purpose of binding
him. Charles expressed his surprise at seeing an
officer of the royal guard undertaking such a task,
but to this reproach no answer was returned.
Swathed like an infant, as Power expresses him-
self, the Prince was then lifted by four soldiers
into a fiacre> where Vaudreuil placed himself by
his side. Two other officers took the opposite
seats, two others rode, one at each window of the
carriage. Six grenadiers with fixed bayonets
mounted behind, and a detachment of cavalry fol-
lowed. In the Faubourg St. Antoine the horses
were changed, when Charles could not refrain
from asking, whether they were taking him for
sale to Hanover.
His prison was to be the Chateau de Viricennes,
the governor of which, the Marquis du Chatelet,
was well known to the Prince, and highly respected
by him. As soon as the carriage had entered the
court, and the drawbridge been raised again,
Charles, with mingled jest and bitterness, invited
the governor to embrace him, his bonds preventing
154 MEMOIRS OF
him from anticipating the compliment. The
marquis manifested the deepest affliction at the
treatment which his prisoner had experienced, but
which, Vaudreuil assured him, had been resorted
to merely for the purpose of preventing the Prince
from committing violence against himself. The
governor inquired whether Charles had any other
arms about him. The latter then delivered up a
pair of compasses, and gave his word of honour
that he had no other weapon in his possession ;
an assurance which did not prevent Vaudreuil
from carefully searching his person, and taking
from him his pocket-handkerchief. The marquis
himself unbound his prisoner, and then announced
that his instructions were to confine him in an
apartment at the top of the tower. To arrive at
the cell destined for him, the Prince had to mount
fifty steps, after which he was introduced into a
room seven feet broad and eight long, furnished
with a lit de sangle and a rush-bottomed chair.
The marquis offered him the use of an adjoining
room for exercise, but, to obtain this indulgence,
he must have again pledged his word of honour,
and this he refused to do, after his previous pledges
of the same kind had been treated with so little
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 155
respect by Vaudreuil. The governor felt the
distressing position in which he was placed, and,
while tears came into his eyes, he knelt down, and
declared that day to be the most wretched of his
whole life. Charles gave him his hand, assuring
him that he should never confound his friend with
the governor. Charles next inquired after the
gentlemen who had accompanied him to the opera,
and expressed a hope that they had not been
treated as he had been. After the battle of
Culloden, he said, he had indeed been hunted like
a wild beast, but like a wild beast he had at least
had ground to range over.
One of his own people only was allowed to remain
with Charles, namely, Mac Donald Mac Eachan, of
the Isle of Skye, a kinsman of Flora's, and father
of the Macdoriald who afterwards rose to the
rank of marshal in Napoleon's army. When left
alone with his faithful attendant, the captive no
longer sought to control his feelings, but burst into
tears. Time never obliterated from his mind the
painful impression left upon it by these events,
and forty years afterwards, at Rome, being then
old and infirm, he fainted away on one occasion,
on accidentally meeting the son of Vaudreuil.
156 MEMOIRS OF
This young man, who afterwards became a
favourite of Marie- Antoinette and of the Duchess
de Poiignac, accompanied his father several times
to Vincennes during Charles's imprisonment there,
and was consequently well known to him.*
Seven days and nights did Charles continue in
this confinement, maintaining a dignified reserve
in the presence of strangers, and indignantly
rejecting all offers of pecuniary assistance. When
alone with Macdonald, however, he made no
attempt to control his grief and vexation. Among
* The different accounts that have been published of the Prince's
arrest vary in many of the details. According to Sevelinges (Bio-
graphie Universelle, T. XLIV. p. 98) Charles was arrested while
leaving the opera house, and when in the act of stepping into his
carriage. According to Samuel Baur (Gallerie Historischer Gem'dlde
aus dem achtzehnten Jahrhunderte) Charles drew his sword and
attempted to use his pistols, but for this there does not appear to be
any authority deserving of confidence. Pichot says that the Prince
was conveyed to a house near the theatre, and that there only
Vaudreuil declared him a prisoner. Baur also says, " His house
was searched, and was found to have been converted into a regular
arsenal. There were arms enough to have provided the means of
resisting a regular military attack. He had determined not to leave
Paris, but to defend himself to the last extremity, and then to set
fire to a barrel of gunpowder, and thus blow the house and the
assailants into the air." From what source Baur may have obtained
these particulars we are not aware. The above account is taken
from the work of Power, who received most of his information from
the Prince himself or his companions ; and in none of his details
is Power contradicted by any testimony entitled to respect.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
157
the Lockhart Papers (vol. ii. p. 584) there is an
account of the impression produced by the Prince's
behaviour on the officers and soldiers at Vincennes.
Those who had arrested him were full of admi-
ration of the dignified manner in which he had
borne his misfortune. This admiration they
made no attempt to conceal on their return to
Paris, so that within an hour the news of the
outrage committed on him was known in all
quarters of the town.
On the 28th of December, he was taken under
a military escort to Beauvoisin, a small French
town on the borders of Savoy. The carriage in
which he had travelled drove over the bridge that
served to mark the limits of the two states, and
then, unaccompanied even by a servant, Charles
was set down upon the highroad, to find his way
on foot to Chambery in the best manner he could.
At Chambery he found himself immediately sur-
rounded by the officers of an Irish regiment lying
there in garrison, who received him with the
utmost kindness and respect. He had not changed
his dress since the day of his arrest, and now, in
compliment to his hosts, assumed the Irish uni-
form. He remained at Chambery three days, and
158 MEMOIRS OF
then repaired to the papal city of Avignon, where
he was received in a manner suitable to his rank
by the Vice-Legate, and where for some time
he enjoyed the society of Colonel Power.
Charles would fain have fixed his residence for
some time at Avignon, but the British ministry
considered him as still too near the French terri-
tory, into which he was even said to have made
several excursions ; and an application was made
to Louis to enforce his feudal rights over the
county of Avignon, to obtain the expulsion of
the refugee. With this demand the King of
France did not hesitate to comply, and Benedict
XIV., who had occupied the papal throne since
1740, to avoid a quarrel with the French court,
intimated to Charles that he could not remain
longer at Avignon, and that, if he did not leave
the place of his own accord, measures similar to
those employed against him in Paris would be
resorted to.
At Avignon, Charles had a'n interview with the
Infante Don Philip, then on his way to the Duchy
of Parma, which had been assigned to him by the
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. By the Infante's per-
mission, Colonel Power was to remain with the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 159
Prince until the gentlemen of his suite arrived
from Paris. These had not been allowed to leave the
French capital, till the Prince's escort had returned
from the frontier. The Infante and Charles were
both equally anxious for this interview, but it cost
some trouble^ on the score of etiquette, to bring it
about. The Infante's superior rank prevented
him from making the first overtures, and Charles
had been too recently and too deeply insulted by
the house of Bourbon to allow of his taking a step
by which he might appear to pay court to one of
that family. Several deliberations were held at
the Vice-Legate's to arrange some plan for bring-
ing the two princes together, and at last a pro-
posal of Colonel Power's was adopted. The Vice-
Legate gave a masked ball, to which both were
invited, and they were brought, as if by accident,
by two different doors, into a private room, where
they laid aside their masks, arid remained together
in conversation for some time.
Charles left Avignon under an assumed name,
accompanied only by Colonel Goring, and turned
his steps, in the first instance, to Italy. At Rome
he was unwilling to fix his residence, on many
accounts, but chiefly in consideration of the un-
160 MEMOIRS OF
friendly terms on which he stood with his brother,
in consequence of his acceptance of the dignity of
cardinal. The senate of Venice refused to allow
Charles to remain in that city, nor was it till
some years afterwards that he obtained permis-
sion from Duke Leopold of Tuscany to establish
his residence at Florence.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 161
CHAPTER XXIX.
REFLECTIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH GOVERN-
MENTSYMPATHY OF THE PUBLIC THE KING AND
THE DAUPHIN.
BEFORE we follow the royal exile into the
retirement of private life, it is perhaps necessary
to a just estimate of his character, to say a few
words respecting his conduct towards the French
government during the latter part of his residence
in Paris, a conduct which has alternately been
the subject of warm praise and severe blame.
France, it has often been argued, was exhausted
by the war ; peace was necessary to her, and
could be obtained only by the removal of Charles
from the French territory ; King Louis, however
he might be personally disposed, could not avoid
the fulfilment of the obligation which he had
contracted ; and the Prince's resistance must, under
these circumstances, be fruitless, while, at the
VOL. II. M
t
162 MEMOIRS OF
same time, it could not be looked on in any other
light than as insulting to the King.
There may be some truth in these arguments ;
still, on a close examination, they do not neces-
sarily prove our hero to have been deserving of
unqualified censure. Charles had the best reasons
to be incensed against the cabinet of Versailles.
In 1744 he had been invited to France, and had
received repeated promises that, come what might,
his cause should not be abandoned. Yet, during
his campaigns in Scotland and England, the
French government afforded him none but the
most insignificant assistance, and thereby contri-
buted mainly to the failure of his enterprise.
The position, therefore, in which he stood when
the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded, was
one into which he had been drawn less by his
own acts than by the false and ill-judged policy of
the French government. It may also be ques-
tioned whether, in the preliminary negotiations
at Aix-la-Chapelle, the French ministry made
even one serious effort to secure to the Prince
that protection which the honour of France, his
own achievements, and the valuable diversion
which he had procured for the French arms, had
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 163
well entitled him to look for. If no such effort
was made by France, Charles was sacrificed with
culpable levity.
An attempt has been made to compare the con-
duct of Louis XV. at Aix-la-Chapelle with that of
his predecessor at Ryswick, but the comparison
will not hold. Louis XIV. did not acknowledge
William III. as King of Great Britain, till after a
feasible plan to secure the British crown to the
house of Stuart had been suggested to James II.
and refused by him, and by him alone of all those
who were interested in the question. The offer
of a residence at Freiburg can scarcely have
appeared an acceptable one in his eyes. An
empty title could not but seem worthless to him,
accompanied, as it probably was, by the condition
that he should renounce those pretensions which he
looked on as his birthright. He did not require
to be furnished with the means of living in a
manner suitable to his rank, and the permission to
live in Switzerland was certainly not a boon by
which the French king could acquire any power-
ful claim on the gratitude of his guest. The
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had, consequently, placed
France in a deeply humiliating position, and, if
M 2
164 MEMOIRS OF
the mean proceedings of her rulers invited the
contempt of the world, it would have been sur-
prising if he, who was the immediate victim of
those proceedings, he, who on all occasions had
shown the nicest, the most chivalrous, sense of
honour, had been the only man not to feel and
express his sense of the disgraceful levity with
which he had been sacrificed.
Had Charles yielded to the force of circum-
stances, which it was not in his power to control ;
had he listened to the voice of prudence, and duly
considered the impossibility of obtaining any
succour from France at that time; had he reflected
that a more favourable period might eventually
arrive ; and that, to be prepared to take advantage
of it when it came, it would not be expedient for
him to incense King Louis or his ministers had
he been guided in his conduct by such consider-
ations, Charles would no doubt have chosen a
more prudent line of policy than he did, and would
have merited, as a statesman, to stand more nearly
upon a line with a Cardinal Dubois or a Cardinal
Tencin ; but it may be doubted whether, by such
conduct, he would have better entitled himself to
the esteem of posterity than by the unreserved
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 165
frankness with which he avowed his indignation
at the proceedings of the court and cabinet of
Versailles.
It would be absurd to suppose that Charles ever
imagined it would be in his power to meet force
by force, and to remain in France in defiance of
the king ; but before he left a country to which
he had been invited by the most flattering pro-
mises, a country where, but a year before, he had
been received with royal honours, he was resolved
to show to the world the full extent of degradation
to which a fickle government had been reduced
by its disregard of the most solemn engagements.
Nothing could serve as a more complete justifica-
tion of the contempt of Charles for the ministers
of Louis than the mariner of his arrest. Louis,
when he signed the order to have his guest taken
into custody, is said to have exclaimed, "Poor prince!
how difficult it is for a king to be a true friend ! "
This exclamation would have done the king more
credit, had he taken care to intrust the execution
of his order to another than Vaudreuil, had he seen
that the execution of it had riot been accompanied
by personal outrage of a most revolting kind.
Public opinion did riot fail to* pronounce itself
166 MEMOIRS OF
unreservedly against the treatment which Charles
had experienced from his inconstant friends. He
had all along been a great favourite with the
Parisians, to whom the romance and chivalrous
bearing that marked his adventures in Scotland
had singularly endeared him. Nothing could sur-
pass the enthusiasm with which he was greeted
on his first appearance at the opera-house after his
return to France, nor had anything since occurred
to lessen his popularity. When his arrest became
known, public sympathy was loudly and generally
expressed. Power describes the day that followed
as one of " general public mourning." " The
Prince/' he goes on to say, " was beloved by the
people, and they sympathised with his unhappy
fate. He had been invited to France, and the
French people had felt that he was worthy of their
protection. There seemed to be scarcely a house
in which an air of sadness did not prevail, in which
indignation was not loudly expressed, in which
it was not felt that a blot had been cast on the
glory of the king of France and of every indivi-
dual Frenchman."
The indignation, thus loudly and generally
expressed, induced the government to reprimand
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 167
the officers, who, by their account of what had
occurred at Vincennes, and on the occasion of the
arrest, had contributed so powerfully to increase
the Prince's popularity. To extenuate their own
conduct, the ministers caused an account to be
circulated, that, after the Prince had given his
word of honour that he had surrendered all the
arms in his possession, a pistol had been found
secreted about his person, and that it was only
after this discovery had been made that his hands
were bound ; but the tale found credence nowhere,
and only one or two of the officers disgraced them-
selves so far as to sanction it. The attempted
calumny was looked upon generally as a fresh
outrage, and only aggravated the public feeling
which it had been intended to allay. A multitude
of pamphlets appeared, in which the captive was
spoken of with affection and respect, the king and
his ministers with the opposite sentiments. Many
of these effusions were couched in a poetical garb.
In one of these, in which the Duchess de Chateau-
roux, the former mistress of the king, is often
addressed under the name of Agns Sorel, we find
these lines :
" Quoi ! Biron, votre roi vous l'a-t-il ordonne ?
Edouard, est-ce vous, d'huissiers environne,
168 MEMOIRS OF
i
Est-ce vous, de Henri le fils digne de 1'etre ?
Sans doute a vos malheurs j'ai pu vous reconnaitre.
Mais je vous reconnais bien mieux a vos vertus.
Louis ! vos sujets, de douleur abattus,
Respectent fidouard captif et sans couronne :
II est roi dans les fers ; qu'etes vous sur le trone ?
J'ai vu tomber le sceptre aux pieds de Pompadour,
Mais fut-il releve par les mains de 1'amour ?
Belle Agnes, tu n'es plus, le fier Anglais nous dompte,
Tandis que Louis dort dans le sein de la honte,
Et d'une femme obscure indignement epris,
II oublie en ses bras nos pleurs et nos mepris ;
Belle Agnes, tu n'es plus ! ton altiere tendresse
Dedaignerait un roi fletri par sa faiblesse ;
Tu pourrais reparer les malheurs d'Edouard," &c.
The foregoing lines possess but little poetical
value, but they express the sentiments that were
general in Paris at the time. Some other lines,
very superior to those just quoted, were attributed
to Dufresnoy. They begin thus :
" Peuple jadis si fier, aujourd'hui si servile,
Des princes malheureux vous n'etes plus 1'asile : "
and a little farther on, the author continues :
" Helas ! auriez-vous done couru tant de hasards
Pour voir . . .
. . le fils de Stuart, par vous-meme appele,
Aux frayeurs de Brunswick lachement immole !
Et toi que tes flatteurs ont pare d'un vain titre,
De 1'Europe en ce jour te diras-tu 1'arbitre,
Lorsque dans tes etats tu ne peux conserver
Un he'ros que le sort n'est pas las d'eprouver ;
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 169
Mais qui dans les horreurs d'une vie agitee,
Au sein de 1'Angleterre a sa perte excitee,
Abandonne des siens, fugitif, mis a prix,
Se vit toujours du moins plus libre qu'a Paris ?
De 1'amitie des rois exemple memorable,
Et de leurs interets victime deplorable,
Tu triomphes, cher prince, au milieu de tes fers ;
Surtoi dans ce moment tous les yeux sont ou verts.
Un peuple genereux et juge du merite,
Va revoquer 1'arret d'une race proscrite.
Tes malheurs ont change les esprits prevenus,
Dans les coeurs des Anglais tous tes droits sont connus,
Plus flatteurs et plus surs que ceux de ta naissance,
Ces droits vont doublement affermir ta puissance," &c.
Corrupt as was the court of Louis XV., there
were not wanting individuals who felt how un-
worthy had been the treatment that Charles Stuart
had experienced. Among those who gave expres-
sion to such a sentiment, none was more con-
spicuous than the young Dauphin, upon whom the
hopes of his country centred at that time. On
the morning after the arrest, he expressed himself
to the king at the levee, without the least reserve,
and in presence of many gentlemen of the court.
He spoke of the event as a crime of the ministry,
and as a violation of all the laws of hospitality,
and many, emboldened by the Prince's example ;
did not hesitate to avow their participation in his
sentiments. The kins: reminded those about him
170 MEMOIRS OF
that the Dauphin's youth disqualified him from
judging of such matters ; but this remark did not
prevent the Prince from again giving expression
to his feelings, and the conversation between the
king and his son became at last so animated, that
the courtiers deemed it prudent not to remain
witnesses of it, and one after another withdrew
from the royal presence.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 171
CHAPTER XXX.
CONDUCT OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT AFTER THE
BATTLE OF CULLODEN BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF
THE HIGHLANDERS INGRATITUDE TO THE LORD
PRESIDENT, DUNCAN FORBES EXCESSES OF THE
SOLDIERY WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS TRIALS AND
EXECUTION OF THE REBEL LORDS.
WHEN, in 1749, Charles Stuart left France, he
could scarcely avoid feeling that the love and
respect of all who had moved within his circle
accompanied him into the retirement of private
life. Of his history during the period of his
retirement, very little information has reached us,
but that he never lost sight of England, nor
abandoned the wishes and hopes with which his
early years were flattered, might, if other proofs
were wanting, be inferred from his characteristic
inflexibility and love of enterprise. Nor were
circumstances wanting to justify the continuance
of those expectations. The extreme severity with
which the British government proceeded against
172 MEMOIRS OF
the Jacobites after the battle of Culloden, and the
sweeping measures adopted to prevent the renewal
of any similar attempt for the restoration of the
ancient dynasty, made it evident that Charles
would find Scotland much changed from what it
had formerly been, should he be disposed to repeat
his enterprise of 1745.
All the accounts coincide in describing the con-
duct of the soldiers, after the victory, as disgraceful
to human nature ; and as the Duke of Cumberland
never attempted to restrain the atrocities of his men,
his tacit acquiescence can scarcely be looked on in
any other light than in that of an implied approval,
if not of a direct encouragement. Some of the
Jacobite accounts of the diabolical villanies per-
petrated by the soldiers, without any attempt from
the officers to restrain them, may be exaggerated ;
but even the statements of English officers, pub-
lished shortly after the events which they narrate,
prove but too undeniably the truth of many of the
charges preferred against them. Those among
the prisoners against whom there was the least
suspicion of having formerly served in the royal
army, were hanged at Inverness on the same day,
by the duke's command, and on the following day
the soldiers returned to the field to murder those
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 173
among the wounded who might still be found
alive. Many a wounded Highlander had found a
shelter in some adjoining hut, but was eagerly
hunted out and put to death by the licentious
troops. A number of wounded men were found
in a stable, where some charitable shepherds were
engaged binding their wounds. The building was
immediately surrounded, set on fire, and all within
were consumed, amid the jeers and merriment of
their destroyers. The least unfortunate, perhaps,
were those who perished in the battle, or who were
murdered in the few succeeding days. Far more
wretched was the fate of those who had crawled
to the adjoining woods and bogs, to be hunted like
wild beasts, or, when found, to be murdered with
the forms of justice.
That Cumberland, who could thus sully the
only victory he ever gained, should have equally
distinguished himself by ingratitude towards one
who would have stayed him in his sanguinary
course, need hardly excite surprise. No one had
contributed more to the failure of the insurrection
than the Lord President Duncan Forbes. But
for his indefatigable exertions, the house of
Hanover would infallibly have been driven from
the British throne. On the very day, however,
MEMOIRS OF
on which it was proposed in the House of Com-
mons to reward the achievements of the victor
of Culloden with a settlement of 25,000^ a year,
we find Duncan Forbes applying vainly for
1500/., not for himself, but to enable him to
pay debts which he had contracted for the
service of Government. " Above nine months
ago," says this excellent man in a letter to
Mr. Scroope,* " my zeal led me into this north
country to quench a very furious rebellion, with-
out arms, without money, without credit ; and, if
the king's enemies are to be credited, my en-
deavours were attended with some success. His
Majesty was pleased to intrust me with the dis-
position of commissions for raising some inde-
pendent companies; which I, accordingly, raised
and employed, I hope usefully. The Marquis
of Tweeddale, then secretary of state for Scotland,
acquainted me, by order, that, for supplying any
extraordinary expense, I was to draw on Mr.
Pel ham ; but the total interruption of corre-
spondence made my receiving money on such
drafts impossible, and I was forced to supply the
necessary expense, after employing what money
of my own I could come at in this country, by
* See Addenda to the Culloden Papers.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 175
borrowing upon my proper notes such small sums
as I could hear of. The rebellion is now happily
over, and the persons who lent me this money at
a pinch are now justly demanding payment ; and
I, who cannot coin, and who never hitherto was
dunned, find myself uneasy. The whole of the
small sums does not exceed 1500/. Now, if
Mr. Pelham would impress that money into the
hands of George Ross, or any other person, to
be remitted to me to account ; or if he would
authorise me to draw upon him, or upon any
other person whom he may direct, for that sum,
in like manner to account, it would tend much
to the quiet of my mind. I have of this date
wrote to Mr. Pelham of this subject."
The amount of services rendered by Duncan
Forbes was known to all men, and it was equally
notorious that he had expended three years'
income of his own fortune in the public service.
Nor had his sacrifices been merely of a pecuniary
character. He, a judge, a man of a quiet dis-
position, had perhaps exposed himself during the
course of the war to more personal danger and
fatigue than any general engaged in the service
of George the Second in Scotland. Yet not only
176 MEMOIRS OF
was he left wholly unrewarded, but he was never
repaid what he had expended from his private
fortune, and he was left to bear the entire respon-
sibility of the debts he had contracted. An
excuse has been made for George the Second, by
supposing him to have been ignorant of the extent
of the Lord President's services, which the ministers
could not acknowledge, without acknowledging
at the same time the extent of their own mis-
conduct, since to their want of foresight might,
in some measure, be attributed the serious aspect
which affairs assumed in Scotland : but even
supposing the king to have been ignorant of
Duncan Forbes's services, they could not but be
known to the Duke of Cumberland, though
perhaps the humane interference of the old
Whig, to save the lives of some of his poor
Highland neighbours, may have cancelled, in the
duke's judgment, every previous claim to grati-
tude. It is upon record that, when Duncan
Forbes manfully remonstrated with the duke
against the enormities committing by the soldiery,
and invoked the outraged laws of his country,
Cumberland exclaimed: "Laws! what laws?
I'll make a brigade give laws !" The high-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 177
minded Scot continued to urge the policy of a
more merciful course, till Cumberland and the
ministers of the day, unable to estimate his
generous motives, filled up their baseness by
intimating a suspicion that Forbes himself was
tainted with disaffection, if not with downright
Jacobitism. This ungenerous treatment at last
broke the spirit and destroyed the health of the
Lord President, who died at Edinburgh towards
the close of 1747, in the sixty-third year of his
age, complaining on his death-bed of the treat-
ment he had met with, and advising his son to
keep aloof from public life. His affairs were
found in such embarrassment, that his family
saw no prospect of relief but by selling one of
his estates to save the other. " But he left
behind him," says Sir Walter Scott, " a name
endeared, even in these days of strife and bitter-
ness, to enemies as to friends, and doubly to be
honoured by posterity, for that impartiality which
uniformly distinguished between the cause of the
country and political party."
Of the conduct of the soldiery after the battle
of Culloden, and of the treatment of the prisoners,
a frightful picture is drawn by Smollett. " Imme-
VOL. II. N
178 MEMOIRS OF
diately after the decisive action at Culloden," says
that historian, "the duke took possession of
Inverness, where six-and-thirty deserters, con-
victed by a court-martial, were ordered to be
executed. Then he detached several parties to
ravage the country. One of these apprehended
the Lady Mac Intosh, who was sent prisoner to
Inverness. They did not plunder her house, but
drove away her cattle, though her husband was
actually in the service of government. The castle
of Lord Lovat was destroyed. . . . All the
gaols of Great Britain, from the capital north-
wards, were filled with those unhappy captives ;
and great numbers of them were crowded together
in the holds of ships, where they perished in the
most deplorable manner, for want of necessaries,
air, and exercise. ... In the month of May,
the Duke of Cumberland advanced with the army
into the Highlands, as far as Fort Augustus,
where he encamped, and sent off detachments on
all hands, to hunt down the fugitives, and lay
waste the country with fire and sword. The
castles of Glengary and Lochiel were plundered
and burned ; every house, hut, or habitation
met with the same fate, without distinction ;
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 179
all the cattle and provisions were carried off;
the men were either shot upon the moun-
tains, like wild heasts, or put to death in cold
blood, without form of trial ; the women,
after having seen their husbands and fathers
murdered, were subjected to brutal violation, and
then turned out naked, with their children, to
starve on the barren heaths. One whole family
was inclosed in a barn, and consumed to ashes.
Those ministers of vengeance were so alert in the
execution of their office, that in a few days there
was neither house, cottage, man, nor beast, to be
seen in the compass of fifty miles : all was ruin,
silence, and desolation."
The testimony of Smollett has sometimes been
questioned, on account of the national and political
bias imputed to hirn ; but there is little reason to
believe that he exaggerated any part of the mili-
tary licentiousness tacitly encouraged by the Duke
of Cumberland. Ray, a volunteer in the duke's
army, describes with disgusting facetiousness the
abundance of the booty and the uses the soldiers
made of it. This Ray had no taste for pictu-
resque beauties, and describes the black mountains,
and the waters rolling down them, as a sight suf-
N 2
180 MEMOIRS OF
ficient to give a well-bred dog the vapours. He
assures us that these solitary horrors caused num-
bers of the soldiers to fall sick daily ; and this,
he adds, " might have been still worse, had it not
been for the duke's presence. To divert their
melancholy, his Royal Highness and the officers
frequently gave money to be run for by High-
land horses, sometimes without saddles or bridles,
both men and women riding.* Here were also
many foot-races performed by both sexes, which
afforded many droll scenes. It was necessary to
entertain life in this manner, otherwise the people
were in danger of being affected with hypochon-
driacal melancholy. At this time most of the
soldiers had horses, which they bought and sold
to each other at a low price, and on which they
rode about, neglecting their duty, which made it
necessary to publish an order to part with them,
otherwise they were all to be shot. I saw a soldier
riding on one of these horses, when, being met
by a comrade, he asked him, ' Tom, what hast
* The Rev. James Hay, of Inverness, says in an attestation sent
to Bishop Forbes, in the month of June, that the women that rode
races on horseback, for the amusement of the English camp, were
naked, and that in other particulars there was the grossest indecency
and depravity.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 181
thou given for the galloway ? ' Tom answered,
' Half a crown.' To which the other replied with
an oath, ' He is too dear ; I saw a better bought
for eighteen-pence.' Notwithstanding the low
price, the vast quantity of cattle, such as oxen,
horses, sheep, and goats, taken from the rebels'
and bought up in the lump by the jockeys and
farmers from Yorkshire and the south of Scotland,
came to a great deal of money, all which was
divided among the men that brought them in,
who were sent out in parties in search of the
Pretender ; and they frequently came to rebels'
houses who had left them, and would not be
reduced to obedience. These sort our soldiers
commonly plundered and burnt, so that many
grew rich by their share of spoil."
Lord John Russell, in his " History of Modern
Europe," has expressed some doubt as to the
barbarities attributed to the Duke of Cumberland,
but Volunteer Ray, whom we have just quoted, is
certainly not likely to aggravate the offences of
his own party. We have a host of witnesses,
however, of all parties, including officers of the
English army, who speak of such atrocities as had
not been witnessed in our island since the dark
ages. Among these witnesses are bishops and
182 MEMOIRS OF
clergymen, ministers, and elders, and gentlemen
of rank and character. They state specific cases,
with names arid dates, and their signatures are
attached to the papers. The brutal treatment of
the women and children, as described by those
witnesses, will scarcely bear repetition in these
pages. It was a common spectacle to see men,
women, and children, frantic with hunger, follow-
ing in the track of the plunderers, and begging
for the blood and offal of their own cattle, carried
off and slaughtered for the use of the Duke of
Cumberland's army. Mr. Chambers, the editor of
the " Jacobite Memoirs," says that the authentic
details of violence and cruelty to be found in that
work, " will greatly exceed the previous concep-
tions even of those who have been accustomed to
hear the least favourable version of the story. In
thus fixing the historical evidence of so dark a
tale," he proceeds, "it is to be feared that some
blame will be incurred for reviving, or running
the risk of reviving, animosities which it were as
well to leave asleep ; but, besides the abstract value
of truth, there may be some use in showing how
liable an improved system of government, like that
of the Brunswick family, is to fall into the worst
errors of that which preceded it, and how liable
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 183
the people are to be disappointed in their most
sanguine expectations of political perfection. The
cruelties which followed Culloden, and the domi-
neering and unconstitutional violence with which
the country in general was then treated, may stand,
moreover, as a good offset to the tyrannical bar-
barity of the latter Stuarts ; for, though the former
were less infamous in degree and duration, they
had also the less excuse from the age in which
they took place. It is but just, when the faults
of one party are so much insisted upon, that the
sins of the other should not be altogether over-
looked:'
After thus glancing at the treatment which the
country experienced at the hands of the victor, it
becomes our duty to say a few words of those of
Charles's followers who fell into the hands of their
enemies. A number of tribunals were established
in different parts of the country for the purpose of
trying the prisoners, who may be said to have been
condemned to death by anticipation. As a prelude
to the trial of the leaders of the insurrection,
eighteen officers of the garrison of Carlisle* were
* These were Colonel Townley and the other officers of the Man-
chester regiment.
184 MEMOIRS OF
executed on Kennington Common, with all the
horrible details of drawing and quartering. It is
not necessary to particularise all the executions
that took place, twenty or thirty often on one day,
at Kennington, Carlisle, York, Edinburgh, and at
various other places in England and Scotland.
A still greater number of the prisoners were trans-
ported to the plantations, and many perished of
gaol fevers brought on by the crowded state of
some of the prisons. Numbers purchased their
lives by turning king's evidence. Among these,
the most conspicuous was Secretary Murray, of
Broughton, who lived for many years afterwards,
in Scotland, an object of universal detestation.
Many of the prisoners displayed the utmost firm-
ness to the last, and many exulted in a death
accompanied, as they deemed, with glory little less
than that of martyrdom. Mr. Coppock, a clergy-
man, who had accepted from Charles the dignity
of Bishop of Carlisle, was executed in that city in
the month of October following. At the place of
execution he addressed the multitude in vindica-
tion of his own conduct, prayed for King James
and Prince Charles, and denounced King George
as a usurper. Observing some of his companions
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 185
droop on arriving at the scaffold, he asked them
what they were afraid of, and added, " We shall
not be tried by a Cumberland jury in the other
world."
The trial of the Earl of Cromarty, the Earl of
Kilmarnock, and Lord Balmerino, before the House
of Lords, commenced on the 8th of August, the
Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, acting as Lord High
Steward. In the correspondence of Horace Wai-
pole a lively account is given of this trial, which
he seems to have followed with the utmost interest.
" Three parts of Westminster Hall," says Walpole,
" were inclosed with galleries and hung with scar-
let, and the whole ceremony was conducted with
the most awful solemnity and decency No
part of the royal family was there, which was a
proper regard to the unhappy men who were to
become their victims. One hundred and thirty-
nine lords were present. ... I had armed myself
with all the resolution I could, with the thought
of the prisoners' crimes, and of the danger past,
and was assisted by the sight of the Marquis of
Lothian in weepers for his son, who fell at Cullo-
den ; but the first appearance of the prisoners
shocked me, their behaviour melted me." Cro-
186 MEMOIRS OF
marty and Kilmarnock pleaded guilty, and ex-
pressed the deepest contrition for what they had
done ; but Lord Balmerino was cheerful throughout
the trial, and pleaded not guilty, in order, as he
afterwards said, that so many fine ladies might not
be disappointed of the show they had come to see.
