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Title: Pickle the Spy
Author: Andrew Lang
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6807]
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICKLE THE SPY ***
Transcribed from the 1897 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
PICKLE THE SPY
or The Incognito of Prince Charles
'I knew the Master: on many secret steps of his career
I have an authentic memoir in my hand.'
THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE
PREFACE
This woful History began in my study of the Pelham Papers in the
Additional Manuscripts of the British Museum. These include the
letters of Pickle the Spy and of JAMES MOHR MACGREGOR. Transcripts
of them were sent by me to Mr. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, for use in a
novel, which he did not live to finish. The character of Pickle,
indeed, like that of the Master of Ballantrae, is alluring to writers
of historical romance. Resisting the temptation to use Pickle as the
villain of fiction, I have tried to tell his story with fidelity.
The secret, so long kept, of Prince Charles's incognito, is divulged
no less by his own correspondence in the Stuart MSS. than by the
letters of Pickle.
For Her Majesty's gracious permission to read the Stuart Papers in
the library of Windsor Castle, and to engrave a miniature of Prince
Charles in the Royal collection, I have respectfully to express my
sincerest gratitude.
To Mr. HOLMES, Her Majesty's librarian, I owe much kind and valuable
aid.
The Pickle Papers, and many despatches in the State Papers, were
examined and copied for me by Miss E. A. IBBS.
In studying the Stuart Papers, I owe much to the aid of Miss VIOLET
SIMPSON, who has also assisted me by verifying references from many
sources.
It would not be easy to mention the numerous correspondents who have
helped me, but it were ungrateful to omit acknowledgment of the
kindness of Mr. HORATIO F. BROWN and of Mr. GEORGE T. OMOND.
I have to thank Mr. ALEXANDER PELHAM TROTTER for permission to cite
the MS. Letter Book of the exiled Chevalier's secretary, ANDREW
LUMISDEN, in Mr. TROTTER'S possession.
Miss MACPHERSON of Cluny kindly gave me a copy of a privately printed
Memorial of her celebrated ancestor, and, by CLUNY'S kind permission,
I have been allowed to see some letters from his charter chest.
Apparently, the more important secret papers have perished in the
years of turmoil and exile.
This opportunity may be taken for disclaiming any belief in the
imputations against CLUNY conjecturally hazarded by 'NEWTON,' or
KENNEDY, in the following pages. The Chief's destitution in France,
after a long period of suffering in Scotland, refutes these
suspicions, bred in an atmosphere of jealousy and distrust. Among
the relics of the family are none of the objects which CHARLES, in
1766-1767, found it difficult to obtain from CLUNY'S representatives
for lack of a proper messenger.
To Sir ARTHUR HALKETT, Bart., of Pitfirrane, I am obliged for a view
of BALHALDIE'S correspondence with his agent in Scotland.
The Directors of the French Foreign Office Archives courteously
permitted Monsieur LEON PAJOT to examine, and copy for me, some of
the documents in their charge. These, it will be seen, add but
little to our information during the years 1749-1766.
I have remarked, in the proper place, that Mr. MURRAY ROSE has
already printed some of Pickle's letters in a newspaper. As Mr.
MURRAY ROSE assigned them to JAMES MOHR MACGREGOR, I await with
interest his arguments in favour of this opinion in his promised
volume of Essays.
The ornament on the cover of this work is a copy of that with which
the volumes of Prince CHARLES'S own library were impressed. I owe
the stamp to the kindness of Miss WARRENDER of Bruntsfield.
Among printed books, the most serviceable have been Mr. EWALD'S work
on Prince Charles, Lord STANHOPE'S History, and Dr. BROWNE'S 'History
of the Highlands and Clans.' Had Mr. EWALD explored the Stuart
Papers and the Memoirs of d'Argenson, Grimm, de Luynes, Barbier, and
the Letters of Madame du Deffand (edited by M. DE LESCURE), with the
'Political Correspondence of Frederick the Great,' little would have
been left for gleaners in his track.
