Charles might have been expected to answer this very frank letter in a fury of anger. He kept his temper, and replied thus:

The Prince to Stouf.

'January 18, 1754.

'Sir,—I received yours of ye 13th. Current, and am resolved not to discard any of my Cervants, that is to say, for ye present . . .

'It is necessary also you should send as soon as possible 300l. to be remitted to Stafford and Sheridan . . . you may give out of that sum Morison's wages for half a year . . . My compliments to Sir J. Harrington, assuring him of my friendship and when you are able remit to him fifty Louis d'ors. . . . It is true I sent to E. [England] six Months ago for Money, but it was not for ye Money alone, that served only for a pretext, however I was extremely scandalized not to have received any since I thought fit to Call for it, it is strenge such proceeding. People should, I think, well know that If it was only Money that I had at hart I would not act as I have done, and will do untill I Compass ye prosperity of My Country, which allways shall be My only Studdy: But you know that without Money one can do nothing, and in my situation the more can be had ye better. I have received nothing since ye profet [Daniel] but Mistress P.'s hundred Pounds given to Woulfe. I forgot to mention fifty pounds sterling to be given to Kely. . . . I am glad you have taken my Pelise, for nothing can do you more good than to keep yourself warm.' {263}

Goring answered on February 26. The English, he said, would not send a farthing if Charles persisted in his sentiments about their 'duty.' His repeated despatch of messengers only caused annoyance and alarm. 'They expect a Prince who will take advice, and rule according to law, and not one that thinks his will is sufficient.' Charles replied as follows:

Prince to Stouf.

'March 6, 1754.

'I received yours tother day and am sory to find by it yr Bad State of Health. You are telling me about Laws, I am shure no one is more willing to submit to ye Laws of my Country than myself, and I have ye Vanity to say I know a little of them . . . All what I want is a definitive answer, and it is much fearer [fairer] to say "yes" or "no," than to keep one in suspence, which hinders that distressed person of taking other measures, that might make him perhaps gain his Lawsute. However, I shall neither medle or make in it untill I here from you again, which I hope will be soon, for my friend has lost all patience, and so have I to see him Linger so Long.

'I wish with all my heart it may mend.'

At this time Pickle was not idle. He wrote to Gwynne Vaughan from London on February 25, 1754. He was going over to Paris, to extract information from the Earl Marischal. He signs 'Roderick Random,' and incidentally throws light on his private tastes and morals. His correspondent was, apparently, an old man, 'Worthy old Vaughan,' Pickle calls him later. He often addresses him as 'Grandpapa.' In this letter he ministers to Mr. Vaughan's senile vices.

Add. 32,734. 'Monday. London: February 25, 1754.

'Dr. Sir,—I have apointed a meeting with Mr. Alexander [Lochgarry] from whom I recevd a verbal message, by a friend now in town, that came over by Caron [Mariston] that I am desir'd by Monsr. St. Sebastian [Young Pretender] to go streight to Venice [Ld. Marshal], to settle for this summer every thing relative to his amours with Mrs. Strenge [the Highlands], and that, when we have settled that point, that he is to meet me upon my return from Venice [Ld. Marshal] in Imperial Flanders, where he is soon expected. . . . Every thing lays now upon the carpet, and if I go privately to Venice [Ld. Marshal] I will be at the bottom of the most minute transactions. Without going to Venice [Ld. Marshal] I can dow little or nothing, and I GIVE YOU MY WORD OF HONOUR, that I reserv'd out of the last mony not 10l. st., but at any rate I cross the watter to save my own credit with OUR Merchants [the Jacobites], and if I am suplayd here, without which I can dow nothing, I am certain to learn what can't be obtained through any other Chanel.

'I recev'd by old Caron [Mariston] two extraordinary patez, which surprisingly answer Pompadour's intentions. {265} I have tray'd the experiment, and as I found it so effective, I have sent one of them by a Carrier that left this Saturday last in the morning, and how [who] arrives at Bath to-morrow, Tuesday, 26th. Instant; It's simply adrest to you at Bath, It operates in the same lively manner upon the faire sex as it does on ours. (The Lord have mercy upon the Lassies at Bath!) The Patez was sent by the Wiltshire Carrier how [who] seets up at the Inn on the Market place at Bath, derected to the Honble. Quine Vaughan. I have had [several] Bucks this day dining upon the relicks of your sister pattez, which is all the apologie I make for this hurried scrawle. I wait your answer with Impatience, but allwaies believe me, with great sincerity and estime—My Dr. Sir,

'Your most affte, oblidged, humble Servt.

'RODERICK RANDOM.'

From France, when he arrived there, Pickle wrote to Gwynne Vaughan as follows:

Add. 32,735. 'Aprile: Monday 8. 1754. 4 o'clock.

'Dear Sir,—I am still in such agitation after fourteen hours passage, and sitting up with our friends Alexr. [Lochgarry] and Agent [McDonald], how [who] luckly meet me here, that I am scarse able to put pen to paper. I must here confess the difficultys I labour under since the loss of my worthy great friend [Henry Pelham, recently dead] on whose word I wholly relay'd. But now every thing comes far short of my expectations. I am now to aquent you that Alexr. [Lochgarry] meet me here, by order, to desire my proceeding to Venice [Ld. Marshal] as every thing without that trip will be imperfect. All I can say at this distance and in so precarious a situation is that I find they play Mrs. Strange [the Highlanders] hard and fast. They expect a large quantity of the very best Brasile snuff [the Clans] from hir, to balance which severl gross of good sparkling Champagne [Arms] is to be smuggled over for hir Ladyship's use. The whole accounts of our Tobacco and wine trade [Jacobite schemes] I am told, are to be laid before me by my friend at Venice [Ld. Marshal]. But this being a Chant [jaunt] I can't complay with, without a certain suplay, I must beg, if this proposal be found agreeable, that I have ane imediate pointed answer.

'But if, when I leave Venice [Ld. Marshal] I go to meet St. Sebastien [the Young Pretender], the remittance must be more considerable that the sume I mention'd whilest you were at Bath . . .

'Yours most affly

'ALEXR. PICKLE.

'To Mr. Tamas Jones, at Mr. Chelburn's, a Chimmist in Scherwood Street, Golden Square, London.'

Pickle wrote again from France on April 11. {267} His letter follows:

'Dr. Sir,—I hope my last to you upon landing came safe to hand. I will be very uneasy untill you accknowledge the recet of it. Tho' you can't expect an explicite or regular Corespondence from me, least our smuguling [secret correspondence] so severely punish'd in this country, should be any ways discover'd. Mr. Davis [Sir James Harrington] was here for a few hours last night, the particulars I reffer till meeting. Great expectations from the Norwegian fir trade [Sweden] which Merchants here think will turn out to good account, by offering them ane ample Charter to open a free trade; but Davis [Sir James Harrington] is not well vers'd in this Business, but I believe my friend at Venice [Ld. Marshal] is: I am certain that Mr. Oliver [King of Spain] and his principal factors would harken to any proposals of St. Sebastien's [the Young Pretender] upon this topick. Mr. Davis [Sir James Harrington] is of opinion that a quantity of best mettle buttons [Parliament men] {268} could be readly and cheaply purchas'd: Mr. Johnson [London] will make considerable advances, but I believe this can't arrive in time for the Market, as aplication has not yet been made to Monsr. la force [Paris Mont Martell]. I think I can easily divert them from this, as I can convince St. Sebastien [Young Pretender] in case I see him, that they would leave him in the lurch. This proposal comes from your side the watter. I find Mrs. Strange [Highlanders] will readly except of any offer from Rosenberge [King of Sweden] as that negotiant can easily evade paying duty for any wine he sends hir. I can answer for Mrs. Strange's [Highlanders] conduct, as it will wholly depend upon ME, to promote or discourage this branch of trade. But I can't be answerable for other branches of our trade, as my knowledge in them depends upon others. I will drop this subject till meeting, and if then all my burdens are discharg'd, and done otherwise for, according to my former friend's intentions, and if satisfactory, nothing will be neglected in the power of Dr. Grand Papa

Your oblidged affte, humble Servant

'ALEXR. PICKLE.

'11 Aprile 1754.

'P.S. I can't conclude without declaring once for all that I shant walk but in the old course, that is, not to act now with any other but Mr. Kenady [the Duke of Newcastle] and yourself, the moment any other comes in play, I drop all business; But nothing essential can be done without going to Venice [Lord Marshal].

'To Mr. Tamas Jones, at Mr. Chelburn's a Chymist, in Scherwood Street, Golden Square, London.'

To exaggerate his own importance, Pickle gave here a glowing account of the Prince's prospects. These were really of the most gloomy character. A letter forwarded by Dormer (March 18) had proved that he was tracked down in Liege by the English Government. He tried Lorraine, but found no refuge, and was in Paris on April 14, when he wrote to the Earl Marischal. He thought of settling in Orleans, and asked for advice. But Goring now broke with him for ever, on the strength, apparently, of a verbal dismissal sent in anger by Charles, who believed, or affected to believe, that Goring was responsible for the discovery of his retreat. Goring wrote in these terms:

Stouf to Charles.

'May 5, 1754.

'It is now five years since I had ye honour of waiting on you in a particular manner, having made your interest my only study, neglecting everything that regarded myself. The people I have negotiated your business with, will do me the justice to own what you seem to deny, that I have honourably acquitted myself of my charge. I do not now or ever did desire to be a burthen on you, but I thank God I leave you in a greater affluence of money than I found you, which, though not out of my own purse, has been owing to my industry and trouble, not to mention the dangers I have run to effect it; all I desire now of you for my services is that you will be so gracious as to discharge me from your service, not being able to be of further use to you, yourself having put it out of my power; what I ernestly beg of you, since you let me know that you cannot support me further, [is] to give me at least what I think my services may justly claim, viz. a gracious demission, with which I will retire and try in some obscure corner of ye world to gain the favour of God, who will I hope be more just to me than you have been; though I despair of ever serving him so well as I have done you. My prayers and wishes shall ever attend you, and since I am able to do you no more good I will never do you any harm, but remain most faithfully yours

'STOUF.'

Charles answered angrily:

'May 10, 1754.

'Sir,—I have yrs of ye 5th. May Directed "For His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Signed Stouf."

'I shoud THINK since the Begining was write (id est, ye superficial superscription) the SIGNING MIGHT ACCOMPANI IT, but Brisons Sur Les Bagatelles, I must speke French to you, since I am affraid you understand no other Language; for my part I am true English, and want of no Equivocations, or Mental resarvations: will you serve me or not? will you obey me? have you any other Interest? Say yes or no, I shall be yr friend iff you will serve me; Iff you have anybody preferable to me to serve, Let me alone, have you ye Interest of yr Contre at hart, or a particular one, for my part I have but one God and one Country, and Untill I compas ye prosperity of my Poor Cuntry shall never be at rest, or Let any Stone unturned to compas my Ends.'

Goring answered, and here his part of the correspondence closes.

Stouf to the Prince.

'May 16.