" He is," says Wai pole, " the most natural brave
old fellow I ever saw : the highest intrepidity even
to indifference. At the bar he behaved like a
soldier and a man ; in the intervals of form, with
carelessness and humour. ... At the bar he plays
with his fingers upon the axe,* while he talks to
the gentleman gaoler; and, one day, somebody
coming up to listen, he took the blade and held
it like a fan between their faces. During the trial
a little boy was near him, but not tall enough to
see ; he made room for the child, and placed him
near himself." He took several exceptions to the
indictment, and pleaded that he had not been
present at the taking of Carlisle, but several
* The axe in such cases was always brought from the Tower with
the prisoners, and held by the executioner near to them during the
time of trial. In the morning, when the three lords were to be
brought from the Tower in separate coaches, there was some dis-
pute in which the axe must go. Old Balmerino cried out, " Come,
come, put it with me."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 187
witnesses were brought forward to prove that he
had entered Carlisle at the head of his regiment,
though not on the day specified in the indictment.
His exceptions having been overruled, the Lord
High Steward asked him whether he had any-
thing farther to offer in his defence ? to which the
old lord replied with a smile, that he should give
their lordships no farther trouble.
The three prisoners were found guilty, and were
reconveyed to the Tower. On being brought up
to receive sentence, they were called on to say
whether they had anything to urge in arrest of
judgment. The two earls addressed the court at
some length to sue for mercy. " Nothing, my
lords," said Cromarty, "remains, but to throw
myself, my life, and fortune, upon your lord-
ships' compassion ; but of these, my lords, as to
myself is the least part of my sufferings. I have
involved an affectionate wife with an unborn infant,
as parties of my guilt, to share its penalties. I
have involved my eldest son, whose infancy and
regard to his parents hurried him down the stream
of rebellion. I have involved also eight innocent
children, who must feel their parent's punishment
before they know his guilt. Let them, my lords,
188 MEMOIRS OF
be pledges to his Majesty, let them be pledges to
your lordships, let them be pledges to my country,
for mercy ; let the powerful language of innocent
nature supply my want of eloquence and persua-
sion. . . . But if, after all, my lords, the sacrifice
of my fortune and family is judged indispensably
necessary for stopping the loud demands of public
justice, and if the bitter cup is not to pass from
me, not mine but thy will, O God, be done ! "
Lord Kilmarnock is represented by contem-
porary witnesses to have made a more able and
impressive speech, but, in the report that has been
preserved, there is nothing from which the supe-
riority of the address might have been inferred.
The case of the unfortunate lords had been preju-
diced rather than assisted by a very indiscreet
letter, which the Dutch ambassador at Paris had
been induced by the French court to write to the
Duke of Newcastle, recommending humanity,
clemency, and greatness of soul; the last named
quality being one than which perhaps none was
more rare at the court and in the cabinet of
George the Second. Alluding, no doubt, to this
letter, Lord Kilmarnock said: "It is with the
utmost abhorrence and detestation that I have
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 189
seen a letter from the French court, presuming to
dictate to a British monarch the manner in which
he should deal with his rebellious subjects. I am
not so much in love with life, nor so void of a
sense of honour, as to expect it upon such an
intercession. I depend only upon the merciful
intercession of this honourable house, and the
innate clemency of his sacred Majesty."
Old Balmerino scorned to sue for mercy : he
started some fresh objections to the indictment,
but afterwards withdrew them, saying, that " his
counsel had satisfied him there was nothing in the
objections that could be of service to him, and,
therefore, he was sorry for the trouble he had
given his Grace and the peers." All the prisoners
having thus submitted to the court, the Lord
High Steward addressed them in a speech of some
length, and concluded with pronouncing sentence
in these words :
" The judgment of the law is, and this high
court doth award, that you William Earl of Kil-
marnock, George Earl of Cromarty, and Arthur
Lord Balmerino, and every of you, return to the
prison of the Tower, from whence you came;
from thence you must be drawn to the place of
190 MEMOIRS OF
execution ; when you come there, you must be
hanged by the neck ; but not till you are dead ;
for you must be cut down alive ; then your bowels
must be taken out, and burnt before your faces ;
then your heads must be severed from your
bodies, and your bodies must be divided each into
four quarters ; and these must be at the king's
disposal. And God Almighty be merciful to your
souls ! "
Powerful intercession was made for the con-
demned noblemen, and the Earl of Cromarty, in
consideration of his wife's pregnancy, was par-
doned. The Earl of Kilmarnock, it was thought,
might have been equally fortunate, but for some
offence which he had given to the Duke of Cum-
berland. Lord Balmerino never sued for mercy,
and to the last refused to express any regret for
what he had done. He was dining with his wife
when word was brought him that the day for
his execution had been fixed. Lady Balmerino
fainted at the announcement, but, with her hus-
band's assistance, soon recovered her self-possession.
He then invited her to resume her place at the
table, reminding her that she had shown more
firmness when he was going into battle, yet a man
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 191
might gain as much honour, he said, on the
scaffold as in the field, if the cause he died for
was a good one. Kilmarnock and Balmerino
suffered on the same day. The more ignominious
part of the sentence (the hanging, drawing, and
quartering) was dispensed with, as had long been
usual in the case of persons of rank suffering for
high treason.
On the fatal morning, just before they came
out of the Tower, Balmerino called for wine, and
drank a bumper to the health of King James.
Both lords had to walk from their prison to the
scaffold. As they were taking leave of each other,
Balmerino asked his companion whether he knew
anything of a resolution said to have been taken
in the Highland army, the day before the battle
of Culloden, to put all the English prisoners to
death. Kilmarnock replied, " My Lord, I was
not present, but since I came hither I have had
all the reason in the world to believe that there
was such order taken ; and I hear the Duke of
Cumberland has the pocket-book with the order."
Balmerino, who was present, rejoined indignantly,
" It is a lie, raised to excuse their barbarity to
us." And as no such order was ever produced to
192 MEMOIRS OF
the world, and as such an order would have been
entirely at variance with the whole character of
Charles, we may rest assured that no such order
ever existed, and that the tale was but a foul
calumny, either coined or sanctioned by the duke,
who felt that, without some deception of the kind,
the whole world must join in condemning the
thirst for blood which he displayed throughout
the course of these unhappy proceedings.*
Kilmarnock, who still entertained some hopes
of a reprieve, renewed his assurances of contrition
on the scaffold, declaring himself satisfied with
the legality of King George's title, and expressing
a wish that all who had embarked in the Preten-
der's cause might meet the same fate. Balme-
rino, on the contrary, was calm and cheerful.
He had arrayed himself in the uniform which he
had worn at Culloden, and trod the scaffold with-
out levity, but with all the composure of a
* " The king," says Horace Walpole in one of his letters, " is
much inclined to some mercy ; but the duke, who has not so much
of Csesar after a victory as in gaining it, is for the utmost severity.
It was lately proposed in the city to present him with the freedom
of some company. One of the aldermen said aloud, ' Then let it
be of the butchers.' " Was it to this civic Ion-mot that his Royal
Highness was indebted for the surname which history has so justly
bestowed on him ?
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 193
general in a field of battle. He examined his
coffin, and smiled at the inscription ; felt the
edge of the axe, and looked with seeming plea-
sure at the block, which he called his " pillow
of rest." He then put on his spectacles, and
read a written speech in an audible voice, after-
wards handing the manuscript to the sheriff.
In this speech, the stanch old Jacobite spoke
of George as a good kind of prince, but denied
his right to the throne, and declared that Prince
Charles was so sweet a prince, that flesh and
blood could not resist following him. " If I had
a thousand lives," he said, " I would lay them all
down here in the same cause." He then called
the executioner, who would have knelt to ask
forgiveness, but Balmerino stopped him, saying,
" Friend, you need not ask me forgiveness ; the
execution of your duty is commendable." Then
giving the man three guineas, he continued,
" Friend, I never had much money ; this is all
I have ; I wish it was more for your sake, and
am sorry I can add nothing to it but my coat and
waistcoat." He then took leave of his friends.
" I am afraid," he said, " there are some who may
think my behaviour bold ; but remember what I
VOL. II. O
194 MEMOIRS OF
tell you ; it arises from a confidence in God, and
a clear conscience." With the same composure
that had marked his conduct throughout the try-
ing scene, he knelt down at the block, and having,
with extended arms, pronounced this short prayer,
"O, Lord! reward my friends, forgive my enemies,
bless King James, and receive my soul ! " he
gave the signal to the executioner, who, taken by
surprise at the quickness of the summons, struck
a false blow, and did not sever the head from the
trunk till the third stroke.
Charles Ratcliffe, brother of the Earl of
Derwentwater, was put to death, though he had
not directly participated in the recent insurrec-
tion. Ratcliffe had been condemned in 1716,
but had escaped the block by breaking out of
prison. He had lately, however, been taken at
sea, on board a French vessel, and was supposed
to be on his way to Scotland, to join Prince
Charles. He was ordered for execution, without
the formality of a fresh trial, upon the former
sentence, pronounced thirty years before, and died
with firmness, on Tower Hill, on the 8th of
December, three months after Kilmarnock and
Balmerino.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 195
Of all who perished on the scaffold during this
melancholy period of English history, none ob-
tained or merited less sympathy than the old
intriguer, Lord Lovat. He had not appeared
openly in arms, like Kilmarnock and Balmerino,
and it was, therefore, the more difficult to prove
an overt act against him. He was, consequently,
not brought to trial till the spring of 1747, and
might even then have got off, but for the
treachery of Murray of Broughton, whose ample
revelations were sufficient, not only to convict
Lovat, but to fix the guilt of treason, or treason-
able correspondence, upon several English Jaco-
bites of high rank, such as the Duke of Beaufort,
Sir Watkyn Williams Wynn, and others, who had
been in correspondence with the Stuart family for
many years. Lovat's conduct during the trial
was marked with a levity bordering, in Sir W.
Scott's opinion, on insanity. " At his trial/' says
Horace Walpole, " he affected great weakness
and infirmity, but often broke out into passion.
Murray, the Pretender's secretary, was the chief
evidence, who, in the course of his information,
mentioned Lord Traquair's having conversed with
Lord Barrymore, Sir W. W. Wynn, and Sir
196 MEMOIRS OF
John Cotton, on the Pretender's affairs, but that
they were shy. He was proceeding to name
others, but was stopped by Lord Talbot, and the
court acquiesced I think very indecently. It
was imagined that the Duchess of Norfolk would
have come upon the stage." At the moment
when sentence was about to be passed upon him,
he made his judges laugh at his buffoonery; and,
turning to Lord Ilchester, who sat near him, he
addressed him in the words of an old French
song
" Je meurs pour ma patrie,
Et ne m'en soucie gueres."
Both before and after his trial he made his prison
echo with his jests, but, on the scaffold, though
his intrepidity continued the same, he behaved at
least with decorum. Almost his last words were
a quotation from Horace: "Dulce et decorum est
pro patrid mori"
The Marquis of Tullibardine escaped a public
execution by dying in the Tower before his trial
came on. Sir Thomas Sheridan escaped to the
Continent, where he is supposed to have died of
grief, in consequence of the reproaches heaped
upon him by James, who suspected him of having
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 197
incited Charles to his adventurous attempt. In
June, 1747, the English government at length
passed an act of indemnity, granting a pardon to
all who had been engaged in the rebellion. From
this act of grace, however, no fewer than eighty
individuals were excepted by name. Notwith-
standing this act, many Jacobites were detained
in prison. Lord Pitsligo lived in concealment
till his death, in 1762, and others did not obtain
their liberty till the accession of George the Third.
Lord George Murray escaped to the Continent,
and died in Holland in 1760.
With a view to guard against any renewed
attempts on the part of the Jacobites, several acts
of parliament were passed for the purpose of
destroying the feudal authority of the Highland
chiefs over their clans. A bill was passed, not
only for disarming the clans, but for restraining
the use of the national garb. Another bill made
it imperative on the master and teacher of every
private school in Scotland to swear allegiance to
King George, his heirs, and successors, and to
register their oaths. By another bill the sys-
tem of h creditable jurisdiction, by which many
Scottish lairds had been allowed to administer the
198 MEMOIRS OF
law on their own estates, was abolished for ever.
By the operation of these measures, and by the
slow but sure effect of time, the remnant of the
feudal system, with all its good and all its evil,
gradually disappeared from Scotland.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 199
CHAPTER XXXI.
CHARLES'S PEREGRINATIONS ABORTIVE CONSPIRACIES IN
ENGLAND VISITS OF CHARLES TO ENGLAND APPRE-
HENSION AND EXECUTION OF DR. CAMERON CHARLES'S
CONNEXION WITH MISS WALKENSHAW.
IT is well known that Charles did not remain
long in Italy after his return from France, but
where he spent the next few years remained long
a mystery to his friends as well as to his foes.
His letters were addressed to his banker, Warrent,
at Paris, and he occasionally wrote to his father,
but without affixing any date. With his brother
he had broken off all correspondence. It has
now, however, been long known, that during
this period he visited Germany, spent some time
privately in Paris, but resided chiefly in the
dominions of his friend the Due de Bouillon,
where, surrounded by the wide and solitary forest
of Ardennes, his active spirit sought, in the
dangerous chase of wolves and bears, some
200 MEMOIRS OF
compensation for the military enterprise from
which he was excluded.
If, under these circumstances, a new plan was
matured for the expulsion of King George from
the throne, it may be inferred that it would be
likely to surpass in boldness even the undertaking
of 1745. Lord Elibank and his brother, Alexander
Murray, placed themselves, in 1753, at the head
of a Jacobite plot, the success of which was depen-
dent on a multitude of highly improbable occur-
rences. The design was to seize George II. in
his own palace of St. James's, to carry him off,
and to raise the standard of revolt in Scotland.
To gain over the Scottish Jacobites to this design,
Macdonald of Lochgarry, and Dr. Archibald
Cameron,* repaired secretly to the north, and
the Jacobite Duchess of Buckingham went to
Paris and Rome, as an agent of the conspirators ;
but whether Charles, informed of the plot, made
a secret journey to London at this time, in order
to satisfy himself of the feasibility of the scheme,
* The brother of Lochiel. Lochiel himself died at Paris in 1748.
When Louis XV. gave Lochiel a regiment, the Doctor was appointed
chief surgeon to it, and he remained in the French service, uni-
versally respected, till he unfortunately engaged in the plot of
1753.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 201
is a question not easily answered. The chief
authority for this secret journey rests upon the
following
LETTER FROM DAVID HUME THE HISTORIAN, TO SIR JOHN
PRINGLE, M.D.
(( St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh,
Feb. 10, 1773.
" MY DEAR SIR,
" That the present Pretender was in London in
the year 1753, I know with the greatest certainty,
because I had it from Lord Marechal, who said it
consisted with his certain knowledge. Two or
three days after his lordship gave me this informa-
tion, he told me, that the evening before he had
learned several curious particulars from a lady
(whom I imagined to be Lady Primrose), though
my lord refused to name her. The Pretender came
to her house in the evening, without giving her
any preparatory information, and entered the room
when she had a pretty large company with her,
and was herself playing at cards. He was
announced by the servant under another name ;
she thought the cards would have dropped from
her hands on seeing him ; but she had presence
enough of mind to call him by the name he
202
MEMOIRS OF
assumed, to ask him when he came to England,
and how long he intended to stay there. After he
and all the company went away, the servants
remarked how wonderfully like the strange gen-
tleman was to the Prince's picture which hung on
the chimney-piece in the very room in which he
entered. My lord added (I think from the
authority of the same lady), that he used so little
precaution, that he went abroad openly in daylight
in his own dress, only laying aside his blue ribband
and star ; walked once through St. James's, and
took a turn in the Mall.
" About five years ago, I told this story to Lord
Holdernesse, who was Secretary of State in the year
1753, and I added that I supposed this piece of
intelligence had at that time escaped his lordship.
' By no means,' said he ; ' and who do you think
first told it me? It was the king himself; who
subjoined, " And what do you think, my lord, I
should do with him ? ' ' Lord Holdernesse owned
that he was puzzled how to reply ; for, if he declared
his real sentiments, they might savour of indif-
ference to the royal family. The king perceived
his embarrassment, and extricated him from it
by adding, ' My lord, I shall just do nothing at
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 203
all ; and when he is tired of England, he will go
abroad again.' I think this story, for the honour
of the late king, ought to be more generally
known.
" But what will surprise you more, Lord
Marechal, a few days after the coronation of the
present king, told me that he believed the young
Pretender was at that time in London, or at least
had been so very lately, and had come over to see
the show of the coronation, and had actually seen it.
I asked iny lord the reason for this strange fact.
* Why/ says he, * a gentleman told me so who
saw him there ; and that he even spoke to him,
and whispered in his ears these words : ' Your
Royal Highness is the last of all mortals whom I
should expect to see here.' ' It was curiosity that
led me,' said the other ; ' but I assure you,' added
he, ' that the person who is the object of all this
pomp arid magnificence, is the man I envy the
least.' You see this story is so near traced from
the fountain-head as to wear a great face of pro-
bability. Query : what if the Pretender had taken
up Dymock's gauntlet ?
" I find that the Pretender's visit in England in
the year 1753, was known to all the Jacobites ;
204 MEMOIRS OF
and some of them have assured me that he took
the opportunity of formally renouncing the Roman
Catholic religion, under his own name of Charles
Stuart, in the New Church in the Strand, and that
this is the reason of the bad treatment he met
with at the court of Rome. I own that I am a
sceptic with regard to the last particulars.
" Lord Marechal had a very bad opinion of this
unfortunate prince, and thought there was no vice
so mean or atrocious of which he was not capable,
of which he gave me several instances. My lord,
though a man of great honour, may be thought a
discontented courtier ; but what quite confirmed
me in that idea of that Prince was a conversation
I had with Helvetius at Paris, which I believe
I have told you. In case I have not, I shall
mention a few particulars. That gentleman told
me that he had no acquaintance with the Preten-
der ; but, some time after that Prince was chased
out of France, ' a letter,' said he, ' was brought me
from him, in which he told me that the necessity
of his affairs obliged him to be at Paris, and as he
knew me by character to be a man of the greatest
probity and honour in France, he would trust
himself to me, if I would promise to conceal and
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 205
protect him. I own,' added Helvetius to me
6 although I knew the danger to be greater of
harbouring him at Paris than at London ; and
although I thought the family of Hanover not
only the lawful sovereigns in England, but the
only lawful sovereigns in Europe, as having the
free consent of the people ; yet was I such a dupe
to his flattery, that I invited him to my house,
concealed him there, coming and going, near two
years, had all his correspondence pass through my
hands, met with his partizans upon Pont Neuf,
and found at last that I had incurred all this
danger and trouble for the most unworthy of all
mortals ; insomuch, that I have been assured, when
he went down to Nantz to embark on his expedi-
tion to Scotland, he took fright and refused to go
on board ; and his attendants, thinking the matter
had gone too far, and that they would be affronted
for his cowardice, carried him in the night time into
the ship, pieds et mains lies' I asked him if he
meant literally. ' Yes/ said he, ( literally ; they
tied him, and carried him by main force.' What
think you now ojf this hero and conqueror ?
" Both Lord Marechal and Helvetius agree
that, with all this strange character, he was no
206 MEMOIRS OF
bigot, but rather had learned from the philosophers
at Paris to affect a contempt of all religion. You
must know that both these persons thought they
were ascribing to him an excellent quality.
Indeed, both of them used to laugh at me for my
narrow way of thinking in those particulars.
However, my dear Sir John, I hope you will do
me the justice to acquit me.
" I doubt not but these circumstances will
appear curious to Lord Hardwicke, to whom you
will please to present my respects. I suppose his
lordship will think this unaccountable mixture of
temerity and timidity in the same character not
a little singular.
" I am yours, very sincerely,
" DAVID HUME."
Whether George II. was really aware of the
presence of his rival, and whether he really
looked upon that presence with the calmness here
stated to have been shown by him, may safely
be registered among the doubtful facts of history,
when we consider how that rival had shaken his
throne but eight years before, with what severity
the partizans of that rival had been dealt with,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 207
and that even at Avignon the Prince had been
deemed too near the English coast. But that
Charles really was in London at the time stated
seems highly probable, unless we suppose him to
have been ignorant of the designs of his friends ;
for, if he knew of them, he was not likely to be
deterred by personal risk from assuring himself
with his own eyes of the prospect of success.
The existence of two medals, of the dates of 1750
and 1752, seems also to indicate the activity of
the Jacobite party at that period.* During his
stay in London, Charles is said to have soon
become convinced that among his adherents there
were few capable of bold and energetic measures,
that most of them were guided by purely selfish
motives, and that, among others, Dr. King, of
Oxford, was far more anxious to discover impe-
diments to the hazardous design than to join
* The one was struck in silver and bronze, and bears the bust of
Charles on the face, and on the reverse is a withered tree, from
which a vigorous young branch is shooting forth, with the legend
Revirescet, and the date MDCCL. The other medal, struck in
silver, bears likewise the bust of Charles, with the legend Redeat
magnus ille genius Britanniae. On the reverse, Britannia is seen
looking with anxious desire at some approaching vessels. The
legend : diu desiderata navis: ; and in the exergue : Laetamini
cives. Septbr. xxiii., MDCCLII.
208 MEMOIRS OF
in prompt and vigorous measures.* Charles is
said to have soon satisfied himself of the hopeless-
ness of the whole scheme, and to have left London
after a stay of only a few days.
The government obtained information of the
plot, before the first step had been taken towards
its execution, and Dr. Cameron was discovered and
arrested. Evidence, however, was wanting to
enable the ministers to prosecute him for the new
attempt, or perhaps it was deemed more prudent
to ignore the existence of the conspiracy alto-
gether. Dr. Cameron was not, however, allowed,
on that account, to escape the vengeance of the
court. He was taken in Scotland, and brought
up to London. As he had been excepted in the
Act of Amnesty and included in the Acts of
Attainder, the ministers and judges held that he
might at once be executed as a traitor ; and
George II. was accordingly asked to sign his death-
warrant forthwith, which the king is said to have
done with extreme reluctance.
Dr. Cameron's conduct in prison was worthy of
the brother of Lochiel. His parting with his
* For Dr. King's account of Charles's visit to London, and of his
general character, see Appendix No. IV.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 209
wife, the night before his execution, was at once
tender arid heroic. She remained with him till
the last moment, and, when the gates of the Tower
were about to be locked for the night, he told her
she must go. On this announcement, she fell at
his feet in an agony of grief ; but he said to her,
" Madam, this was not what you promised me,"
and, embracing her for the first time,, he forced her
to leave the dismal prison. He then stood at the
window, looking at her coach with seeming firm-
ness ; but, when it was out of sight, he turned
away and wept. " His only concern," says Horace
Walpole, " seemed to be at the ignominy of
Tyburn ; he was not disturbed at the dresser for
his body, or at the fire to burn his bowels."
Walpole adds a horrible and almost incredible cir-
cumstance. " But what will you say to the minister
or priest who accompanied him ? The wretch,
after taking leave, went in a landau, where, not
content with seeing the Doctor hanged, he let
down the top of the landau for the better conve-
nience of seeing him embowelled ! "
The assertion that at this time the cause of the
Stuarts found its chief, if not its only, support in
Frederick the Great is the more striking, as it
VOL. II. p
210 MEMOIRS OF
appears to have been made in the most unqualified
manner by the Duke of Newcastle, in a letter
addressed to the I^rnl Chancellor, on the 21st of
September, 1753; but though Frederick speaks
of the Prince, in his writings, more than once,
with the greatest personal respect, nothing appears
there to warrant a belief that the Prussian monarch
ever contemplated an active interference in the
affairs of Charles.
Two years after the abortive conspiracy, which
cost Dr. Cameron his life, the cabinets of London
and Versailles were again placed in a position
hostile to each other, and the hopes of the banished
Stuarts and their partisans in Great Britain began
to revive. In June, 1755, an English fleet, under
Admiral Boscawen, had been sent to intercept
some reinforcements on their way to Canada,
where it was known that the French were making
extensive warlike preparations. The main fleet
escaped Boscawen, and got off safe into the St.
Lawrence ; but two French vessels, having parted
company from the rest, fell in with two of
Boscawen's ships, and were captured after an
action that lasted several hours. This aggression,
though provoked by a series of encroachments in
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 211
America, could scarcely be looked on in any other
light than as a declaration of war, and had the
effect of accelerating the hostilities for which it
was notorious the French government was pre-
paring. Count Thomas Arthur de Lally,* faith-
ful to the principles which had led his family to
emigrate from England on the fall of James the
Second, reminded the cabinet of Versailles of the
important services which Charles Stuart might
render to France at such a moment. In the
Council of State the Count declared that France
ought either to land the Prince with an army in
England, or to attack the English in India, or to
effect the conquest of the North American colonies.
The Prince, privately informed of the new pro-
* Many a noble family was removed from England to France by
the fall of James II., and contributed afterwards to decorate the
annals of the adopted country. The above Count Arthur de Lally,
was created by James, in 1746, an Irish peer, with the title of Earl
Lally of Moenmoys, Viscount Ballymote, and Baron of Tolendal.
In 1761, Count Arthur was taken by the English at Pondicherry,
was tried in France for his unsuccessful defence of that place, and
was subsequently put to death. His execution, however, was after-
wards recognised to have been a judicial murder, and the unjust
sentence was reversed in 1778, chiefly through the influence of
Voltaire, and at the solicitation of the Count's son. This son was the
Count de Lally-Tolendal, who escaped from France during the
horrors of the revolution, but offered to return to Paris to plead
the cause of Louis XVI.
212 MEMOIRS OF
spects that were opening, lost no time in repairing
to the Due de Bouillon at Narvarra, and to King
Stanislaus at Nancy, and had several interviews
with the Count de Lally, who had been appointed
to the military command in Picardy, and was
already engaged in an active correspondence with
the Jacobites in Great Britain and Ireland. The
French cabinet, however, allowed the favourable
moment again to pass away. The time was con-
sumed in fruitless negotiations, and Charles returned
to Italy, and to the retirement of private life.
About this time it was that an occurrence took
place in which Charles had an opportunity of
displaying the characteristic inflexibility which
always marked his conduct, when an attempt was
made by his partisans to control him in his private
relations. Miss Walkenshaw, an English lady,
with whom Charles first became acquainted in
Scotland, had for several years accompanied him
through his different wanderings. She is supposed
to have born him a son, who died young ; arid is
known to have born him a daughter, who survived
both her parents.* Miss Walkenshaw had a sister
* In the Introduction will be found a more detailed account of
this lady's connection with Charles.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 213
who was in the household of the Princess Dowager
of Wales, and the English Jacobites were led to
believe that, through the medium of the two
sisters, the English government obtained access to
the most private correspondence of Charles with
his adherents in the United Kingdom. Under
these circumstances, the Jacobites sent Mr. Mac-
namara, one of their party, to Florence, where the
Prince was then residing, to endeavour to prevail
on him, either to break off his intimacy with Miss
Walkenshaw, or to insist on her temporary retire-
ment to a convent. By many of the Jacobites, no
doubt, suspicions were really entertained that Miss
Walkenshaw was betraying the unlimited con-
fidence reposed in her by the Prince, but by others
the application was probably made merely with
a view to obtain a decent pretext for detaching
themselves from a cause which was every year
becoming more hopeless. Charles himself looked
upon the attempt to control his domestic relations
as an encroachment which he was bound to repel,
the more so as he felt satisfied that the suspicions
of his partisans were unfounded. He therefore
dismissed Mr. Macnamara, with a flat refusal to
permit any interference of the kind that had been
214 MEMOIRS OF
attempted ; and many of the Jacobites in England,
availing themselves of this refusal as a pretext to
break off all correspondence with Florence and
Rome, attached themselves from that time to the
court of St. James's. Among these deserters from
the cause was the celebrated Dr. King, who appears
to have been anxious to palliate his own defection
by representing every part of the Prince's conduct
in the most unfavourable light. The conduct of
Charles, with respect to Macnamara's mission, has
frequently been made the subject of censure, but,
as our knowledge of the affair rests only on the
authority of Dr. King, we are bound to be cautious
in our judgment.*
On the sudden death of George the Second, in
1760, George the Third ascended the throne.
At the coronation, Prince Charles is said to have
mingled with the spectators in Westminster Abbey.
Our only authority for the Prince's visit to Eng-
land on this occasion is the letter of Hume the
historian, of which mention has already been made.
In that letter Charles is made to assign mere
curiosity as the motive of his secret journey ;
but, if he really was in London, and there are
many grounds for doubting the accuracy of the
* See Appendix, No. IV.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 215
narrative, his presence was probably connected
with some designs, the nature of which has never
transpired, but which were, in some measure,
indicated by a remarkable occurrence which took
place during the ceremony of the coronation.
When the king's champion, according to ancient
custom, had thrown down his mailed gauntlet,
and called on any one to come forward who would
venture to gainsay the king's right to the throne,
the gage is said to have been snatched up by a
young maiden, who immediately disappeared again
among the crowd of supposed Jacobites by whom
she was surrounded, and by whom alone her escape
could have been facilitated. Whether the act
was merely intended as a public demonstration of
hostility to the reigning dynasty, or whether it was
to have been the signal for an insurrectional ex-
plosion, it is now impossible to say ; but the latter
may be looked on as the most probable solution of
the mystery, if Charles himself was really present
on the occasion.*
* In Scott's novel, the Redgauntlet, the little episode of the
champion's gage is related with the author's accustomed spirit. The
rumours of the day, however, represented the gauntlet to have been
taken up by a man in disguise, who left behind him another gage,
in which was found a paper stating that, under promise of a safe-
conduct, a champion was ready to come forward and accept the
challenge.
216 MEMOIRS OF
CHAPTER XXXII.
CHARLES SETTLES AT FLORENCE AND ASSUMES THE TITLE
OF COUNT OF ALBANY DEATH OF HIS FATHER HIS
MARRIAGE MUTUAL PASSION OF ALFIERI AND THE
COUNTESS SHE LEAVES HER HUSBAND HIS AFFLIC-
TIONHIS HABITUAL INTEMPERANCE.
CHARLES had returned to Italy, and had
fixed his permanent residence at Florence, when,
by his father's death (1st of January, 1766), he
became the eldest surviving prince of the house of
Stuart. James left his claims to the British throne
to the son who had laboured with such constant
zeal to win it for him, and who, according to
the principles of legitimacy, was now the only
rightful monarch of Great Britain. The gradual
and almost complete dissolution of the Jacobite
party had, however, in the mean time, destroyed
every reasonable hope of the restoration of his
family, though it may be doubted whether Charles
himself ever altogether renounced a hope, the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 217
realisation of which had so long formed the chief
object of his life.*
During the American war of Independence, an
attempt was made by some Jacobites to induce the
insurgent colonists to declare for Charles, but the
attempt, as might easily have been foreseen, failed
altogether. No record has reached us of any
* Walter Scott may have had some historical foundation for the
account which he gives in Redgauntlet of a subsequent visit of
Charles to England, and of an interview which he had at Fairladies
with a number of his adherents ; but the^details of that interview, as
told by Scott, can hardly be correct, the connection with Miss
Walkenshaw having been broken off in 1760. Scott's anecdote is,
therefore, perhaps, only an amplification of Dr. King's account of
Macnamara's mission, of which mention was made a few pages back.
When Charles positively refused to sacrifice his mistress to his
party, Macnamara is represented by Dr. King to have left Charles
with these words : " What can your family have done, sir, thus to
draw down the vengeance of Heaven on every branch of it through
so many ages ] " Pichot calls this speech " a gratuitous insult,"
but believes it to have been altogether an invention of the Doctor's,
whose chief object at that time was to blacken Charles, by way of
excusing his own defection. Scott puts nearly the same words into
the mouth of Glendale ; and, had the conduct of Charles really been
as King represented it, such language might, with some show of
justice, have been addressed to the Prince even by his most devoted
adherents. In his Tales of a Grandfather, Scott makes no allusion to
the scene at Fairladies : to which we are the less bound to attach
credit, as the novel of Redgauntlet, though resting on historical
foundations, is, after all, confessedly a work of fiction. Lord Mahon
adopts as an undoubted fact the Prince's presence in England
in 1750, but speaks of the supposed visit in 1752 or 1753 as
doubtful.