I must not forget to thank Mr. and Mrs. BARTELS for researches in old
magazines and journals. Mr. BARTELS also examined for me the printed
correspondence of Frederick the Great. To the kindness of J. A.
ERSKINE CUNNINGHAM, Esq., of Balgownie I owe permission to photograph
the portrait of Young Glengarry in his possession.
If I might make a suggestion to historical students of leisure, it is
this. The Life of the Old Chevalier (James III.) has never been
written, and is well worth writing. My own studies, alas! prove that
Prince Charles's character was incapable of enduring misfortune. His
father, less brilliant and less popular, was a very different man,
and, I think, has everything to gain from an unprejudiced examination
of his career. He has certainly nothing to lose.
Since this work was in type the whole of Bishop Forbes's MS., The
Lyon in Mourning, has been printed for an Historical Society in
Scotland. I was unable to consult the MS. for this book, but it
contains, I now find, no addition to the facts here set forth.
November 5, 1896.
CHAPTER I--INTRODUCTORY TO PICKLE
Subject of this book--The last rally of Jacobitism hitherto obscure--
Nature of the new materials--Information from spies, unpublished
Stuart Papers, &c.--The chief spy--Probably known to Sir Walter
Scott--'Redgauntlet' cited--'Pickle the Spy'--His position and
services--The hidden gold of Loch Arkaig--Consequent treacheries--
Character of Pickle--Pickle's nephew--Pickle's portrait--Pickle
detected and denounced--To no purpose--Historical summary--Incognito
of Prince Charles--Plan of this work.
The latest rally of Jacobitism, with its last romance, so faded and
so tarnished, has hitherto remained obscure. The facts on which
'Waverley' is based are familiar to all the world: those on which
'Redgauntlet' rests were but imperfectly known even to Sir Walter
Scott. The story of the Forty-five is the tale of Highland loyalty:
the story of 1750-1763 is the record of Highland treachery, or rather
of the treachery of some Highlanders. That story, now for the first
time to be told, is founded on documents never hither to published,
or never previously pieced together. The Additional Manuscripts of
the British Museum, with relics of the government of Henry Pelham and
his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, have yielded their secrets, and
given the information of the spies. The Stuart Papers at Windsor
(partly published in Browne's 'History of the Highland Clans' and by
Lord Stanhope, but mainly virginal of type) fill up the interstices
in the Pelham Papers like pieces in a mosaic, and reveal the general
design. The letters of British ambassadors at Paris, Dresden,
Berlin, Hanover, Leipzig, Florence, St. Petersburg, lend colour and
coherence. The political correspondence of Frederick the Great
contributes to the effect. A trifle of information comes from the
French Foreign Office Archives; French printed 'Memoires' and
letters, neglected by previous English writers on the subject, offer
some valuable, indeed essential, hints, and illustrate Charles's
relations with the wits and beauties of the reign of Louis XV. By
combining information from these and other sources in print,
manuscript, and tradition, we reach various results. We can now
follow and understand the changes in the singular and wretched
development of the character of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. We get
a curious view of the manners, and a lurid light on the diplomacy of
the middle of the eighteenth century. We go behind the scenes of
many conspiracies. Above all, we encounter an extraordinary
personage, the great, highborn Highland chief who sold himself as a
spy to the English Government.
His existence was suspected by Scott, if not clearly known and
understood.
In his introduction to 'Redgauntlet,' {3} Sir Walter Scott says that
the ministers of George III. 'thought it proper to leave Dr.