'I recd ye most gracious letter you honoured me with dated ye 10th. of this present, and must beg your pardon if I do not rightly understand ye Contents; first it is so different from ye Orders you were pleased to send me by Mr. Obrien who by your Command told it to Mittie, {271} who Communicated it to me, as well as I can remember in these words, or to this purpose, "that you would neither see me, or write to me neither would you send me any money to Carry me out of this Town" [Paris]. This very Town I am, as you well know, by a special order from the King of France, under severe penalties never to approach nearer than fifty leagues; for no other crime than adhering to you when Abandoned by every body; this very town that was witness to my zeal and fidelity to you at the utmost hazzard of my life, is the very place where you abandoned me to my ill fortune without one penny of money to get out of the reach of the lettre de Cachet, or to subsist here any longer in Case I could keep myself hid. You conceive very well, Sir, ye terrible situation I was in, had I not found a friend who, touched at my misfortunes, supplied me for my present necessities, and I know no reason for the ill usage I have now twice received from you, but that I have served you too well.

'Your friends on the other side of the water, at least those who not long since were so, can, and will when necessary, testifye with what zeal and integrity I have negotiated your affairs with them, and persons of undoubted worth on this side the water have been witness to my conduct here; and when I examine my own breast I have, I thank God, nothing to reproach myself with, nobody has been discovered by any misconduct of mine, nobody taken up, or even suspected by ye Government of having any correspondence with you, whether this has been owing to experience or chance I leave you Sir to determine. Here are Sir no Equivocations, or Mental reservations; I have, I may justly say, the reputation of a man of honour which I will carry with me to ye grave. In spite of malice and detraction, no good man ever did, nor do I believe ever will, tax me with having done an ill thing and what bad men and women say of me is quite indifferent. {273}

'You say, Sir, you will be my friend if I will serve you, and obey you. I have, Sir, served and obeyed you, in everything that was just, at the hazard very often of my life, and to the intire destruction of my health, must I then, Sir, begin again to try to gain your favour? I am affraid, Sir, what five years service has not done, five hundred years will not attain to. I have twice, Sir, been turned off like a Common footman, with most opprobrious language, without money or cloaths. As I am a bad courtier and can't help speaking truth, I am very sure it would not be long before I experienced a third time your friendship for me, if I was unadvized enough to make the tryall. No, Sir, princes are never friends, it would be too much to expect it, but I did believe till now that they had humanity enough to reward Good services, and when a man had served to the utmost of his power, not to try to cast dishonour on him to save the charges of giving him a recompense. Secure in my innocence and Content with a small fortune, having no ambition (nor indeed ever had any but of seeing my Prince great and good) I with your leave, Sir, small retire, and spend the rest of my life in serving God, and wishing you all prosperity, since I unfortuneately cannot be for the future of any use to you. 'STOUF.'

Charles now invited the Lord Marischal to communicate with him through a fresh channel, as Goring was for ever alienated. But the Earl replied in a tone of severe censure. He defended Goring: he rebuked Charles for not attending to English remonstrances about Miss Walkinshaw, and accused him of threatening to publish the names of his English adherents. Charles answered, 'Whoever told you I gave such a message to Ed. as you mention, has told you a damned lie, God forgive them. I would not do the least hurt to my greatest enemy, were he in my power, much less to any one that professes to be mine.' He had already said, 'My heart is broke enough without that you should finish it.' {274}

This was, practically, the end of the Jacobite party. Goring went to Berlin, and presently died in Prussian service. The Scottish adherents, in the following year, made a formal remonstrance in writing, but the end had come. Pickle (May 11) reported the quarrel with Lord Marischal to his employers. Lord Albemarle (May 29) mentioned his hopes of catching Charles by aid of his tailor! This failed, but Charles was so hard driven that he communicated to Walsh his intention to retreat over the Spanish frontier. After various wanderings he settled with Miss Walkinshaw in Basle, where he gave himself out for am English physician in search of health.

There are some curious notes by Charles, dated November 26, 1754. Among them is this:

'Cambel: his plot: ye poison, and my forbiding instantly by Cameron.'

Had Mr. Campbell, selected by Goring as a model of probity, proposed to poison 'the Elector'? Not once only, or twice, perhaps, had the Prince refused to sanction schemes of assassination. We need not forget these last traces of nobility in this 'man undone.'



CHAPTER XII—PICKLE AS A HIGHLAND CHIEF. 1755-1757



Progress of Pickle—Charles's last resource—Cluny called to Paris— The Loch Arkaig hoard—History of Cluny—Breaks his oath to King George—Jacobite theory of such oaths—Anecdote of Cluny in hiding— Charles gives Pickle a gold snuff-box—'A northern —- '—Asks for a pension—Death of Old Glengarry—Pickle becomes chief—The curse of Lochgarry—Pickle writes from Edinburgh—His report—Wants money— Letter from a 'Court Trusty'—Pickle's pride—Refused a fowling- piece—English account of Pickle—His arrogance and extortion— Charles's hopes from France—Macallester the spy—The Prince's false nose—Pickle still unpaid—His candour—Charles and the Duc de Richelieu—A Scottish deputation—James Dawkins publicly abandons the Prince—Dawkins's character—The Earl Marischal denounces Charles—He will not listen to Cluny—Dismisses his servants—Sir Horace Mann's account of them—'The boy that is lost'—English rumours—Charles declines to lead attack on Minorca—Information from Macallester— Lord Clancarty's attacks on the Prince—On Lochgarry—Macallester acts as a prison spy—Jesuit conspiracy against Charles.

As the sad star which was born on the Prince's birth-night waned and paled, the sun of Pickle's fortunes climbed the zenith, he came into his estates by Old Glengarry's death in September 1754, while, deprived of the contributions of the Cocoa Tree Club, Charles fell back on his last resource, the poor remains of the Loch Arkaig treasure. On September 4, 1754, being 'in great straits,' he summoned Cluny to Paris, bidding him bring over 'all the effects whatsoever that I left in your hands, also whatever money you can come at.'

Cluny's history was curious. The Culloden Papers prove that, when Charles landed in Moidart, Cluny had recently taken the oaths to the Hanoverian Government. He corresponded with the Lord President, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, and was as loyal to George II. as possible. But, on August 29, 1745, Lady Cluny informed Culloden that her lord had been captured by the Prince's men. A month later, however, Cluny had not yet 'parted with his commission' in a Highland regiment. {277a} Hopes were still entertained of his deserting the Prince, 'for if Cluny could have an independent company to guard us from thieves, it's what I know he desires above all things.' {277b} Cluny, however, continued faithful to the Jacobite party. Like Lord George Murray, he was a Whig in August, a partisan of the Stuarts in September. They had, these gentlemen, a short way with oaths, thus expressed by one of their own poets:

'Let not the abjuration Impose upon our nation, Restrict our hands, whilst HE commands, Through false imagination: For oaths which are imposed Can never be supposed To bind a man, say what they can While justice is opposed.'

Acting on these principles, Cluny joined in the march to Derby, and was distinguished in the fight at Clifton. After Culloden he stayed in Scotland, by Charles's desire, dwelling in his famous Cage on Ben Alder, so well described by Mr. Stevenson in 'Kidnapped.' The loyalty of his clan was beyond praise. A gentleman of Clan Vourich, whose grandfather fought at Culloden, gives me the following anecdote.

The soldiers were, one day, hard on Cluny's tracks, and they seized a clansman, whom they compelled to act as guide. He pretended an innocence bordering on idiotcy, and affected to be specially pleased with the drum, a thing of which he could not even conceive the use. To humour him, they slung the drum over his shoulders. Presently he thumped it violently. Cluny heard the warning and escaped, while the innocence of the crafty gillie was so well feigned, that he was not even punished.

Cluny came over to France in the autumn of 1754, with what amount of treasure he could collect. In later days, a very poor exile, he gave a most eloquent tribute to Charles's merits. 'In deliberations he found him ready, and his opinions generally best; in their execution firm, and in secrecy impenetrable; his humanity and consideration show'd itself in strong light, even to his enemies . . . In application and fatigues none could exceed him.' {278}

While Charles retired in 1755 with Miss Walkinshaw to Basle, where he passed for an English physician in search of health, Pickle was not idle. He had sent in a sheet of notes in April 1754. 'Colonel Buck was lately in England, he brought Pickle a fine gold stuff-box from the Young Pretender, which Pickle showed me,' that is, to the official who received his statement. In later years, the family of Glengarry may have been innocently proud of the Prince's gift. Pickle added that 'there could be no rising in Scotland without the Macdonnells: he is sure that he shall have the first notice of anything of the kind, and he is sure that the Young Pretender would attempt nothing without him.' At the French Court Pickle only knew the financier, Paris Montmartell, and d'Argenson (not the Bete, but his brother), through d'Argenson's mistress, Madame de Pierrecourt. 'Pickle wishes to be admitted to an audience, and so do I,' writes an English official, 'as he grows troublesome, and I don't care to have any correspondence with him or any other northern —- !'

To this report is appended an appeal of Pickle's. He asks for a regular annuity of 500l., being out of pocket by his 'chants'— Highland for 'jaunts.' Pickle never got the money; so ungrateful are Governments.

On May 11, Pickle congratulated his employers on having made Charles 'remove his quarters.' He adds that Charles and Lord Marischal have quarrelled. About this time, after Henry Pelham's death in March 1754, Pickle favoured his employers with a copy of an English memorial to Charles. It was purely political; the Prince was advised to purchase seats in Parliament for his friends. But in May, Charles had neither friends nor money, and he never cared for the constitutional measures recommended.

On September 1, 1754, Old Glengarry died, and Pickle, accompanied by a 'Court Trusty,' went North to look after his private affairs, for he was now Chief of the Macdonnells. {280a} He wrote from Edinburgh on September 14. Pickle wants money, as usual, and brags as usual: he tells us that Spain had recently supplied Charles with money. The Young Lochgarry of whom he speaks is Lochgarry's son, who took service with England. The Old Lochgarry threw his dirk after the youth, adding a curse on Lochgarry House as long as it sheltered a servant of the Hanoverian usurper. Family legend avers that the house was henceforth haunted by a rapping and knocking ghost, which made the place untenable. {280b} Part of Pickle's letter follows:

Add. 32,736. 'Edinburgh: September 14, 1754.

'Dr. Sir,—I have heard fully from Lochgary, who acquaints me that the Young Pretender's affairs TAKE A VERY GOOD TURN, and that he has lately sent two Expresses to Lochgary earnestly intreating a meeting with Pickle, and upon Lochgary's acquainting him of the great distance Pickle was off, he commanded Lochgary to a rendezvous, and he set out to meet me the 4th. Instant, and is actually now with me. I shall very soon have a particular account of the present plan of operation. I have now the ball at my foot, and may give it what tune I please, as I am to be allowed largely, if I fairly enter in Co- partnership. The French King is in a very peaceable humour, but very ready to take fire if the Jacobites renew their address, which the Young Pretender assures him of, and he will the readier bestirr himself, as the English Jacobites hourly torment him. Troops, Scotch and Irish, are daily offered to be smuggled over; but I have positively yet refused to admit any. The King of Spain has lately promised to add greatly to the Young Pretender's patrimony, and English Contributors are not wanting on their parts. {281} I suspect that my letters of late to my friends abroad are stopt, PRAY ENQUIRE, FOR I THINK IT VERY UNFAIR DEALINGS.