218 MEMOIRS OF
overtures made in the latter years of his life, to
induce foreign powers to interfere in his favour,
though France and Spain, by their pecuniary
support, continued to manifest their sympathy
for his fallen fortunes ; nor do we hear of any
further correspondence with the adherents of his
family in England. It does not follow, however,
that he did not continue to carry on such a corre-
spondence : on the contrary, we may safely assume
that, until the vigour of his mind yielded to the
pressure of bodily infirmities, the hope of an
eventual restoration was never entirely abandoned.
Even amid the deepening gloom of his prospects,
the example of his grand-uncle, Charles the
Second, was still calculated to keep alive the
faint gleam of hope that might yet remain.
Charles continued to reside at Florence after his
father's death, although about the same time a
complete reconciliation had taken place between
himself and his brother, the Cardinal. He did not,
however, assume the title of king, which his father
had borne, but contented himself with that of
Count of Albany ; under which, in the early part of
this work, we have seen him visiting the most im-
portant cities of Italy. As Count of Albany, he
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 219
was enabled to live in a manner more consonant to
his pecuniary circumstances than he could have
done with a loftier title ; at the same time that he
avoided all disputes about etiquette, which must
otherwise have arisen, in consequence of the dif-
ferent politics of those with whom he came from
time to time into contact. The tales that have
been told of his disputes on points of etiquette
with the papal see, must be inaccurate, if not
altogether unfounded. By at once assuming the
incognito, which he never afterwards laid aside,
he seems himself to have renounced, for the time,
all claim to be treated as a sovereign. It may be
true, as stated by Duclos, that the Pope refused
to allow the Count of Albany to take precedence
of the Cardinal d'York, as also that the Pope
thought fit to censure the superiors of some con-
vents who had publicly addressed the Count as
" His Majesty ;" but, while Charles retained his
incognito, he could not take offence at its being
respected by the Roman government. Private
individuals who approached him might without
hesitation address him as a king, and appear
frequently to have done so.*
* Duclos (Voyage en Italie, ou Considerations sur 1'Italie) says,
220 MEMOIRS OF
Several years had elapsed since the death of
James, when an event occurred which could hardly
fail to exercise a powerful influence over the even-
ing of Charles's life; which was likely either to
brighten his declining years by domestic conso-
lation, or to add to the long series of disappoint-
ments that may be said to have characterised his
career. On the 17th of April, 1772, Charles
married the Princess Louisa Maximiliana Caroline
of Stolberg-Gedern, bora at Mons on the 21st of
September, 1752, the daughter of Prince Gus-
tavus Adolphus of Stolberg-Gedern, who was
killed at the battle of Leuthen, in 1757.
France and Spain, in whose interest James the
Second may be said to have misgoverned his
kingdom, had given abundant proofs that they no
longer seriously contemplated a restoration of the
Stuarts, whatever promises or assurances Charles
might have received from them ; but the exiled
dynasty had often been to those powers a useful
speaking of the Prince : " Je 1'ai souvent rencontre dans les rues
de Rome, marchant avec deux caresses. J'avais eu avec lui a Paris
quelques conversations, et il parut me reconnaitre en me faisant un
signe de bonte ; mais je n'allai point lui faire ma cour, ne voulant
dans les circonstances pre'sentes (1767) ni lui donner, ni lui refuser,
le titre de majeste."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 221
instrument of annoyance against England, and it
was desirable that a weapon which might at some
future time be again found available, should not
entirely pass out of their hands. The extinction
of the house of Stuart was, therefore, an unwel-
come prospect to them ; and if they did not
themselves first conceive the idea of the union in
question, there is no doubt that all the nego-
tiations relative to it were conducted under their
sanction, and that the three Bourbon courts con-
tributed jointly to form a suitable establishment
for the newly married couple. What the induce-
ment of Charles may have been, it is difficult to
say : the more so as, on several occasions, he had
manifested great repugnance to any matrimonial
alliance, so long as he remained in the ambiguous
position in which fortune had placed him. It is
true that in 1748 he made overtures to Frederick
the Great for the hand of a Prussian princess ; and
even went so far as to ask Frederick's advice and
friendly interest on the subject, should a union
with the royal house of Prussia not be deemed
admissible. On this occasion, Charles expressed
his determination to Frederick never to marry
any but a Protestant, and there was at one time a
222 MEMOIRS OF
prospect that the negotiation would have led to
some result. Some years afterwards, however,
the Prince appeared to have come to a determi-
nation never to marry.
In 1754, his father urged him to look out for
a wife ; but Charles's reply was, that " the un-
worthy behaviour of certain ministers, (the 10th
of December, 1748,) has put it out of my power to
settle anywhere, without honour or interest being
at stake ; and, were it even possible for me to find
a place of abode, I think our family have had
sufferings enough, which will always hinder me to
marry, so long as in misfortune ; for that would
only conduce to increase misery, or subject any
of the family, that should have the spirit of their
father, to be tied neck and heel, rather than yield
to a vile ministry." When, eighteen years after-
wards, he, nevertheless, gave his hand to a
Catholic princess, a personal inclination to the
object of his choice can scarcely have been
his chief inducement ; the persuasions of the
Spanish and French governments, no doubt,
were chiefly instrumental in bringing about the
match ; and, as age was advancing upon him,
the wish may have revived in him, not to suffer
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 223
the royal line of the Stuarts to become wholly
extinguished.
Without relying too implicitly upon the testi-
mony of Alfieri,* we may safely assume that the
Princess Louisa possessed personal beauty and
mental accomplishments well calculated to cap-
tivate and retain the affections of a husband ;
nevertheless, if to the many disappointments of
* Vita di Vittorio Alfieri da Asti. Scritta da osso. Speaking
of the Princess Louisa, the poet says : " L'impression prima me
n'era rimarta negli occhi e nella mente ad un tempo piacerolissima.
Un dolce focoso negli occhi nerissimi accopiatosi (che raro addi-
viene) con candidissima pelle e biondi capelli davano alia di lei
bellezza un risalto, da cui difficile era, di non rimanere colpito e
conquiso. Era di anni venticinque ; molta propensione alle bell'
arti e alle lettere, indole d'oro." In 1778, Alfieri addressed to the
princess his sonnet " Negri, vivaci, in dolce fuoco ardenti," and to
her inspiration, he tells us on another occasion, the world is indebted
for all his subsequent amatory poems. He speaks of her mostly as
" la mia Donna," and describes her character as " schietissima ed
imparreggiabile indole." His expressions are always those of affec-
tion and respect, and time appears to have had no power to alter
these sentiments. To her he dedicated his Myrosa, calling her the
fountain of his genius, and declaring that his own life had only
commenced on the day that bound him to her. He wished to repose
with her in one grave ; and even wrote an epitaph, in which he
described her as " Aloysia e Stolbergis, Albaniae comitessa, incom-
parabili animi candore prseclarissima a Vittorio Alfieri annorum
[ ] spatio ultra res omnes dilecta et quasi mortale numen ab
ipso constanter habita et observata." Lord Mahon indeed speaks of
Charles and Louisa as " a harsh husband" and " an intriguing wife,"
but assigns no ground or justification for such severe and sweeping
expressions.
224 MEMOIRS OF
his early life, Charles had now to add the absence
of that domestic comfort, which might have
poured the balm of consolation on his wounded
spirit, we shall be guilty of great injustice, if we
attribute the entire blame to him. At the age of
fifty-two, and after a life made up of hope de-
ferred, it is not improbable that his character may
have assumed a gloomy tone, and that some
sacrifices or concessions were required on both
sides, to make the union a source of happiness or
harmony to two individuals of such dispropor-
tioned ages. Alfieri, indeed, would have us
believe, not only that Charles made none of these
sacrifices or concessions, but that he was guilty of
continue vessa&ioni, and embittered the life of
the princess by a course of downright domestic
tyranny; but, in judging of the worth of this
testimony, we must not lose sight of the fact,
that, according to Alfieri's own account, it would
appear that the domestic afflictions of the Count-
ess of Albany did not assume a serious character
till the year 1777, which happens to have been
the year in which her acquaintance with her poet-
admirer commenced. Alfieri's passion for her was
immediate and ardent. He never attempted
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 225
either to restrain or to conceal it ; and Louisa,
even supposing her to have been innocent of any
direct violation of her conjugal vow, could not
but excite the jealousy and anger of her husband,
by the evident pleasure with which she received,
and even encouraged, the homage of a young and
popular poet. Under such circumstances, a sepa-
ration could not but appear desirable both to
Charles and his wife, the more so as their mar-
riage had not been blessed with children, who
might otherwise have served as a bond of union
between them. A judicial separation did not take
place till 1783; but this had three years previously
been preceded by an actual separation, brought
about by the princess herself, assisted by Alfieri.
According to the narrative of the poet, the
domestic jars of the Count and Countess of
Albany had become so serious in 1780, that she
considered herself no longer safe under her hus-
band's protection. She accompanied him to a
convent in Florence, ostensibly for the mere pur-
pose of a visit, but, on her arrival there, she
expressed her determination to remain ; and an
order from the government, 'obtained through the
intercession of Alfieri, was produced, authorising
VOL. II. Q
226 MEMOIRS OF
the princess to stay in the convent, so that it was
out of her husband's power to compel her to re-
turn. After a residence of only a few days at the
convent, Louisa left it, to take shelter with her
brother-in-law (the Cardinal d'York) at Rome,
whither Alfieri followed her.* This last circum-
stance was certainly not calculated to make either
Charles or the world believe, that upon him alone
rested the blame of his domestic unhappiness.
* The following is Alfieri's own account of this affair : " Le con-
tinue vessazioni del marito si terminavano finalmente in una si
violenta scena Baccanale nella notte di S. Andrea, che ella per non
soccombere sotto si orribili trattamenti, fu alia per fine costretta di
cercare un modo per sottrarsi a si falta tirannia, e salvare la salute e
la vita. Ed ecco allora, che io di bel nuovo dovei (contro la natura
mia) raggirare presso i potenti di quel Governo, per indurli a
favorire la liberazione di quell' innocente vittima da un giogo si
barbaro e indegno. Io, salvai la Donna mia della tirannide d'un
irragionevole e sempre ubriaco padrone, senza che pure vi fosse in
ne nessunissimo modo compromessa la di lei onesta, ne leso nella
minima parte il decoro di tutti. II che certamentea chiunque ha saputo
o visto dappresso le circostanze particolari della prigionia durissima,
in cui ella di continue da oncia ad oncia moriva, non parea essere
stata cosa facile a ben secondarsi e riuscirla, come pure riusci, a buon
esito. Da prima dunque essa entro in un monastero in Firenze,
condottori dello stesso marito, como per visitar quelluogo,e dovutavela
poi lasciare con somma di lui sorpresa, per ordine e disposizione date
da chi allora comandava in Firenze. Statavi alcuni giorni, venne poi
dal di lei cognato chiamata in Roma, dove egli abitava, e quivi pure
si ritiro in altro monastero. E le raggioni di si fatta rottura tra lei
e il marito furono tanti e si manifest!, che la separazione fu univer-
salmente appro vata."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 227
The last hope, the hope of domestic peace, had
left the desolate mansion of Charles Stuart. He
had now arrived at the age of sixty-three, and,
whether he turned his eyes to the past, to the
present, or to the future, none but the gloomiest
prospects presented themselves to his view. The
history of his house displayed to him a long line
of ancestors, who by their own conduct had pre-
pared the humiliation of their descendants. He
saw the line of ancestral monarchs terminate in a
king, who sacrificed to an unhappy infatuation
his duty to his country, to his people, and to his
family. He saw his father totally devoid of that
energy without which it was impossible to retrieve
the fortunes of his house ; and the recollection of
his own youth, and of all the honest efforts he had
made to accomplish what he believed would have
been conducive to the happiness of his country
and to his own glory, tended only to embitter the
disappointment of every purpose of his life, and
to darken the gloom of that domestic desolation,
which at length had overtaken him. Nor could
he seek for consolation by looking forward. The
house of Stuart, he knew, would survive only
for a few years in the scarlet hat of a Roman
228 MEMOIRS OF
cardinal, and the successful calumnies with which
his own fair name had been assailed seemed to
strip him even of the hope that posterity might
yet do him justice.
We have already seen that, in Hume's letter to
Sir John Pringle, written in 1773, the historian,
who has generally spoken of the Stuarts with
much frankness and moderation, mentions it
as the opinion of Lord Marischal that " there
was no vice so mean or atrocious of which Charles
was not capable." Among those specific vices
which have been laid to the Prince's charge, that
of drunkenness has been chiefly dwelt on, not only
by English travellers, who may have thought to
recommend themselves to their own rulers by
traducing the man who had at one time been so
formidable to those rulers, but particularly by
Alfieri, who has probably done more than any
other writer to fasten this reproach upon the
memory of Charles. Alfieri speaks throughout of
Charles arid the cardinal with studied disrespect.
The former is repeatedly described as the ebro
marito, the sempre ubriaco padrone, and the ill
treatment of Louisa, i torti e le feroti e pessime
maniere del marito con essa erano cose verissime
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 229
ed a tutti notissime ; and the two brothers are
guesti personaggi fratelli whom "he will not
drag forth from the obscurity to which time has
consigned them, laudare non li potendo, ni li
volendo biasimare"
We have placed before our readers the very
words of some of the revilings by which it has
been sought to blacken the name of Charles to
posterity ; but we are as little disposed to place
these revilings in one and the same class, as we
are disposed to confound two such men as Alfieri
and Helvetius. Some of the charges are so gross,
so palpably false, that they can have been put
forward merely upon the old principle that, to
calumniate effectually, a man must be unsparing
in his calumnies, in the hope that at least some
of them may cleave to their object. The story
that Charles had to be bound, in order to be taken
on board at Nantes, is too absurd to be tolerated
for a moment, when we know what his conduct
was in Scotland and England. A scene of such a
kind could not, moreover, have been enacted
without a crowd of witnesses, even admitting for
a moment the psychological possibility of the fact.
The whole letter of Hume, however, is apocryphal.
230 MEMOIRS OF
When Lord Marischal was dying, he sent for Lord
Elliot, the English ambassador at Berlin, and said
to him, " I have sent for you, because I derive
satisfaction from the idea that a minister of George
the Second should receive the last sigh of a stanch
old Jacobite." With such sentiments, Lord Mar-
ischal is not likely to have spoken of Charles in
the terms quoted in the letter attributed to Hume.
Nor could Lord Marischal describe himself as a
" discontented courtier," since James and Charles
never for a moment withdrew their favour from
him, and to the house of Hanover he had never
made any overtures. The assertion that Helvetius
received and concealed the Prince in Paris, after
the expulsion of the latter, can refer .only to the
tim when Charles resided at Avignon, whence he
is said to have frequently made excursions into
France ; but such a visit, it is manifest, could not
have lasted for a period of two years.* If the
letter in question, given in the Gentleman's
* It may not be out of place to mention here that, for some years
after the Prince's expulsion from France, a multitude of strange
rumours were spread respecting him, the greater part of which have
since been disproved, or were too absurd to require contradiction.
Among these is a silly story of his having been in Poland in 1751,
and of his having contracted a marriage there with a Princess
Radzivil.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
231
Magazine of 1788, was ever written by Hume,
it is well for his fame that a larger portion of his
correspondence has not been preserved.
Of a different character in every respect are the
reproaches which Alfieri has so unsparingly poured
out upon the husband of the woman he loved.
Alfieri was too high-minded a man to be guilty of
intentional calumny, and what he has said he
certainly believed to be true. There is but too
much reason to believe that Charles was not free
from the disgraceful vice attributed to him by the
poet. The youth of Charles falls in a period when
the higher classes, both in England and France,
were addicted to an immoderate enjoyment of
wine. Charles, when associating with the courtiers
of Louis XV., was not in a school of moderation.
He early contracted the habit of drinking freely,
and in after life, when his constitution was broken,
even a little wine may have had a powerful effect
upon him, fretted as his mind was by the discord
which prevailed within his home. Nor can it be
denied that, at an earlier period of his life, his
indulgence in wine had been noticed. Shortly
after his return from Scotland, the matter seems
to hate been spoken of, if we may judge from the
232 MEMOIRS OF
following letter addressed to Lord Dunbar, which
was found among the Stuart papers :
" Paris, April 15, 1747.
" My Lord, An Irish Cordelier, called Kelly,
who gives himself out for the Prince's confessor,
has distributed in this town an infamous paper,
entitled ' A Sonnet on the death of a Caledonian
Bear,' and has been indiscreet enough to publish
that his Majesty has been of late troubled with
vapours, which have affected his judgment, and
that your Lordship governs him despotically ; in
fine, he has said that the king is a fool and that
you are a knave. As he is known to have access
to his Royal Highness, his discourse has produced
very bad effects ; people imagine that the Prince
contemns his father. I am persuaded he does not
deserve that censure. It were to be wished, how-
ever, that his Royal Highness would forbid that
friar his apartment, because he passes for a noto-
rious drunkard. The opinion prevails here that
the Cordeliers in general are great drinkers, yet
even among them this Kelly is infamous for his
excesses ; in fine, the wine of the Prince's table is
termed Friar Kelly's wine ; and the same person
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 233
who governs his conscience is said to regulate his
diversions, and his Royal Highness's character, in
point of sobriety, has been a little blemished on
this friar's account."
As the author of this letter is not known, it is
impossible to say what degree of confidence it may
be entitled to ; but there is reason to believe that
it was not written from the purest motives. Even
the little court of James at Rome was not wholly
free from intrigues and cabals, as we may judge
from an extract from one of Charles's letters to his
father, written about four months earlier than the
foregoing. Kelly had before been accused, appa-
rently, by this Paris correspondent, but Charles
defends the character of his follower. " It is my
humble opinion," says the Prince, " it would be
very wrong in me to disgrace George Kelly, unless
your Majesty positively ordered me to do it. I
must do him the justice to assure you, I was
surprised to find your Majesty have a bad opinion
of him ; and hitherto I have had no reason to be
dissatisfied with him, for this was the first I heard
of his honesty and probity to be in question. I
shall take the liberty to represent that, if what he
234 MEMOIRS OF
has been accused of to you be wrote from hence,
there is all reason to believe, id est. in my weak
way of thinking, that such that have writ so to
you mistake, because of my never having heard
any body accuse him to me here of such things,
and my having declared that my ears were open
to every body, so as to be the better able to judge
the characters of people."
The unfortunate habit to which we have al-
luded seems to have been contracted during the
adventures and escapes of Charles in the High-
lands of Scotland, after the battle of Culloden.
At^that time, the excitement of a dram of whisky
was frequently put in requisition to enable him
to bear up against the fatigues and privations
with which he had to struggle. The habit may
have continued after the first cause had ceased ;
nor is it impossible that it may have been
strengthened by the fluctuating hopes and dis-
appointments by which, for some years afterwards,
his mind was kept in a state of almost constant
excitement.
Charles may have been harsh to his wife ; but
on this point the testimony of Alfieri must not
be adopted without making some allowance for
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
235
the irritation, which any husband might be
excused for feeling, at the terms on which the
Princess Louisa was known to be with her ac-
complished admirer. We shall have occasion to
see that, even in the closing years of his life,
Charles's mind was not unsusceptible to the finer
affections ; and therefore, though we believe that
Alfieri was not intentionally guilty of slandering
Charles, we may still take it for granted
that the poet's unbounded devotion to the prin-
cess led him insensibly to exaggerate the defects
of the husband ; and as Alfieri himself says,
" Terminero con tutto cio, per amor del vero e
del retto, col dire, che il marito e il cognato e i
loro respettivi preti avevano tutte le raggioni di
non approvare quella mia troppa frequenza."
236 MEMOIRS OF
CHAPTER XXXIII.
LAST YEARS OF CHARLES'S LIFE AND RESIDENCE AT
ROME HIS LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH SURVIVING
MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY
CARDINAL YORK.
IN April, 1783, Charles was suddenly taken
so dangerously ill, that his brother, who left Rome
on receiving the intelligence, scarcely expected
to find him alive. The crisis, however, passed
quickly, and the cardinal, on arriving at Florence,
found his brother out of danger ; he, nevertheless,
remained with him fifteen days, during which
time the ambiguous position of the princess with
respect to Alfieri formed a frequent topic of their
conversation, and the cardinal satisfied himself of
the impropriety of allowing his own house to con-
tinue to be made the scene of their intercourse.
It is impossible to say what share his domestic
afflictions may have had in the deep gloom which
about this time appears to have settled on the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 237
mind of Charles, but which never extinguished
his deep-rooted affection for Scotland, the land
of his youth, the theatre of his own heroic deeds,
the country that he could never hope to see again.
He always took the warmest interest in the
accounts of Scottish travellers who procured
introductions to hirn: but, on more than one
occasion, these visitors were shocked at the extent
to which their host became excited when his
imagination was carried back to the tales of '45.
On one occasion, at a musical entertainment given
by the Prince at his villa, a brother exile ven-
tured to sing the plaintive Highland ditty,
" We'll maybe return to Lochaber no more."
The melody was calculated to revive painful
recollections, for Dr. Cameron was known to have
sung it in his prison on the night before his
execution. Charles, who all his life had been
fond of music, had, on the evening in question,
gradually resumed some portion of his once
accustomed cheerfulness ; but scarcely had the
well-remembered tones of the song that told of
Scotland and her sorrows fallen on his ear, than
he bent down his head, covered his face with
both his hands, and burst into tears.
238 MEMOIRS OF
At this period of life Charles would lie for hours
together on a sofa, speechless and almost motion-
less, without deigning to notice any one who entered
his apartment, and giving no sign of life but by
occasionally caressing a favourite dog that seldom
quitted his side. In this condition he was seen by
Gustavus III. of Sweden, who, in the autumn of
1783, came to Italy to take the waters of Pisa, and
who is said to have shed tears on beholding the
hero of Preston and Falkirk, the Prince in whose
veins the blood of the Stuarts mingled with that
of Sobieski and of Henry of Navarre.*
Long before the visit of Gustavus, however, the
manners and appearance of Charles must have
lost much of that attraction for which his youth
was so remarkable. The following, at least, is the
picture drawn of him, when in his fiftieth year,
by an English lady who saw him in Italy in
1770:
"The Pretender is naturally above the middle
size, but stoops excessively ; he appears bloated
and red in the face ; his countenance heavy and
* Joseph Gorani. Geheime und kritische Nachrichten von den
Hofen, Regierungen und Sitten der wichtigsten Staaten in Italien.
Aus dem Franzosischen. Colin, 1794.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 239
sleepy, which is attributed to his having given
into excess of drinking ; but when a young man
he must have been esteemed handsome. His
complexion is of the fair tint, his eyes blue, his
hair light brown, and the contour of his face a
long oval ; he is by no means thin, has a noble
person, and a graceful manner. His dress was
scarlet, laced with broad gold lace ; he wears the
blue riband outside of his coat, from which
depends a cameo antique, as large as the palm of
my hand ; and he wears the same garter and
motto as those of the noble order of St. George in
England. Upon the whole, he has a melancholy,
mortified appearance. Two gentlemen constantly
attend him ; they are of Irish extraction, and
Roman Catholics you may be sure. ... At
Princess Palestriria's, he asked me if I understood
the game of Tarrochi, which they were about to
play at. I answered in the negative ; upon which,
taking the pack in his hands, he desired to know
if I had ever seen such odd cards ? I replied that
they were very odd indeed. He then, displaying
them, said, ' There is everything in the world to
be found in these cards the sun, the moon, the
stars ; and here,' says he, throwing me a card, ' is
240 MEMOIRS OF
the Pope ; here is the Devil ; and,' added he,
* there is but one of the trio wanting, and you
know who that should be !' I was so amazed, so
astonished, though he spoke this last in a laughing
good-humoured manner, that I did not know which
way to look ; and as to a reply, I made none."*
In 1785, the home of Charles was brightened
by the arrival of his daughter by Miss Walken-
shaw, of whom mention has already been made.
This young lady, whose gentleness of disposition
did much to dissipate the gloom that hung over
the few remaining years of her father's life, had
been educated at Paris. She must have been at
this time in her thirtieth year, and was, with the
exception of an old Scottish servant, the only
human being that seemed united by the ties of
affection to the last princely scion of an expiring
race. The domestic peace, however, that had thus
been restored to his home, was destined to be
interrupted by a fresh mortification, which, though
apparently of trifling import, was not the less a
source of chagrin to the aged sufferer. He had
always had an aversion to Rome as a permanent
residence, and would willingly have continued at
* Letters from an Englishwoman. London, 1776, vol. ii. p. 198.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 241
Florence ; but Pius VI. intimated his desire that
the Prince should remove to the Eternal City,
and even hinted that the pension which Charles
received from the Papal treasury would be with-
drawn, unless the Pontiff's wish were complied
with. It was vain to resist an order which, in his
younger days, the Prince would have indignantly
spurned.
The brief period that remained of his life was
spent in tranquillity and comparative happiness
in the society of his daughter, whose polished
manners and sweetness of disposition made her
every day more dear to him. He legitimatised
her, and made her the heiress to his private for-
tune, which was by no means inconsiderable. To
his Scottish attendant he secured at the same
time the reversion of an annuity of 3000 scudi.
His last royal act was to create his daughter
Duchess of Albany, a proceeding which has by
some been made a subject of derision, but which
at all events was a harmless exercise of imaginary
power, and was meant as kindness to one who
well deserved his kindness. Many precedents for
similar creations might be referred to. The titles
conferred by the father of Charles are, in many
VOL. II. R
242 MEMOIRS OF
instances, still borne by the descendants of those
who first received them ; and even Napoleon,
shortly before his death, at St. Helena, marked
his sense of the faithful services of one of his
attendants, by conferring on him the rank of
count.
Before we arrive at the closing scene of our
hero's career, we must relate a characteristic anec-
dote, which has been preserved, and which shows
how strongly to the last his affections were ri vetted
to the land where, it is probable, whatever may
have been his sufferings there, the happiest
moments of his life were passed. After his last
removal to Rome, few strangers had access to him ;
but Mr. Greathed, a personal friend of Mr. Fox's,
succeeded in obtaining an interview. Being alone
with him for some time, the English traveller
studiously led the conversation to the events of
1745. The Prince showed at first some unwilling-
ness to enter on the subject, and seemed to suffer
pain at the remembrance. Mr. Greathed, however,
persevered, with more curiosity than discretion.
At length, the Prince appeared to shake off the
load that oppressed him ; his eye brightened, his
face assumed unwonted animation, and he began
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 243
the narrative of his Scottish campaigns, with
a vehement energy of manner, recounting his
marches, his battles, his victories, and his defeat,
his hair-breadth escapes, and the inviolable and
devoted attachment of his Highland followers,
proceeding, at length, to the dreadful penalties
which so many of them had subsequently under-
gone. The recital of their sufferings evidently
affected him more deeply than the recollection of
those which he had himself endured. Then, and
not till then, his fortitude forsook him, his voice
faltered, his eye became fixed, and he fell to the
floor in convulsions. At the noise, in rushed the
Duchess of Albany, who happened to be in an
adjoining room. " Sir," she exclaimed to Mr.
Greathed, " what is this ? You must have been
speaking to my father about Scotland and the
Highlanders ! No one dares to mention these
subjects in his presence."*
The health of Charles had long been declining,
and in January, 1788, he was seized with a para-
lytic stroke, which deprived him of the use of one
half of his body. On the last day of the same
* Scottish Episcopal Magazine, vol. ii. p. 177 ; and Chambers's
History of the Rebellion of 1745, vol. ii. p. 321.
R 2
244 MEMOIRS OF
month, he expired in the arms of his daughter.
The following night the body, followed by the
whole of his household on horseback, bearing wax
tapers, was conveyed, in a sealed coffin, to Frascati,
the bishopric of the Cardinal d'York, where it was
received in the cathedral by the assembled digni-
taries of the chapter. There the coffin was once
more opened in the presence of a notary, and was
then buried in the church, the spot being marked
by a simple monument, that, bears only the name
and title of him whose remains lie there.* His
* It is a singular coincidence that, during four succeeding cen-
turies, the year eighty-eight should always have been marked by a
calamity for the house of Stuart. On the llth of June, 1488,
James III. lost a battle against his rebellious subjects. On the 15th
of February, 1588,* Mary Queen of Scots perished on a scaffold.
On the 12th of December, 1688, James II. abandoned the British
throne by his flight from London. On the 31st of January, 1788,
the last of the Stuarts closed his earthly career. Lord Mahon says,
he was told by Cardinal Caccia Piatti, at Rome, that Charles died,
not on the 31st, but on the 30th of January, but that his attendants,
disliking the omen, as the anniversary of King Charles's execution,
concealed his death during the night, and asserted that he had died
at nine the next morning. How Pichot and Sevelinges can have
been led to say that Charles died at Florence, it is difficult to con-
ceive, seeing that Alfieri, who may be considered good authority on
such a subject, says : " Venuto intanto il Febbrajo del 1788, la mia
Donna riceva la nuova della morte del di lei iharito seguita in Roma,
dove egli da piu di due anni si era ritirato, lasciando Firenze."
* This is a mistake. It was in 1587 that Mary was beheaded.
EDITOR.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 245
heart was deposited in an urn, which bears the
following inscription, composed by the Abbate
Felice, one of the Cardinal's chaplains :
"Di Carlo III. Freddo Cinere
Questa brev' urna serva ;
Figlio de terzo Giacomo
Signer d'Inghilterra.
Fuor di regno patrio
A lui che tomba diede ?
Infidelta di popolo,
Integrita di fede.*
The line of the Stuarts may well be said to have
closed with Charles, although his brother, the
cardinal, survived him nearly twenty years. In
Pichot's work, mention is made of a son of Charles
by Miss Walkenshaw, but, as this son is not alluded
to by any other writer, it may be doubted whether
he ever existed, or, if he did, he must have died
in infancy. The Duchess of Albany survived her
father only one year. Mention is made of her by
Gothe, in his Italian Journey of 1786, but only
to let the world know that she expressed a wish
to see the German poet, but that no step was taken
on his part to gratify her wish.
Respecting the widow of Charles, more com-
* The above epitaph is copied from Pichot, vol. ii. p. 412.
246 MEMOIRS OF
plete details have reached us. According to Alfieri
she received the news of her husband's death with
sincere though not exaggerated sorrow. " Benche
questa morte," he says, " fosse preveduta gia da un
pezzo, attesi e replicati accidenti, che da piu mesi
Taveano percosso, e lasciasse la vedova interamente
libera di se, e con venisse a perdere nel marito un
arnico, con tutto cio io fui con mia maraviglia tes-
timonio occulare, ch' ella ne fu non poco compunta,
e di dolore certarnente non finto ne esagerato."
Her hand had become free by the death of
Charles, and as she was not restrained by any pre-
judices of rank, there would have been nothing sur-
prising in the fact if she had consented to become
the wife of Alfieri. Her marriage with the poet
rests, however, only on the authority of Pichot,
who declares that they were united at Paris after
the death of her first husband. All other accounts
that have reached us, including the narrative of
Alfieri himself, simply state, that they " lived
thenceforth on the most intimate and indissoluble
terms with each other," sometimes in Alsace and
sometimes in Paris, a pension of 60,000 livres,
which she received from the court, enabling her
to maintain an appearance suitable to her rank.
PRINCE CHARLES. STUART. 247
They visited Switzerland and England, and retired
to Florence in 1792, where Alfieri died on the
8th of October, 1803, and where she erected to
his memory a handsome monument, executed by
the hand of Canova, and which was placed in the
church of the Holy Cross, between the monuments
of Michael Angelo and Macchiavelli. When the
fortunes of war threw Tuscany under French
domination, Bonaparte, aware of the dislike which
the Countess of Albany had expressed towards
him, compelled her to make a journey to Paris,
where he loaded her with reproaches ; but he
seems to have been moved by the dignified manner
in which she behaved on the occasion, for she was
allowed to return to Florence, and to live there
unmolested.
One of her sisters, Francisca Claudia, became
attached to the suite of Napoleon's empress, and
through every change of fortune continued her
faithful companion, till separated by the grave.