Cameron's new schemes in concealment (1753), lest by divulging them
they had indicated the channel of communication which, it is now well
known, they possessed to all the plots of Charles Edward.' To
'indicate' that secret 'channel of communication' between the
Government of the Pelhams and the Jacobite conspirators of 1749-1760
is one purpose of this book. Tradition has vaguely bequeathed to us
the name of 'Pickle the Spy,' the foremost of many traitors. Who
Pickle was, and what he did, a whole romance of prosperous treachery,
is now to be revealed and illustrated from various sources. Pickle
was not only able to keep the Duke of Newcastle and George II. well
informed as to the inmost plots, if not the most hidden movements of
Prince Charles, but he could either paralyse a serious, or promote a
premature, rising in the Highlands, as seemed best to his English
employers. We shall find Pickle, in company with that devoted
Jacobite, Lochgarry, travelling through the Highlands, exciting
hopes, consulting the chiefs, unburying a hidden treasure, and
encouraging the clans to rush once more on English bayonets.
Romance, in a way, is stereotyped, and it is characteristic that the
last romance of the Stuarts should be interwoven with a secret
treasure. This mass of French gold, buried after Culloden at Loch
Arkaig, in one of the most remote recesses of the Highlands, was, to
the Jacobites, what the dwarf Andvari's hoard was to the Niflungs, a
curse and a cause of discord. We shall see that rivalry for its
possession produced contending charges of disloyalty, forgery, and
theft among certain of the Highland chiefs, and these may have helped
to promote the spirit of treachery in Pickle the Spy. It is
probable, though not certain, that he had acted as the agent of
Cumberland before he was sold to Henry Pelham, and he was certainly
communicating the results of his inquiries in one sense to George
II., and, in another sense, to the exiled James III. in Rome. He was
betraying his own cousins, and traducing his friends. Pickle is
plainly no common spy or 'paltry vidette,' as he words it. Possibly
Sir Walter Scott knew who Pickle was: in him Scott, if he had
chosen, would have found a character very like Barry Lyndon (but
worse), very unlike any personage in the Waverley Novels, and
somewhat akin to the Master of Ballantrae. The cool, good-humoured,
smiling, unscrupulous villain of high rank and noble lineage; the
scoundrel happily unconscious of his own unspeakable infamy, proud
and sensitive upon the point of honour; the picturesque hypocrite in
religion, is a being whom we do not meet in Sir Walter's romances.
In Pickle he had such a character ready made to his hand, but, in the
time of Scott, it would have been dangerous, as it is still
disagreeable, to unveil this old mystery of iniquity. A friend of
Sir Walter's, a man very ready with the pistol, the last, as was
commonly said, of the Highland chiefs, was of the name and blood of
Pickle, and would have taken up Pickle's feud. Sir Walter was not to
be moved by pistols, but not even for the sake of a good story would
he hurt the sensibilities of a friend, or tarnish the justly
celebrated loyalty of the Highlands.
Now the friend of Scott, the representative of Pickle in Scott's
generation, was a Highlander, and Pickle was not only a traitor, a
profligate, an oppressor of his tenantry, and a liar, but (according
to Jacobite gossip which reached 'King James') a forger of the King's
name! Moreover he was, in all probability, one fountain of that
reproach, true or false, which still clings to the name of the brave
and gentle Archibald Cameron, the brother of Lochiel, whom Pickle
brought to the gallows. If we add that, when last we hear of Pickle,
he is probably engaged in a double treason, and certainly meditates
selling a regiment of his clan, like Hessians, to the Hanoverian
Government, it will be plain that his was no story for Scott to tell.
Pickle had, at least, the attraction of being eminently handsome. No
statelier gentleman than Pickle, as his faded portrait shows him in
full Highland costume, ever trod a measure at Holyrood. Tall,
athletic, with a frank and pleasing face, Pickle could never be taken
for a traitor and a spy. He seemed the fitting lord of that
castellated palace of his race, which, beautiful and majestic in
decay, mirrors itself in Loch Oich. Again, the man was brave; for he
moved freely in France, England, and Scotland, well knowing that the
skian was sharpened for his throat if he were detected. And the most
extraordinary fact in an extraordinary story is that Pickle WAS
detected, and denounced to the King over the water by Mrs. Archibald
Cameron, the widow of his victim. Yet the breach between James and
his little Court, on one side, and Prince Charles on the other, was
then so absolute that the Prince was dining with the spy, chatting
with him at the opera-ball, and presenting him with a gold snuff-box,
at about the very time when Pickle's treachery was known in Rome.