'I am in a few weeks to go north to put some order to my affairs. I should have been put to the greatest inconveniency if "21" had not lent his friendly assistance; but as I have been greatly out of pocket by the Jants I took for Mr. Pelham, I shan't be in condition to continue trade, if I am not soon enabled to pay off the Debts then contracted. I have said on former occasions so much upon this head to no effect that I must now be more explicit, and I beg your friendly assistance in properly representing it to the Duke of Newcastle. If he thinks that my services, of which I have given convincing proofs, will answer to his advancing directly eight hundred Pounds, which is the least that can clear the Debts of my former Jants, and fix me to the certain payment yearly of Five hundred at two several terms, he may command anything in my power upon all occasions. I am sorry to be forced to this explanation, in which I always expected to be prevented. I am so far from thinking this extravagant, that I am perswaded it will save them as many thousands, by discarding that swarm of Videts, which never was in the least trusted. If the Duke of Newcastle's constituent was acquainted with this, I daresay he would esteem the demand reasonable, considering what he throws away upon others of no interest or power on either side . . .

'P.S. Pray let me not be denied the Arms I wanted, and I hope in case of accidents, you'll take care of young Lochgary.'

Now comes a letter of the 'Court Trusty' who accompanied Pickle to Scotland, a spy upon a spy. The Trusty's real name was Bruce, and, what with Pickle's pride and General Bland's distrust, he was in a very unpleasant quandary.

Add. 32,737. 'October 10, 1754.

'Dr. Sir,—I have only to acquaint you since my last, that by my keeping company with Pickle, the General has upon several occasions expressed himself very oddly of me, all which might have been prevented by a hint to him. You must perceive what a pleasant pickle I am in; It is really hard that I should suffer for doing my duty. Pickle has promised to write to you this night, if he neglects it I cannot help it. I have done what I judged right by him. I have all the reason in the world to think he will be advised by me, but he now finds his situation altered, and as such must be managed accordingly. You know him well, all therefore I shall say is, that he is naturally proud, and his Father's Death makes him no less so. I wrot you long ago for advice, whether I should go north with him, or not, to which you made me no return. This day he told me that he leaves this on Monday, and insisted for my following him. I did not positively promise, waiting to see if you write me next Post, which if you don't I will follow him, which I hope you'll approve of, as I will be the more able to judge of his affairs. I shall not remain long with him, after which you shall have a faithful Report. The General is best judge of the part he has acted, tho' I could have wished he had acted otherwise for the Interest of the common Cause, but it does not become me to prescribe Rules. I wish he had got a hint. I find the Army people here are piqu'd that I should have Pickle's ear so much, for they all push to make up to him, thinking to make something of him. I know the Governor of Fort Augustus is wrot to, to try his hand upon him, when he goes north, but he is determined to keep at a distance from them, and to keep in the hands he is now in, and I am perswaded he can, and will prove usefull, but there is a particular way of doing it, which you know is the way of the generality benorth Tay. Your Own

'CROMWELL. {284}

'Edinburgh: October 10, 1754.'

Pickle now writes again from Edinburgh, on October 10, 1754. He wants money, and, as becomes a Highland chief, takes a high tone. He has been in service as a spy for four years—that is, since autumn 1750. He asks for 500l. a year, and for that will do anything 'honourable.' Young Lochgarry is not well received (he wished to enter the English army), and Pickle is refused a fowling-piece to shoot his own grouse, because he has not 'qualified' or taken the oaths. This, of course, Pickle could not do, as he had, in his capacity of spy, to keep on terms with Prince Charles. Did Young Lochgarry know Pickle to be a traitor?

'When I waited,' says Pickle, 'of General Bland, he did not receve me as I expected, haughtly refusd the use of a fulsie [fusil] without I should qualifie. I smiling answer'd, if that was the case, I had then a right without his permission, but that he could not take it amiss that I debar'd all under his Comand the pleasure of hunting upon my grounds, or of any firing, which they can't have without my permission, so that I thought favours were reciprocall.'

Oddly enough, we have external testimony to the arrogance of Pickle, now a little Highland prince among his own clan.

On December 13, 1754, the Governor of Fort Augustus, Colonel Trapaud, wrote to Dundas of Arniston, the Lord Advocate:

'Glengarry has behaved, among his clan, since his father's death, with the utmost arrogance, insolence, and pride. On his first arrival to this country he went to Knoydart, and there took the advantage of his poor ignorant tenants, to oblige them to give up all their wadsetts, and accept of common interest for their money, which they all agreed to. On his return to Invergarry he called a meeting of all his friends and tennants in Glengarry, told them what the Knoydart people had done, threw them a paper and desired they might all voluntarily sign it, else he would oblige them by law, but most of the principal wadsetters [mortgage-holders] refused, on which he ordered them out of his presence. . . . He has declared that no peat out of his estate should come to this fort. . . . His whole behaviour has greatly alienated the affections of his once dearly beloved followers. I shall take all opportunities of improving this happy spirit of rebellion against so great a chieftain, which may in time be productive of some public good.' {285}

Pickle was not only a traitor, but a bully and an oppressor. Thus Pickle, in addition to his other failings, was the very worst type of bad landlord, according to the Governor of Fort Augustus.

We return to the fortunes of the Prince.

The opening of 1755 found Charles still in concealment, probably at Basle. He could only profess to James his determination 'never to go astray from honour and duty' (March 12, 1755). James pertinently replied, 'Do you rightly understand the extensive sense of honour and duty?' War clouds were gathering. France and England were at issue in America, Africa, and India. Braddock's disaster occurred; he was defeated and slain by an Indian ambush. Both nations were preparing for strife; the occasion seemed good for fishing in troubled waters. D'Argenson notes that it is a fair opportunity to make use of Charles. Now we scrape acquaintance with a new spy, Oliver Macallester, an Irish Jacobite adventurer. {286} Macallester, after a long prelude, tells us that his 'private affairs' brought him to Dunkirk in 1755. On returning to London he was apprehended at Sheerness, an ungrateful caitiff having laid information to the effect that our injured hero 'had some connection with the Ministers of the French Court, or was upon some dangerous enterprize.' He was examined at the Secretary of State's Office (Lord Holland's), was released, and returned to Dunkirk, uncompensated for all this disturbance. Here he abode, on his private business, living much in the company of the ranting Lord Clancarty. Lord Clare (Comte de Thomond, of the House of Macnamara) was also in Dunkirk at the time, and attached himself to the engaging Macallester, whom he invited to Paris. Our fleet was then unofficially harassing that of France in America.

Meanwhile, France negotiated the secret treaty with Austria, while Frederick joined hands with England. Dunkirk began to wear a very warlike aspect, in despite of treaties which bound France to keep it dismantled. 'Je savais que nous avions triche avec les Anglais,' says d'Argenson. The fortifications were being secretly reconstructed. D'Argenson adds that now is the moment to give an asylum to the wandering Prince Charles. 'The Duchesse d'Aiguillon, a great friend of the Prince, tells me that some days ago, while she was absent from her house at Ruel, an ill-dressed stranger came, and waited for her till five in the morning. Her servants recognised the Prince.' {287}

The Duchesse d'Aiguillon, Walpole says ('Letters,' iv. 390), used to wear a miniature of Prince Charles in a bracelet. On the reverse was a head of Our Lord. People did not understand the connection, so Madame de Rochefort said, 'The same motto serves for both, MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.' But Charles had not been 'ill-dressed' in these old days!

As early as April 23, 1755, M. Ruvigny de Cosne, from Paris, wrote to Sir Thomas Robinson to the effect that Charles's proposals to the French Court in case of war with England had been declined. An Abbe Carraccioli was being employed as a spy on the Prince. {288} Pickle also came into play. We offer a report of his information, given in London on April 23, 1755. He knew that Charles had been at Fontainebleau since preparations for war began, and describes his false nose and other disguises. Charles was acquainted with the Marechal de Saxe, and may have got the notion of the nose from that warrior.

Here follows Pickle, as condensed by Mr. Roberts:

Add. 32,854. 'April 24, 1755.

'Mr. Roberts had a meeting last night with the Scotch gentleman, called PICKLE. The Young Pretender, he says, has an admirable Genius for skulking, and is provided with so many disguises, that it is not so much to be wondered at, that he has hitherto escaped unobserved, sometimes he wears a long false hose, which they call "Nez a la Saxe," because Marshal Saxe used to give such to his Spies, whom he employed. At other times he blackens his eye brows and beard, and wears a black wig, by which alteration his most intimate Acquaintance could scarce know him: and in these dresses he has mixed often in the companies of English Gentlemen travelling thro' Flanders, without being suspected.

'PICKLE promises to discover whatever shall come to his knowledge, that may be worth knowing, he can be most serviceable, he says, by residing in Scotland, for no applications can be made to any of the Jacobites there, from abroad, but he must receive early notice of them, being now, by his Father's death, at the head of a great Clan of his name, but he is ready to cross the Sea, whenever it should be thought it worth the while to send him: which he himself is not otherwise desirous of doing, as he declares that those Journies have cost him hitherto double the money that he has received.

'He hopes to have something given him to make up this deficiency, and, if he could have a fixed yearly Allowance, he will do everything that lies in his power to deserve it. He insists upon an inviolable secrecy, without which his opportunities of sending useful Intelligences will be lost.'

Pickle does not come on the public scene again for a whole year, except in the following undated report, where he speaks of Glengarry (himself) in the third person. His account of an envoy sent to make proposals to Charles, like those made to the Prince of Orange in 1688, is an error. Perhaps Pickle was not trusted. The envoy from Scotland to Charles only proposed, as we shall see, that he should forswear sack, and live cleanly and like a gentleman.

Add. 32,861.

'Dear Sir,—I am hopeful you nor friends will take it ill, that I take the freedom to acquaint you, that my patience is quite worn out by hankering upon the same subject, for these years past, and still remaining in suspence without ever coming to a point.

'I beg leave to assure you, that you may do it to others—but, let my inclinations be ever so strong, my intentions ever so upright, my situation will not allow me to remain longer upon this precarious footing; and, as I never heard from you in any manner of way, I might readily take umbrage at your long silence, and from thence naturally conclude it was intended to drop me. But, as I am not of a suspicious temper, and judge of others' candour by my own, and that I always have the highest opinion of yours, and to convince you of mine, I shan't hesitate to acquaint you, that I would have wrot sooner, but that I waited the result of a Gentilman's journey, how at this present juncture has the eyes of this part of the Country fixt upon him—I mean, GLENGARY, into whose confidence I have greatly insinuated myself. This Gentilman is returnd home within these few days, from a great tour round several parts of the Highlands, and had concourse of people from several Clans to wait of him. But this you'll hear from Military channels readly before mine, and what follows, take it as I was informed in the greatest confidence by this Gentilman.