Another sister, Caroline, married Duke Charles
Bernhard, of Berwick, who was descended from a
collateral branch of the house of Stuart. The
Countess of Albany herself, it has been said,
contracted afterwards privately a third marriage
with a painter of the name of Fabre, a friend of
248 MEMOIRS OF
Alfieri's. She died at Florence on the 29th
of January, 1824, and her remains were laid in
the same grave with those of Alfieri. Her for-
tune she bequeathed to Fabre, who, in his turn,
left his valuable museum to his native city,
Montpellier.
The Cardinal d'York, in the course of a long
life, attained to a number of ecclesiastical digni-
ties. He became Bishop of Ostia, Velletri, and
Frascati, Vice Chancellor of the Roman Church,
and Arch priest of the Basilica of the Vatican.
From the King of France he received the
wealthy abbeys of Anchin, St. Amand, &c. Like
his father and grandfather, the Cardinal is said to
have thanked God for depriving him of three
kingdoms; but this pious humility harmonised
little with the conduct which he observed on his
brother's death. According to the principles
of legitimacy, the Cardinal had undoubtedly
become the rightful king of Great Britain and
Ireland, and, according to the precedents of the
Roman hierarchy, he ought to have resigned
the cardinal's hat, or his claims to the British
crown. He resigned neither. On the contrary,
he caused a medal to be struck, bearing his
bust, with the inscription " Henricus IX. Magn.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 249
Brit. Franciae et Hibern. Rex Fid. Def. Card. Ep.
Tusc." On the reverse is seen Religion with a
Bible and Cross in her hands, and a lion, a crown,
and a cardinal's hat at her feet. In the distance
is seen the Church of St. Peter, and the whole is
encircled with the motto " Non desideriis homi-
num, sed voluntate Dei." The medal bears the
date of 1788. In his own house the Cardinal
insisted upon a strict observance of all the etiquette
usual in the residence of a reigning sovereign a
rule with which even a son of George III. was
obliged to comply, when curiosity induced him to
seek an interview. By his will, the Cardinal ex-
pressly required that his kingly title should be
graven on his tomb, and his rights to the British
throne he solemnly bequeathed to Victor Emanuel,
King of Sardinia, who was constrained to renounce
his own sovereignty in 1821.
The Cardinal did riot, however, refuse to accept
a pension of 4000/. from the British government.
He enjoyed it from 1799 till his death; but he
received it ostensibly in consideration of a debt
claimed by Maria d'Este, the consort of James II.,
and secured to her by the terms of the peace of
Ryswick. His Spanish pension was withdrawn
250 MEMOIRS OF
from him, and the revenues of his French abbeys
were confiscated during the course of the revolu-
tion. The closing years of his life were marked
by other trials. To assist Pius VI. during his
reverses, the Cardinal d'York sold all his jewels,
including a ruby valued at 50,000 louis-d'or. Old
and poor, he was obliged to flee from Rome in
1798 with his brother cardinals, and sought refuge
in Venice, whence, however, he was allowed to
return to Rome in 1801. He died at Frascati, on
the 13th of July, 1807. The papers of his family
he bequeathed to the British government, in ac-
knowledgment of the pension which alone had
secured him against penury during the last few
years of his life.* With the death of Henry of
* These papers are at present in the custody of the Queen's
librarian, and all access to them is denied to those who might be
desirous to search among them for facts likely to throw a light on
the annals of the exiled dynasty. The motive for this exclusion is
not known to us. The papers have, however, been partially
examined by favoured individuals, among whom may be mentioned
Lord Mahon, who has published a portion of the family correspond-
ence, the greater part of which has been incorporated with the
present work.
[The author seems not to have been aware that it was from these
papers, while deposited in Carlton House, that a life of James II.
was, by command of George IV., then Prince Regent, collected by his
librarian, the Rev. James Stanier Clarke, from memoirs written by
James's own hand, and published in two quarto volumes. EDITOR].
PRINCE CHARLES STUAKT. 251
York, the direct line of the Stuarts finally became
extinct. *
Thirty- one years after the death of Charles,
George IV., then Prince Regent, caused a stately
monument from the chisel of Canova to be erected
under the dome of St. Peter's, at Rome. On a
bas-relief, executed in white marble, are represented
the likenesses of James, Charles, and Henry, with
the following inscription :
JACOBO III., JACOBI II., MAGN. BRIT. REGIS FILIO,
CAROLO EDUARDO ET HENRICO, DECANO
PATRUM CARDINALIUM, JACOBI III. FILIIS,
REGIAE STIRPIS STUARDIAE POSTREMIS
ANNO MDCCCXIX.
BEATI MORTUI QUI IN DOMINO MORIUNTUR.
* For further particulars of the Cardinal, see Appendix, No. V.
APPENDIX
OF
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS.
APPENDIX
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS.
No. I.
THE following letter from the old Pretender to
one of his adherents in Scotland affords some
insight into the plans, hopes, and expectations of
the Stuarts, in the years immediately preceding
the attempt of Charles.
"March 1M, 1743.
" I received, a few days ago, yours of the 18th
of February, and am far from disapproving your
coming into France at this time. The settling of a
correspondence betwixt us on this side of the sea,
and our friends in Scotland, may be of conse-
quence in the juncture. I hope you will have con-
certed some safe method for that effect with Lord
Semple, before you leave him ; arid that, once
determined, you will, I think, have done very well
256 MEMOIRS OF
to return home, where you may be of more use
than abroad. I shall say nothing here of what is
passing in France, of which you will have been
informed by Lord Semple ; and you may be well
assured that I shall neglect nothing that depends
on me to induce the French to assist us, as it is
reasonable to hope they will, if there be a general
war. But, if they ever undertake anything in my
favour, I shall, to be sure, have some little warning
of it before ; but that may be so short, that I fear
it will be impossible that General Keith can come
in time to Scotland, how much soever both I, and,
I am persuaded, he himself also desires it ; because
you will easily see that one of his rank and dis-
tinction cannot well quit the service he is in, either
abruptly or upon an uncertainty. I remark all
you say on that subject, and when the time comes
it shall be my care to dispose all such matters, as
much as in me lies/ for what I may then think
the real good of my service and the satisfaction of
my friends, for in such particulars it is scarce
possible to take proper resolutions before the time
of execution.
" I had some time ago a proposal made to me in
relation to the seizing of Stirling Castle. What I
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 257
then heard, and what you now say on the subject,
is so general, that I think it not impossible but
that the two proposals may be found originally one
and the same project. I wish, therefore, you would
enter a little more into particulars, that I may be
the better able to determine what directions to
send. As to what is represented about the vassals,
I suppose what you mean is the same as what I
have inserted in a draught of a declaration for Scot-
land I have long had by me, viz. ; That the
vassals of those who should appear against my
forces, on a landing, should be freed of their
vassalage, and hold their lands immediately of the
crown, provided such vassals should declare for me,
and join heartily in my cause. As this is my in-
tention, I allow my friends to make such prudent
use of it as they may think fit.
" Before you get this, you will probably have
received what was wrote to you from hence about
the Scotch Episcopal Clergy, so that I need say
nothing on that subject here, more than that I
hope the steps taken by me will give satisfaction,
and promote union in that body. It is a great
comfort for me to see the gentlemen of the con-
cert [? council] so zealous, so united, and so frank
VOL. II, g
258 MEMOIRS OF
in all that relates to my service ; and I desire you
will say all that is kind to them in my name.
" I remark you have advanced 100/. of your own
money for Sir J. E., which I take very well of
you ; but I must desire you will not give me an
more proofs of that kind of your good-will towards
me; and, as for what is past, I look upon it as a
personal debt, and shall take care that it be repaid.
I remark what you say about the difficulty there
is of raising money. I foresaw that it would be
no easy matter, and I think it should not be
insisted upon. I think I have now taken notice
of all that required any answer, in what you wrote
to me and Morgan ; and shall add nothing further
here, but to assure you of the continuance of my
good opinion of you, and that your prudent and
zealous endeavours to forward my service shall
never be forgot by me."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 259
No. II.
EXTRACTS FROM THE YOUNG CHEVALIER ; OR, A GENUINE
NARRATIVE OP ALL THAT BEFEL THAT UNFORTUNATE
ADVENTURER. BY A GENTLEMAN WHO WAS PERSON-
ALLY ACQUAINTED NOT ONLY WITH THE SCENES OF
ACTION, BUT WITH MANY OF THE ACTORS THEMSELVES.
ON Monday the 14th April, 1746, which was
two days before the battle of Culloden, he mus-
tered his troops in the town of Inverness, and
walked along the lines, encouraging them as he
passed. Never were men in more exalted spirits.
They raised a cheerful huzza, and expressed them-
selves with a confidence which denounced, as it
were, on their enemies that fatal blow they them-
selves received. "We have seen Cumberland
before ; we will give him another Fontenoy," was
the phrase of the day. Thus exulting, on they
marched to the Parks of Culloden and Castle Hill,
on which they encamped ; while the Chevalier and
260 MEMOIRS OF
his general officers took up their lodgings in the
mansion houses.
About six o'clock the next morning, the pipes
of the Highlanders played, the drums of the
French beat to arms, and the troops marched in
order of battle to the place of engagement, where
they halted and rested on their arms, expecting
with the utmost impatience every moment
to engage the Royalists ; and during the
time several false alarms were raised, which
only inflamed their desire of coming to blows.
The Chevalier, desirous of improving this ardour
of his troops, proposed to them to march for-
ward, about nine o'clock at night, and attack
the duke's army in the dark. " For," said he,
" they will be drowned in sleep, the effect of this
day's rejoicing, as it is the birthday of the
usurper's son." This scheme was approved by
Sullivan and Sheridan, and with little or no diffi-
culty agreed to by most of the chiefs. But
before setting out, they thought of a way to
deceive the country people, or the patrolling
parties of the enemy. This was to make great
fires, on which they put large quantities of wet
straw, which kindled but slowly, caused a violent
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 261
smoke, which being agitated by a south-east wind,
that then began gently to blow, very effectually
covered their designs. Big with the hopes of
success, about ten they denied in the most
silent manner, with two pieces of cannon, and,
through parks and byways, they arrived by one
in the morning on Kildruming Muir, within two
miles of the Duke of Cumberland's camp.
The picquets of the royal army were dis-
posed in the best order, but were no way able
to resist their united force, had they directly
marched on : but here, through a most unac-
countable error, they separated. The Chevalier,
with one body turned to the north-west, in order
to surround the enemy, whom he judged himself
capable of hemming in on all hands, namely, by
the water of Nairn on the east, the sea on the
north, and his own troops on the west and south.
Nothing now impeded him but a morass and a
lake, betwixt which he was obliged to march his
forces as through a defile. About two o'clock he
carne so near the sentries as to hear them calling
to, and answering one another. " Is all well ?"
' Yes, all's well." Now was the time of executing
his daring scheme, which nothing but the most
262 MEMOIRS OF
fatal delusion could have prevented. And here
it will be proper to take notice of a circumstance,
which, though little of itself, yet, like other
incidents which frequently happen, contributed
much to their favourable conjuncture, more than
the terrors of a battery, or avenues lined with
rows of cannon. The matter was this :
A stallion they had with them, coming to a
place where some days before he had covered a
mare, began to neigh. The owner did all he
could to stop him, but to no purpose, and there-
fore would have shot him through the head, had
not one of the generals prevented it, for fear of
giving an alarm. After endeavouring to pacify
him, they ordered him back, but forthwith be-
gan to dread their design was discovered, and a
damp appeared among them. This story may be
entirely depended upon, for I had it not only from
several who were along with the Chevalier, but
likewise from some in Nairn, the town and people
whereof I had the best opportunities of being
acquainted with : and unanimously averred, that
this accident, more than anything else, hindered
the adventurers from breaking in. The Chevalier
immediately called a council of war, in which the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 263
grand question was, whether or not to advance.
The chiefs were generally against it, while the
Chevalier and his two Irish favourites urged the
matter. But the report of the spies, who, taking
the picquets for the whole army, with the circum-
stance of the horse mentioned above, and that of
some battalions having mistaken their way, pre-
vailed upon them to return. This disappointment
provoked the Chevalier extremely; and he was
heard to say " God d ri it, are my orders still
disobeyed ? Fight when you will, gentlemen, the
day is not mine." However, he gave orders for
marching back to the field of battle, and reposing
themselves upon their arms ; and, at the same
time, sent out some parties to search the country
for all the provisions they could find. His com-
mands were obeyed. One battalion marched into
Inverness, while the main body came up to
the place of action. The Chevalier, with most
of his general officers, retired to Culloden House,
where they reposed themselves for some hours,
and ordered a hot dinner to be got ready for
them. In the meanwhile the Royalists were
advancing, and by eleven o'clock were observed at
the distance of two miles, by a patrolling party,
264 MEMOIRS OF
who directly carried the news to the camp : an
express was sent to the Chevalier, and a cannon
was fired as a signal of the enemy's approach.
He instantly rose up, and, when at the stairs, was
met by the steward, who told him that his
dinner, viz., a roasted side of lamb and two hens,
and the table-cloth was just ready to be laid.*
" No/' replied the Chevalier, " would you have me
sit down to victuals when my enemy is so near
me?" This said, he mounted on horseback, and
galloped up to the muir, where he assisted in the
disposition of his troops, who were already in
battalia. Those who were sleeping in the parks,
and by the sides of the dykes, being awakened by
the noise of the cannon, ran into their respective
regiments, and joined the companies to which
they belonged. They were now in top spirits,
and the rather as Keppoch Macdonald, with his
regiment, was that morning returned from an
expedition on which he had been dispatched.
Everything being disposed on each side, the
battle begun ; but, as the same has been so fully
described in the History of the Rebellion, printed
at Edinburgh, I shall only mention the conse-
* These were the man's express words.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 265
quences of it with regard to the person of the
Chevalier.
This young commander, being posted with a
body of reserve at a considerable distance, was
the spectator of a scene which at once blasted his
hopes and ruined his arms. He had the cruel
mortification of seeing those troops, which he
reckoned invincible, flying off in the most mise-
rable disorder and confusion. He did all in his
power to reanimate and persuade them to return
to the charge, but all to no purpose : showers of
bullets from the mouths of devouring cannon
were things to which they were strangers. Pro-
mises and entreaties were equally lost, and indeed
he spoke to them in the most moving terms,
uttering words to this purpose : " Rally, in the
name of God ; pray, gentlemen, return ; pray stay
with me your prince but a moment, otherwise you
ruin me, your country, and yourselves : and God
forgive you ! " He rode up to the several corps as
they were retreating in the utmost consternation,
addressing them in these and suchlike expres-
sions as he passed : but the whole were deaf to
his entreaties, for the generality of them knew
not what he said, while others who understood
266 MEMOIRS OF
the English tongue, cried out, " Prince ! Oh an !
oh an !" a sign of mourning, and a Scottish par-
ticle expressive of the greatest grief : " Oh that he
had never been born ! O fatal day ! what ruin
have we brought upon ourselves, our country,
and our friends ! " Scarcely were these and such-
like doleful sentences out of their mouths, when
the rout became total, some flying one way and
some another; and, the cannon being now brought
to bear upon them as they were running for their
lives, the Chevalier, seeing that all Avas gone, and
that his attempts on the British throne had failed,
spurred his horse and galloped off at full speed.
But during the confusion his wig and bonnet flew
off, which last was taken up and sent to a gentle-
woman, a member of the Church of Rome, who
kept it as a relic, in commemoration of that fatal
day, which had given at once so signal a blow to
a cause and interest she had much at heart. But
his wig was recovered by himself, just as it was
falling from the pummel of the saddle. He made
directly to the water of the Nairn, which he
crossed ; because, if he took his rout by the places
which lie betwixt that small river and the Ness,
the dragoons and Kingston's light horse would
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 267
perhaps be at his heels. His conjecture was
right, for such as passed the Nairn were the
only people who escaped the havoc which was
made in the pursuit. The clans who had stood
the storm, and made the attack upon the left
wing of the royal army, pursued the same course,
and halted at a place about two miles from the
field of action, where they set up the principal
standard, to which several repaired, and among
the rest the Chevalier himself. In the mean time,
the M'Phersons, who came too late for the battle,
arrived in view, whom they, taking for some of
the Argyleshire Militia,* began to be in pain ;
but, on observing their number to be small, they
resolved to make a stand, and were now in hopes
of having some revenge upon these people, to
whom they bore a most deadly hatred. As these
came nearer to them, they were undeceived.
Clunie, the chieftain of the Clan Caltan, directly
made his obeisance to the Chevalier, who now had
got another bonnet ; and, observing a confusion
and an unusual melancholy in his face, inquired
the cause. The Young Adventurer not being able
* The Argyleshire Campbells were zealously attached to the
Government.
268 MEMOIRS OF
to answer him, by reason of his grief, one of the
generals said to him " All is over." " What ! "
replied Clunie, " has there been a battle?" "Yes,"
answered the other, " and the day is not ours."
With these words the Chevalier and some of his
officers began to cast reflections upon the conduct
of a certain great man,* to whom they imputed
the whole of their disaster. M'Pherson was
almost struck speechless, but, recovering himself,
he replied with an oath, " There is no help no
help for it ; let us return again, and try the for-
tune of the day; for here are six hundred as brave
fellows as ever drew cold iron." " No," replied the
Chevalier, " it is needless ; for my faithfullest
followers are almost all cut to pieces : Lochiel arid
Keppoch (whose advice would to God had been
followed) are wounded, with many others. We
are too few to encounter the usurper's forces, who
are in possession of our cannon ; and, even if we
should return, my orders still would be counter-
acted as formerly. My case is at present bad, but
then it would be worse. Would to God I had
lain in the field, for there is now no more to be
done." Clunie, upon this, returned with his clan
* Lord George Murray.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 269
to Badenoch, where they procured the favour of
one Blair, a minister, and most of them took the
benefit of the Duke's proclamation to submit to
mercy ; and all who did so were dismissed peace-
ably to their own habitations. And here it will
not be perhaps improper to inform my reader of
a circumstance which not a little contributed to
induce that clan to bear arms for the Chevalier and
his cause.
In the year 1743, the Highland regiment, at that
time commanded by Lord Semple, was reviewed
in London by General Wade and several officers
of distinction, and went through the different
evolutions of the military exercise with uncommon
alertness: but scarce is it over when about 105
of them deserted, under pretence that they were
intended to be sent abroad, contrary to one of the
articles agreed upon at levying of them. They
also pretended that their plaids wanted a full
quarter of a yard of the measure stipulated. No
sooner are they gone, than immediately a detach-
ment of General Wade's horse was dispatched
after them, and came up with them in a wood,
where they had begun to fortify themselves. Here
they surrendered prisoners to the major of the
270 MEMOIRS OF
regiment, who ordered the principal ringleaders,
viz. Samuel and Malcolm IVPPherson, both corpo-
rals, with Farquhar Shaw,* a piper, to be manacled,
and thus were they brought to London and
secured in the Tower. At their trial, the charge
of desertion was confessed, with all its aggravating
circumstances (which I was informed by their
friends was wholly owing to the assurances given
them by a gentleman, hired by a person of great
distinction for that purpose), and so they were
condemned to be shot, which accordingly was
executed about six o'clock in the morning of the
18th of May that year. The Clan Caltan being
advised of this affair, and observing that three of
their name, with whom most of them were related
(for the Highlanders generally trace kindred as far
back as 400 years) fell a sacrifice for the crime,
of which several Grants and Munros were equally
guilty, breathed nothing but revenge ; but, as fire
hid under ashes burns with greater ardour, when
once these are removed, than that which is in-
stantly made to blaze, so the resentment of this
clan, which they smothered for a while, on a sud-
den broke out with a violence which none but
* The Shaws are a branch of the Clan Caltan.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 271
those who know the temper of these people can
imagine. This circumstance, the reader may he
assured, together with the frequent discourses of
Lord Lovat, that soul and life of the rebellion,
upon prophecies and dreams,* tended more to
promote the Chevalier's attempt, than every one
is first to imagine. And sure it is, had there
been hopes of retrieving the fortune of the day,
these men would, from a principle of revenge,
have marched back to the field.
But, while the Clan Caltan are returning to
Ruthven, those remaining with the Chevalier are
consulting on ways and means to make the best of
their melancholy situation. The grand question
is, how their Prince shall dispose of himself.
Some were for his continuing with his troops, and
following the rout of the M'Phersons, while
others moved that he should consult with Lord
Lovat, and proceed no further without that Lord
Nobleman's advice ; but to this it was objected by
some that the enemy lay betwixt them and the
Aird, in which place the seat of old Simon, viz.,
Castle Downie, then stood. This objection was
speedily removed by several, who said that he
* See the Edinburgh History of the Rebellion.
272 MEMOIRS OF
(Lord Lovat) had lodged at the house of Mr.
Fraser, of Gortlich, in Stratherrick, since the time
of his escape from Lord London, at Inverness ;
that he had caused a room to he boxed and fur-
nished there for himself, and to it he was wont to
repair in the summer time, to drink the goat
whey. The Chevalier, fully assured of this, began
his journey, with twenty horsemen, about six
o'clock at night, having directed two hundred
more to be at the same place by the dawn of next
morning. About nine, he arrived there himself,
but instead of finding comfort from his aged
trustee, his ears were wounded upon his entering
the door, with the loudest and bitterest complaints ;
" Chop off my head, chop off my head," the old
Lord cried out to the unhappy fugitive. " My own
family, with all the great clans, are undone, and
the whole blame will fall upon me. Oh ! is there
no friend here to put an end to my life and misery!"
He even called to some particular persons by their
names, whose friendship he knew was sincere and
inviolable towards him, beseeching them earnestly
to do this last office and favour to him. This
request he frequently repeated, while none could
appease him, or ever adventured to make a reply.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 273
But at last the Chevalier said to him, " No ; no,
my Lord, don't despair. We have had two days
of them, and will yet have another day about with
them." Then he informed him of several par-
ticulars of the battle, and magnified the bravery
of the Frazers, but reflected prodigiously upon the
conduct of those who hindered his attacking the
Royalists in the preceding night, when they were
no way prepared to receive them. By such dis-
courses as these he endeavoured to soothe him, but
all his art was insufficient to rouse the drooping
spirits of that subtle and unfortunate Lord, who
could not so much as be prevailed on, at that time,
to hear or deliberate upon any proposals for mend-
ing the state of his affairs.
The mistress of the house, observing that the
Chevalier was fatigued for want of sleep, and quite
disheartened by the event of the day, ordered a
hen to be roasted for his supper, and a bed to be
prepared. When he had refreshed himself with a
wing of the fowl, he went to his chamber, and
composed himself to rest, but slept but little
through the great uneasiness and anxiety of his
mind, which gradually grew upon him. And here
though he might have been absolutely safe, at
VOL. II. T
274 MEMOIRS OF
least for some time, because the dragoons, much
less the foot, were not suffered to withdraw so far
as fourteen miles from the camp for some days ;
yet, his apprehensions and fears of falling into the
hands of those whom he and his followers had so
much enraged increasing, he could not but deter-
mine to shift his abode with all convenient speed.
Being unable to compose himself in bed, he got
up, and, looking out of the window, saw some of
his guards approaching the house. Then, putting
on his clothes, he immediately repaired to them,
and saluted them in a very affecting manner, and
brought in some of his officers to the room where
Lord Lovat was. No sooner are they come in,
than the Chevalier began to talk seriously to his
Lordship on the subject of their melancholy situ-
ation, but all to no purpose. That nobleman
would neither advise what method to follow for
his preservation, nor admit of any proposal for his
own, but concluded in words to this effect, viz.
" No ! No ! my family * is ruined, my children are
exposed to the resentment of the government,
from which I have nothing to hope but the utmost
severity. My house is no longer to me a sanctuary ;
* Clan.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 275
I have nothing to trust to but the humanity of the
Duke of Cumberland (of whom his lordship here
took occasion to say several handsome things). And
since I can find no friend who will do me the
kindness to put an end to my days, I will lie in
the way of my enemies, from whom I may pos-
sibly receive more favour than from you."
The young Chevalier and his followers, perceiv-
ing that the old man was not to be wrought upon,
withdrew to refresh themselves with such things as
the place afforded. The Chevalier, eating the wing
of the fowl that was dressed for him the night be-
fore, put the remainder in his pocket, and then
dismissed almost all his attendants, with a short
speech at parting, which, after condoling them
on their misfortune and his own, he concluded in
words to this effect : " Now, gentlemen, consult
your own safety, for I can no longer advance you
any pay, (here he was ready to burst into tears).
But if you and I escape, I shall be sure to use my
utmost endeavours abroad to procure you a sub-
sistence suitable to your merit in the foreign
armies."
JOHN ROY STEUART.
And now, as I mention this man, concerning
T2
276 MEMOIRS OF
whom so much has been written, and so many
errors propagated, I shall give a short but faith-
ful narrative of him, so that my reader may be
both informed and amused :
John Steuart, commonly called Roy, which sig-
nifies red, from the colour of his hair, was born in
Strathspey, in the parish of Abernethy, of credi-
table parents, who had a competent subsistence
to appear genteelly in that part of the world.
When but a boy he gave instances of the most
enterprising genius, discovering a temper void of
fear, and capable of any thing, and which in-
creased with his years. After receiving a small
portion of education at Inverness, he began to
look about him, and deliberate upon the way of
life he should afterward pursue. A mechanical
employment was below his turn of mind, as well
as the dignity of his family, though stript of the
common necessaries of life (such is the infatuation
of the Highlanders), and to be a gentleman was
not in his power ; and therefore he was nothing.
Yet the misfortune was, that he must live like
one of his high birth ; but how to do this was
the question. At last he contrived a way of
raising himself to a figure in the world ; he got
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 277
together a dozen of desperadoes such as himself,
but neither so strong nor agile, over whom he
appointed himself captain. With these he in-
fested the highways, and pillaged some cattle ;
but, happily for him, within a short time, an
affair happened which at once put an end to his
scheme. One day, the present Lord Braco, who
is married to the Laird of Grant's sister, came to
pay his brother-in-law a visit. Steuart, getting
intelligence of it, immediately conducted his men
to a narrow passage nigh the entrance of a wood,
to intercept the nobleman as he passed. This
coming to the knowledge of the Laird of Grant,
he caused a younger brother to assemble an hun-
dred men of his name, and with these conveyed
his brother-in-law out of his jurisdiction ; scarce
were they convened, when Roy Steuart had an
account of it by a trusty friend, with whom he
kept a correspondence at Castle Grant, and ob-
serving that projects were not so soon executed as
they were contrived, he withdrew from his pass,
and discharged his corps. And now he bethought
himself of entering into the army, hoping by
Grant's interest to be preferred ; accordingly he
enlisted into the regiment of the Scots Greys,
278 MEMOIRS OF
where, by the intercession of his patron, he became
quarter-master, and perhaps might still have been
further advanced, had not his genius, which was
equal to the most difficult, and I may add, the
most villanous enterprize, still biassed him to a
conduct which could not but give the world a bad
opinion of him. A fellow-soldier of his regiment
came to him one day, told him that he had en-
gaged to fight a duel with one who had given
an affront, and desired that Roy would be his
second ; " O yes ! " replies Steuart, " I love some-
times to take a dance at the small sword, for it
will render my heels nimble, and now they seem
to be clogged." He never had seen the person
who disobliged his acquaintance. Yet they set
out for the place appointed ; but, instead of meet-
ing the enemy, they heard the mortifying news
that he was gone over to Ireland. Upon this,
the principal in the quarrel moved to return.
" No, no," says Steuart, " our work is not done."
" We have acted as becomes us," replied the
other. " No, not we," answered Roy, " while the
fellow is alive. Give me two guineas, and I shall
cross the water, and put a pair of balls through
him." But this generous offer was declined.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 279
In short, this Roy Steuart was ever ready to
assist in the most dishonourable things, such as
stealing away young gentlewomen, in order to join
them in marriage with people far below their
rank, and then would offer satisfaction at the
sword to their friends, if they complained of such
treatment. At last, having had a very active
hand in marrying the Earl of Murray's brother
to one Miss Barber of Inverness, he was rewarded
with the loss of his post, and sent to gaol into
the bargain. However, by the assistance of some
persons in power at Inverness, he was enabled to
make his escape; after which he set out for
London, where he secretly enlisted some men for
the service of the French king, but, finding him-
self in danger of being discovered, he made all
possible haste out of the British dominions, and
went over to Rome, where he found the means
of being introduced to the Chevalier de St. George
and his sons, to whom he magnified the disaf-
fection of all ranks in England and Scotland, to
the present establishment ; praised and extolled
the bravery of the Highlanders to the skies ; and
even assured them of the throne. The old Cheva-
lier, though ever fond of the crown, received this
280 MEMOIRS OF
information with great indifference, and behaved
with much more coldness towards Roy than his
son, who had already formed that scheme which
he afterwards set upon executing to the smart
of these nations, for he had resolved on the at-
tempt ever since Don Carlos was conducted by
the British fleet into the kingdom of Naples.*
'Tis imagined by some, and that upon very
good grounds, that Roy Steuart had letters from
Lord Lovat, Lochiel, Keppoch, and Sir Alexander
Macdonald, to the court of St. Albano ; for, about
the latter end of the year 1735, he returned to
Scotland with letters to several of the chieftains,
and informed them viva voce of his reception at
court. But here, having played one of his old
pranks, he was taken up, and secured in the
prison of Inverness, where he found means to
break out, and fled over the Ness to Castle Downie,
Lord Lovat's residence in the Aird, where he
was kindly entertained that night, and sheltered
for some time, though the crafty Simon, being
told of his escape, issued forth orders as sheriff-
* He was on board the same vessel with that prince, and, his hat
having fallen overboard into the sea, he was heard to say, " No
matter, I am to go to old England, which is able to procure a
better."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 281
principal of the shire, to search for him, and
take him dead or alive. When a convenient
opportunity occurred, he left the kingdom, car-
rying with him answers to the several letters
which he had before brought. Soon after he
entered into the service of the French king, and
by means of the Pretender he was made captain
of the grenadiers in Lord John Drummond's
regiment, in which station he continued till the
Rebellion was just ready to break out, when he
took the opportunity of a ship going from Holland
to Leith to return into Scotland, where landing
about the beginning of June, he went to Lochaber,
and there prepared the minds of the Highlanders
to receive the young Chevalier, who was soon to
appear among them.
No sooner is the Chevalier landed in Ardna-
murchan, than Roy Steuart repaired to welcome
him, and had a colonel's commission for his pains,
and levied his regiment as he advanced. In this
station he continued till the whole project was
dashed in pieces, and was most active in the
various scenes ; for his sword broke at every battle,
and the streaming gore denounced the share he
had in the action of the day. His attempts upon
282 MEMOIRS OF
Keith, and against the duke's life, are well known.
His zeal for his party was likewise manifested,
upon his hearing of a young man who was em-
ployed by the Duke of Cumberland as a spy. For
Steuart immediately set a reward of twenty pounds
upon his head. Many other things might be said
of him, but these may suffice : however, before I
take my final farewell of him, it will not be
improper to observe, that much of the clamour
against Lord George Murray, for the loss of the
battle of Culloden, was owing to this desperado.
That nobleman and he having had some words on
the morning of that day, Steuart was threatened to
be put under an arrest, which he said he despised,
and that he only would submit to his Prince, but
not to him. The Chevalier was applied to, but
he desired them to defer the matter till afterwards :
" For now," said he, " there is no time to decide
controversies, since the enemy is so near." At the
council of war held that morning, Steuart's opinion
was, that the French picquets should be drawn up
within the park that was to the right of the army,
the wall of which the dragoons and Argyleshire
Highlanders broke down to attack the Chevalier's
troops in flank ; but, as his advice was not followed,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 283
he improved so far upon the disaster that befell
them from that quarter, as every where to publish
the treachery of Lord George Murray, which, true
or false, I am far from taking upon me to deter-
mine. It may, however, be observed, that Lord
George would expect little or nothing from the
Chevalier, although he should succeed ; for the
Marquis of Tullibardine was his elder brother,
and so must succeed to the Athol estate. In my
opinion, therefore, he must have been a loser by
the Chevalier's success, he being heir-apparent to
the Duke of Athol, who, having no male issue,
intended his daughter, as was generally believed,
for Lord George's son, who would by this means
become Duke of Athol, and perhaps king, in Man.
KEPPOCH.
In four hours' time they arrived upon the green
of Keppoch, with their whole retinue. Here the
Chevalier, who put up in Keppoch's house, was
sensibly touched with the change of his fortune.