Afterwards, the knowledge of his infamy came too late, if it came at
all. The great scheme had failed; Cameron had fallen, and Frederick
of Prussia, ceasing to encourage Jacobitism, had become the ally of
England.
These things sound like the inventions of the romancer, but they rest
on unimpeachable evidence, printed and manuscript, and chiefly on
Pickle's own letters to his King, to his Prince, and to his English
employers--we cannot say 'pay-masters,' for PICKLE WAS NEVER PAID!
He obtained, indeed, singular advantages, but he seldom or never
could wring ready money from the Duke of Newcastle.
To understand Pickle's career, the reluctant reader must endure a
certain amount of actual history in minute details of date and place.
Every one is acquainted with the brilliant hour of Prince Charles:
his landing in Moidart accompanied by only seven men, his march on
Edinburgh, his success at Prestonpans, the race to Derby, the retreat
to Scotland, the gleam of victory at Falkirk, the ruin of Culloden,
the long months of wanderings and distress, the return to France in
1746. Then came two years of baffled intrigues; next, the Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle insisted on the Prince's expulsion from France; last,
he declined to withdraw. On December 10, 1748, he was arrested at
the opera, was lodged in the prison of Vincennes, was released, and
made his way to the Pope's city of Avignon, arriving there in the
last days of December 1748. On February 28, 1749, he rode out of
Avignon, and disappeared for many months from the ken of history.
For nearly eighteen years he preserved his incognito, vaguely heard
of here and there in England, France, Germany, Flanders, but always
involved in mystery. On that mystery, impenetrable to his father,
Pickle threw light enough for the purposes of the English Government,
but not during the darkest hours of Charles's incognito.
'Le Prince Edouard,' says Barbier in his journal for February 1750,
'fait l'admiration et la curiosite de l'Europe.' This work, alas! is
not likely to add to the admiration entertained for the unfortunate
adventurer, but any surviving curiosity as to the Prince's secret may
be assuaged. In the days of 1749-1750, before Pickle's revelations
begin, the drafts of the Prince's memoranda, notes, and angry love-
letters, preserved in Her Majesty's Library, enable us to follow his
movements. On much that is obscurely indicated in scarcely
decipherable scrawls, light is thrown by the French memoirs of that
age. The names of Madame de Talmond, Madame d'Aiguillon, and the
celebrated Montesquieu, are beacons in the general twilight. The
memoirs also explain, what was previously inexplicable, the motives
of Charles in choosing a life 'in a hole of a rock,' as he said after
the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). It is necessary, however, to
study the internal feuds of the Jacobites at this period, and these
are illuminated by the Stuart Papers, the letters of James and his
ministers.
The plan of our narrative, therefore, will be arranged in the
following manner. First, we sketch the character of Prince Charles
in boyhood, during his Scottish expedition, and as it developed in
cruelly thwarting circumstances between 1746 and 1749. In
illustrating his character the hostile parties within the Jacobite
camp must be described and defined. From February 1749 to September
1750 (when he visited London), we must try to pierce the darkness
that has been more than Egyptian. We can, at least, display the
total ignorance of Courts and diplomatists as to Charles's movements
before Pickle came to their assistance, and we discover a secret
which they ought to have known.
After the date 1752 we give, as far as possible, the personal history
of Pickle before he sold himself, and we unveil his motives for his
villany. Then we display Pickle in action, we select from his
letters, we show him deep in the Scottish, English, and continental
intrigues. He spoils the Elibank Plot, he reveals the hostile policy
of Frederick the Great, he leads on to the arrest of Archibald
Cameron, he sows disunion, he traduces and betrays. He finally
recovers his lands, robs his tenants, dabbles (probably) in the
French scheme of invasion (1759), offers further information, tries
to sell a regiment of his clan, and dies unexposed in 1761.