'This Country has been twice tampered with since I have been upon this utstation [Invergarry], and I find it was refer'd to GLENGARY, as the Clans thought he had a better motion of French policy, of which they seem to be greatly diffident. The offers being verbal, and the bearer being non of the greatest consequence, it was prorog'd; upon which the greatest anxiety has been since exprest to have GLENGARY t'other side, at a Conference, that he, in the name of the Clans, should demand his owne terms.

'I am for certain inform'd that a Gentilman of distinction from England went over about two months ago with signatures, Credentials, and assurances, much of the same nature as that formerly sent to the Prince of Orange, only the number mentiond by this person did not amount above sixty. I know nothing of the Person's names, but this from good authority I had for certain told me, and that they offer'd to advance a very considerable sum of mony. It was in consequence of this that proposals were made here. Prudence will not admitt of my enlarging further upon this subject, as I am at so great a distance, I must beg leave to drop it . . . '

On May 20, 1755, James wrote to the Prince. He had heard of an interview between Charles and the Duc de Richelieu, 'and that you had not been much pleased with your conversation with him.' James greatly prefers a peaceful Restoration, but, in the event of war, would not decline foreign aid. The conduct of Charles, he complains, makes it impossible for him to treat with friendly Powers. He is left in the dark, and dare not stir for fear of making a false movement. {292a} On July 10, 1755, Ruvigny de Cosne is baffled by Charles's secrecy, and is hunting for traces of Miss Walkinshaw. On July 23, 1755, Ruvigny de Cosne hears that Charles has been with Cluny in Paris. On August 16 he hears of Charles at Parma. Now Charles, on August 15, was really negotiating with his adherents, whose Memorial, written at his request, is in the Stuart Papers. {292b} They assure him that he is 'eyed' in his family. If he continues obstinate 'it would but too much confirm the impudent and villainous aspersions of Mr. D's' (James Pawkins), which, it seems, had nearly killed Sir Charles Goring, Henry Goring's brother, 'with real grief.' Dawkins had represented the Prince 'as entirely abandoned to an irregular debauched life, even to excess, which brought his health, and even his life daily in danger,' leaving him 'in some degree devoid of reason,' 'obstinate,' 'ungrateful,' 'unforgiving and revengeful for the very smallest offence.' In brief, Dawkins had described Charles as utterly impossible—'all thoughts of him must be for ever laid aside'—and Dawkins backed his opinion by citing that of Henry Goring. The memorialists therefore adjure Charles to reform. Their candid document is signed 'C.M.P.' (obviously Cluny MacPherson) and 'H.P.,' probably Sir Hugh Paterson, Clementina Walkinshaw's uncle.

Now there is no reason for disputing this evidence, none for doubting the honesty of Mr. Dawkins in his despairing account of Charles. He was young, wealthy, adventurous, a scholar. In the preface to their joint work on Palmyra, Robert Wood—the well-known archaeologist, author of a book on Homer which drew Wolf on to his more famous theory—speaks of Mr. Dawkins in high terms of praise, he gets the name of 'a good fellow' in Jacobite correspondence as early as 1748. Writing from Berne on May 28, 1756, Arthur Villettes quotes the Earl Marischal (then Governor of Neufchatel for Frederick) as making strictures like those of Dawkins on the Prince. At this time the Earl was preparing to gain his pardon from George II., and spoke of Charles 'with the utmost horror and detestation.' His life, since 1744, 'had been one continued scene of falsehood, ingratitude, and villainy, and his father's was little better.' As regards James, this is absurd; his letters are those of a heartbroken but kind and honourable parent and Prince. Villettes then cites the Earl's account of the mission from Scotland (August 1755) urging reform on Charles, through the lips of Cluny. The actual envoy from Scotland cited here is probably not Cluny, but his co-signatory 'H.P.,' and he is said to have met Charles at Basle, and to have been utterly disgusted by his reception. {293}

Now the Earl had a private pique at Charles, ever since he refused to sail to Scotland with the Prince in a herring-boat, in 1744. He had also been estranged by Charles's treatment of Goring in 1754. Moreover, he was playing for a pardon. We might conceivably discount the Lord Marischal, and Dr. King's censures in his 'Anecdotes,' for the bitterness of renegades is proverbial. But we cannot but listen to Dawkins and the loyal Henry Goring. By 1754 the Prince, it is not to be denied, was impossible.

Honourable men like the old Laird of Gask, Bishop Forbes, Lord Nairne, and Andrew Lumisden (later his secretary) were still true to a Prince no longer true to himself. Even Lumisden he was to drive from him; he could keep nobody about him but the unwearied Stuart, a servant of his own name. The play was played out; honour and all was lost. There is, unhappily, no escape from this conclusion.

Charles declined to listen to the deputation headed by Cluny in August 1755. A secretary must have penned his reply; it is well- spelled, and is grammatical. 'Some unworthy people have had the insolence to attack my character. . . . Conscious of my conduct I despise their low malice. . . . I have long desired a churchman at your hands to attend me, but my expectations have hitherto been disappointed.'

Soon he returned to the Mass, as we learn from Macallester.

He was ill and poor. {294} He finally dismissed his servants, including a companion of his Highland wanderings. He recommends Morrison, his valet, as a good man to shave and coif his father. The poor fellows wandered to Rome, and were sent back to France with money. Here is Sir Horace Mann's letter about these honest lads:

'Florence: December 20, 1755.

' . . . My correspondent at Rome, having given me previous notice of the departure from thence of some Livery Servants belonging to the Pretender's eldest Son, and that they were to pass through Tuscany, I found means to set two English men to watch for their arrival, who pretending to be their friends, insinuated themselves so well into their company, as to pass the whole evening with them. They were five in number, and all Scotch. The names of three were Stuart, Mackdonnel, and Mackenzy. They were dressed alike in the Pretender's livery, and said they had been with his Son in Scotland, upon which the people I employed asked where he was. They answered only, that they were going to Avignon, and should soon know, and in their merriment drank "the health of the Boy that is lost and cannot be found," upon which one of them answered that he would soon be found. Another reproved him, and made signs to him to hold his tongue. They seemed to be in awe of each other.'

There was not much to be got out of the Highlanders, a race of men who can drink and hold their tongues.

On January 30, 1756, Walton, from Florence, reported that Charles was to be taken up by Louis XV., to play un role fort distingue, and—to marry a daughter of France! {296a} On January 31, Mann had the latest French courier's word for it that Charles was in Paris; but Walton added that James denied this. Pickle came to London (April 2, 1756), but only to dun for money. 'Not the smallest artickle has been performed of what was expected and at first promised.' Pickle was useless now in Scotland, and remained unsalaried; so ungrateful are kings. The centre of Jacobite interest now was France. In the 'Testament Politique du Marechal Duc de Belleisle,' (1762) it is asserted that Charles was offered the leadership of the attack on Minorca (April 1756), and that he declined, saying, 'The English will do me justice, if they think fit, but I will no longer serve as a mere scarecrow' (epouvantail). In January 1756, however, Knyphausen, writing to Frederick from Paris, discredited the idea that France meant to employ the Prince. {296b}

Turn we to Mr. Macallester for more minute indications.

Macallester was now acting as led captain and henchman to the one- eyed Lord Clancarty, who began to rail in good set terms against all and sundry. For his own purposes, 'for just and powerful reasons,' Macallester kept a journal of these libellous remarks, obviously for use against Clancarty. Living at that nobleman's table, Macallester played his favourite part of spy for the mere love of the profession. He writes:

'Tuesday, January 11, 1757.—When we had drunk hard after supper he broke out, saying, "By God! dear Mac, I'll tell you a secret you don't know; there is not a greater scoundrel on the face of the earth than that same Prince; he is in his heart a coward and a poltroon; would rather live in a garret with some Scotch thieves, to drink and smoak, than serve me, or any of those who have lost our estates for his family and himself. . . . He is so great a scoundrel that he will lie even when drunk: a time when all other men's hearts are most open, and will speak the truth, or what they think . . .

'He damned himself if he did not love an Irish drummer better than any of the breed. "The Prince has no more religion," said this pious enthusiast, "than one of my coach-horses." . . . He asked me if I knew Jemmy Dawkins. I said I did not. "He could give you an account of them," said he, "but Lord Marischal has given the true character of the Prince, and certified under his hand to the people of England what a scoundrel he is {297} . . . The Prince had the canaille of Scotland to assist him, thieves, robbers, and the like. . . "'

The Prince had confided to Clancarty the English Jacobites' desire that he would put away Miss Walkinshaw. 'The Prince, swearing, said he would not put away a cat to please such fellows;' but, as Lord Clancarty never opened his mouth without a curse, his evidence is not valuable. On March 8, hearing that Lochgarry was in the neighbourhood, Clancarty called him a 'thief and a cow-stealer,' and bade the footman lock up the plate! The brave Lochgarry, however, came to dinner, as being unaware of his Lordship's sentiments.

Enough of the elegant conversation of this one-eyed, slovenly Irish nobleman, whom we later find passing his Christmas with Prince Charles. {298} Mr. Macallester now made two new friends, the adventurous Dumont and a Mr. Lewis. In July 1757, Lewis and Macallester went to Paris, and were much with Lord Clare (de Thomond). In December, Lord Clancarty came hunting for our spy, 'raging like a madman' after Macallester, much to that hero's discomposure, for, being as silly as he was base, he had let out the secret of his 'Clancarty Elegant Extracts.' His Lordship, in fact, accused Macallester of showing all his letters to Lord Clare, whom Clancarty hated. He then gave Macallester the lie, and next apologised; in fact, he behaved like Sir Francis Clavering. Before publishing his book, Macallester tried to 'blackmail' Clancarty. 'His Lordship is now secretly and fully advertised that this matter is going to the press,' and, indeed, it was matter to make the Irish peer uncomfortable in France, where he had consistently reviled the King.

It is probable that Macallester was now engaged in the French secret police.

He admits that he acted as a mouton, or prison spy, and gives a dreadful account of the horrors of Galbanon, where men lay in the dark and dirt for half a lifetime. Macallester next proses endlessly on the alleged Jesuit connection with Damien's attack on Lous XV., and insists that the Jesuits, nobody knows why, meant to assassinate Prince Charles. He was in very little danger from Jesuits!



CHAPTER XIII—THE LAST HOPE. 1759



Charles asks Louis for money—Idea of employing him in 1757—Letter from Frederick—Chances in 1759—French friends—Murray and 'the Pills'—Charles at Bouillon—Madame de Pompadour—Charles on Lord George Murray—The night march to Nairn—Manifestoes—Charles will only land in England—Murray wishes to repudiate the National Debt— Choiseul's promises—Andrew Lumisden—The marshal's old boots— Clancarty—Internal feuds of Jacobites—Scotch and Irish quarrels— The five of diamonds—Lord Elibank's views—The expedition starting— Routed in Quiberon Bay—New hopes—Charles will not land in Scotland or Ireland—'False subjects'—Pickle waits on events—His last letter—His ardent patriotism—Still in touch with the Prince—Offers to sell a regiment of Macdonalds—Spy or colonel?—Signs his real name—'Alexander Macdonnell of Glengarry'—Death of Pickle—His services recognised.