He, that some few months ago, appeared in that
place with the Macdonalds of Glengarry and
Clanranald, the Camerons, &c. big with the hopes
of a crown, against which his imagination seemed
284 MEMOIRS OF
to start no difficulty, now saw himself reduced to
the necessity of flying to that place as a fugitive,
incapable of sustaining the dignity and name he
had assumed ; and, moreover, he had the further
mortification of hearing the cries and groans of
a disconsolate wife and six fatherless children ; for
Keppoch was dead of the wounds he had received
upon the field of Culloden, and his clan, which
had greatly suffered in the engagement, were but
just returned from the funeral of their beloved
master, who was in every respect a complete and
well-behaved gentleman, worthy of a better vfate j
and the more to be r pitied, as he died fighting
against a constitution to which, by his French
education, he was an absolute stranger, and which,
by the situation of his residence, he had little or
nothing to do with. The cries and groans of his
household, the mournful sighs of his clan, and the
dreadful prospect of the future calamities that
befell them from the regular forces and the
militia, but particularly the Munroes, sank the
whole of the Chevalier's retinue, and melted them
into tears, till Lochiel and the two favourites
interposed, and urged that the indulging grief to
such a degree, in the day of adversity, was unbe-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 285
coming a reasonable man, and below the temper
of a Christian. " We must act and not mourn,"
said the Chevalier, " and I think it is proper that
these people (meaning the Macdonalds of Kep-
poch) should join with the Camerons, and keep in
a body till an opportunity offers either of making
head against the usurper's forces, or else getting
over to France, where I shall be sure to use my
utmost endeavours to get them incorporated with
the Scotch and Irish regiments in the pay of the
crown." The proposal was relished so well, as
considerably to allay the bitter complaints and
lamentations of the whole for a time : a dinner
was prepared for the Chevalier and his company,
of the best things they had, such as venison, and
fish of all kinds, and a sufficient quantity of pro-
visions was distributed among the soldiers that
came with the Chevalier. After this refreshment,
the servants of Keppoch set about carrying off the
most valuable effects of his house, while the main
body of the clan marched towards the Camerons,
whom they joined. And here, it may be ob-
served, that Keppoch's furniture escaped the
most diligent search, for though his house was
burned to the ground, yet his moveables were so
286 MEMOIRS OF
well secured as not to fall into the hands of the
Royalists.
But, while everything is preparing in this way
against the hardships that must of necessity
happen, the Chevalier and his retinue, fired with
the spirit of revenge, are busy in consulting what
route was best to take for the future, and, forget-
ing their former resolutions at Gortlich, Glengary,
and Achnacarrie, at last they agreed to this
scheme, that Lochiel, with the Camerons and
M'Donalds, should keep in a body, and favour any
landings from France, while the Chevalier and
his favourite companions, viz., Sheridan and Sulli-
van, and others, were to traverse the Isles, and
endeavour to raise such a force as, with the succours
from abroad, might make a stand." After staying
here all night, they set out next morning to Glen-
phillin, where the Camerons, at his first landing,
had set up his standard. Here they entered into a
cave, not far from the place, where everything was
prepared for their reception ; and Lochiel, having
with him a guard of between fifty and sixty
resolute men, and sentries placed six miles round,
no great danger was apprehended. Here they
continued three days, and were plentifully supplied
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 287
with everything necessary for the support and
satisfaction of life, but as it is impossible to bear
up under the lashes and tortures of anxiety, the
Chevalier declared his uneasiness, and signified
his desire to be gone, and accordingly set out for
the Isles.
It was now the beginning of May, when two
French men of war, one of thirty-four guns, the
other of thirty-two, appeared off the western
coast. They sent a long-boat on shore to the
island of Tyreff, in order to take in provisions,
and get a pilot to conduct them through these
seas, some of which are at certain times extremely
tempestuous, and, being interspersed with blind
rocks and islands, become dangerous to the people
unacquainted with them. Having procured every-
thing they wanted, they sailed to the mouth of
Loch Nua, when a shipmaster belonging to Fort-
William observed them ; he instantly sent to Aros
Bay, in the island of Mull, and informed the
captain of the Greyhound ship of war of the
matter ; who, hereupon, with the Baltimore,
weighed anchor, and sailed in quest of them,
along with Mr. Ferguson,* who rightly judging
* The man's name from whom the author had this narration.
288 MEMOIRS OF
the enemy's design was to enter the Loch, he
conducted them to the mouth, and being in their
way joined by the Terror bomb- vessel, they lay
all that night, and next morning by daybreak
stood in for them. The French directly fired a
gun, which not being answered, they hoisted their
country colours, and one of them gave a full
broadside, which the Greyhound returned ; in a
short time, by the force of the stream, she was
carried between the two, who plied her close and
were closely plied in their turn ; though without
doubt she must have been taken, had riot the
Terror and Baltimore raked the enemy so much
fore and aft, as diverted a considerable share of
their force. The French then sent their long-boats
on shore, to bring in some parties of Highlanders,
who were there drawn up, and actually brought
some of them on board, with a design to grapple
the king's ships, and attack them on their decks
sword in hand, which the others observing, wisely
sheered off in time, with their masts and rigging
much shattered. Meeting, however, with the
Furnace bomb, they returned with design to
renew the attack ; but in the mean time the enemy
had sailed away, much disgusted at the disinge-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 289
nuity of the Highlanders, who did not inform
them of the real state of the Chevalier's affairs till
all the money,* ammunition, liquors, and provi-
sions, they had brought were landed ; however,
they carried off a considerable number of noble-
men, gentlemen, and officers ; for, no sooner did
they cast anchor in the Loch, and it was known
they were French, than an express was sent to
Lochiel and the other persons who were then
with him ; who instantly repaired to the shore,
and were eye-witnesses of the engagement which
I have been describing. Both Lord John Drum-
mond, Lord Nairn, the younger Clanranald, with
several officers, embarked ; but Lochiel told them
that he inclined to continue behind, for some time,
till he saw what turn his master's affairs might
take ; and in the mean time desired that in any
event they would not fail to send over some more
vessels to carry over the remainder of the party.
Repeated assurances were given him of this, on
which he retired with a few to the above-men-
tioned cave, and, May 4, the two ships set sail
for Boulogne. While they were proceeding on
* They landed in cash 40,000 louis-d'ors, which the Highlanders
secured.
TOL. II. U
290 MEMOIRS OF
their voyage, Perth died of the fatigue which he
had undergone both before and since the battle
of Culloden. He was a very tender man ; for,
having received a bruise in his lungs when but a
child, he contracted so much weakness as gene-
rally to feel a sensible heaviness at his heart
towards bed-time, which rendered him incapable
of taking any supper, except a little boiled milk
and bread, or some such gentle food ; and yet,
though very slender and valetudinary, to astonish-
ment did he go through the several hardships to
which he was exposed ; but now, being unable to
bear up under the wastings of his shattered and
tottering constitution, and a sickness at sea, which
always violently attacked him when on shipboard,
or rather being unable to support himself, or com-
fort his mind, on a review of the miserable scenes
of which he had seen so much, and had been so
great a sharer in, he sunk under the impression,
and died. His corpse was carried on shore, and
interred in a manner suitable to his birth, amidst
the mournful sighs and groans of those whose love
and esteem his humanity arid sweetness of temper
had so universally procured ; he being a nobleman
naturally of the most extensive benevolence and
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 291
charity, a great encourager of manufactures, and,
to the utmost of his opportunities, a father to the
poor.
THE CHEVAL1FR IN THEJHEBRIDES.
Let us now return to the Chevalier, who is
bitterly lamenting his ill-fortune in missing the
opportunity of escaping, by means of the two
French ships. And the greater was his mortifi-
cation, when he heard they had landed about
40,000 louis-d'ors, 35,000 of which had fallen
into the hands of Mr. Murray of Broughton^
in whom he placed no confidence, nor had the
least regard for.
And now as many of the remaining chieftains
as could be got together assembled to consult on
what was proper to be done, since so many of them
had gone off on board the two ships, as aforesaid.
Every one gave in an estimate of the vassals he
could raise, and it was actually thought [by some,
that considering the supply of money, arms, ammu-
nition, and provisions, they had got from France,
they would have come to a resolution of mustering
again : but the active measures of the Royalists
put it out of their power.
Another incident also happened, which I
u2
292 MEMOIRS OF
should not have mentioned, but that it had a
greater effect upon the councils of the Chevalier
and his friends than the reader may perhaps
at first view imagine. And moreover it serves
to illustrate the folly of national distinctions.
The story, so far as I could learn, was literally
thus : about twenty-six deserters were found
among the prisoners taken upon the day of
battle, and, being tried and condemned they were
accordingly executed. One of them, being a
Scotchman, was hanged up by himself, and, as
he was swinging, an English officer spoke to a
Scotchman standing by words to this effect,
" See your countryman dancing on the rope ;
would to God all the Scotch were served the
same way: damn them, for they are all rebels."
The Scotchman, as inconsiderate as the other,
answered with the greatest warmth, "If all the
Scotch were rebels, things had gone otherwise
than they have, and I will lay any wager that
there are more Scotchmen in the army than
Englishmen, and, should they turn out, they
would defeat the whole forces here." Then some
scurrilous language highly unbecoming the mouths
of gentlemen to utter, as well as an author to
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 293
relate, ensued, the Scots were called to draw up
on one side, and the English on the other, and
perhaps that day had proved fatal to the royal
cause, for whether the Scots or the English should
get the better, his Majesty must certainly lose.
The towns-people of Inverness had now as
terrible a prospect as their ancestors had even on
Cabbach Day.* The Duke being timely informed
of the dismal scene that was likely to be acted, he
quickly rose up and run in among them, just when
the Scots were about to attack the English camp.
Taking off his hat he demanded to know what
was the matter, and, as he walked along the line,
he heard from several the particulars of the affair ;
whereupon he ordered them, in the name of his
royal father, to desist from such rashness. " Have
we," said he, "conquered the rebels? And must
* A day ever memorable in that town for the fight between the
Camerons and MThersons, who, on account of so small a trifle as
one-third of a Scots penny, almost destroyed each other. The
matter was this a M'Pherson asked of a woman the price of a
cheese, which he thinking too dear by one-third of a penny, threw
it in a passion upon the edge of her stand. The cheese taking a
run, she cried out to her husband for help, who thereupon in a pas-
sion stabbed the man ; whose quarrel was espoused by one of his
name standing by, and so successively eight or ten attacked one
another in this way, till the action became general.
294 MEMOIRS OF
we now murder ourselves ! How will the enemies
of Britain rejoice at the news ! Let national dis-
tinctions cease for the future : and here, by virtue
of the power entrusted with me, I declare it shall
be death for either an Englishman to reflect upon
a Scotchman, or for a Scotchman to reflect upon
an Englishman on account of their country.*
And though the rebels who live in the skirts of
this country, or among the Isles, and are dis-
joined by nature from this continent, differ in
language, habit, religion, and way of living, have
risen up in arms against my royal father, yet I
am fully convinced of the loyalty of the body of
the people in general (who have as little connexion
with them as any Englishman); and the services
they have done us shall never be forgot, while any
branch of the "King's family remains." Having
spoke these words in a becoming and princely man-
ner, he ordered each colonel to draw up his own
regiment, and so dismiss the whole to their quarters,
which was done with all imaginable harmony.
When the Chevalier heard of this affair, and the
facility with which his rival quelled the tumult,
he was no less chagrined than he was on account
* This resolution was afterwards ratified by a eourt-martial.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 295
of the effects of the Proclamation I have mentioned.
He was now at the head of Knordart ; and though
he had always spoken and written most disrespect-
fully of King George's family, yet neither he nor
his favourites could help applauding the conduct,
the wisdom, and prudence of the Duke. "They
are closely united," said Sullivan to his master,
"but your Highness's forces have ever been like a
disjointed body, which cannot stand upright unless
it be supported. You was witness to their ani-
mosities arid divisions ; you know how they abused
the trust reposed in them by your royal father, as
he was pleased to signify by his letter* to yourself.
Consider that our body is not only broke and dis-
membered, but several of the parts are scattered
up and down, riot to be gathered again, while our
enemies are mo.re and more closely united even by
divisions. Let us yield to our misfortune so far
as to consult our own safety, and not be led aside
by desperate fools, who see not into the event of
things." The Chevalier acquiesced and imme-
diately agreed to go in quest of a boat to carry
* Alluding to a letter which the old Chevalier wrote to his son
after the battle of Preston, in which he desired him always to act in
rcert with the loyal clans.
MEMOIRS OF
3r to Lewis, where by good fortune they
*i *g 11 1 possibly find a vessel to transport them to
France.
Fully resolved on this scheme, they set out,
and in their way are met by some of Bansdale's
stragglers, who had been in Sutherland with
Cromarty, the manner of whose disaster the
Chevalier was desirous to know. Upon the recital
of it, he seemed astonished at the imprudence of
that nobleman ; but the two favourites heard it
with the utmost composure, without so much as
an alteration of countenance. " What," say they,
" could be expected from a weak imprudent man,
whom every person the least acquainted with
human nature, must quickly see through ! And
now I hope your Highness sees clearly the des-
perate state of your affairs ; besides, Bansdale, we
are told, is taken, or has surrendered himself to
the enemy. The character of the man we pre-
sume you know too well, and therefore we need
not enlarge upon it.* A prudent man ' escheweth
* There were three Bansdales ; the elder about ninety years old,
who, though ignorant of the English tongue, even in the Scots dialect,
yet was so much attached to the family of Stuart, for whom he had
fought in almost all the battles since the Revolution, that he mustered
up his force for the Chevalier, who I have seen take particular notice
PRINCE CHARLES STUART.
evil/ and what can be expected of him. A man
who lived as he has done, can never be thought
to continue true to any master ; but rather to
embrace such terms as appear to him most advan-
tageous. " Take care," added Sheridan, " that he
do not proffer to the usurper's son to take you
up, and make a merit of it." And indeed I am
pretty well informed that the conjecture of this
able politician was just ; but as I could not
affirm anything I am not undoubtedly assured of,
I am far from asserting that he actually made
such an offer : though this has been roundly
asserted to rne ; but the truth of it is best known
to the duke.
But to return to the Chevalier. " Come, come,"
said he, " let us drop our reflections, and endeavour
to make our escape, for I fear I have had but too
of him at Duddingston, when reviewing his troops. The younger,
or second Bansdale, was one of the Chevalier's colonels. He was
once captain of a company who robbed and plundered all about
Ross-shire and Strathnavern ; and so sensible were the chieftains of
the captain's great abilities to protect their store, that, when the
Highland independent companies were regimented, they met and
commissioned Bansdale to secure their possessions, and preserve
their cattle from being stolen ; and, for his encouragement, every
person possessed of a fold of cows, paid him a gratuity, which was
called black mail. The youngest was about twenty years of age,
aad bred up in the principles and practice of his ancestors.
298 MEMOIRS OF
many Bansdales about me." Being come to
the sea-shore, they found no boat was left them ;
for the M'Donalds of Clanranald's family had
seized all they could for transporting themselves
to South Uist ; and the boats were not yet re-
turned. This obliged them to roam up and down
among the mountains till one should appear.
Three days and three nights they lived among these
places, always shifting their abode. And as in the
day-time they chose the tops and heights of the
hills, they had the cruel mortification of seeing
vast droves of cattle going, before parties (who
were sent out for subsistence) to Inverness, for
the use of the king's troops. 'Twas happy for
our wanderers that they had plenty of provisions
with them, and particularly cold venison and
usequebaugh, with which Lochiel had taken
special care to supply them, otherwise they must
have been much straitened ; for the inhabitants
had either been killed in the battles they had
fought, or else were lurking among the caves for
their safety, so that few or none were to be met
with but old men, women, and children, in their
former places of abode.
" The Chevalier's little company of about ten
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 299
persons had separated into smaller parties, two and
two in each, but he himself kept with the two
favourites, and Kinloch, Moidart's brother, who
then was their guide. By this means they ex-
pected to escape the search of the enemy, having
agreed to apprize each other of any approaching
distress. Nor did any of them fall into the hands
of the militia, except one O'Neil, an officer, sup-
posed to be a priest, who, through carelessness, or
a spirit of vain curiosity, had gone beyond the
bounds prescribed. He was seized by the Camp-
bells, who were industrious in finding out the
stragglers, and, being a man of letters, was invited
by a lieutenant, whom I well knew, to take a share
of his bed, and to him did he, after a short time,
give a distinct account of the motions and shiftings
of the young Chevalier, and by this means un-
deceived the country in respect to his route. For,
till then, it was artfully propagated by his followers,
and inserted in all the newspapers in Great Britain
and Ireland, I had almost said in Europe, that the
young Chevalier had gone off with the two French
men of war; but, after the truth was known, the
militia set themselves more than ever to trace out
his footsteps. They searched the mountains where
300 MEMOIRS OF
O'Neil had given out he was hid ; and no doubt
both he and his attendants must have fallen into
the net that was spread for them, had not a boat
come from South Uist, much about the time that
O'Neil was taken to seek after some of the people
of that Island who were yet missing.
No sooner did the Chevalier's little company,
now diminished by one, observe the boat, than they
instantly made towards the shore, and set up a
signal for them to draw near. The crew im-
mediately guessing that some of their party were
in distress, and made this signal for relief, sailed
to the place, viz., a small creek to the westward of
the Bay of Barisdale, whence they set sail for South
Uist, at the same time giving out to one or two
that came to see the boat, that they intended for
the Lewis, in order to get on board a vessel for
France. Night fast advancing favoured their
scheme, for the people could not long observe them
after they were put to sea.
There is a little island named Canna, which
belongs to Clanranald, lying to the westward of
Mull, but covered by Egg on that side, for which
some of the crew proposed to sail. The Cheva-
lier and his attendants were glad of this, because
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 301
they had heard that the place they designed to
make was inhabited by friends of their religion,
and that, being of the family of Clanranald, they
were the more firmly attached to their cause.
Into this place the boat put, and landed her pas-
sengers, who went up to the houses of the prin-
cipal inhabitants, where warm quarters were
instantly assigned them, and such refreshments
as beef, mutton, wild fowl, bannocks made of
gradin, and usquebaugh, were prepared. Hence
they kept a sharp look-out for fear of the militia,
of whose coming they were under perpetual ap-
prehension ; and for their greater security they
sailed in the boat all day, and at night returned
to their quarters. In this way they continued for
some time, till about the 28th of May, observing
several vessels coming out of the sound of Mull,
which they rightly judged belonged to the Camp-
bells, the Chevalier proposed to shift their abode.
Hereupon they hastened to South Uist, where
they landed upon the 29th in the morning.
There they were received by the Lady Clanranald
(who was at the time in perfect health, and every
way right in her intellects, in which she was sub-
ject to be frequently disordered, especially when
302 MEMOIRS OF
pregnant,) in the most hospitable manner, and
entertained in her husband's absence, suitably to
the rank and dignity which the Chevalier (arid
some of his attendants) had hitherto assumed.
For the M'Donalds in that island are a generous
sort of people, and, being all papists, they cultivate
the old Scots union with France, both in religion
and civil policy. Few, or none of them, though
born with a martial genius, enter into the British
army, but rather seek their fortunes abroad, and
are much assisted toward preferment by the Che-
valier and his sons. To procure the continuation
of their favours, all the inhabitants set themselves
to render the strangers all possible service. They
brought in wild fowl arid venison in plenty, and,
as for wines, they had them of all sorts. Here
the Chevalier continued, sometimes visiting the
principal cadets of the family, and the Lady of
Borisdale, Clanranald's brother, who, though a
well-wisher to his interest, yet had, from a view
of the difficulty of his undertaking, at the begin-
ning opposed his design. But on the 28th of
June he had advice that General Campbell, who
had been informed of this last retreat of the
unhappy fugitive, was approaching towards the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 303
island, through North Uist ; and in all probabi-
lity the General must have seized him, had not an
extraordinary expedient (of which more in its
place) been fallen upon for his preservation and
relief.
'Twas on the 27th of May that Campbell
sailed with one thousand men from Dunstaff-
nage, the ancient burial-place of the Scots Kings,
so remarkable for its lead mines, in order to
dispossess the Camerons, who still continued in
arms,, of that part of the country, and bring
them to terms ; he anchored that night at
Tobermory Bay, in Mull, (famous for the wreck
of the Florida, Spanish man of war, on board of
which was the money for payment of the troops
that came in the Invincible Armada, Anno 1588,)
and next day doubled the point of Ardnamurchan,
and arrived in Strontian ; here Cameron of Dun-
gallon, Lochiel's lieutenant-colonel, brought in
his men and arms, and with them surrendered to
the King's mercy, and were quickly followed by
the inhabitants of Ardnamurchan and Morvern,
where the religion of the Church of Eome had of
late mightily prevailed. But as for Lochiel him-
self, he had a spirit that would not suffer him to
304 MEMOIRS OF
entertain the least thought of surrendering to
any one.
Here the general continued, till, getting in-
telligence that the Duke of Cumberland was
arrived at Fort Augustus, and that Lord George
Sackville and Major Wilson were marched along
the coast to scour every part of the country, he
put to sea, and sailed for Lewis, where arriving,
he diligently searched for the young Chevalier,
though to no purpose. Hence he marched
through the Harris and North Uist, where he
got information of his abode, and was almost
within two miles of Benbicula (a small island
that is joined to South Uist, when there is an
ebb, but separated at full sea), before those of
Clanranald's were apprised. When the news
was brought to the Chevalier and his attendants,
who were at first greatly struck with surprise,
" Come," said Sullivan, " there is no help for it ;
to yield to misfortune is not the way to get rid
of her; let us rather immediately contrive our
escape." " Let's hear then," said the Chevalier,
" what you have now to propose : you know I
always hear you with pleasure. For my part, I
would sooner perish ; I would rather die this
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 305
moment, than fall into the hands of the Camp-
bells, or any of that rebel name !" " Yes," added
another, " or into the hands of any of the usur-
per's forces." " Then," replied Sullivan, " I think
your Highness and I should separate, for cer-
tainly if many should be found about the house
we shall be discovered. Put on women's apparel
for the present, and I will go with Mr. Sherridan,
Mr. Buchanan, and the other gentlemen, to the
other end of the island, where, perhaps, we may
meet with a boat, and sail over to Ireland, where
I am not afraid of being secure, though indeed
your Highness ought not to venture thither, for
as 50,000 is there set upon your head, I would
trust none of them. As for me, if I get off to
France, I shall represent your case at the court
of Versailles." The Chevalier, ever observant of
Sullivan's counsels, which he looked upon as so
many oracles, acquiesced in the proposal, rather,
perhaps, by a gesture than any verbal expression,
for I could not learn what he said; but the
person who gave me this information declared
that the Chevalier's parting with Sullivan was
like tearing his heart from his body (for that was
the man's phrase).
VOL. II. X
306 MEMOIRS OF
" Take my cloak-bag * with you," said the Che-
valier : " show ray pocket-book to my cousin the
King of France, as a token of my distress,
and I hope a vessel will soon be sent for me
if you arrive in France, which pray God you
may." Sullivan made the most solemn protes-
tations of his inviolable attachment to his interest,
and of his faithfully observing the instructions
given him. Then all took their leave of their
unhappy master, and ,set out with plenty of pro-
visions, which Clanranald's lady had prepared
on purpose. They met opportunely with a boat,
in which they sailed for Ireland, and from thence
incognito to France, where Sullivan discharged
the trust reposed in him.
Meantime the Royalists were approaching,
and perhaps might have been sooner at the place,
had not the half-flood stopped them for some
time, as there was not a sufficient number of
boats for ferrying them over. Lady Clanranald
now besought the Chevalier, with tears in her eyes,
to think of some method of escaping, if he did not
* This was all the baggage which he had, for the other part of it
was sent to Red Castle about the time of the battle, and was plun-
dered by the country people.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 307
approve of Sullivan's. But, his spirits almost
failing, he knew not how to behave. Whereupon
the lady said, " Here is a young gentlewoman,
Miss Flora M 4 Donald,* upon whom I will prevail
to take your Highness under her protection."
Accordingly, she immediately applied to Miss M.
who readily accepted the task ; for they both
said, " if he be taken here, the whole country may
chance to suffer for it." Lady Clanranald brought
a gown and all other clothes necessary for one
of her sex to the Chevalier, who kept on nothing
of his own apparel but his breeches and stockings.
He dressed himself with the help of the Lady,
who ordered a boat to be got ready for them, and
a servant to attend along with the boatmen, who
were directed to conduct Miss Flora and her sup-
posed maid to Sky. They continued all night at
sea, and next morning arrived at a place a little
below Sir A. Macdonald's house. But the Che-
valier would not allow the crew to quit the boat,
* A daughter of one Captain Hugh Macdonald, of Clanranald's
family, who was with the lady as a companion at that time.
Many false and idle stories have been published of her, of which
the inventors ought to be ashamed, since it is now publicly known
that, instead of being the brilliant lady she has been represented,
she was no other than a simple, modest girl, remarkable only for
befriending a fugitive in his distress.
308 MEMOIRS OF
neither himself or the lady stir out of it, till the
return of the servant, whom they sent ashore to
discover whether or no they might land in safety.
In less than an hour's time the trusty messenger
let them know they might venture ashore, which
they accordingly did ; and the lady with her maid
proceeded directly to Sir Alexander's house. The
knight * was not at home ; but his lady received
her visitor with great politeness, and earnestly,
pressed her to stay all night. But this Miss
Flora, directed by the looks of her maid, absolutely
refused, under pretence of pressing business which
called her elsewhere ; and that she had only done
herself the pleasure to call and see how her lady-
ship did.
About five o'clock in the afternoon, they set
out for Glenelge, and arrived in about three hours
upon the coast. Here the fisherman -f drew the
boat up to a creek, fenced on all sides, and there
landed his passenger. It was now about nine
o'clock at night, and they walked along the shore
for some time, in order to observe what was
* He was in the government's interest, and at this time with the
Duke's army. t MacLeod.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 309
stirring in the country. Here it was that the
Chevalier went through one of the oddest adven-
tures that perhaps ever happened to any man ; for
at this place a company of militia (the Monroes, if I
mistake not) were waiting, in hopes the unhappy
fugitive might fall into their hands : to make the
more sure of their prize, they had with them a
bloodhound to trace him out. The dog was within
a stone's throw of them, and the men not much
further off, when M'Kinnon observed them, and
particularly suspected the animal ; whereupon he
advised his passenger instantly to pull off all his
clothes, and enter the water up to the neck;
" For," said he, " if you go in with your clothes
on, you may catch your death. In the mean time
I will divert the smell of the dog with these fishes,"
he having some on a string in his hand. The
affrighted Chevalier instantly did as he was di-
rected, and M'Kinnon, having hid the Chevalier's
clothes in a cliff of a rock, began to amuse the dog
with his fish. The artifice succeeded so well, as
effectually to secure the Chevalier ; but the animal
would not quit the fisherman till he was secured by
the militiamen, who kept him all night and part
of the next day. They examined him but to no
310 MEMOIRS OF
purpose ; and upon his telling his true name, viz.
M'Leod, they became indifferent about him ; and,
he representing that his family was starving,
having nothing to subsist on but the product of
his industry as a fisherman, they dismissed him.
When he left them, he set out as if he designed a
very different course to that he really intended
and afterwards struck into ; for when he judged
himself out of their reach, he turned into the
road leading to the place where he supposed the
Chevalier yet was. He found him there indeed,
and employed in such a manner as could not but
strike even the rough heart of the hardy fisherman,
inured to all the extremities of wind and weather,
hunger and cold. He found him seeking out
muscles and other small shell-fish upon the craigs,
and breaking them between two stones, eating the
fish as he opened them, to satisfy the cravings of
an appetite never in all probability so keen before.
He told M'Kinnon " that he had continued in the
water for several hours after he left him, but at
last ventured out and put on his clothes ; he durst
not offer to remove from that desert spot, judging
it too hazardous to go up into the country, to
which he was an utter stranger." But I must
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 311
not omit one circumstance which sufficiently shows
the Chevalier's forlorn situation at this juncture,
and how sincerely rejoiced he was at the return of
his faithful boatman. For, as soon as he set eyes
on M'Kinnon, he fell down on his knees, and with
uplifted hands thanked Heaven for returning him
his friend, which he did in these words, as near as
could possibly be remembered by the fisherman
who heard him, and who repeated them to the
person from whom I had my information: ** O
God," said he, " I thank thee that I have not
fallen into the hands of my enemies, and surely
thou hast still something for me to do, since in this
strange place thou hast sent me back my guide."
The particulars of this adventure were given me
by a person of undoubted veracity, and one who, if
he had a mind to have imposed on me, was incapa-
ble of fiction, besides not in the least given to
romance a man of the plainest manners and
utmost simplicity in conversation, besides an
integrity never questioned by any one that knew
him. He was very intimate with M'Kinnon, alias
M'Leod, a man well known to be of an honest, sin-
cere, well-meaning disposition, who never scrupled
to relate all he knew of the above affair, without
312 MEMOIRS OF
the least reserve or prevarication, though he had
frequent occasions to repeat the story.
The Chevalier, having met with this surprising
deliverance, and observing the fidelity of his guide,
resolved entirely to submit to his directions and
management. " Conduct me," said he to M'Leod,
" where you will, I am resolved to follow you."
" Well then," replied the boatman, " we will go a
little further to the northward, where your High-
ness has many friends, though they have not been
in arms for your interest, which, as things have
happened, makes it so much the better, because
they are less suspected, and the militia are not
upon the watch among them."
Hereupon they proceeded a few miles, till they
came to the house of one M'Kenzie, who received
the Chevalier very kindly, and entertained him
with such respect, though with all imaginable
privacy, as plainly showed how much he sym-
pathised with the wanderer in his distress.
Here, and in this neighbourhood, the Chevalier
continued till about the 21st of July,* when he
* He now discharged M'Kinnon ; on this condition, that, at con-
venient intervals, while he moved about the country, following his
employment of fishing, he should visit the Chevalier, to see if he
had further occasion for him.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 313
heard of General Campbell's being landed at
Apple-cross Bay, whereupon he thought proper to
quit the country entirely, though he might have
remained in it very securely. But the anxieties
of his mind grew upon him, and he had hardly the
resolution to continue in one place for two nights
together ; but especially, whenever he heard the
enemy were advancing, though as yet at a very
considerable distance, he would not stay a moment,
but instantly made off with all the marks of the
greatest panic, ever thinking that the Campbells,
whom he equally abhorred and feared, were at his
heels.
He now took the road towards Inverness, but,
when within two miles of Brahan, he turned aside,
and crossed a little above Beulie, and in the habit
of a peasant went through Strathglass, and so, in
the night time, travelled through Glengary to
Badenoch, where his faithful Clunie M'Pherson
provided for his safety, and furnished him with all
accommodations that could be procured in the
forlorn state, not only of the wanderer, but of all
his followers. Indeed, he was now more secure
than he thought himself to be, which was owing
to the report, that about this time prevailed, of his
314 MEMOIRS OF
being dead,* which being generally believed by
those hitherto employed in search of him, they
grew more remiss, and gave themselves less trouble
about him. A chain of sentries, from Inverary
almost to Inverness, had stood for near two months
guarding the passes, in hopes of intercepting
him, but to what purpose time hath shown,
and they might, I should think, have foreseen.
For what could they expect, considering the vast
extent of the country, and the numerous woods,
lakes, mountains, and hollows, with which it
abounds ? I remember when, about the beginning
of August, 1746, a party of Kingston's Horse came
to Edinburgh from Fort Augustus,! I enquired
of some of them about the huntings after the
Chevalier, and they declared that more than once
they had been in sight of him, and by means of
some lake, or the like, he had always escaped.
One day as he was complaining to Clunie
* Some absolutely said, " he is dead ;" others, " he went off with
one M'Kinnon, a boatman, and has never been seen or heard of
since."
t As a guard to Alexander Macdonald of Kingsborough, factor to
Sir Alexander Macdonald of Slate ; who was committed prisoner
to them by the Earl of Albemale, and brought to Edinburgh Castle
for sheltering the Chevalier.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 315
M'Pherson of the danger of his situation, and
expressing a desire of shifting his abode again,
Clunie told him that he had just heard of the
Duke of Cumberland's being gone off for England,
and that the camp of Fort Augustus was very
speedily to break up ; " therefore," continued he,
" wait here for some time longer, and my life for
yours, you are safe." But this generous and salu-
tary proposal was disregarded by the too appre-
hensive adventurer, who, ever wavering, fearful,
and terrified almost at the neighing of a horse, or
the appearance of but a single man, though at the
greatest distance, could never be prevailed upon
to continue long in a place, though certainly by
often removing he ran the more hazards.
There is a hill within ten miles of Daalnacar-
dich, and seventeen of Blair, standing near a
rivulet that divides the county of Inverness from
that of Perth, and within sight of the great road
which the Government, at a vast expense, made
in 1728. This hill was judged a place of safety,
and to it the Chevalier repaired. But still the
most tormenting fears inseparably haunted him
night and day ; everything was perpetually
316 MEMOIRS OF
giving him the alarm, and he, to speak in
the language of that excellent performance, The
Campaign,
" In every whistling wind the victor heard,
And William's form in every shadow fear'd."
Several who accompanied him in his wander-
ings have expressed their astonishment at the
fright he expressed on all occasions. When from
this hill he has perceived any parties of the enemy
marching along the great road, his countenance
has been observed to change, and his hair to stand
on his head. Yet still he preserved so much
strength and vigour as to be able, in every emer-
gency, to make the best of his way.
But among all the plunder that fell into the
hands of the troops, I must not omit to mention
that extraordinary curiosity, the engine called a
Barisdale, from M'Donall of Barisdale, the pro-
prietor, in whose house it was found. It was an
iron machine, contrived to torture such poor thiev-
ish Highlanders as were not in the service of this
cruel laird, and extort confession from them. If
any cattle were missed, and the persons sus-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 317
pected ever fell into Barisdale's hands, they were
threatened with torture, from which nothing could
exempt them but a confession, either where the
cattle were, or who stole them. 'Twas enough to
tell them they jBarisdaled, and show them the
dreadful engine, to make the affrighted trembling
wretches confess all they knew, and perhaps more ;
for some would acknowledge anything, even to the
prejudice of their own property, or that of their
chief, rather than enter those hellish manacles.
But as for such as either through obstinacy would
not, or being innocent could not, give the satis-
faction demanded, they were sure to suffer. When
in the machine, their hands, feet, and neck were
fixed in such a manner, that the posture the man
was forced to remain in was neither sitting, lying,
kneeling, or standing ; but, though debarred the
least use of his hands and feet, his neck was
somewhat more at liberty; but then he had a
great weight upon the back of his neck, to which
if he yielded in the least, by shrinking downwards,
a sharp spike would run into his chin. The very
name of this engine kept the whole country round
in awe, no word sounding more terrible among the
inhabitants of those parts than Barisdale, whether
318 MEMOIRS OF
meaning the dreadful machine, or the tyrannical
owner of it himself.*
But while the troops and parties employed
by the Government are scouring the country, the
Chevalier and the few (not above three or four)
that were with him, are intent on their own pre-
servation. Although the M'Phersons by laying
down their arms had freed themselves from sus-
picion, yet the Chevalier soon began to dislike his
situation among them. There was with him one
who knew the place where Lochiel resorted, and
to him he proposed to conduct the wanderer, who
agreed to the proposal, hoping that Lochiel might
inform him of some part of Lochaber wherein the
search might by this time have cooled. However,
* As cruelty and cowardice are said to be inseparable, so those
who are well acquainted with Barisdale say, that his courage is not
equal to his great personal strength. 'Tis notorious that Clunie
MTherson, who is but a low man, and to all appearance very
incapable of contending with Barisdale, once fought with and
beat him. They afterwards fought a duel, in which the latter was
wounded in the arm, and again worsted. He is likewise a man of
no conduct ; for the branch of Glengary, of which he is the eldest
branch, are generally esteemed to be a silly, inconsiderate, vicious
set of people : and it hath often been observed, that whoever is
addicted to immoral and dishonourable actions, never is resolute or
truly brave.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 319
Clunie and the others insisted on his staying with
them yet a little longer, at least while they should
send an express to Lochiel. With much difficulty
they at last prevailed on him. I am well assured
that one of Clunie's arguments to persuade the
Chevalier to stay, was, that he could procure the
newspapers as they came out, which could not but
give the Chevalier great satisfaction, as the fate
of the Lords Cromarty, Kilmarnock, and Balme-
rino, on whose account their chief felt a good deal
of anxiety, was then depending on the event of a
trial, they having been already arraigned before
the House of Lords. And here a short account
of these noblemen may not be unacceptable to the
English reader, as they have been so miserably
represented in all hitherto published,* through the
malice of some, and the prejudice or the misinfor-
mation of others.
The Earl of Kilmarnock was descended from
an ancient and noble family, which had sometimes
intermixed even with the blood royal. His lord-
ship, when but a boy, discovered a peculiar air of
* This just censure is not to be extended to the celebrated per-
formances of a certain reverend gentleman, to whom the world is
much obliged for everything he has published.
320 MEMOIRS OF
nobility, was master of a fine address, a flowing
eloquence, and endowed with all the arts of per-
suasion. Nature had also been very liberal to
him in the endowments of his person, he being
reckoned one of the handsomest men of his time.
Nor had she been sparing with regard to his
natural capacity ; but as the most fruitful fields,
if but superficially touched with the plough, will
be productive of little, so the most fertile genius,
when not duly cultivated, will only produce whims
and trifles. This truth was evident in the Earl of
Kilmarnock, who, by the vivacity and sprightliness
of his temper, made a figure in mixed companies ;
and, if the discourse turned upon gallantry, he
was heard as an oracle ; but, if any point of solid
learning or serious inquiry was the topic, his
weakness would then appear. His art of persuasion
might, in some degree, be owing to his necessities ;
for if he knew any one in the town of Kilmarnock
(a small borough in Scotland from whence he took
his title) who kept any considerable sum of money
by him, he would be sure to send for the man,
and treat him with so genteel an air, such insinu-
ating complaisance, and so much mildness and
affability, that it was impossible for him to resist
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 321
his lordship's solicitation for a loan. The earl
was a man of no resolution, and therefore easily
persuaded into anything, though contrary to his
interest. Indeed it has been observed, that men
of his lordship's fine personal appearance* seldom
prove proficients in useful knowledge, and par
ticularly the knowledge of mankind, or what is
called knowing the world, unless trained up in
the school of adversity, or wisely directed by those
to whom the care of their education has been
committed, and who have also had the welfare of
their pupils at heart.
But, unhappily for the nobleman we are
speaking of, his father dying when the son was
but young, the estate came to him before he had
laid up a sufficient stock of knowledge either to
manage that or himself. He soon became a prey
to youthful and sensual pleasures ; and instead
of cultivating his mind, became fond of fencing,
dancing, and other genteel but mere outside
accomplishments, though such as generally pro-
cure the esteem of the fair sex, among whom
* He was above six foot high, of an engaging countenance, fine
blue eyes, full of sweetness; his^nose straight, his forehead high
and graceful, and, in short, his whole person faultless.
VOL. II. y
322 MEMOIRS OF
he was a favourite. He married the Lady Ann
Livingston, who was heiress-apparent to three
estates, viz., that of Errol, Callandar, and Lin-
lithgow. So that, had his lordship been capable
of managing his own affairs with proper economy,
he might have proved a blessing to his family
(as each of his four sons had a prospect of an
earldom), and an honour to his friends. Many
stories have gone abroad as to the cause of his
engaging with the Chevalier, which diversity
may be owing to his having acted contrary to all
his former principles ; for I have heard him at
the bar of the Assembly plead to have a Pres-
byterian minister sent to Falkirk, of his choosing :
" For," said he, " I want him to converse with
as a companion." Some attributed so inconsistent
a conduct to his countess (whom almost in his
dying moments he cleared of the charge) ; others
imputed it to the Countess of Errol, whom I also
believe innocent ; for that lady is not only too
closely connected with the Government, but has
too much good sense and penetration, and too
well knew that the earl was most unfit to engage
in such a design, to have the least hand in dis-
posing him to it. But to be brief, the truth
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 323
is only this ; one Andrew Alves, a writer of the
signet, a man of a most infamous character, was
agent for the unfortunate Kilmarnock ; and if I
remember right, had been coming from his house
to Edinburgh, September 16, 1745, when the
Chevalier was advancing to that city with his
little army. The Duke of Perth spied him, and
calling him to him, asked him if the city of
Edinburgh intended to stand out against the
Prince. " We will show them the odds of it,"
said he ; " but if they let us in civilly, they will
be civilly used ; but if otherwise, let them be
answerable for the consequences of their own con-
duct/' So" saying, the Chevalier came up, and
courteously did Alves the honour to let him kiss
his hand. He was thence employed to carry a
letter from the Chevalier to the magistrates of
Edinburgh, which he delivered, but so artfully
as not to discover that himself was certainly the
bearer. The battle of Preston happening that
very week, when the king's forces were routed,
many unthinking people looked on the Chevalier's
point as now absolutely gained. Among these
was Alves, who instantly repaired to Lord Kil-
marnock, and repeated the words of Perth, which
324 MEMOIRS OF
he magnified not a little. He then described
the defeat of Cope's forces, and extolled the
humanity and conduct of the Chevalier. Dazzled
with this glittering appearance of fortune, and
believing the whole of Alves's relation to be just,
he fatally, from a prospect of raising himself to
riches and further honours, made his court to the
Chevalier, and embraced his party.
Before I quit this nobleman I shall give the
reader a story which I leave him to approve or
censure, as he thinks proper, without delivering
my own sentiments as to the nature of the fact ;
and shall only observe that never was any relation
of this kind better attested. In my hearing, it has
been very seriously spoken of by men of the best
sense and learning in Scotland, many of whom
have owned that they saw no reason why they
should not admit the reality of the fact, which
was as follows :
About a year before the rebellion, as the Earl
of Kilmarnock was one day walking in his garden,
he was suddenly alarmed with a fearful shriek ;
which, while he was reflecting on with astonish-
ment, was soon after repeated. On this he went
into the house, and inquired of his lady and all
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 325
the servants, but could not discover from' whom
or whence the cry proceeded; but missing his
lady's woman, he was informed that she was gone
into an upper room to inspect some linen : where-
upon the earl and his lady went up and opened
the door, which was only latched. But no sooner
did the gentlewoman within set eyes on his lord-
ship's face, than she fainted away. When with
proper assistance she was brought to herself, they
asked her the meaning of what they had heard
and seen. She replied, that while she sat sewing
some linen she had taken up to mend, the door
opened of itself and a bloody head entered the room,
and rolled on the floor. That this dreadful sight
had made her cry out, but it instantly disappeared.
That in a few moments she repeated her shrieks ;
and at the third time she fainted away : but was
just recovered when she saw his lordship coming
in, which made the impression they had been
witness to.
This relation, given by the affrighted gentle-
woman, was only laughed and ridiculed as the
effect of spleen, vapours, or the strength of a
deluded imagination, and was thought no more
of, till one night, when my Lord Kilmarnock
326 MEMOIRS OF
happened to tell the story to the Earl of Galloway,
the subject of their lordships' conversation hap-
pening to be on spectres and apparitions, the
vulgar notions of which they were ridiculing.
But after Kilmarnock had engaged in the Rebellion,
and Lord Galloway was told of it, he instantly
recollected this story, and said, " I'll lay a wager
that Kilmarnock will lose his head."
I come now to say something of the E ar l of
C romart y, whose character I shall truly display,
without the least regard to the approbation or
resentment of any one. In his youth, he was
given to the most monstrous and unaccountable
extravagances ; such as an excessive indulgence
in sensual pleasures, the most luxurious entertain-
ments and midnight revels, accompanied with the
most shocking, unheard of, new-coined oaths and
execrations ; drinking the Devil's health,* and
others equally detestable and ridiculous.
But happily for him he married a very virtu-
ous lady, who, with her mother, the Lady Inver-
gordon, was greatly instrumental in reforming
him from his debaucheries and mad pranks.t So
* Particularly on a Sunday morning, the Devil was the favourite
toast.
t Of these, one instance may not be omitted. He and his cousin,
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 327
that before he entered into the Chevalier's interest,
he was not only esteemed a sober, but a very
amiable man ; and, becoming a zealous Presby-
terian, he, on all occasions, exerted his utmost
influence and authority in Ross-shire and else-
where for promoting that interest.
Whoever they were that engaged him to enter
into that undertaking, so destructive to himself
and his family, I can hardly think they were
either his friends or well-wishers to the cause of
the Chevalier. For surely, no one who knew him
could imagine him capable of behaving with all
that industry and prudence necessary in so nice
and critical an affair. And as for the troops he
brought with him, they were the very refuse and
dregs of the Highlanders.
But not to dwell any longer on a character
which can afford no real delight to the reader, I
a son of the Lord Royston, then one of the Senators of the College
of Justice in Edinburgh, one time making a debauch together, in
which they gave loose to the utmost excesses, they seized one
R d k M'K zie, whom they bound and fixed in a posture
proper for their purpose. They then took a burning candle, and,
applying it to put the man to the most horrid pain.
How they treated the fair sex, I do not chuse to mention : though
I have heard many particulars on that subject, both in Ross and
elsewhere.
328 MEMOIRS OF
shall only further observe, that being condemned
with Kilmarnock and Balmerino, so great interest
was made for him that his life was spared : and,
indeed, I think, the lenity of the Government was
highly to be commended, as it could not be said
they had rid themselves of a dangerous enemy,
had they put him to death. And in my opinion,
had they restored him his possessions, and sent
him back to New Tarbet, they would have had
no more to fear from him than now while in cus-
tody in London. In truth, the same may be said
of the other two Lords. For Kilmarnock's inte-
rest was sunk, and Balmerino's was nothing at all.
Besides, the former was certainly a true penitent ;
and would surely have been bound by prin-
ciple and gratitude to be faithful for the future.
But doubtless the government thought that some-
thing was due to justice, which indeed the whole
English nation aloud demanded, as the least satis-
faction that could be made them, for what they
had suffered from a people, (i.e.) the Highlanders,
with whom they had less connection than with
Muscovites, Turks or Tartars.
It remains now to say something of Arthur
Lord Balmerino, but in truth, little can be said
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 329
on so barren a subject; for his Lordship never
made any figure in the world, and was scarce
known till he fell into the hands of government.
When but a child, there appeared in him many
early symptoms of a stubborn and fro ward dispo-
sition, which grew upon him with his years. An
early impression being deeply stamped in his
mind in favour of the Chevalier's pretensions to
the throne, he became so immoderately zealous,
that many people whose politics differed from his
thought it unsafe to be in his company ; and,
indeed, not without reason, as will appear from
the following instance of his imprudent zeal. He
was once riding out in company with some gen-
tlemen, among whom was one Clerk, a writer to
the signet, a man well affected to the Hanoverian
succession, and a strict, though not immoderate,
Presbyterian. They had all taken a glass very
sociably together, and no party altercations had
been started among them. But at last some one
acquainted Mr. Elphinstone (for he was no Lord
till a little before the battle of Culloden) with
Mr. Clerk's principles ; whereupon, as they were
riding between Leith and Musselbourgh, Elphin-
stone said to one of his intimates, "What a
330 MEMOIRS OF
damned scoundrel is that Clerk ! " This was over-
heard by Clerk himself, who replied, " 'Tis true,
Sir, I am riot a nobleman, but then I am no more
a damned scoundrel than you are." On this some
high words arose between them, and a duel had
probably ensued, had they not been parted. On
which Mr. Clerk quitted the company.
In the year 1715 we find Mr. Elphinstone in the
quality of captain of a regiment of dragoons, but
he deserted the service of George I. and went over
to the Chevalier, who made much worse of his
undertaking than his son has done thirty years
after, with nothing like the favourable opportu-
nities which the father had. After the ruin of his
master's affairs in that same year, Mr. Elphinstone
went over to France, where he tarried till the year
1734, when his brother obtained a pardon for
him, that he might return to his native country ;
which however Mr. Arthur would not accept till
he had first asked the old Chevalier's leave. This
having obtained, with 120 guineas paid him
by his order, he set out for Scotland, arid lived
sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, till
at last he settled at Leith, and had 80/. per annum
allowed him by his brother. But, while here, he
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 331
was so far from endeavouring to live like a gentle-
man, (which he might have done, as his brother,
whose heir-apparent he was, would have enabled
him to do so, by making him his companion, and
entertaining him daily at his table,) that he sunk
below the level of a creditable tradesman. The
most trifling people about the Parliament House,
such as pettyfoggers, and hackney writers, with
some of the meanest inhabitants of Leith, though
doubtless all men of his own principles, were his
dearest companions; and hence he greatly lessened
the regard his brother and his sister-in-law might
have had for him. In 1745 he joined the Cheva-
lier at Perth, and acted as a volunteer at the battle
of Preston Pans ; after which he was made a cap-
tain of the Life Guards. In the beginning of
January following he became Lord Balmerino, by
the death of his brother, who is said to have broke
his heart on account of his brother Arthur having
again appeared in arms against the government.
I have already mentioned his surrender to Ban-
dallach, and being sent to London, where his fate
is well known, as indeed it is in every part of
Great Britain. Therefore, I shall only observe,
that from the whole of his conduct while in the
332 MEMOIRS OF
Tower, especially after sentence of death, he
seems to have feared nothing so much as not to
dye. He knew very well that the small estate
which, by his brother's death, fell to him, was
forfeited to the crown, and consequently the only
source whence he could draw his subsistence would
be drained, so that he must inevitably fall into
poverty and contempt : wherefore he, as it were,
courted death, and embraced it with pleasure : and
perhaps with the more pleasure, from the reflec-
tion that by this means he should at his death
make a greater figure than ever he had done in
his life : that thus he should attain the glory of
martyrdom in the eyes of his own party at least,
and, by his behaviour in his last moments, adorn
a life which had passed in the greatest obscurity.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 333
No. III.
EXTRACTS FROM A PLAIN, AUTHENTIC, AND FAITHFUL
NARRATIVE OF THE SEVERAL PASSAGES OF THE YOUNG
CHEVALIER, FROM THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN TO HIS
EMBARKATION FOR FRANCE.
GENERAL CAMPBELL, being dispatched thither,*
inquired what was become of the Young Pre-
tender. The inhabitants, who have little other
commerce with the world than by paying their
rent once a-year in Solan geese feathers, answered
they had never heard of such a person. There
was a rumour, they said, that their laird (Mac-
Leod) had been at war with some great king,
and had got the better, which was all they knew
of the world's transactions.
And now the P . . . receiving intelligence
that Capt. Caroline Scot was landed at Kilbride
* St. Kilda.
334 MEMOIRS OF
within less than two miles of him, was reduced to
the hard necessity of parting from all the rest of his
few attendants, except O'Neil, with which vigorous
as well as faithful companion, he betakes himself
now, like a roe, to the mountains.*
* The P . . . dismissed not his friends without hopes of another
meeting ; which, however, poor Donald could never enjoy. Imme-
diately abandoned by all the boatmen but one, he was fain to sink
the boat, and to shift as he could for himself. This he did till the
5th of July, then he was taken by Allan Macdonald of Knock, in
Skye, a lieutenant, who made two others also prisoners along with
him. These three, after being carried for some time from place to
place, and at last to Applecross Bay, opposite the Isle of Skye, were
there put on board the Furnace, Captain Ferguson. Donald MacLeod
was called into the cabin to General Campbell, who examined him
very circumstantially. The General asked him " If he had been
long with the young Pretender." " Yes," answered Donald, " I
winna deny it." " Do you know," said the General, " what money
was upon that gentleman's head 1 No less than 30,0(M. sterling,
which would have made you and your family happy for ever."
"What then 1 " replied Donald, " though I had gotten it 1 I could
not have enjoyed two days ; conscience would have got the better
of me ; and although I could have all England and Scotland for my
pains, I could not have allowed a hair of his head to be touched, if
I could have hindered it, since he threw himself under my care."
The General said he could not blame him, and allowed him to
withdraw. Donald was conveyed on shipboard to Tilbury Fort,
and thence to London, where he was at length discharged out of a
messenger's custody (in whose hands he had been a little time)
on the 10th of June, 1747 ; which he declared he would ever after
celebrate as the happy day of his deliverance.
As for Edward Burk, after parting from the P . . . , he went
over North Strand to North Uist, his native country, where he
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 335
In this perplexity, Captain O'Neil thought of
applying to Miss Flora Macdonald.*
Pursuant, therefore, to the latter plan, Miss
Flora set out for Clanranald's, June 21, in order
to get things necessary for disguising the Prince.
In going to cross one of the Fords, she and her
servant having no passports, are made prisoners
by a party of militia. The lady desiring to see
their officer, was told he would not be there till
next morning. She then asked his name, and
upon their answering, " Mr. Macdonald of Arma-
dale " (her stepfather), she chose rather to stay all
night than to answer any of their questions. She
skulked in a hill called Eval, near seven weeks ; twenty days of
which he had no other food than dilse, and lampochs, a shell-fish.
For about this time a paper had been read in the kirks, strictly
forbidding all persons to give the least sustenance to any rebel upon
pain of being deprived of it themselves. After various distresses,
occasioned chiefly by this order, he was at last obliged to hide him-
self in a cave of North Uist, where he was fed by a shoemaker's
wife, in the night. At last, having had the good fortune not to be
excepted in the general act of grace, published in June, 1747, he
was enabled to purchase a chair, which he has ever since carried in
Edinburgh.
* This young lady is daughter of Macdonald of Mitten, in the Isle
of Uist, descended from Clanranald's family. Her father died when
she was but one year old, leaving her an only brother. Her mother
afterwards married Hugh Macdonald of Armadale, in the Isle of
Skye, and has by him two sons and two daughters. This gentleman
is esteemed one of the strongest men of the name of Macdonald.
336 MEMOIRS OF
was detained, therefore, in the guard-room till
Sunday the 22d ; that day Mr. Macdonald arrived.
Miss Macdonald, soon removing her stepfather's
surprise, desired a passport for herself, her man
Mac Kechan, and one Betty Burk (the character
the P . . . was to assume) whom she begged he
would recommend as an excellent spinster by a
letter* to her mother, knowing her great want of
such a person.
Having obtained all she desired, Miss M. pro-
ceeded to Clanranald's, where she communicated
the design to the lady, whom she found ready to
do all in her power to promote it. Here she spent
several days in preparing things, in receiving and
returning messages by the trusty O'Neil.
" The day appointed being come, June 27,
Lady Clanranald, Miss Flora, and her man
Mac Kechan, were conducted by O'Neil to the
* " I have sent your daughter from this country, lest she should
be in any way frightened with the troops lying here. She has got
one Betty Burk, an Irish girl, who, as she tells me, is a good spinster.
If her spinning pleases you, you may keep her till she spin all your
lint ; or, if you have any wool to spin, you may employ her. I
have sent Neil Mac Kechan along with your daughter and Betty
Burk to take care of them. I am,
" Your dutiful husband,
" HUGH MACDONALD.
" June 22nd, 1746."
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 337
Prince, who, at eight miles distance, waited for
them with some impatience, and received them
with no less courtesy. While supper was prepar-
ing, a servant arrived out of breath with intelli-
gence that Captain Ferguson, with an advanced
party of the Campbells, was within two miles of
them ; upon which they all hurried into a boat
to a further point, where they passed the night
undisturbed. Next morning, the 28th, another
servant came in all haste for the Lady Clanranald,
whom he informed that Captain Ferguson had
lain all night in her bed. This news required
that Lady's taking immediate leave, and return
home, where she was scarce arrived, when Captain
Ferguson began to examine her very strictly.
"Where have you been?" "To see a distressed
child."" Where lives the child ? How far ?" &c.
To all which she answered as she thought fit.*
Lady Clanranald being gone, Miss Flora told
the P ... it was time to be moving. The faithful
* Though the Captain could make nothing of the lady, she was
soon after made prisoner, as well as her husband, his brother, Mr.
Malcolm MacLeod, and Roger Macneal, of Barra : as also, about the
same time, John Gordon, eldest son of Glenbucket, for reviewing his
father's men, though he had been totally deprived of sight six years
before. All these were carried severally to London, and committed
to the custody of a messenger, till discharged in June, 1747.
VOL. II. Z
338 MEMOIRS OF
O'Neil begged hard to go with them. But to this
the young Lady would by no means consent, well
judging that this single addition to her charge
would endanger them all. Prudence, therefore,
getting the better of affection, the Captain was
forced to take leave.*
The P . . . now putting on his female attire,
they moved towards the water-side, where a boat
lay ready. Here they resolved to wait till night
should favour their embarkation. They had,
therefore, but just made themselves a fire upon
a piete of rock, as well to dry as to warm them-
selves, when the approach of four wherries full of
armed men obliged them to extinguish it in all
haste, and to squat themselves down in the heather
or heath, where they lay till the enemy passed.
* Mr. O'Neil, upon parting from the P . . . , met with O'Sul-
livan; and, about two days after, a French cutter of 120 men
arrived at St. Uist to carry off the P ... Mr. 'Sullivan went
immediately on board, while Mr. O'Neil set out in quest of the
P . . . , hoping possibly to find him before he should leave the
island. But hearing the P ... had sailed two days before, he
returned three hours too late, the cutter having taken the benefit of
a fair wind to escape the pursuit of two armed wherries that had
been dispatched after it. Mr. O'Neil was soon after taken, and put
on board of a man-of-war ; whence he was conveyed to Edinburgh
Castle ; and, having there been confined some time, he was at
length sent abroad according to the cartel, as being a French
officer.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 339
About eight in the evening, June 28th, they
embarked under a serene sky ; but had riot sailed
a league when the fickle element became tempes-
tuous. The P . . . seeing not only his fair
guardian apprehensive, but the hardy boatmen
themselves express some concern, cheered up their
hearts as well as he could, and sung them the
Restoration. At length, Miss Macdonald's fatigue
got the better of her fear, and she fell fast asleep
at the bottom of the boat. He became now guar-
dian in his turn, and assiduously watched over
his sleeping conductress. Though a calm returned
with the morning, the boatmen, having no com-
pass, were at a loss how to steer, when at last they
discovered the point of Waternish, in the west
corner of Sky. Here they attempted to land, but
found the place possessed by a body of forces, who
had also three boats or yawls near the shore ; from
one of these a man fired at the P . . .'s, to make
it bring too; but this soon pulled away out of
reach ; the ships of war that were in sight want-
ing wind to pursue, and the boats wanting oars to
improve the calm. The P . . . soon after (being
the morning of the 29th) put into a creek or clift,
to rest arid refresh the fatigued rowers; but he
340 MEMOIRS OF
was quickly obliged to put off again, for fear of a
surprise from the alarmed village.
At length the P . . . landed safe at Kilbride
in Trotternish, about twelve miles N. from the
above-mentioned point, and just at the foot of
the garden of Mouggestot. Miss Flora, leaving the
P . . . at the boat, set out immediately with her
servant for Mouggestot, the seat of Sir Alexander
Macdonald, who was then elsewhere. But here,
too, she found an officer of militia, in quest of her
charge, and had many interrogatories to answer ;
which the fair traveller did in manner that gave
as little suspicion as satisfaction. But, seizing an
opportunity, she acquainted Lady Margaret Mac-
donald, Sir Alexander's lady, with the P . . . 's
situation, for which she had prepared by a pre-
ceding message. Her ladyship, at a loss how to
act in so critical a conjuncture, sent off directly
an express to Donald Roy Macdonald, requiring
his immediate attendance. Her ladyship applied
in the mean time to Mr. Macdonald, of Kings-
borrow, who happened to be then in the house,
and was walking in close conference with him
when Donald arrived. It was then agreed that
the P . . . should be conducted that night to
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 341
Portree by the way of Kingsborrow ; that Donald
Roy should ride directly to Portree, and endea-
vour to find out the old Laird of Rasay, to whose
care the P ... was to be entrusted, and that Neil
MacKechan should return immediately to the
P . . . upon the shore, inform him of the scheme
concerted for his preservation, and direct him to
the back of a certain hill, about a mile distant,
where he was to wait for Kingsborrow for his
conductor. Kingsborrow, therefore, taking some
wine and other refreshments, set out soon after
for the place appointed. He had some difficulty
at first to find the P . . ., who, however, soon
made up to him very briskly, with a thick short
cudgel in his hand, and said, " Are you Mr. Mac-
donald, of Kingsborrow ?" " Yes, Sir," answered
Kingsborrow." All is well, then," replied the
P . . ., " come, let us be jogging." Mr. Macdonald
told the P . . . he must first partake of the re-
freshment he had brought, which the P . . .
accordingly did, the top of a rock serving for a
table. This done, they proceeded together ; and,
in conversing, Kingsborrow told his fellow tra-
veller, with no less admiration than joy, that he
could recollect no cause, either of business or duty,
342 MEMOIRS OF
for his being at Mouggestot that day. " I'll tell
you the cause," said the P . . ., " Providence sent
you thither to take care of me." But now they
are interrupted by some country-people coming
from the kirk, till at last he said, " O ! Sir,
cannot you let alone talking of your worldly
affairs on the Sabbath, and have patience till
another day ? " The good people took the pious
hint, and moved off. Betty Burk, arid her com-
panion, are no sooner rid of these, than overtaken
by Miss Flora and her attendant, who had been
also joined by some acquaintances. One of these
could not forbear making observations upon the
long strides of the great tawdry woman that was
walking with Kingsborrow, and, in wading a
rivulet, the P ... lifted his petticoats so high,
that Neil MacKechan called to him, for God's
sake to take care, else he would discover himself.
The P . . . laughed heartily, and thanked him
for his kind concern. Miss Flora, however,
prompted her company to mend their pace, alleg-
ing, that otherwise they would be benighted.
She knew that the P . . . and Kingsborrow were
soon to turn out of the common road by a route
it was not proper the people with her should see.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 343
The riders, therefore, soon lost sight of the two
on foot, who turned over the hills S.S.E., till they
arrived at Kingsborrow, about eleven at night, on
Sunday, June 29, having walked seven long miles
in almost constant rain. Miss Macdonald arrived
about the same time, having parted from her
company by the way.
Lady Kingsborrow, not expecting her husband
home, was going to bed, when she was informed,
that Kingsborrow was come with Milton's daugh-
ter, and a great odd-like woman, whom he had
also carried into the hall with him. The lad
had scarce got this news, when Kingsborrow
entered the room, bid her dress again as fast as
possible, get presently some supper, and soon
after introduced her to her guests. The P . . .
after eating a hearty supper, and smoking a pipe,
an antidote he had learned against the tooth-ache,
went to bed. Lady Kingsborrow then begged
Miss Flora to relate what she knew of the P . . .'s
adventures. The story concluded ; the lady asked,
what was become of the boatmen that brought
them over ? Upon being told of their return to St.
Uist, " That was wrong," said she, " Flora. You
should have kept them on this side, for some time
344 MEMOIRS OF
at least, till the P ... had got further from his
pursuers." Miss M. told her she had taken an
oath of the boatmen at parting : " What signifies
that ?" replied the lady, " the threats of torture
will force a confession ; " which happened exactly
according to the sagacious lady's conjecture. This
hint made Miss Flora the more readily join
Kingsborrow next day in advising the P ... to
lay aside his female dress. Kingsborrow took
care to send a message that very night to Donald
Roy, acquainting him that Miss Flora, being
weary, could not make out Portree, as appointed,
but was to sleep all night at Kingsborrow ; and
desiring Donald to provide a boat against next
day to carry her to her mother's, in Sky ; Miss
Flora choosing rather a sail than a journey.
The P . . . having slept about nine or ten
hours (thrice as long as was usual with him in
his wanderings), Miss Macdonald prevailed with
Kingsborrow to wake him, for fear of a pursuit.
Kingsborrow then asked the P . . . how he had
rested ? " Never better in my life," said the P . . .,
" 'tis long since I slept in a bed before." Kings-
borrow then begged leave to tell the P ... it was
high time to be preparing for another march ;
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 345
that though it would be proper for him to go
away in the dress he came in : " Yet," says he,
" Sir, as you are a very bad pretender, and the
rumour of your disguise may have taken air, I
think it advisable for you to reassume your proper
dress ; and, if you will stop at the entrance of the
wood on yonder hill, I shall take care to bring you
thither everything necessary for that purpose."