After the fatal 10th of December, 1748, Charles had entertained a bitter hatred of France, though he was always careful to blame the Ministers of Louis, not the King himself. He even refused a French pension, but this was an attitude which he could not maintain. In 1756 (July 1) he actually wrote to Louis, asking for money.

'Monsieur Mon Frere et Cousin,' he said. 'With the whole of Europe I admire your virtues . . . and the benefits with which you daily load your subjects . . . Since 1744, when I left Rome, I have run many risks, encountered many perils, and endured many vicissitudes of fortune, unaided by those from whom I had the right to expect assistance, unsuccoured even by My Father. In truth such of his subjects as espoused my cause have given me many proofs of zeal, and of good will, but, since open war broke out between France and England, I have not the same support. I know not what Destiny prepares for me, but I shall put it to the touch.'

For this purpose, then, he needs money.

'If I knew a Prince more virtuous than you, to him I would appeal.'

Whether Louis was good-natured, and gave some money for Charles to O'Hagarty and Elliot, his envoys, does not appear. {301}

In these dispositions, Charles hoped much from the French project of invading England in 1759. Though he never wholly despaired, and was soliciting Louis XVI. even in the dawn of the Revolution, we may call the invasion of 1759 his last faint chance. Hints had been thrown out of employing him in 1757. Frederick then wrote from Dresden to Mitchell, the English Ambassador at Berlin:

'I want to let you know that yesterday a person of distinguished rank told me that a friend of his at Court, under promise of the utmost secrecy, told him this: The French intend to make a diversion in Ireland in spring. They will disembark at Cork and at Waterford. They are negotiating with the Young Pretender to put himself at the head of the Expedition, but he will do nothing, unless the Courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg guarantee the proposals made to him by France.' {302a}

Charles, in fact, was deeply distrustful of all French offers. As we small see, he later declined to embark with any expedition for Scotland or Ireland. He would go with troops destined for London, and with no others. The year 1759 was spent in playing the game of intrigue. The French Minister, the Duc de Choiseul, was, or affected to be, friendly; friendly, too, were the old Marechal de Belleisle and the Princesse de Ligne. Louis sent vaguely affectionate messages. In Rome, James was reconciled, and indulged in a gleam of hope. Charles's agents were Elliot, Alexander Murray (who, I think, is usually styled 'Campbell') 'Holker,' 'Goodwin,' Clancarty, and Mackenzie Douglas. This man, whose real name was Mackenzie, had been a Jesuit, and is said to have acted as a spy in the Dutch service. He had also been, first the secret, and then the avowed, envoy of Louis XV. to St. Petersburg in 1755-1756. On his second visit he was accompanied by the notorious Chevalier d'Eon. {302b}

As early as January 2, 1759, Murray (I think; the letters are unsigned) assures Charles of the friendship of the French Court. The King ('Ellis') will lend 30,000l. On January 8, Murray writes, and a funnier letter of veiled meanings never was penned:

'January 8.

'I arrived on Saturday morning, I immediately call'd at Mr. Cambels, not finding him went to Mr. Mansfield and delivered in the pills you sent him . . . I met Cambel at 10 o'clock, delivered him his pills, and drank a serious bottle of Burdeaux . . . delivered a pill to Harrison who with tears of tenderness in his eyes, said from the Bottom of his heart woud do anything in his power to serve that magnanimous Bourton [the Prince], he brought me along to Mr. Budson's, who after he had swallowed the pill came and made me a Low reverence, and desired me to assure Bourton of his respect.'

What the 'pills' were we can only guess, but their effects are entertaining. Charles at this time was at Bouillon, the home of his cousin, the Duc de Bouillon, and he made the President Thibault there the guardian of his child, for Miss Walkinshaw did not carry off her daughter to Paris till July 1760. {303} Murray (or Campbell) kept besieging Choiseul, Belleisle, and the Prince de Soubise with appeals in favour of Charles. We have heard how the Prince used to treat Madame de Pompadour, burning her billets unanswered. Now his mood was altered. His agent writes:

'February 19.

'Campbell, I send copy of Letter to Prince de Soubise.

'I am convinced you will not delay in writting to Madame La Marquise de Pompadour and thereby show her that your politeness and gallantry are not enferiour to your other superior qualifications, notwithstanding that you have lived for these ten years past in a manner shut up from the world. It will be absolutely necessary that you inclosed it to the P. of S. [Soubise] who has given up the command of ye army in Germany in order to conduct the expedition against England.'

Charles answered in this submissive fashion:

Prince to Murray.

'February 24.

'Rien ne me flatterai plus que d'assurer de Bouche Mad. L. M. de P. de l'estime et de La Consideration La plus parfaitte. Vous scavez mes sentiments pour Elle, je Les ay aussy Explique a Le P. de Soubise, et je ne dessirres rien tant que trouver Les occasions de lui La prouver.'

He also tried to justify his past conduct to 'Mr. Orry' (his father), especially as regarded Lord George Murray. He declared that, in the futile attempt at a night surprise at Nairn, before Culloden, Clanranald's regiment did encounter Cumberland's sentries, and found that the attempt was feasible, had Lord George not retreated, contrary to his orders.

The obstinate self-will of Charles displayed itself in thwarting all arrangements attempted by the French for employing him in their projected invasion of England. They expected a diversion to be made in their favour by his adherents, but he persistently refused to be landed either in Scotland or Ireland. He was partly justified. The French (as d'Argenson admits) had no idea, even in 1745, of making him King of the Three Kingdoms. To establish him at Holyrood, or in Dublin, and so to create and perpetuate disunion in Great Britain, was their policy, as far as they had a policy. We may think that Charles was in no position to refuse any assistance, but his reply to Cardinal Tencin, 'Point de partage; tout ou rien,' was at least patriotic. The Dutch correspondent of the 'Scots Magazine,' writing on May 22, 1759, said that a French expedition for Scotland was ready, and that Charles was to sail with it, but the Prince would not lend himself to this scheme. All through the summer he had his agents, Elliot, Holker, and Clancarty, at Dunkirk, Rouen, and Boulogne. They reported on the French preparations, but, writes Charles on July 22, 'I am not in their secret.' He corresponded with the Duc de Choiseul and the Marechal de Belleisle, but they confined themselves to general assurances of friendship. 'It is impossible for the Duc de Choiseul to tell you the King's secret, as you would not tell him yours,' wrote an anonymous correspondent, apparently Alexander Murray.

Charles prepared manifestoes for the Press, and was urged, from England, to include certain arranged words in them, to be taken as a sign that he was actually landed. These words, of course, were to be kept a dead secret. The English Jacobites had no intention of appearing in arms to aid a French invading force, if Charles was not in the midst of it. Alexander Murray wrote suggestions for Charles's Declaration. He was to be very strong on the Habeas Corpus Act, and Murray ruefully recalled his own long imprisonment by order of the House of Commons. He wished also to repudiate the National Debt, but Charles must not propose this. 'A free Parliament' must take the burden of the deed. 'The landed interest can't be made easy by any other method than by paying that prodigious load by a sponge.' In a Dutch caricature of 'Perkin's Triumph' (1745), Charles is represented driving in a coach over the bodies of holders of Consols. It is difficult now to believe that Repudiation was the chief aim of the honest squires who toasted 'the King over the Water.'

In August, Murray reported that Choiseul said 'nothing should be done except with and for the Prince.'

The manuscript letter-book of Andrew Lumisden, James's secretary since Edgar's death, and brother-in-law of Sir Robert Strange, the engraver, illustrates Charles's intentions. {306} On August 12, 1759, Lumisden is in correspondence with Murray. The Prince, to Lumisden's great delight, wants his company. Already, in 1759, Lumisden had been on secret expeditions to Paris, Germany, Austria, and Venice. Macallester informs us that Sullivan, who had been in Scotland with Charles in 1745, received a command in the French army mustering at Brest. He also tells a long dull story of Charles's incognito in Paris at this time: how he lived over a butcher's shop in the Rue de la Boucherie, seldom went out except at night, and was recognised at Mass by a woman who had attended Miss Walkinshaw's daughter. Finally, the Prince went to Brest in disguise, 'damning the Marshal's old boots,' the boots of the Marechal de Belleisle, which, it seems, 'were always stuffed full of projects.' Barbier supposes, in his 'Memoires,' that Charles was to go with Thurot, who was to attack Scotland, while Conflans invaded England. But Charles would not hear of leaving with Thurot and his tiny squadron, which committed some petty larcenies on the coast of the West Highlands.

The Prince was now warned against Clancarty of the one eye, who was bragging, and lying, and showing his letters in the taverns of Dunkirk. The old feud of Scotch and Irish Jacobites went merrily on. Macallester called Murray a card-sharper, and was himself lodged in prison on a lettre de cachet. Murray wrote, of the Irish, 'their bulls and stupidity one can forgive, but the villainy and falsity of their hearts is unpardonable.' Scotch and Irish bickerings, a great cause of the ruin in 1745, broke out again on the slightest gleam of hope.

Holker sent a curious account of the boats for embarking horses on the expedition. These he illustrated by a diagram on the back of the five of diamonds; a movable slip cut in the card gave an idea of the mechanism. The King of France, on August 27, sent friendly messages by Belleisle, but 'could not be explicit.' Elliot reported that Clancarty 'would stick at no lyes to bring about his schemes.' On September 5 came an anonymous warning against Murray, who 'is not trusted by the French Ministry.' On September 28, Laurence Oliphant of Gask sent verses in praise of Charles written by 'Madame de Montagu,' the lady who lent him 1,000l. years before. On October 8, Murray still reports the 'attachment' of Choiseul and Belleisle. He adds that neither his brother (Lord Elibank) nor any other Scotch Jacobite will stir if an invasion of Scotland is undertaken without a landing in England. On October 21 he declares that Conflans has orders to attack the English fleet lying off Havre. The sailing of Thurot is also announced: 'I cannot comprehend the object of so small an embarkation.' As late as October 26, Charles was still left in the dark as to the intentions of France.

Then, obviously while Charles was waiting for orders, came the fatal news in a hurried note. 'Conflans beaten, his ship, the "Soleil Royal," and the "Heros" stranded at Croisic. Seven ships are come in. Ten are flying at sea.'

Brave Admiral Hawke had routed Conflans in Quiberon Bay. Afflavit Deus, and scattered the fleet of France, with the last hope of Charles.

Yet hope never dies in the hearts of exiles, as is proved by the following curious letter from Murray (?). It is impossible to be certain as to the sincerity of Choiseul; the split in the Jacobite party is only too clearly indicated.

From Campbell (probably Murray).

'December 10.

'I delivered your letter this evening and had a long conference with both the Ministers: Mr. Choiseul assured me upon his word of honour that Your R.H. should be inform'd in time before the departure of Mr. de Gouillon, {309a} so that you might go with that embarquement if you thought proper, upon which I interrupted him and told him if they were destined for the Kingdom of Ireland that it would be to no manner of purpose, for I was certain you would not go, and that you had at all times expressly ordered me to tell them so; he continued his conversation and said you should be equally informed when the P. of S. {309b} embarked. I answered as to every project for England that you would not ballance one moment, but that you would not, nor could not in honour enter into any other project but that of going to London, and if once master of that city both Ireland and Scotland would fall of course, as that town was the fountain of all the riches; he then hinted that Guillion's embarkment was not for Ireland, and talked of Scotland.