The P . . . thanked his good landlord, and ap-
proved the proposal. While the P . . . was
dressing, Kingsborrow used the freedom to ask
him, if he suspected treachery in Lord George
Murray. To which the P ... answered, he did
not. When the P . . . had dressed himself as
well as he could, the ladies were called in to pin
his gown and cap. Upon Lady Kingsborrow
begging to have a lock of his hair, the P ...
laid his head in Miss Flora's lap, and bade her
cut off a little ; of which she gave one half to the
lady, and reserved the other to herself.
The P . . . having breakfasted, asked a snuff
of Lady Kingsborrow, who took that opportu-
nity of prevailing with him to accept of a silver
snuff-box.
The P . . then took leave of his kind land-
346 MEMOIRS OF
lady, thanking her very courteously for all her
civilities. The exchange of dress was performed
at the place appointed, arid the P . . . grasped
once more the claymore instead of the distaff.*
And now the P . . . had to bid adieu to his
faithful Kingsborrow, whom he embraced in his
arms, assuring him in the warmest manner that
he would never forget his services. Tears fell
from the eyes of both, and some drops of blood
from the P . . . 's nose. Kingsborrow was
alarmed at seeing the blood ; but the P . . . told
the good man, this was usual with him at parting
from dear friends.t
* The female attire was deposited in the heart of a bush, and
afterwards carried to Kingsborrow House, where, upon the alarm of a
search, it was burnt, except only a gown, which Kingsborrow 's
daughter insisted on saving as a precious relict and pattern. It was
of stamped linen, with a purple sprig.
t About six or eight days after the P . . . left Sky, Captain Fergu-
son followed him in hot pursuit ; and, from the boatmen, at or on their
return to St. Uist, having extorted an exact description of the gown
and the dress the P . . . had worn, he first went to Sir Alexander
Macdonald's, where, after a strict search, hearing only Miss Mac-
donald, he thence proceeded in all haste to Kingsborrow, where he
examined every person with the utmost exactness. He asked
Kingsborrow where Miss Macdonald and the person who was with
her in woman's clothes had lain 1 Kingsborrow answered : " He
knew where Miss Flora had lain ; but as for servants, he never
asked any questions about them." The captain then asked Lady
Kingsborrow whether she had laid the young Pretender and Miss
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 347
The P . . . , attended by Neil MacKechan,
and having Kingsborrow's herd-boy,* MacQueen,
Flora in one bed 1 To which she answered, " Whom you mean by
the young Pretender, I do not pretend to guess ; but I can assure
you, it is not the fashion in Skye to lay the mistress and maid in
one bed." Upon visiting the rooms wherein each of them had lain,
the captain could not but remark, that the room the supposed maid
had possessed was better than that of the mistress.
Kingsborrow was made prisoner, and, by Gen. Campbell's order,
he went on parole, without any guard, to Fort Augustus, where he
was plundered of everything, thrown into a dungeon, and loaded
with irons. When Sir Everard Fawkener examined him, he put
him in mind how noble an opportunity he had lost of making him-
self and family for ever. To which Kingsborrow replied : " Had
I gold and silver, piled heaps upon heaps, to the bulk of yon huge
mountain, that mass could not afford me half the satisfaction I find
in my own breast for doing what I have done." While Kings-
borrow was prisoner at Fort Augustus, an officer of distinction
came, and asked him if he would know the young Pretender's head
if he saw it : Kingsborrow said he would know the head very well,
if it were on the shoulders. " But what if the head be not on the
shoulders ; do you think you should know it in that case ? " " In
that case," answered Kingsborrow, " I will not pretend to know
anything about it." So no head was brought him.
Kingsborrow was removed hence to Edinburgh Castle, under a
strong guard of Kingston's light horse. He was at first put into a
room with some other gentlemen, and afterwards removed into one
by himself, without being allowed to go over the threshold, or to see
any person except the officer upon guard, the serjeant, and keeper ;
which last was appointed to attend him as a servant. And here he
was kept till by the act of grace he was set at liberty, on the 4th of
July, 1747 ; having thus, as an author observes, got a whole year's
safe lodging for affording that one night.
* Some years after, a gentleman met with MacQueen, asked him
if he had any suspicion who the person might be whom he had
348 MEMOIRS OF
of about eleven years old, for a guide, seven long
Scots miles, got safe, though very wet, to Portree.
Here he had the pleasure of meeting once more
his female preserver, as well as Donald Roy Mac-
donald ; who, though disappointed in his search
after the old Laird of Rasay, had got a boat from
that island for the P ... 's reception, and three
choice friends to attend him, viz. John and Mur-
doch Macleod, of Rasay's, eldest and third sons, and
one Malcolm Macleod. The two last gentlemen
had been in the P ... 's service. The P . . .
would fain have persuaded cripple Donald to
accompany him. But Donald had the resolution
to resist his importunities, and also to sacrifice
his own inclination to the P . . . 's safety, for
his wound did not permit him to move without a
horse, which he well judged would have rendered
him too conspicuous a companion of the P . . . 's
privacy.* To this faithful friend, therefore, as
well as his female preserver, the P . . . was
obliged to bid a tender farewell, regretting much
guided from Kingsborrow to Portree ? " No," said he, " I only
supposed him to be an Irish gentleman of the name of Mac-
donald."
* Captain Donald Roy Macdonald, after seeing the P ... in the
boat, returned to Portree.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 349
that he had not a Macdonald to be with him to
the last.*
Capt. MacLeod, having followed the P . . .
as far as his eye could go, set out on his
return home by the way of Kingsborrow, where
he related the P . . .'s late adventures, and
failed not to tell the Lady Kingsborrow that the
P . . ., having one day cast his eyes upon her
silver snuff-box, had asked him the meaning of its
* Miss Macdonald having taken leave of the P . . ., left Portree
immediately, and got safe back to Armadale. She had not been
above eight or nine days there, when she was required to attend
one Macdonald, whom MacLeod of Paliscar had employed to examine
her. She set out in obedience to the summons ; but had not gone
far when she was seized by an officer and a party of soldiers, who
carried her immediately on board the Furnace, Captain Ferguson.
General Campbell was on board, and commanded that the young
lady should be used with the utmost civility ; that she should be
allowed a maid-servant, and every accommodation the ship could
afford. Miss Flora, finding the boatmen had blabbed everything,
was also fain to acknowledge to General Campbell the whole truth.
About three weeks after, the ship being near her mother's, Miss
Macdonald was permitted to go ashore with a guard, to take leave
of her friends. The fair prisoner found now another protector in
Commodore (now admiral) Smith ; whose ship soon after came into
Leith Road. Thence removed from place to place, till November 28,
1746, she was put on board the Royal Sovereign, lying at the Nore.
After five months' imprisonment on shipboard, she was transported
to London, where she was confined in a messenger's house till July,
1747, and then discharged without being asked a question.
350 MEMOIRS OF
device and inscription ; and that he had explained
them in such words as these. " The device, sir, of
two grasping hands, is used in Scotland as an
emblem of sincere and firm friendship ; and the
inscription of ROB GIB, refers to a common Scots
saying ; Rob Gib's contract, stark love and kind-
ness ;" that the P ... admired the design, and
declared that he would endeavour to keep the
present as long as he lived. Capt. MacLeod had
not been long at home before he was taken prisoner,
conveyed into the Thames, and, on the 1st of
November, 1746, removed to London, where
he was detained in a messenger's house till July,
1747.
TRINCE CHARLES STUART. 351
No. IV.
FROM KING'S POLITICAL AND LITERARY ANECDOTES OF
HIS OWN TIMES.
THE PRETENDER.
September, 1750. I received a note from my
Lady Primrose, who desired to see me immediately.
As soon as I waited on her, she led me into her
dressing room, and presented me to
The Pretender. If I was surprised to find him
there, I was still more astonished when he
acquainted me with the motives which had in-
duced him to hazard a journey to England at this
juncture. The impatience of his friends who
were in exile had formed a scheme which was
impracticable ; but, although it had been as feasi-
ble as they had represented it to him, yet no
preparation had been made, nor was anything
ready to carry it into execution. He was soon
352 MEMOIRS OF
convinced that he had been deceived, and there-
fore, after a stay in London of five days only, he
returned to the place from whence he came. As I
had some long conversations with him here, and
for some years after held a constant correspondence
with him, not indeed by letters, but by messengers,
who were occasionally dispatched to him ; and as,
during this intercourse, I informed myself of all
particulars relating to him and of his whole con-
duct, both in public and private life, I am perhaps
as well qualified as any man in England to draw
a just character of him ; and I impose this task on
myself, not only for the information of posterity,
but for the sake of many worthy gentlemen whom
I shall leave behind me, who are at present attached
to his name, and who have formed their ideas of
him from public report, but more particularly
from those great actions which he performed in
Scotland.
As to his person, he is tall and well made, but
stoops a little, owing, perhaps, to the great fatigue
which he underwent in his northern expedition.
He has a handsome face and good eyes (I think
his busts, which about this time were commonly
sold in London, are more like him than any of
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 353
his pictures which I have yet seen*) ; but in a
polite company he would not pass for a genteel
man. He hath a quick apprehension, and speaks
French, Italian, and English, the last with a little
of a foreign accent. As to the rest, very little
care seems to have been taken of his education.
He had not made the belles lettres or any of
the finer arts his study, which surprised me
much, considering his preceptors, and the noble
opportunities he must have always had in that
nursery of all the elegant and liberal arts and
sciences.
But I was still more astonished when I found
him unacquainted with the history and constitu-
tion of England, in which he ought to have been
very early instructed. I never heard him express
any noble or benevolent sentiments, the certain
indications of a great soul and a good heart ; or
discover any sorrow or compassion for the misfor-
tunes of so many worthy men, who had suffered
* He came one evening to my lodgings and drank tea with me :
my servant, after he was gone, said to me, " That he thought my new
visitor very like Prince Charles." " Why," said I, " have you ever
seen Prince Charles 1 " " No sir," replied the fellow, " but this
gentleman, whoever he may be, exactly resembles the busts sold in
Red Lion Street, and are said to be busts of Prince Charles." The
truth is, these busts were taken in plaster of Paris from his face.
VOL. II. A A
354 MEMOIRS OF
in his cause.* But the most odious part of his
character is his love of money, a vice which I
do not remember to have been imputed by our
historians to any of his ancestors, and is the
certain index of a base and little mind. I know
it may be urged in his vindication, that a prince
in exile ought to be an economist. And so he
ought; nevertheless, his purse should be always
open, as long as there is anything in it to relieve
the necessities of his friends and adherents.
King Charles the Second, during his banish-
ment, would have shared the last pistole in his
pocket with his little family. But I have known
this gentleman with two thousand louis-d'ors in
his strong box, pretend he was in great distress,
and borrow money from a lady in Paris, who was
not in affluent circumstances. His most faithful
servants, who had closely attended him in all his
difficulties, were ill rewarded. Two Frenchmen,
* As to his religion, he is certainly free from all bigotry and
superstition, and would readily conform to the religion of the
country. With the Catholics he is a Catholic ; with the Protestants
he is a Protestant ; and, to convince the latter of his sincerity, he
often carried an English Common Prayer Book in his pocket : and
sent to Gordon (whom I have mentioned before) a nonjuring clergy-
man, to christen the first child he had by Mrs. W.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 355
who had left everything to follow his fortune, who
had been sent as couriers through half Europe,
and executed their commissions with great punc-
tuality and exactness, were suddenly discharged
without any faults imputed to them, or any
recompense for their past service.
To this spirit of avarice may be added his inso-
lent manner of treating his immediate dependents,
very unbecoming a great prince, and a sure pro-
gnostic of what might be expected from him if
ever he acquired power. Sir J. Harington and
Colonel Goring, who suffered themselves to be
imprisoned with him rather than desert him when
the rest of his family and attendants fled, were
afterwards obliged to quit his service on account
of his illiberal behaviour.
But there is one part of his character, which I
must particularly insist on, since it occasioned the
defection of the most powerful of his friends and
adherents in England, and by some concurring
accidents totally blasted all his hopes and preten-
sions. When he was in Scotland, he had a mis-
tress, whose name is Walkenshaw, and whose
sister was at that time, and is still housekeeper at
Leicester House. Some years after he was released
A A 2
356 MEMOIRS OF
from prison and conducted out of France, he sent
for this girl, who soon acquired such a dominion
over him, that she was acquainted with all his
schemes, and trusted with his most secret corre-
spondence. As soon as this was known in England,
all those persons of distinction who were attached
to him were greatly alarmed ; they imagined that
this wench had been placed in his family by the
English ministers ; and, considering her sister's
situation, they seemed to have some ground for
their suspicion ; therefore they dispatched a gen-
tleman to Paris, where the Prince then was, who
had instructions to insist that Mrs. Walkenshaw
should be removed to a convent for a certain time;
but her gallant absolutely refused to comply with
this demand ; and, although Mr. M'Namara, the
gentleman who was sent to him, who has a natural
eloquence, and an eloquent understanding, urged
the most cogent reasons, and used all the arts of
persuasion to induce him to part with his mistress,
and even proceeded so far as to assure him,
according to his instructions, that an immediate
interruption of all correspondence with his most
powerful friends in England, and in short that
the ruin of his interest, which was now daily
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 357
increasing, would be the infallible consequence
of his refusal ; yet he continued inflexible ;
and all M'Namara's entreaties were ineffectual.
M'Namara staid some days in Paris beyond the
time prescribed him, endeavouring to reason the
Prince into a better temper; but finding him
obstinately persevere in his first answer, he took
his leave with concern and indignation, saying, as
he passed out, " What has your family done, Sir,
thus to draw down the vengeance of Heaven on
every branch of it through so many ages ? " It is
worthy of remark that, in all the conferences
which M'Namara had with the Prince on this
occasion, the latter declared, that it was not a
violent passion or indeed any particular regard,*
which attached him to Mrs. Walkenshaw, and
that he could see her removed from him without
any concern; but he would not receive directions in
respect to his private conduct from any man alive.
* I believe he spoke truth when he declared he had no esteem
for his northern mistress, although she has been his companion for
so many years. She had no elegance of manners ; and as they had
both contracted an odious habit of drinking, so they exposed them-
selves very frequently, not only to their own family, but to all their
neighbours. They often quarrelled, and sometimes fought : they
were some of these drunken scenes which, probably, occasioned the
report of his madness.
358 MEMOIRS OF
When M'Namara returned to London, and
reported the Prince's answer to the gentlemen
who had employed him, they were astonished and
confounded. However, they soon resolved on the
measures which they were to pursue for the
future, and determined no longer to serve a man
who could not be persuaded to serve himself, and
chose rather to endanger the lives of his best and
most faithful friends, than part with an harlot,
whom, as he often declared, he neither loved nor
esteemed. If ever that old adage, Quos Jupiter
vult perdere, &c., could be properly applied to
any person, whom could it so well fit as the gen-
tleman of whom I have been speaking ? for it is
difficult by any other means to account for such a
sudden infatuation. He was, indeed, soon after-
wards made sensible of his misconduct, when it
was too late to repair it : for, from this era may
truly be dated the ruin of his cause ; which, for
the future, can only subsist in the 'N n ing
congregations, which are generally formed from
the meanest people, from whom danger to the
present government need ever be apprehended.
Before I close this article, I must observe that,
during this transaction, my Lord M was at
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 359
Paris in the quality of Envoy from the K of
P ; M'Namara had directions to acquaint
him with his commission. My Lord M , not
in the least doubting the Prince's compliance with
the request of his friends in England, determined
to quit the K of P 's service as soon as
his embassy finished, and gq into the Prince's
family. This would have been a very fortunate
circumstance to the Prince on all accounts, but
more especially as nothing could be more agree-
ble to all those persons of figure and distinction,
who were at that time so deeply engaged in his
cause ; for there was not one of all that number
who would not have reposed an entire confidence
in the honour and discretion of my Lord M .
But how was this gentleman amazed, when he
perceived the Prince's obstinacy and imprudence ?
who was resolved, by a strange fatality, to alienate
the affections of his best friend s, and put an abso-
lute barrier to all his own hopes. From this
time, my Lord M would never concern him-
self in this cause, but prudently embraced the
opportunity, through the K of P , of
reconciling himself to the English government.
360 MEMOIRS OF
No. V.
MEMOIRS OF THE LATE CARDINAL YORK, THE LAST, IN A
DIRECT LINE, OF THE ROYAL HOUSE OF STUART.
HENRY BENEDICT MARIA CLEMENS, second
son of James Stuart, known by the name of " The
Pretender," and of Maria Clementina Sobieski, was
born at Rome the 26th of March, 1725, where he
almost constantly resided. As a Pretender to the
throne of Britain, he was never very forward in
urging the pretension, and his general character
was that of an inoffensive and respectable indi-
vidual. The Regent Duke of Orleans had (by a
threat to withdraw the pension paid by France),
to please the cabinet of St. James's, obliged the
Cardinal's father to reside in that city. Toward
the close of the year 1745 he went to France, to
put himself at the head of 15,000 men, assembled
in and about Dunkirk, under the command of the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 361
Duke of Richelieu, by order of Louis XV. With
this army Henry was to have landed in England,
in support of his brother Charles; but, though
preparations were made for embarking these
troops, though one part did actually embark, not
a single transport left Dunkirk Road ; and Henry,
receiving intelligence of the issue of the battle of
Culloden, returned to Rome, where, much to the
displeasure of his brother and the friends of his
family, he took orders ; and in 1747 was made
Cardinal by Pope Benedict XIV., and afterwards
Bishop of Frascati, and Chancellor of the Church
of St. Peter.
From that time the Cardinal of York, the name
he assumed on his promotion, devoted himself to
the functions of his ministry, and seemed to have
laid aside all worldly views, till his brother's death
in 1788, when he had medals struck, bearing on
their face his head, with " HENRICUS NONUS
ANGLIJE REX;" on the reverse a city, with
" GRATIA DEI, SED NON VOLUNTATE HOMI-
NUM." If we are not misinformed, our sovereign
has one of these medals. The Cardinal had two
rich livings in France, the Abbeys of Anchin and
St. Amand, and a considerable pension from the
362 MEMOIRS OF
court of Spain, all of which he lost by the revolu-
tion. In order to assist Pope Pius VI. in making
up the sum required by Bonaparte in 1796, the
Cardinal disposed of all the family jewels ; and,
among others, of a ruby, the largest and most
perfect known, valued at 50,000^. He thus
deprived himself of the last means of an indepen-
dent subsistence, and was reduced to great distress
on the expulsion of Pius VI. and his court from
Rome.
After having passed his days in quiet and
dignified retirement at his villa near Rome, till
1798, a French revolutionary banditti forced him
to renounce his comforts and property if he would
save his life. He arrived at Venice in the winter
of 1798, infirm as well as destitute. Cardinal
Borgia, who had been acquainted with Sir John
Hippesley Cox in Italy, represented to him by
letter the Cardinal's case. Sir John conveyed this
letter to a Mr. Stuart, who drew up a memorial,
which Mr. Dundas (Lord Melville) presented
to his Majesty ; and no sooner was our beloved
monarch informed of his distressful situation, than
his Majesty condescended to order his Minister to
the Republic to offer the Cardinal, with all possi-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 363
ble delicacy, a pension of 4000/. for his life. This
amiable trait in the character of George III. does
equal honour to the king and to the man.
The Cardinal of York had some claim on the
generosity, perhaps on the justice, of this country.
An act of Parliament, still unrepealed, had settled
on James the Second's queeen, Mary D'Este,
the cardinal's grandmother, a jointure of 50,000/.
While the treaty of Ryswick was depending, it
was strongly contended, on the part of the French
negociators, in the name of that princess, that,
her husband having been deprived by an act
of the British legislature of all his right as
king, and being consequently as king dead in
law, she was as much entitled to her dowry from
the day that event took place, as if her husband
had been naturally dead. The English nego-
ciators considered the point as too delicate for
their interference, and desired it might be re-
ferred to King William personally. The proposal
was assented to, and Marshal Boufflers had an
interview with William on the subject. William
did not deny the justice of the claim ; and on
Boufflers expressing a wish that the concession
of the jointure might be confirmed by at least a
364 MEMOIRS OF
secret article of the treaty, William said, " What,
Marshal ! will not my word satisfy you ?" Bouf-
flers bowed, and parted, in the full persuasion
that he had obtained sufficient security. But,
on the first demand of payment, William insisted
that the concession had been made upon a con-
dition which had not been performed ; while
Boufflers maintained the concession to have been
unconditional. James II. died in 1701 ; his
widow in 1718. No attempt was ever made by
her heirs at law to recover the arrears of her
jointure till 1786; when Charles, the eldest of
her grandsons, though he would not act himself,
empowered his natural daughter, by Miss Walk-
inshaw, to act in his name for that purpose. A
case was made out, stating the nature and grounds
of the claim. Louis XVI., by a petition which
Vergennes presented, was intreated to recommend
it, through his ambassador in London, to the
attention of the King of Great Britain. Louis
answered, " C'est unefamille malheureuse ! dont
je ne veux plus entendre parler" Little thought
the king how soon he, and almost every branch
of the Bourbon family, were to be in a situation
not less unfortunate.
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 365
On the failure of this attempt, another was
made in a different way, to bring the claim before
the king. The late Earl of Pembroke, while ,at
Florence, where Charles and his daughter resided
for some time, was in the habit of visiting them,
and sometimes dined with them. The daughter,
on the Earl's leaving Florence, begged he would
use what interest he might have with Mr. Pitt, in
behalf of her father's claim. The Earl politely
offered to do all in his power. As for interest with
Mr. Pitt, he said he had none, nor a claim to any,
but he would try what could be done by some of
his acquaintance who might have interest with
him. Accordingly, on his arrival in Paris, he
applied to the late Duke of Dorset, then our
ambassador at the Court of Versailles, who gave
the lady's agent a letter of introduction to Mr.
Pitt. He promised, at the same time, to take the
first opportunity of recommending the claim to
that minister's favour and protection ; and he
fulfilled his promise. Carry 11, the lady's agent,
on his arrival in London, with Mr. Pitt's permis-
sion waited on him. But scarcely had he opened
the subject by saying that whatever right there
might be, and however well founded, to the whole
366 MEMOIRS OF
arrears, a very moderate part would be gratefully
accepted, when Mr. Pitt cut him short, declaring
it was a thing not to be mentioned to the king.
Carryll then communicated the nature and grounds
of the claim to learned counsel, who advised
him to bring the matter before the King's Bench,
offering, on condition of receiving a certain pro-
portion of the sum recovered, to carry on the law-
suit at their own risk and expence, in full confi-
dence that the decision would be favourable, from
the circumstance, that the act of parliament settling
the jointure had assigned, as security for its pay-
ment, royal demesnes of a yearly income more
than equal to the amount. But neither Charles
nor Henry (for the proposal was made to each
separately) would agree to it.
Henry was a studious well-informed prince,
and a sincerely pious prelate. His purse was
always open to suffering humanity; and British
travellers particularly, whether ruined by mis-
fortune or imprudence, found in him, on all
occasions, a compassionate benefactor. He pos-
sessed, before 1798, a very valuable collection of
curiosities at his villa, where many scarce tracts
and interesting manuscripts concerning the unfor-
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 367
tunate house of Stuart were among the ornaments
of his library. In his will, made in January,
1789, he had left the latter to his relation, the
Count Stuarton, hut they were all, in 1798, either
plundered by the French and Italian Jacobins at
Rome, or confiscated by French commissaries for
the libraries or museums at Paris. The Cardinal
of York returned to Rome in 1801, and died the
Doyen of the Sacred College, after being one of its
most virtuous and disinterested members upwards
of sixty years. He was also Bishop of Ostia and
Velletri, Vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman
Church, and Arch-priest of the Basilique Patri-
arch ale of St. Peter of the Vatican.
Thus has died at the age of eighty-two years
and some months, the last, in direct line, of the
royal house of Stuart ; and his death is of some
importance, for, it is understood, an act with
respect to the attainder of blood was to expire
at the death of this last of the Stuart family.
The statements of the French papers, concerning
Cardinal York's bequests to the King of Sardinia,
are void of all truth.
Some doubts having been expressed as to the
truth of the report of the Cardinal having received
368 MEMOIRS OF
a considerable pension during the latter years of
his life, from our monarch, the following letters
on that subject will be found interesting :
FROM LORD MINTO TO CARDINAL YORK.
" De Vienne, 9 Fev. 1800.
" MONSEIGNEUR,
" J'ai re9ii les ordres de sa majeste, le roi de la
Grande Bretagne, de faire remettre a votre Emi-
nence la somme de deux mille livres sterling, et
d'assurer V. E. qu'en acceptant cette marque de
Tinteret et de 1'estime de S. M. de lui transmettre
une pareille somme de 2000/. sterling au mois de
Juillet, si les circonstances demeuront telles que
V. E. continuat a la desirer.
" J'ai done Thonneur de la prevenir que la
somme de 2000/. sterling est deposee a la maison
de Messrs. Coutts et Compagnie, banquiers a Lon-
dres, a la disposition de votre Eminence. En
executant les ordres du roi mon Maitre, V. E. me
rendra la justice de croire que je suis infiniment
sensible a 1'honneur d'etre 1'organe des sentimens
nobles et touchans, qui ont dicte a S. M. la
demarche dont elle daigne me charger, et qui lui
ont ete inspires, d'un cote par ses propres vertus
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 369
et de 1'autre tant par les qualites minentes de la
personne auguste qui en est Tobjet que par son
desir de reparer, partout ou il est possible, les
desastres dans lesquels le fleau universe! de nos
jours a paru vouloir en trainer par preference
tout ce qui est le plus digne de veneration et de
respect.
" Je prie V. E. d'agreer les assurances de mes
hommages, respectueux, et de la veneration pro-
fonde avec laquelle
" J'ai 1'honneur d'etre, de votre Eminence,
" le tres humble et tres obeissant Serviteur,
" MINTO."
" Env. Ex. and Min. Plen. de S. M. B.
a la Cour de Vienne."
FROM CARDINAL YORK TO SIR JOHN HIPPESLEY, BART.
t( Your letters fully convince me of the cordial
interest you take in all that regards my person,
and I am happy to acknowledge that principally I
owe to your friendly efforts and to them of your
friends the succour generously granted to relieve
the extreme necessities into which I have been
driven by the present dismal circumstances. I
cannot sufficiently express how sensible I am to
VOL. II. B B
370 MEMOIRS OF
your good heart ; and write these few lines in the
first place to confess to you these my sincere and
grateful sentiments, and then to inform you, that
by means of Mr. Oakley, an English gentleman
arrived here last week, I have received a letter
from Lord Minto from Vienna, advising me that
he had orders from his court to remit to me at
present the sum of 2000/. ; and that in the month
of July next I may again draw, if I desired it,
for another equal sum. This letter is written in
so extremely genteel and obliging manner, and
with expressions of singular regard and consider-
ation for me, that I assure you it excited in me
most particular and lively sentiments, not only
of satisfaction for the delicacy with which the
affair has been managed, but also of gratitude
for the generosity which has provided for my
necessity.
" I have answered Lord Minto's letter, and gave
it, Saturday last, to Mr. Oakley, who was to send
it by that evening's post to Vienna. 1 have
written in a manner that I hope will be to his
Lordship's satisfaction. I own to you that the
succour granted to me could not be more timely ;
for without it, it would have been impossible for
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 371
me to subsist, on account of the absolutely irre-
parable loss of all my income, the very funds
being also destroyed, so that otherwise I should
have been reduced for the short remainder of my
life, to languish in misery and indigence.
" I could not lose a moment's time to apprize
you of all this, and am very certain that your
experimented good heart will find proper means
to make known, in an energetical and proper
manner, these sentiments of my grateful acknow-
ledgment.
"The signal obligations I am under to Mr.
Andrew Stuart for all that he has, with so much
cordiality on this occasion, done to assist me,
render it for me indispensable to desire, that you
may return my most sincere thanks, assuring him
that his health and welfare interest me extremely ;
and that I have with great pleasure received from
Gen. Acton the genealogical history of our
family, which he was so kind as to send me;
I hope that he will from that gentleman have
already received my thanks for so valuable a proof
of his attention for me.
" In the last place, if you think proper, and an
B B 2
372 MEMOIRS OF
occasion should offer itself, I beg you make known
to the other gentlemen also who have co-operated,
my most grateful acknowledgments ; with which,
my dear Sir John, with all my heart, I embrace
you.
" Your best of friends,
" HENRY, Cardinal."
" Venice, Feb. 26, 1800.
"To Sir J. C. Hippesley, Bart., London."
COPY OF A LETTER FROM SIR JOHN COX HIPPESLEY,
BART., TO CARDINAL YORK.
" SIR,
"I trust your Eminence will do me the jus-
tice to believe that I was not insensible to the
honour of receiving so flattering a proof of your
gracious consideration, as that which I was
favoured with, dated the 26th of last month, from
the bosom of the conclave.
" The merciless scourge of the present age (as
my friend, Lord Minto, has so justly observed)
has singled out as the first object of its vengeance
every thing that is most worthy, and best entitled
to cur veneration and respect. The Infidels in
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 373
Religion, but zealots in Anarchy, whose malig-
nity pursued the sacred remains of Pius the Great
even beyond the grave, assuredly would not
exempt from their remorseless persecution the
venerable person of the Cardinal York !
" Severe as have been yourEminence's sufferings,
they will, nevertheless, find some alleviation in the
general sympathy of the British nation : with all
distinctions of parties, with all differences of com-
munion, among all conditions of men, but one
voice is heard ; all breathe one applauding senti-
ment ; all bless the gracious act of the Sovereign
in favour of his illustrious but unfortunate
relation.
" Your Eminence greatly overvalues the humble
part which has fallen to my lot, in common with
my worthy friend Mr. Stuart. The cause of
suffering humanity never wants supporters in the
country with which I know, Sir, you feel a
generous pride in being connected. The sacred
ministers of religion, exiled and driven from their
altars, find refuge and security in Britain. The
unfortunate Princes of the House of Bourbon here
too found an asylum under the hospitable roof of
374 MEMOIRS OF
the Royal Ancestors of Cardinal York : and when
every dignified virtue that can stamp worth on
human nature is outraged in the venerable per-
son of the Cardinal York himself 'against
such cruelties, with inward consolations recom-
pensed ' here also an inviolable sanctuary is
unfolded in the kindred bosom of our beloved
Sovereign.
" It is incumbent on me to attest, that, in the
frequent communications Mr. Stuart and myself
have had with the King's ministers on this subject,
they have uniformly expressed their firm opinion,
that his Majesty will think himself happy in
repeating the same gracious attention to his royal
relation, and in the same proportion, as long as
his unfortunate circumstances have a claim to
them. lean also, with equal confidence, assure
your Eminence, that your reply to my Lord
Minto has given as much satisfaction to the
King's ministers, as it doubtless has excited in
the benevolent mind of his Majesty himself.
" Mr. Stuart unites with me in every heartfelt
wish for your Eminence's health and happiness,
equally flattered with myself by your Eminence's
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 375
condescension and gracious acceptance of our
humble attentions.
" With the most perfect consideration and pro-
found respect,
" I have the honour to be, &c.,
" J. C. HlPPESLEY."
" Grosvenor Street, London, March 31, (1800)."
FROM THE CARDINAL YORK TO LORD MINTO.
" With the arrival of Mr. Oakley, who has
been this morning with me, I have received by
his discourses, and much more by your letters,
so many tokens of your regard, singular con-
sideration and attention for my person, as obliges
me to abandon all ceremony, and to begin ab-
ruptly to assure you, my dear lord, that your
letters have been most acceptable to me in all
shapes and regards. I did not in the least doubt
of the noble way of thinking of your generous
and beneficent sovereign : but I did not expect
to see, in writing, so many and so obliging ex-
pressions, that, well calculated for the persons
who receive them and understand their force,
impress in their minds a most lively sense of
tenderness and gratitude, which I own to you
376 MEMOIRS OF
oblige me more than the generosity spontaneously
imparted. I am, in reality, at a loss to express
in writing all the sentiments of my heart ; and
for that reason leave it entirely to the interests
you take in all that regards my person to make
known in an energetical and convenient manner
all I fain would say to express my thankfulness,
which may easily be by you comprehended, after
having perused the contents of this letter.
" I am much obliged to you to have indicated
to me the way I may write unto Coutts, the court
banker, and shall follow your friendly insinuations.
In the meantime, I am very desirous that you
should be convinced of my sentiments of sincere
esteem and friendship, with which, my dear lord,
with all my heart I embrace you.
" HENRY, Cardinal."
FROM THE CARDINAL YORK TO SIR J. COX HIPPESLEY,
BART.
" Dear Sir John,
<c I have not words to explain the deep impres-
sion your very obliging favour of March 31 made
on me. Your and Mr. Andrew Stuart's most
friendly and warm exertions in my behalf, the
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 377
humane and benevolent conduct of your ministers,
your gracious Sovereign's most noble and sponta-
neous generosity, the continuance of which you
certify me depends upon my need of it, were
all ideas which crowded together on my mind,
and filled me with the most lively sensations of
tenderness and heartfelt gratitude. What return
can I make for so many and so signal proofs of
disinterested benevolence ? Dear Sir John, I con-
fess I am at a loss how to express my feelings ; I
am sure, however, and very happy that your good
heart will make you fully conceive the sentiments
of mine, and induce you to make known, in
an adequate and convenient manner, to all such
as you should think proper, my most sincere
acknowledgment.
" With pleasure I have presented your compli-
ments to the Cardinals and other persons you
mention, who all return you their sincere thanks ;
the Canon in particular, now Monsignore, being
also a domestic prelate of his Holiness, begs you
to be persuaded of his constant respect and attach-
ment to you.
"My wishes would be completely gratified,
should I have the pleasure, as I most earnestly
378 MEMOIRS OF
desire, to see you again at Frascati, and be able to
assure you, by word of mouth, of my most sincere
esteem, and affectionate indelible gratitude,
" Your best of friends,
HENRY, Cardinal."
" Venice, 1th of May, 1800.
" To Sir J. C. Hippesley, Bart.,
" Grosvenor Street, London"
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 379
POSTSCRIPT.
THE Author begs here to be allowed to correct a mis-
take into which he fell when he wrote that not even the
name of Charleses daughter had been preserved ; and, in
making this correction, he will here introduce a brief
account of Charles's union with Miss Walkenshaw,
and of the daughter to whom that union gave birth.
The facts are extracted from the CEuvres Completes de
Louis de St. Simon, Due et Pair de France, fyc., d Stras-
bourg, 1791, t. xii., p. 144.
According to the Duke's account, John Walkenshaw,
Baron of Barronsfield, was, in 1715, one of the most
zealous, active, and influential adherents of James III.
in Scotland ; and was taken prisoner and confined in
Stirling Castle after the battle of Sheriffmuir. Lord
Barronsfield had the good fortune to escape from con-
finement, and was immediately deputed to the Empyror,
Charles VI., to endeavour to obtain the freedom of
James's bride, the Princess Clementine, then confined at
Insbruck. In this mission his Lordship succeeded com-
pletely, and the liberated Princess promised to give her
name to the first child that might be born to him.
With this child (Clementine Marie Sophie), who was
reared by Charles's mother in the Catholic faith, the
380 MEMOIRS OF
Prince became first acquainted in 1746, when he esta-
blished his head quarters at the Castle of Bannockburn,
near Stirling, where she was introduced to him as the
niece of the owner of the Castle, and, according to the
Duke's account, under the name of a Countess of Albar-
troff. He paid her the most marked attention, and, in
return for the important services rendered by her family,
promised her an appointment at his future court. This
promise was shortly followed by another, of a close and
permanent union with her, whatever the issue of his
enterprise might be. After the battle of Culloden,
Clementine continued for some time longer to reside
with her family ; but when the Prince had effected his
escape to France, he succeeded, through the medium of
a confidential agent, in inducing Clementine to join him
there.
Charles and Clementine proceeded to Ghent, and the^
Duke speaks of their relation to each other at that time
in these words : <f Depuis le moment de sa reunion avec
le Prince elle fut toujours traitee et regardee dans le
public comme son epouse, portant le mme nom que le
Prince et faisant les honneurs de sa maison. Elle
1'accompagna en cette qualite dans tons les voyages qu'il
fit en Allemagne, et revint avec lui a Liege, ou il prit alors
un domicile sous le nom du Compte de Johnsome." (?)
It was at Liege, likewise, according to St. Simon, that
Clementine gave birth to a daughter, whom the Prince
himself held at the font, and whom, after his own name,
he called Charlotte. " Le Prince fit elever sa fille dans
sa maison, il eut toujours pour elle le sentiment du plus
tendre des peres, ses attentions et ses soins etaient
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 381
portes a 1'exces ; elle et sa mere 1'accompagnerent dans
tous les voyages et les diffe rents sejours qu'il fit a Paris,
a Bale, a Liege, a Bouillon. Dans tous ces lieux elles
furent toujours annoncees au public, Pune comme 1'epouse,
1'autre comme la fille du Prince ; elles portaient les
memes noms que lui, et 1'enfant, toujours admise a la
table, fut presentee a tous les seigneurs etrangers et
autres personnes qui venaient rendre visite au Prince."
When this daughter had attained the age of seven,
the mother was desirous to give her an education suit-
able to her rank in a convent at Paris, as being a more
permanent residence than the circumstances of the
Prince were likely to allow him to adopt. To this
arrangement Charles always refused his assent, and,
after having obtained the sanction of James to such a
step, the mother left Bouillon, at midnight, on the 22nd
July, 1760, and fled with Charlotte to Paris. Charles
was in despair. He sent messengers after the fugitives,
and instructed his agents at Paris to make an applica-
tion to the French ministry, with a view to the enforce-
ment of his parental rights. Clementine, however,
prevailed on the Archbishop of Paris (Beaumont) to
inform the king that she had not acted without the
sanction of James, who lost no time in placing Clemen-
tine and Charlotte under the protection of the French
government, at the same time that he exerted himself to
moderate the indignation of his son.
James, in the mean time, made a princely provision
for his grandchild and her mother, assuring the latter
he had taken steps to secure her independence even
after his death. On his decease, however, no trace
382 MEMOIRS OF
of any such steps could be found ; and Cardinal York,
to whom Clementine wrote without receiving any
answer, not only reduced to half its former amount the
allowance till then paid to mother and daughter, but, in
a little time afterwards, demanded that Miss Walken-
shaw should sign a paper declaring " qu'il n'y avait
point eu d'acte de celebration de mariage avec le Prince."
Clementine gave the required signature, but, on the
same day on which it was given, she recalled her decla-
ration by a letter to the cardinal, and then retired with
her daughter to the Abbey of Meaux. Both frequently
addressed letters to the Prince, but without obtaining
any answer in return, although proofs are not wanting
that Charles's affection for his daughter continued
unaltered.
Farther on, St. Simon says, somewhat obscurely :
" Au mariage du Prince sa tendresse pour son enfant a
paru se renouveller : il lui fit proposer de se rendre
aupres de lui. La comptesse (Clementine) a qui cette
separation coutait infiniment, et qui prevoyait une foule
d'inconvenients dans le sejour de sa fille a Rome, y
consentit neanmoins, pour ne pas deplaire au pere.
Au moment d'executer ce voyage, on (?) a fait naitre
des obstacles, et, malgre les sacrifices que la comptesse
etait prete a faire, malgre la soumission de sa fille aux
ordres du Prince, a qui elle a eu Fhonneur d'ecrire les
lettres les plus tendres et les plus respectueuses, malgre
les protestations et promesses d'un seigneur qui etait
aupres du Prince et qui paraissait dispose a la servir de
toutes ses forces, on n'a pu avoir de sa part aucune re*ponse,
aucune consolation, aucune esperance." Of the subsequent
PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 383
fate of Clementine, and of Charles's conduct towards
her, nothing certain is known ; but we have sufficient
proof that the Prince, in the last few years of his life,
acted as an affectionate father. I shall scarcely need
any excuse for omitting all notice of the occurrence
related by Kotzebue, in the third volume of his Biene,
as he not only quotes no authority, but evidently con-
founds Prince Charles with his father ; a mistake
occasioned probably by the fact that both are frequently
spoken of as " the Pretender/'
THE END.
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the glory and dignity of the Naval Service of Great Britain. The
Letters will hereafter be the Manual of the sailor, as the sister service
has found a guide in the Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington.
They will range side by side. Englishmen will associate their heroic
deeds, and point their sons to these kindred works as the best memo-
rials of their lives."
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO HER MAJESTY.
Now in course of Publication, embellished with Portraits, in Elegant
small 8vo volumes, price 10s. 6d. each, bound; either of which may
be had separately. Vols. I. to IX. are now ready ;
LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND,
FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST,
-WITH ANECDOTES OF THEIR COURTS;
Now first published from Official Records and other Authentic
Documents, private as well as public.
BY AGNES STRICKLAND.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
" These volumes have the fascination of a romance] united to the
integrity of history." Times.
"A most valuable and entertaining work." Chronicle.
"This interesting and well-written work, in which the severe truth
of history takes almost the wildness of romance, will constitute a
valuable addition to our biographical literature." Morning Herald.
" A valuable contribution to historical knowledge, to young persons
especially. It contains a mass of every kind of historical matter of
interest, which industry and research could collect. We have derived
much entertainment and instruction from the work." Athenaeum.
" The execution of this work is equal to the conception. Great
pains have been taken to make it both interesting and valuable."
Literary Gazette.
" A charming work full of interest, at once serious and pleasing.''
Monsieur Guizot.
*' This work is written by a lady of considerable learning, indefati-
gable industry, and careful judgment. All these qualifications for a
biographer and an historian she has brought to bear upon the subject
of her volumes, and from them has resulted a narrative interesting to
all, and more particularly interesting to that portion of the community
to whom the more refined researches of literature afford pleasure and
instruction. The whole work should be read, and no doubt will be
read, by all who are anxious for information. It is a lucid arrange-
ment of facts, derived from authentic sources, exhibiting a combina-
tion of industry, learning, judgment, and impartiality, not often met
with in biographers of crowned heads." Times. (Third Notice.^
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
SECOND EDITION, Revised, in 3 handsome 8vo volumes, with Portraits,
price only 12s. each (originally published in 4to at 5/. 5s.).
MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN
OF
KING GEORGE THE SECOND;
BY HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD
EDITED, WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES, BY THE LATE LORD
HOLLAND.
THE manuscript of these " Memoirs of the Reign of George the
Second" was found at Strawberry Hill on the death of Horace Walpole,
along with that of the " Memoirs of the Reign of George the Third/'
lately published by Sir Denis Le Marchant, in two chests, relative to
which the author left written directions that they were not to be
opened till a considerable period after his decease. That time having
arrived, the seals were removed, and the nobleman to whom the
Memoirs had been bequeathed (the Earl of Waldegrave), decided on
giving them to the public ; and that they might possess every possible
advantage it was arranged that they should appear under the editorial
auspices of the late Lord Holland, whose intimate acquaintance with
the period illustrated, family connexion with the most celebrated indi-
viduals of the time, and distinguished scholarship, appeared to point him
out as above all men peculiarly fitted for the task of preparing them
for the press.
There can be no question that the " Memoirs of the Reign of
George II." far exceed in public interest any of the numerous
productions of the same accomplished pen. The writer was in a
position either to observe the extraordinary events then occurring, or
to command intelligence from the most secret sources. Known as the
son of the ablest minister the age produced (Sir Robert Walpole) and
having many of his nearest friends and relatives members at different
periods either of the government or of the opposition, it is impossible
to imagine an individual more favourably circumstanced to record the
stirring scenes and great events that made the reign of George II.
so remarkable. But to these advantages must be added a talent in
portraying the characteristics of his contemporaries, and a vivacity in
describing the scenes in which they figured so conspicuously, in which
he is without a rival,
*' The intimacy which," as Lord Holland most truly observes in his
introduction to this work, " the author enjoyed with many of the
chief personages of the times, and what he calls his propensity to
faction, made him acquainted with the most secret intrigues and nego-
tiations of parties," and his lordship goes on to state that the period
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
of which he treats is a part of our history little known to us, yet
well deserving our curiosity, as it forms a transition from the expiring
struggles of Jacobitism to the more important contests that have
since engaged and still occupy, our attention. " His account of par-
liamentary debates alone," he adds, " would be a valuable addition to
our history." On the same subject the author himself says in the
postscript to these memoirs, " For the facts, such as were not public,
I received them chiefly from my father and Mr. Fox, both men of
veracity ; and some from communication with the Duke of Bedford
at the very time they were in agitation. I am content to rest their
authenticity on the sincerity of such men. The speeches I can affirm,
nay, of every one of them, to be still more authentic, as I took
notes at the time, and have delivered the arguments just as I beard
them."
It may be as well to remind the reader that the reign of George II.
was rendered memorable by the dawning of the greatness of Pitt, and
the minority of George III.; by the struggles of the grandson of James
II., commonly called " The Young Pretender," to win back the for-
feited throne of the Stuarts ; by the opposition to the reigning king of
his son Frederick Prince of Wales ; by the remarkable trial and exe-
cution of Admiral Byng, and the no less celebrated court-martial on
Lord George Sackville ; by the splendid victories of Wolfe in America,
and Lord Clive in India ; the capture of Cherbourg, the acquisition of
Cape Breton, and the naval triumphs of Boscawen, Howe, Hawke,
Watson, Vernon, and Saunders. The most distinguished of contem-
porary sovereigns were Frederick the Great, Louis XV., Augustus
King of Saxony, the Czarina Elizabeth, and the Empress Maria
Theresa ; and in consequence of the interest George II. took in his
Hanoverian dominions, the English were continually engaged in the
war then raging in Germany, in which these sovereigns were involved.
These incidents are chronicled with a masterly hand by Walpole ;
and the reader will look in vain elsewhere for the spirited sketches
that enrich the narrative of the various actors in them at home and
abroad. In no other work can he hope so thoroughly to become ac-
quainted with the features of such statesmen as Sir Robert Walpole,
Bolingbroke, Pulteney, John Duke of Bedford, the Pelhams, the Towns-
hends, the Grenvilles, Chatham, Fox, and the other great names that
adorned the cabinet and the senate or of Chesterfield, Bubb Dodding-
ton, George Selwyn, and Hanbury Williams ; politicians, however,
who seemed to care much more for the reputation of wits than the
fame of senators, though they possessed considerable pretensions to both
characters. But the careful chronicler omits no link in the social
scale that may serve to characterise the curious age he delineates. The
result is a history which, with the veracity of a chronicle, affords equal
entertainn: ent with the most vivacious romance, and though sufficiently
attractive in its own merits to all classes of readers, is essential to every
library containing any portion of the Walpole Works and Corres-
pondence.
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MISS BURNEY'S DIARY.
Now complete, in Seven Volumes, price 10s. 6d. each, bound with
Portraits.
THE DIARY AND LETTERS OF
MADAME D ' A R B L A Y,
AUTHOR OF " EVELINA," " CECILIA," &c.
Including the period of her residence at the Court of Queen Charlotte.,
EDITED BY HER NIECE.
CRITICAL OPINIONS.
" Madame d'Arblay lived to be a classic. Time set on her fame,
before ehe went hence, that seal which is seldom set except on the
fame of the departed. All those whom we have been accustomed to
revere as intellectual patriarchs seemed children when compared with
her; for Burke had sat up all night to read her writings, and Johnson
had pronounced her superior to Fielding, when Rogers was still a
schoolboy, and Southey still in petticoatsT Her Diary is written in
her earliest and best manner ; in true woman's English, clear, natural,
and lively. It ought to be consulted by every person who wishes to
be well acquainted with the history of our literature and our manners.
The account which she gives of the king's illness will, we think, be
more valued by the historians of a future age than any equal portions
of Pepys' or Evelyn's Diaries." Edinburgh Review.
"This publication will take its place in the libraries beside Walpole
and Boswell." Literary Gazette.
" In our minds, this delightful Diary has been the most agreeable
variety of the season. Miss Burney's first volume ought to be placed
beside Boswell's ' Life,' to which it formsan excellent supplement." Times.
"A work unequalled in literary and social value by any thing else of
a similar kind in the language." Naval and Military Gazette.
" This work may be considered a kind of supplement to Boswell's
Life of Johnson. It is a beautiful picture of society as it existed in
manners, taste, and literature, in the early period of the reign of George
the Third, drawn by a pencil as vivid and brilliant as that of any of
the celebrated persons who composed the circle." Messenger.
"A publication of much interest and value." Chronicle.
" Miss Burney's Diary, sparkling with wit, teeming with lively
anecdote, and delectable gossip, and full of sound and discreet views
of persons and things, will be perused with interest by all classes of
readers." Post.
"This work presents an unrivalled combination of attraction.
That extraordinary man Johnson, is painted far better than he is by
Boswell." Court Journal.
" A valuable addition to the literature of our country." Age.
" We know not when we have been so delighted with a book as
with Miss Burney's Diary. Every page teems with interest."
Weekly Chronicle.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
LIFE OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR,
BY THOMAS ROSCOE, ESQ.
One volume, small 8vo, with Portrait, price 10s. Gd. bound.
" This life of tWe Conqueror is the first attempt made to do full justice
to bis character and talents. The narrative is very careful and precise,
and collects all that has been recorded concerning either the private or
public career of William." Britannia.
"The historical reader will find this a work of peculiar interest. It
displays throughout the most painstaking research, and a style of
narrative which has all the lucidity and strength of Gibbon. It is
a work with which, shedding such a light as we are justified in saying
it will do upon English history, every library ought to be provided."
Sunday Times.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S MAXIMS
AND OPINIONS;
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
BY G. H. FRANCIS, ESQ.
Second Edition, in 8vo, with Portrait, 12s. bound.
" The best book that has been published respecting the Duke of
Wellington." Times
LETTERS OF ROYAL & ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES
OF GREAT BRITAIN,
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND;
Now first published from the Originals, with Introductory Notices,
BY MARY ANN EVERETT WOOD.
In three volumes, small 8vo, with Facsimile Autographs, &c.
"This collection of letters is very curious and very valuable. The
o-eneral reader will derive great instruction from its pages, and the
reader of history will find it of considerable service. The editress has
accomplished well a remarkably laborious task. She has collected
together the letters of the most illustrious women of England, whose
lives extend over a period of four centuries and a half, and has
taken infinite pains to render the subject of the letters intelligible to
the reader by prefixing a note, varying in length as the occasion
requires. The work certainly deserves a wide success." Sunday Times.
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE SECOND VOLUME OF
LORD BROUGHAM'S LIVES OF MEN OF
LETTERS AND SCIENCE,
WHO FLOURISHED DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.
(With Original Letters),
Comprising DR. JOHNSON, ADAM SMITH (with an analytical view of
his great work), LAVOISIER, GIBBON, Sir J. BANKS and D'ALEMBERT.
Royal 8vo, with Portraits, 21s. bound.
DIARY AND MEMOIRS OF SOPHIA
DOROTHEA.
CONSORT OF GEORGE I.
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS.
Second Edition, in 2 vols. 8vo, with Portrait, 285. bound.
" A work abounding in the romance of real life." Messenger.
" A book of marvellous revelations, establishing beyond all doubt
the perfect innocence of the beautiful, highly gifted, and inhumanly
treated Sophia Dorothea." Naval and Military Gazette.
MEMOIRS OF PRINCE CHARLES STUART,
COMMONLY CALLED THE " YOUNG PRETENDER,"
WITH NOTICES OF THE REBELLION IN 1745.
BY C. L. KLOSE, ESQ.
Second edition. 2 vols. 8vo, with portrait, 24*. bound.
"This woik may justly claim the credit of being the fullest and
most authentic narrative of this great era of English history."
Messenger.
LETTERS OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND.
Now first collected from the Originals in Royal archives and from
other authentic sources, private as well as public.
Edited with an Historical Introduction and Notes, by J. O.
HALLIWF.LI., Esq., F. R. S., &c. 2 vols small 8vo, with portraits, 21s.
bound.
"A valuable addition to our mass of historic materials as valu-
able no doubt, as almost any other that has appeared in our time."
Athenaum.
11 We have here the sayings and doings of our sovereigns told by
themselves in a manner far more interesting than in any work we are
acquainted with." Literary Gazette.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
HISTOKY OF
THE CAPTIVITY OF NAPOLEON
AT ST. HELENA.
BY GENERAL COUNT MONTHOLON,
The Emperor's Companion in Exile, and Testamentary Executor.
Now first translated and published from the author's original manu-
script. Pour vols. 8vo.
" General Count Montholon, Napoleon's companion in exile, and tes-
tamentary executor, has determined by detailed and honest statements,
to bring every thing connected with this important event before the
eyes of civilised Europe. We have read bis volumes with intense
interest and curiosity, and we are eager to acknowledge the general
good sense, right feeling, and strong desire for impartiality that have
signalised them. They contain innumerable passages of interest,
amusement, and information." Court Journal,
THE ONLY AUTHORISED ENGLISH EDITION.
Now in course of publication, embellished with portraits, price only 5s.
each volume, in 8vo, six of which are now published.
M. A. THIERS' HISTORY
OF
THE CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE
OF FRANCE UNDER NAPOLEON.
A sequel to his History of the French Revolution. Translated, with
the sanction and approval of the Author, by D. FORBES CAMPBELL, Esq.
Having filled at different times, the high offices of Minister of tho
Interior, of Finance, of Foreign Affairs, and President of the Council,
M. Thiers has enjoyed facilities beyond the reach of every other
biographer of Napoleon, for procuring, from exclusive and authentic
sources, the choicest materials for his present work. As guardian to
the archives of the state, he had access to diplomatic papers and other
documents of the highest importance, hitherto known only to a privi-
leged few, and the publication of which cannot fail to produce a great
sensation. From private sources, M. Thiers, it appears has also de-
rived much valuable information. Many interesting memoirs, diaries,
and letters, all hitherto unpublished and most of them destined for
political reasons to remain so, have been placed at his disposal? while
all the leading characters of the empire, who were alive when the
author undertook the present history, have supplied him with a mass
of incidents and anecdotes, which have never before appeared in print,
and the accuracy and value of which may be inferred from the fact of
these parties having been themselves eye-witnesses of, or actors in, the
great events of the period.
%* To prevent disappointment, the public are requested to he par-
ticular in giving their orders for "COLBURN'S AUTHORISED EDITION,
TRANSLATED BY D. FORBES CAMPBELL."
12 MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MEMOIRS OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE,
AS RELATED BY HERSELF, IN CONVERSATIONS WITH HER PHYSICIAN,
Comprising her Opinions, and Anecdotes of the most remarkable
Persons of her Time.
Second Edition, 3 vols. small 8vo, with portraits, &c., price 31s. 6d.
bound.
These memoirs must interest all classes of readers. Throughout
the whole of the brilliant period of the life of Ler uncle, Mr. Pitt,
Lady Hester Stanhope (who was the partner of his secret counsels)
was drawn into daily intercourse with the most remarkable people of
the age statesmen, wits, diplomatists, men of letters and science,
women of fashion and celebrity, and all the members of the royal
family, with whom she was upon terms of familiar intimacy.
Among the numerous remarkable personages of whom interesting
particulars and anecdotes are given in these volumes will be found
the following: George III,, George IV., Queen Caroline, Pitt, Fox,
Canning, Sheridan, the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Aber-
corn, Lords Chatham, Bute, Liverpool, Hawkesbury, Hood, St Asaph,
Bridport, Brougham, Palmerston, Carrington, Ebrington, Suffolk,
Byron, and Camelford, Sir Edward Sugden, Sir Francis Burdett, Mr.
Abercrombie, Walter Scott, Thomas Moore, Beau Brummell, Lady
Charlotte Bury, Mrs. Fitzherbeit, &c.
" These volumes are such as no one who takes them up can easily lay
down." Quarterly Review.
SECOND SERIES OF THE STANHOPE
MEMOIRS,
COMPRISING
THE SEVEN YEARS' TEAVELS OF LADY HESTEK
STANHOPE.
3 vols. small 8vo, with numerous Illustrations. 31s. 6d. bound.
" This work is intended to complete the ' Memoirs of Lady Hester
Stanhope.' As the ' Memoirs' embraced a period of about fifteen years,
in which were traced the causes which led to the * decline and fall' of
Ler Ladyship's somewhat visionary Empire in the East, the ' Travels'
take up her history from the time she quitted England, and, by
a faithful narrative of her extraordinary adventures, show the rise
and growth of her Oriental greatness. A distinct line may at once be
drawn between this and all other books of travels in the East for it
boasts of a heroine who marches at the head of Arab tribes through
the Syrian Desert who calls Governors of Cities to her aid while she
excavates the earth in searcti of hidden treasures who sends Generals
with their troops to carry fire and sword into the fearful passes of a
mountainous country to avenge the death of a murdered traveller
and who then goes defenceless and unprotected to sit down a sojourner
in the midst of them."
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
13
HOCHELAGA;
OR,
ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD.
Edited by ELIOT WARBURTON, Esq., Author of " THE CRES-
CENT AND THE CROSS."
Second Edition. 2 Vols., small 8vo, with Illustrations, 21s. bound.
ECHOES FROM THE BACKWOODS;
OR,
SKETCHES OF TRANSATLANTIC LIFE.
By CAPTAIN LEVINGE.
2 Vols., small 8vo., with Illustrations, 21s. bound.
REVELATIONS OF R US SI A IN 1846.
By an ENGLISH RESIDENT.
Third edition, revised by the Author, with additional Notes, and
brought down to the present time. 2 vols., small 8vo, with Illustra-
tions, 21s. bound.
" Such hooks as the ' Revelations of Russia' are to be had only for
their weight in gold ; and I know an instance where as much as
500 roubles (about 22Z.) were paid for the loan of a copy." Letter from
St. Petersburg!), in the Athenceum.
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS;
OR,
ROMANCE AND REALITIES OF EASTERN TRAVEL.
By ELIOT B. G. WARBURTON, Esq.
Sixth edition, in 2 vols., with numerous Illustrations, 2Ls. bound.
" Mr. Warburton brings to his work an accomplished mind and
well-trained and healthful faculties. As we read, we are proud to
claim him as a countryman, and are content that Lis book shall go
all over the world, that other countries from it may derive a just im-
pression of our national character. Our author sailed up the Nile,
beyond the second cataract, and inspected those wonders of barbarian
art in Nubia, Avhcse origin is lost in their antiquity : visited the great
cities and monuments of Egypt, then crossed to Beyrout, made a
pilgrimage in the Holy Land, and on his homeward voyage touched at
Cyprus and Greece. His volumes are full of just perception and
spirited detail. They greatly increase our acquaintance with Eastern
scenes, and to the traveller afford a variety of information which he
could hardly elsewhere find in so interesting a shape." Britannia.
14 MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
VISC T FEILDING & CAPT. REMEDY'S
TRAVELS IN ALGERIA IN 1845.
2 Vols. with Illustrations, 21s. bound.
*' Captain Kennedy and Lord Feilding appear to have visited every
place of note in Northern Africa ; and the gallant author gives a most
graphic and picturesque account of their adventures, including those
among the wild Arabs and Bedouins of the desert. At the present
time, when the recent unhappy events in Africa have attracted so
much attention, we feel special pleasure in recommending this inter-
esting and entertaining work as one which throws much light on the
customs and condition of a brave but unfortunate people, and affords
much valuable information as to all that is remarkable in the country
they inhabit." Hood's Magazine.
RUSSIA UNDER THE AUTOCRAT
NICHOLAS I.
By IVAN GOLOVINE, a RUSSIAN SUBJECT
2 Vols. small 8vo, with a full length Portrait of the Emperor, 2 Is. bound.
" These are volumes of an extremely interesting nature, emanating
from the pen of a Russian, noble by birth, who has escaped beyond
the reach of the Czar's power. The merits of the work are very con-
siderable. It throws a new light on the state of the empire its
aspect, political and domestic it manners ; the employes about the
palace, court, and capital ; its police ; its spies ; its depraved society,
&c. The details on all these subjects will be found peculiarly valuable,
as the author has enjoyed ample meaus of observation and has
availed himself of them to the utmost." Sunday Times.
REVELATIONS OF SPAIN IN 1846.
ByT M. HUGHES, Esq.
Second edition, revised and corrected. In 2 vols. post 8vo, 21s.
bound.
" A very clever book the result of considerable experience." Ex-
aminer.
" As a picture of the actual state of Spain, this work is intensely
interesting. We cannot too strongly recommend it to the notice of
the reader. There is scarcely any subject of interest connected with
Spain and its inhabitants that the author has not handled in detail."
John Bull.
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 15
COMPLETE HISTORY OP THE CHINESE WAR, fee.
THIKD AND CHEAPER EDITION, with a new Introduction, in one
Volume, with Maps and Plates, price 12*. bound.
THE NEMESIS IN CHINA;
COMPRISING
THE MOST COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE WAR IN THAT COUNTRY ;
With a Particular Account of the COLONY OF HONG-KONG.
From Notes of Capt. W. H. HALL, R.N., and Personal Observations
by W. D. BERNARD, Esq., A.M., Oxon.
" This is the most important publication that Las appeared respecting
our late contest with China. In all that relates to the Nemesis espe-
cially, and to the naval operations of the Expedition, it is replete
with the most lively and etirring interest." Naval and Military
Gazette.
" This book is, in effect, a complete history of the operations and
results of the Chinese war. It is written with greater care than any
similar work we have seen. The author has produced a hook of evi-
dently good authority, which clears off a quantity of misrepresentation,
and gives an altogether calmer and steadier view of the, origin, progress,
and results of our warlike dealings with the false and flowery people."
Examiner.
" We recommend this work to all our readers who may wish to under-
stand the progress of this Chinese war, and to possess the clearest and
fullest narrative of the incidents which accompanied our victories. The
writer also made a long excursion into the interior of the Chinese pro-
vinces, and describes the country well. His notices of the imperial
court are also at once original and picturesque." Messenger.
"This is an extremely interesting and valuable narrative. All de-
tails which might prove tedious are omitted. There are no lengthened
disquisitions, no elaborate or minute pictures, but a constantly varying
recital which, with all the satisfactoriness of truth, has the charm of
fiction. If we except the old voyages of discovery, which carry the
mind over an unknown and mysterious ocean, where new regions are
every moment expected to develop their features before us, we scarcely
remember to have read any maritime relation with so much pleasure as
this. The Nemesis, it is well known, acted a distinguished part in the
war in China, but the details are now for the first time accessible.
They will be read with pleasure proportioned to their importance,
and the simplicity and ability with which they are given. What
we have said will, we trust suffice to recommend to our readers
the Voyage of the Nemesis, which we regard as, in every respect
one of the best works of the class to which it belongs." Sunday
Times.
16 MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
LETTERS OF A GERMAN COUNTESS;
Written during her Travels in Turkey, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria,
Nubia, &c., in 1843-4.
BY IDA, COUNTESS HAHN-HAHN.
Translated by H. EVANS LLOYD, Esq. In 3 vols., small 8vo. Price
31s. 6d. bound.
" A charming book." Athenaeum.
" We place this book in the very first rank of works of its class. It
is full of genius, yet softened by feminine feeling and sentiment."
Britannia.
THREE YEARS iFcONSTANTIflOPLE
OR, DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE TURKS.
BY CHARLES WHITE, Esq.
Second and Cheaper Edition, in 3 vols., with 34 Illustrations, from
Original Drawings, price 24s. bound.
" Mr. White's useful work is well worthy of the attentive study of
all who would know Turkey as it is. It may be safely taken as a text
book, with respect to Turkey, its people, and its manners. Full,
searching, complete, it will dissipate many prejudices, dispel many
vague notions popularly entertained of the much maligned Turks."
Morning Chronicle.
LORD LINDSAY'S LETTERS ON THE HOLY
LAND.
Fourth Edition, revised and corrected, in one vol., small 8vo.
" Lord Lindsay has felt and recorded what he saw with the wisdom
of a philosopher, and the faith of an enlightened Christian." Quar-
terly Review.
ADTENTURES IN "GEORGIA, CIRCASSIA,
AND RUSSIA.
By Lieut-Colonel G. POULETT CAMERON, C.B., K.T.S., &c.
Employed on a Special Service in Persia.
Two vols., small 8vo, price 21s. bound.
" Colonel Cameron had many facilities afforded him while in Russia
of seeing every thing worth seeing, and his racy manner of telling
what he has observed is sure to recommend his book to the general
reader. Personal adventures have a peculiar charm for the seekers
after amusement ; and they may seek Avith confidence in pages that
tell of that favoured region of beauty and gallantry that supplies the
harems of the East with the matchless beauties of Georgia, and in the
invincible tribes of Circassia furnishes an armed force that sets at
nought the gigantic resources of the greatest military power in the
world." New Monthly.
-