'I then told him of the message you had received from my brother [Elibank] and the other leading men of the party, in that country, that not a man of consequence would stir unless the debarkment was made at the same time in England, and that every person who pretended the contrary, ought to be regarded as the enemy of your R.H. as well as of France. He then told me that in case you did not choose to go with Mr. de Guillion that it would be necessary to send one with a declaration in your name; I told him I could make no answers to that proposition, as I had never heard you talk of declarations of any sort before you was landed in England, and that you had settled all that matter, with your friends in England and Scotland. He assured me that the intentions of the King and his Ministers were unalterable as to their fixed resolution to serve you, but that they met with difficulties in regard to the transports and flat-bottomed boats which retarded the affair longer than they imagined, and that though they had already spent twenty four million every thing was not yet ready.

'This is as near as I can recollect the purport of his conversation excepting desiring to see him before my return to Your R.H. I afterwards saw your good friend the Marcel [Belleisle] who told me that every thing that depended upon his department was ready, and said pretty near what Mr. de Choiseul had told concerning the delays of the transports, seventeen of which they yet wanted. He assured me it was the thing on earth he desired the most to see you established upon the throne of your Ancestors, and that he would with plesure give you his left arm, rather than it should not succeed: I am perfectly convinced of the sincere intention of the King and Ministers, and that nothing but the interposition of heaven can prevent your success.

'I have not yet seen the P. of S. [Soubise] but shall to-morrow: your Cousin Bethune is greatly attached to you, and has done you great justice in destroying the villanous lyes, and aspersions of some of your false subjects [Clancarty], who by a pretended zeal for you got access to the ministers, and have had the impudence to present memorials as absurd and ridiculous, as their great quality, and immense fortunes they have lost by being attached to your family. I flatter myself you will very soon be convinced of all their infamous low schemes.'

Meanwhile, in all probability, Pickle was waiting to see how matters would fall out. If Conflans beat Hawke, and if Thurot landed in the Western Highlands, THEN Pickle would have rallied to the old flag, Tandem Triumphans, and welcomed gloriously His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Then the despised warrant of a peerage would have come forth, and Lord Glengarry, I conceive, would have hurried to seize the Duke of Newcastle's papers, many of which were of extreme personal interest to himself. But matters chanced otherwise, so Pickle wrote his last extant letter to the English Government

Add. 32,902.

'My Lord [the Duke of Newcastle],—As I am confident your Grace will be at a lose to find out your present Corespondent, it will, I believe, suffice to recall to mind PICKLE, how [who] some time ago had a conference with the young Gentilman whom honest old Vaughan brought once to Clermont to waite of yr. Grace. I find he still retains the same ardent inclination to serve his King and Country, yet, at same time, he bitterly complains that he has been neglected, and nothing done for him of what was promis'd him in the strongest terms, and which he believes had been strickly perform'd, had your most worthy Brother, his great friend and Patron, surviv'd till now. He desires me aquent your Grace that upon a late criticall juncture [November 1759] he was prepairing to take post for London to lay affaires of the greatest moment before his Majesty, but the suden blow given the enemy by Admiral Hack [Hawke] keept him back for that time. But now that he finds that they are still projecting to execute their first frustrated schem, {312} there present plan of operation differing in nothing from the first, but in what regards North Britain. He has certain information of this by verbal Expresses; writting beeing absolutely dischargd for fear of discovery. He desires me aquent your Grace of this, that you may lay the whole before His Majesty.

'If His Majesty's Enemys should once more faile in their favourite scheme of Envasion, this young gentilman [Glengarry] intends to make offer of raising a Regiment of as good men as ever was levied in North Britain, if he gets the Rank of full Colonell, the nomenation of his Officers, and suitable levie Mony. He can be of infinite service in either capacity mentioned in this letter [spy or Colonel], that his Majesty is graciously pleasd to employ him. He begs that this may not be delay'd to be laid before the King, as things may soon turn out very serious. He makes a point with your Grace that this be communicated to no mortall but his Majesty, and he is willing to forfite all pretensions to the Royall favour, if his services at this criticall juncture does not meritt his Majesty's aprobation. If your Grace calls upon him at this time, as he was out of pocket upon further Chants, it will be necessary to remit him a bill payable at sight for whatever little sum is judg'd proper for the present, untill he gives proof of his attachment TO THE BEST OF SOVEREIGNS, and of his reale zeale for the service of his King and Country, against a most treacherous and perfidious Enemy. I have now done my duty, my Lord, reffering the whole manadgement to your Grace, and I beg youl pardon the freedom I have taken as I have the honour to remain at all times

'My Lord, your Grace's Most obedient and most oblidged humble Servt.

'PICKLE,

'February 19, 1760.

'Mack [make] mention of PICKLE. His Majesty will remember Mr. Pelham did, upon former affairs of great consequence.

'Direction—To ALEXANDER MACKDONELL OF GLENGARY by Foraugustus [Fort Augustus].'

Pickle, as he remarks in one of his artless letters, 'is not of a suspicious temper, but judges of others' candour by his own.' He now carries this honourable freedom so far as to give his own noble name and address. Habemus confitentem reum. Persons more suspicious and less candid will believe that Pickle, in November 1759, was standing to win on both colours. His readiness to sell a regiment of Macdonnells to fight for King George is very worthy of a Highland chief of Pickle's kind.

On December 23, 1761, Alastair Macdonnell of Glengarry died, and Pickle died with him. He had practically ceased to be useful; the world was anticipating Burns's advice:

'Adore the rising sun, And leave a man undone To his fate!'

We have unmasked a character of a kind never popular. Yet, in the government of the world, Pickle served England well. But for him there might have been another highland rising, and more fire and bloodshed. But for him the Royal Family might have perished in a nocturnal brawl. Only one man, Archibald Cameron, died through Pickle's treasons. The Prince with whom he drank, and whom he betrayed, had become hopeless and worthless. The world knows little of its greatest benefactors, and Pickle did good by stealth. Now his shade may or may not 'blush to find it fame,' and to be placed above Murray of Broughton, beside Menteith and Assynt, legendary Ganelons of Scotland.



CHAPTER XIV—CONCLUSION



Conclusion—Charles in 1762—Flight of Miss Walkinshaw—Charles quarrels with France—Remonstrance from Murray—Death of King James— Charles returns to Rome—His charm—His disappointments—Lochgarry enters the Portuguese service—Charles declines to recognise Miss Walkinshaw—Report of his secret marriage to Miss Walkinshaw—Denied by the lady—Charles breaks with Lumisden—Bishop Forbes—Charles's marriage—The Duchess of Albany'—'All ends in song—The Princesse de Talmond—The end.

With the death of Pickle, the shabby romance of the last Jacobite struggle finds its natural close.

Of Charles we need say little more. Macallester represents him as hanging about the coasts of England in 1761-1762, looking out for favourable landing-places, or sending his valet, Stuart, to scour Paris in search of Miss Walkinshaw. That luckless lady fled from Charles at Bouillon to Paris in July 1760, with her daughter, and found refuge in a convent. As Lord Elcho reports her conversation, Charles was wont to beat her cruelly. For general circulation she averred that she and James merely wished her daughter to be properly educated. {316}

Charles, in fact, picked a new quarrel with France on the score of his daughter. Louis refused to make Miss Walkinshaw (now styled Countess of Albertroff) resign her child to Charles's keeping. He was very fond of children, and Macallester, who hated him, declares that, when hiding in the Highlands, he would amuse himself by playing with the baby of a shepherd's wife. None the less, his habits made him no proper guardian of his own little girl. {317} In 1762, young Oliphant of Gask, who visited the Prince at Bouillon, reports that he will have nothing to do with France till his daughter is restored to him. He held moodily aloof, and then the Peace came. Lumisden complains that 'Burton' (the Prince) is 'intractable.' He sulked at Bouillon, where he hunted in the forests. Here is a sad and tender admonition from Murray, whose remonstrances were more softly conveyed than those of Goring:

'Thursday.

'When I have the honour of being with you I am miserable, upon seeing you take so little care of a health which is so precious to every honest man, but more so to me in particular, because I know you, and therefore can't help loving, honouring, and esteeming you; but alass! what service can my zeal and attachment be to my dear master, unless he lays down a plan and system, and follows it, such as his subjects and all mankind will, and must approve of.'

Young Gask repeats the same melancholy tale. Charles was hopeless. For some inscrutable reason he was true to Stafford (who had aided his secret flight from Rome in 1744) and to Sheridan, supporting them at Avignon.

'Old Mr. Misfortunate' (King James) died at Rome it 1766; he never saw his 'dearest Carluccio' after the Prince stole out of the city, full of hope, in 1744 -

'A fairy Prince with happy eyes And lighter-footed than the fox.'

James expired 'without the least convulsion or agony,' says Lumisden, 'but with his usual mild serenity in his countenance. . . . He seemed rather to be asleep than dead.' A proscribed exile from his cradle, James was true to faith and honour. What other defeated and fugitive adventurer ever sent money to the hostile general for the peasants who had suffered from the necessities of war?

On January 23, 1766, Lumisden met Charles on his way to Rome. 'His legs and feet were considerably swelled by the fatigue of the journey. In other respects he enjoys perfect health, and charms every one who approaches him.' The Prince was 'miraculously' preserved when his coach was overturned on a precipice near Bologna. Some jewels and family relics had not been returned by Cluny, and there were difficulties about sending a messenger for them: these occupy much of Lumisden's correspondence.

Charles met only with 'mortifications' at Rome. The Pope dared not treat him on a Royal footing. In April 1766, our old friend, Lochgarry, took service with Portugal. Charles sent congratulations, 'and doubts not your son will be ready to draw the sword in his just Cause.' The sword remained undrawn. Charles had now but an income of 47,000 livres; he amused himself as he might with shooting, and playing the French horn! He never forgave Miss Walkinshaw, whom his brother, the Cardinal, maintained, poorly enough. Lumisden writes to the lady (July 14, 1766): 'No one knows the King's temper better than you do. He has never, so far as I can discover, mentioned your name. Nor do I believe that he either knows where you are, nor how you are maintained. His passion must still greatly cool before any application can be made to him in your behalf.'

A report was circulated that Charles was secretly married to Miss Walkinshaw. On February 16, 1767, Lumisden wrote to Waters on 'the dismal consequences of such a rumour,' and, by the Duke of York's desire, bade Waters obtain a denial from the lady. On March 11 the Duke received Miss Walkinshaw's formal affidavit that no marriage existed. 'It has entirely relieved him from the uneasiness the villainous report naturally gave him.' On January 5, 1768, Lumisden had to tell Miss Walkinshaw that 'His Royal Highness insists you shall always remain in a monastery.' Lumisden was always courteous to Miss Walkinshaw. Of her daughter he writes: 'May she ever possess in the highest degree, those elegant charms of body and mind, which you so justly and assiduously cultivate. . . . Did the King know that I had wrote to you, he would never pardon me.'

On December 20, 1768, Charles had broken with Lumisden and the rest of his suite. 'Our behaviour towards him was that of faithful subjects and servants, jealous at all times to preserve his honour and reputation.' They had, in brief, declined to accompany Charles in his carriage when his condition demanded seclusion. Lumisden writes (December 8, 1767), 'His Royal Highness' (the Duke of York) 'thanked us for our behaviour in the strongest terms.'

We need follow no further the story of a consummated degradation. Charles threw off one by one, on grounds of baseless suspicion, Lord George Murray, Kelly (to please Lord Marischal), Goring, and now drove from him his most attached servants. He never suspected Glengarry. But neither time, nor despair, nor Charles's own fallen self could kill the loyalty of Scotland. Bishop Forbes, far away, heard of his crowning folly, and—blamed Lumisden and his companion, Hay of Restalrig! When Charles, on Good Friday, 1772, married Louise of Stolberg, the remnant of the faithful in Scotland drank to 'the fairest Fair,' and to an heir of the Crown.

'L'Ecosse ne peut pas te juger: elle t' aime!'

Into the story of an heir, born at Sienna, and entrusted to Captain Allen, R.N., to be brought up in England, we need not enter. In Lord Braye's manuscripts (published by the Historical MSS. Commission) is Charles's solemn statement that, except Miss Walkinshaw's daughter, he had no child. The time has not come to tell the whole strange tale of 'John Stolberg Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart,' if, indeed, that tale can ever be told. {321} Nor does space permit an investigation of Charles's married life, of his wife's elopement with Alfieri, and of the last comparatively peaceful years in the society of a daughter who soon followed him to the tomb. The stories about that daughter's marriage to a Swedish Baron Roehenstart, and about their son, merit no attention. In the French Foreign Office archives is a wild plan for marrying the lady, Charlotte Stuart, to a Stuart—any Stuart, and raising their unborn son's standard in the American colonies! That an offer was made from America to Charles himself, in 1778, was stated by Scott to Washington Irving on the authority of a document in the Stuart Papers at Windsor. That paper could not be found for Lord Stanhope, nor have I succeeded in finding it. The latest Scottish honour done to the King was Burns's 'Birthday Ode' of 1787, and his song for 'The Bonny Lass o' Albany.'

'This lovely maid's of royal blood, That ruled Albion's kingdoms three, But oh, alas for her bonnie face! They hae wrang'd the lass of Albanie!'

Tout finit par des chansons!

Of the Stuart cause we may say, as Callimachus says of his dead friend Heraclitus:

'Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales awake, For death takes everything away, but these he cannot take.'

A hundred musical notes keep green the memory of the last Prince of Romance, the beloved, the beautiful, the brave Prince Charlie—everso missus succurrere saeclo. The overturned age was not to be rescued by charms and virtues which the age itself was to ruin and destroy. Loyal memories are faithful, not to what the Prince became under stress of exile, and treachery, and hope deferred, and death in life, de vivre et de pas vivre—but to what he once was, Tearlach Righ nan Gael.

Of one character in this woful tale a word may be said. The Princesse de Talmond was visited by Horace Walpole in 1765. He found her in 'charitable apartments in the Luxembourg,' and he tripped over cats and stools (and other things) in the twilight of a bedroom hung with pictures of Saints and Sobieskis. At last, and very late, the hour of her conversion had been granted, by St. Francois Xavier, to the prayers of her husband. We think of the Baroness Bernstein in her latest days as we read of the end of the Princesse. She had governed Charles 'with fury and folly.' Of all the women who had served him—Flora Macdonald, Madame de Vasse, Mademoiselle Luci, Miss Walkinshaw—did he remember none when he wrote that he understood men, but despaired of understanding women, 'they being so much more wicked and impenetrable'? {323}



Footnotes:

{3} Edition of 1832, i. p. x.

{12a} History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. London, 1838, iii. 279.

{12b} An authentic account of the conduct of the Young Chevalier, p. 7. Third edition, 1749.

{13} London, 1879.

{15a} Letters from Italy by an Englishwoman, ii. 198. London 1776. Cited by Lord Stanhope, iii. 556. Horace Mann to the Duke of Newcastle. State Papers. Tuscany. Jan. [half symbol, half symbol], 174.75. In Ewald, i. 87. Both authorities speak of BLUE eyes.

{15b} A false Charles appeared in Selkirkshire in 1745. See Mr. Craig Brown's History of Ettrick Forest. The French, in 1759, meant to send a false Charles to Ireland with Thurot. Another appeared at Civita Vecchia about 1752. The tradition of Roderick Mackenzie, who died under English bullets, crying 'You have slain your Prince,' is familiar. We shall meet other pseudo-Charles's.

{17a} Ewald, i. 41.

{17b} Documentos Ineditos. Madrid. 1889. Vol. xciii. 18.

{18a} Voyages de Montesquieu. Bordeaux, 1894. p. 250.

{18b} Letters of De Brosses, as translated by Lord Stanhope, iii. 72.

{18c} See authorities in Ewald, i. 48-50.

{19a} Ewald, ii. 30. Scott's Journal, i. 114.

{19b} Dennistoun's Life of Strange, i. 63, and an Abbotsford manuscript.

{20a} Stuart Papers, in the Queen's Library. Also the Lockhart Papers mention the wounding of the horse.

{20b} Life and Correspondence of David Hume. Hill Burton, ii. 464- 466.

{21a} Jacobite Memoirs. Lord Elcho's MS. Journal. Ewald, i. 77.

{21b} State Papers Domestic. 1745. No. 79.

{21c} Genuine Memoirs of John Murray of Broughton. La Spedizione di Carlo Stuart.

{23a} Treasury Papers. 1745. No. 214. First published by Mr. Ewald, i. 215.

{23b} Jacobite Memoirs, p. 32.

{24a} Chambers Rebellion of 1745, i. 71. The authority is 'Tradition.'

{24b} I have read parts of Forbes's manuscript in the Advocates' Library, but difficulties were made when I wished to study it for this book.

{25a} D'Argenson's Memoires.

{25b} This gentleman died at Carlisle in 1745, according to Bishop Forbes. Jacobite Memoirs, p. 4.

{26a} Stuart MSS. in Windsor Castle.

{26b} Stuart Papers. Browne's History of the Highland Clans, iii. 481.

{27a} James to Lismore. June 23, 1749. Stuart MSS.

{28a} Stanhope. Vol. iii. Appendix, p. xl.

{28b} Jacobite Memoirs.

{30a} The Kelly of Atterbury's Conspiracy, long a prisoner in the Tower. It is fair to add that Bulkeley, Montesquieu's friend, defended Kelly.

{31a} Stuart Papers. Browne, iii. 433. September 13, 1745.

{32a} Macallester's book is entitled A Series of Letters, &c. London, 1767.

{32b} Wogan to Edgar. Stuart Papers, 1750.

{33a} D'Argenson, iv. 316-320.

{33b} Stair Papers.

{33c} Letters in the State Paper Office. S. P. Tuscany. Walton sends to England copies of the letters of James's adherents in Paris; Horace Mann sends the letters of Townley, whom James so disliked.

{35a} D'Argenson's Memoires, v. 98, fol.

{35b} Ibid. v. 183.

{36a} Published by the Duc de Broglie, in Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique. No. 4. Paris, 1891.

{37a} Browne, iv. 36-38.

{38a} Genuine Copies of Letters, &c. London, 1748.

{38b} An Account of the Prince's Arrival in France, p. 66. London, 1754.

{39a} There are letters of Bulkeley's to Montesquieu as early as 1728. Voyages de Montesquieu, p. xx. note 3.

{40a} In his work on Madame de Pompadour (p. 109), M. Capefigue avers that he discovered, in the archives of the French Police, traces of an English plot to assassinate Prince Charles; the Jacobites believed in such attempts, not without reason, as we shall prove.

{41a} Walton. S. P. Tuscany. No. 55.

{43} Memoires, iv. 322.

{46a} See Le Secret du Roi, by the Duc de Broglie.

{46b} Tales of the Century, p. 25.

{46c} Pol. Corresp. of Frederick the Great, v. 114. No. 2,251.

{46d} Ibid. vi. 125. No. 3,086.

{49a} D'Argenson, v. 417. March 19, 1749. D'Argenson knew more than the police.

{50a} Stuart Papers. Browne, iv. p. 51.

{51a} Memoires, v. 417.

{51b} Tales of the Century, ii. 48, 'from information of Sir Ralph Hamilton.'

{51c} 'Information by Baron de Rondeau and Sir Ralph Hamilton.'

{52a} S. P. France. No. 442.

{52b} S. P. Tuscany. No. 58. Stuart Papers. Browne, iv. 52.

{52c} S. P. France. No. 442.

{52d} This may have been true.

{52e} S. P. Tuscany. No. 55.

{53a} Dr. King made a Latin speech on this occasion, rich in Jacobite innuendoes. Redeat was often repeated.

{53b} S. P. Poland. No. 75.

{58a} S. P. Russia. No. 59.

{61} Pol. Corr., vi. 572, vii. 23.

{62a} Browne. Stuart Papers, iii. 502.

{62b} S. P. Tuscany. No. 54.

{63} Hanbury Williams. From Dresden, July 2, 1749.

{64} James had previously wished Charles to marry a Princess of Modena.

{65a} Mann, June 19, 1750.

{65b} Stuart Papers. Browne, ii. 73.

{68} Correspondence of the Duke of Bedford, ii. 69. Bedford to Albemarle. Also op. cit. ii. 15. March 13, 1749. Bedford to Colonel Yorke.

{69} Browne, iv. 57, 63.

{70a} In the Gask Papers it is said that 5,0001. was sent by Cluny to Major Kennedy. Kennedy himself buried the money.

{70b} All these facts are taken from the Stuart Papers, in manuscript at Windsor Castle.

{71} Le 3. A. 1749. Projet pour mon arrive a Paris, et Le Conduit de Mr. Benn. Mr. Benn doit s'en aller droit a Dijon et son Compagnion Mr. Smith a Paris; Il faudra pour Mr. Smith une Chese [chaise] qu'il acheterra a Luneville, ensuite il prendra Le Domestique du C. P. a Ligny, mais en partent d'icy il faudra que le Sieur Smith mont a Chevall et La Chese pourra y aller come pour son Retour a Paris. La personne dedans parraitrait profiter de cette occasion. Le Sieur Bonn doit rester quelqe jours come desiran acheter une Cofre et remettra La Sienne come par amitie au Sr. Smith, tout cecy paroissant d'hazard. Ensuite Le Sr. Smith continuera au Plustot son Chemin, et son Ami ira Le Sien en attendant, un peu de jours et a son arrive a Dij. il doit Ecrive a Personne qu'il soite excepte La Lettre au—W. Le Ch. Gre. qu'il doit voire (et a qui il peut dire davoire ete a Di—Charge par Le P., sans meme Nomer son Camerade mais come tout seule) ne sachant rien davantage, et le laissant dans l'obscurine, comme s'il Etoit dans le meme Cas, attendant des Nouvelles Ordres, sans rien outre savoire ou pouvoire penetre Etant deja Longtems sans me voire.' Holograph of P. Charles.

{79} Under the late Empire (1863) the convent was the hotel of the Minister of War. Hither, about 1748, came Madame du Deffand, later the superannuated adorer of the hard-hearted Horace Walpole, and here was her famous salon moire jaune, aux naeuds couleur de feu. Here she entertained the President Henault, Bulkeley, Montesquieu (whose own house was in the same street), Lord Bath, and all the philosophes, giving regular suppers on Mondays. In the same conventual chambers resided, in 1749, Madame de Talmond, Madame de Vasse, and her friend Mademoiselle Ferrand, whose address Charles wrote, as we saw, in his note-book (March 1749).

{80} Grimm, ii. p. 183.

{82} S. P. France. June 4, 1749. Ewald, ii. 200.

{83} Translated from the French original at Windsor Castle.

{86} Histoire de Montesquieu, par L. Vian, p. 196.

{87} Correspondance de Madame du Deffand. Edition of M. de Lescure, ii. 737-742.

{91} D'Argenson confirms or exaggerates this information.

{92} Browne, v. 66. Letter of Young Glengarry, January 16, 1750.

{97} Browne, iv. 68. I have not found the original in the Stuart Papers at Windsor.

{101} The Mr. Dormer who was Charles's agent is described in Burke as 'James, of Antwerp,' sixth son, by his second marriage, of Charles, fifth Lord Dormer.

{103} State Papers. Examination of AEneas Macdonald.

{105} July 1, 1754. Browne, iv. 122.

{106} Mr. Ewald's dates, as to the Prince's English jaunt, are wrong. He has adopted those concerning the lady's movements, ii. 201.

{107} Charles himself (S. P. Tuscany, December 16, 1783) told these facts. But Hume is responsible for the visit to Lady Primrose, dating it in 1753; wrongly, I think.

{108} Private Memorandum concerning the Pretender's eldest son. Brit. Mus. Additional MSS.

{110} A medal of 1750 bears a profile of Charles, as does one of September 1752.

{111} This may be of 1752-1753, and the 'Channoine' may be Miss Walkinshaw, who was a canoness of a noble order.

{113} Montesquieu to the Abbe de Guasco, March 7, 1749.

{118} The sequel of the chivalrous attempt to catch Keith's mistress may he found in letters of Newcastle to Colonel Guy Dickens (February 12, 1751), and of Dickens (St. Petersburg, March 27, 30, May 4, 1751) to the Duke of Newcastle. (State Papers.)

{119} Correspondence of the Duke of Bedford, ii. 69.

{125} Letters, ii. 116.

{126} Spence's Anecdotes, p. 168.

{127a} Browne, iv. 17.

{127b} Stuart Papers.

{127c} Ibid.

{128a} Potzdam, August 24, 1751. OEuvres, xxxviii. 307. Edition of 1880.

{128b} Newcastle to Lord Chancellor, September 6, 1751. Life of Lord Hardwicke, ii. 404.

{130a} Anecdotes.

{130b} Stuart Papers. Lady Montagu was Barbara, third daughter of Sir John Webbe of Hathorp, county Gloucester. In July 1720 she married Anthony Brown, sixth Viscount Montagu.

{131} Walton's Life of Wotton.

{132a} Browne, iv. 89-90.

{133a} S. P. France, 455.

{135} S. P. Poland, No. 79.

{137} Angleterre, 81, f. 94, 1774.

{138} Pichot, in his Vie de Charles Edouard, obviously cites this document, which is quoted from him by the Sobieski Stuarts in Tales of the Century. But Pichot does not name the source of his statements.

{139} A French agent, Beson probably, whom Charles desired to dismiss, BECAUSE a Frenchman.

{141} Scott's Letters, ii. 208. June 29, 1824.

{144} For reasons already given, namely, that Madame de Vasse was the only daughter of her father by his wife, and that Mademoiselle Ferrand was her great friend, while the Prince addresses Mademoiselle Luci by a name derived from an estate of the Ferrands, I have identified Mademoiselle Ferrand with Mademoiselle Luci. This, however, is only an hypothesis.

{145} Some of Pickle's letters were published by Mr. Murray Rose in an essay called 'An Infamous Spy, James Mohr Macgregor,' in the Scotsman, March 15, 1895. This article was brought to my notice on June 22, 1896. As the author identifies Pickle with James Mohr Macgregor, though Pickle began to communicate with the English Government while James was a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, and continued to do so for years after James's death, it is plain that he is in error, and that the transactions need a fresh examination. Mr. Murray Rose, in the article cited, does not indicate the provenance of the documents which he publishes. When used in this work they are copied from the originals in the British Museum, among the papers of the Pelham Administration. The transcripts have been for several years in my hands, but I desire to acknowledge Mr. Murray Rose's priority in printing some of the documents, which, in my opinion, he wholly misunderstood, at least on March 15, 1895. How many he printed, if any, besides those in the Scotsman, and in what periodicals, I am not informed.

{149a} The portrait, now at Balgownie, was long in the possession of the Threiplands of Fingask. I have only seen a photograph, in the Scottish Museum of Antiquities.

{149b} MS. in Laing Collection, Edinburgh University Library.

{150a} A note of Craigie's communicated by Mr. Omond.

{150b} Cope to Forbes of Culloden, August 24, 1745. Culloden Papers, p. 384.

{150c} Culloden Papers, p. 405.

{150d} Young Glengarry to Edgar. Rome, September 16, 1750. In the Stuart Papers.

{151a} Chambers's The Rebellion, v. 24. Edinburgh, 1829.

{151b} Letter of Warren to James, October 10, 1746. Browne, iii. 463.

{152a} Stuart Papers. Browne, iv. 100.

{152b} Ibid. iv. 22, 23.

{153a} Browne, iv. 51.

{154} Browne, iv. 61, 62.

{155a} I presume the first beautiful Mrs. Murray is in question. The second is 'another story.' See the original letter in Browne, iv. 90-101.

{155b} State Papers, Domestic, No. 87.

{156} Stuart Papers.

{157} Browne, iv. 60.

{159} Browne, iv. 117.

{160} Correspondence of the Duke of Bedford, ii. 39.

{161} Paris, February 14, 1752. Stuart Papers.

{162a} iv. 84.

{162b} Rome, September 4, 1750. In Browne.

{164} Browne, iv. 102.

{165} Journal, February 14, 1826.

{169} May 4, 1753. Stuart Papers. To old Edgar.

{171} His father's name was John. One of Pickle's aliases.

{172} This identifies 'Pickle' with 'Jeanson.'

{174} Cypher names.

6—Goring. 69—Sir James Harrington, perhaps. 51—King of Prussia. 80—Pretender's Son. 8—Pretender. 72—Sir John Graham. 66—Scotland. 0—French Ministry. 2—Lord Marshall. 59—Count Maillebois. 71—Sir John Graham, perhaps.

{175} That is, probably, Pickle said to Jacobite friends that his money came from Major Kennedy.

{178} Lord Elcho knew it, probably from his brother.

{180} Elcho says he was in London, at Lady Primrose's. We have seen that Charles had had a difficulty with this lady.

{181} To this illness Glengarry often refers, when writing as Pickle.

{183a} Hay to Edgar, October 1752. In Browne, iv. 106.

{183b} 'Mildmay' to 'Green,' January 24, 1753.

{184} S. P. Poland. No. 81.

{196a} Carlyle's Frederick, iv. 467. Compare, for the views of political circles, Horace Walpole's Reign of George II. i. 333, 353, and his Letters to Horace Mann for 1753.

{196b} Reign of George II. i. 290.

{197} Add MSS. British Museum, 33,847, f. 271. 'Private and most secret.'

{198a} Politische Correspondenz Friederichs des Grossen. Duncker. Berlin, 1879, ix. 356.

{198b} Can the Earl and the Doctor have approved of renewing the infamous Elibank plot?

{201} Many historians, such as Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Chancellors, condemn as cruel the execution of Cameron. But the Government was well informed.

{202} The Active Testimony of the Presbyterians of Scotland, 1749.

{203} xix. 742.

{208} French service. He seems to think that Archy was betrayed by French means. He perhaps suspected Dumont, who had been in the French army.

{213} Glengarry had been a captain in the French service.

{219} Brother of d'Argenson of the Memoires.

{222a} Pol. Corr. No. 5,933.

{222b} As early as 1748 Dawkins was in Paris, drinking with Townley, who calls him un bon garcon. Townley's letters to a friend in Rome were regularly sent to Pelham.

{223} Pol. Corr. ix. 417. No. 5,923.

{224a} Droysen, iv. 357. Note 1.

{224b} S. P. France. 462.

{227} Browne, iv. p. 111.

{231a} In his article on James Mohr (Scotsman, March 15, 1896), Mr. Murray Rose cites some papers concerning James's early treacheries. For unfathomable reasons, Mr. Murray Rose does not mention the source of these papers. This is of the less importance, as Mr. George Omond, in Macmillan's Magazine, May 1890, had exposed James's early foibles, from documents in the Record Office.

{231b} Trials of Rob Roy's Sons (Edinburgh, 1818), p. 3.

{232a} The reader may remember that Pickle's earliest dated letter is from Boulogne, November 2, 1752. As on that day James Mohr was a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, the absurdity of identifying Pickle with James Mohr becomes peculiarly glaring.

{232b} Trial, &c. p. 119.

{232c} According to Mr. Murray Rose, James Mohr applied to the King for money on May 22, 1753. This letter I have not observed among the Stuart Papers, but, from information given by Pickle to his English employers, I believe James Mohr to have been in France as early as May 1753. Pickle, being consulted as to James's value, contemns him as a spy distrusted by both sides.

{234} Add. MSS. 32,846.

{235} He HAD been, as a spy!

{236} How worthy of our friend!

{238} As James was not in France till May 1753, he cannot have written Pickle's letters from France of March in that year.

{239} Balhaldie's papers, not treasonable, belong to Sir Arthur Halkett of Pitfirrane, who also possesses a charming portrait of pretty Mrs. Macfarlane. Sir Arthur's ancestor, Sir Peter, fought on the Hanoverian side in the Forty-five, was taken prisoner, and released on parole, which he refused to break at the command of the Butcher Cumberland.

{240} MSS. Add. 33,050, f. 369.

{241} Nothing of all this in the Stuart Papers.

{242} Observe James's Celtic memory.

{243} Mr. Savage, according to James Mohr, was the chief of the Macgregors in Ireland.

{245} These are transparent falsehoods. The Earl Marischal, if we may believe Pickle, had no mind to resign his comfortable Embassy.

{246} He was really at Avignon.

{250} Add. MSS. 33,050, f. 409.

{251} In 'Memoire Historique et Genealogique sur la Famille de Wogan,' par le Comte Alph. O'Kelly de Galway (Paris, 1896) we read (p. 33) that, in 1776, Charles was 'entertained at Cross Green House, in Cork.' The authority given is a vague reference to the Hibernian Magazine.

THE END