Minor spies are tracked here and there, as Rob Roy's son, James Mohr
Macgregor, Samuel Cameron, and Oliver Macallester. English
machinations against the Prince's life and liberty are unveiled. His
utter decadence is illustrated, and we leave him weary, dishonoured,
and abandoned.
'A sair, sair altered man
Prince Charlie cam' hame'
to Rome; and the refusal there of even a titular kingship.
The whole book aims chiefly at satisfying the passion of curiosity.
However unimportant a secret may be, it is pleasant to know what all
Europe was once vainly anxious to discover. In the revelation of
manners, too, and in tracing the relations of famous wits and
beauties with a person then so celebrated as Prince Charles, there is
a certain amount of entertainment which may excuse some labour of
research. Our history is of next to no political value, but it
revives as in a magic mirror somewhat dim, certain scenes of actual
human life. Now and again the mist breaks, and real passionate
faces, gestures of living men and women, are beheld in the clear-
obscure. We see Lochgarry throw his dirk after his son, and
pronounce his curse. We mark Pickle furtively scribbling after
midnight in French inns. We note Charles hiding in the alcove of a
lady's chamber in a convent. We admire the 'rich anger' of his
Polish mistress, and the sullen rage of Lord Hyndford, baffled by
'the perfidious Court' of Frederick the Great. The old histories
emerge into light, like the writing in sympathetic ink on the secret
despatches of King James.
CHAPTER II--CHARLES EDWARD STUART
Prince Charles--Contradictions in his character--Extremes of bad and
good--Evolution of character--The Prince's personal advantages--
Common mistake as to the colour of his eyes--His portraits from youth
to age--Descriptions of Charles by the Duc de Liria; the President de
Brosses; Gray; Charles's courage--The siege of Gaeta--Story of Lord
Elcho--The real facts--The Prince's horse shot at Culloden--Foolish
fables of David Hume confuted--Charles's literary tastes--His
clemency--His honourable conduct--Contrast with Cumberland--His
graciousness--His faults--Charge of avarice--Love of wine--Religious
levity--James on Charles's faults--An unpleasant discovery--Influence
of Murray of Broughton--Rapid decline of character after 1746--
Temper, wine, and women--Deep distrust of James's Court--Rupture with
James--Divisions among Jacobites--King's men and Prince's men--
Marischal, Kelly, Lismore, Clancarty--Anecdote of Clancarty and
Braddock--Clancarty and d'Argenson--Balhaldie--Lally Tollendal--The
Duke of York--His secret flight from Paris--'Insigne Fourberie'--
Anxiety of Charles--The fatal cardinal's hat--Madame de Pompadour--
Charles rejects her advances--His love affairs--Madame de Talmond--
Voltaire's verses on her--Her scepticism in religion--Her husband--
Correspondence with Montesquieu--The Duchesse d'Aiguillon--Peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle--Charles refuses to retire to Fribourg--The gold
plate--Scenes with Madame de Talmond--Bulkeley's interference--Arrest
of Charles--The compasses--Charles goes to Avignon--His desperate
condition--His policy--Based on a scheme of d'Argenson--He leaves
Avignon--He is lost to sight and hearing.
'Charles Edward Stuart,' says Lord Stanhope, 'is one of those
characters that cannot be portrayed at a single sketch, but have so
greatly altered as to require a new delineation at different
periods.' {12a} Now he 'glitters all over like the star which they
tell you appeared at his nativity,' and which still shines beside
him, Micat inter omnes, on a medal struck in his boyhood. {12b} Anon
he is sunk in besotted vice, a cruel lover, a solitary tippler, a
broken man. We study the period of transition.
Descriptions of his character vary between the noble encomium written
in prison by Archibald Cameron, the last man who died for the
Stuarts, and the virulent censures of Lord Elcho and Dr. King.
Veterans known to Sir Walter Scott wept at the mention of the
Prince's name; yet, as early as the tenth year after Prestonpans, his
most devoted adherent, Henry Goring, left him in an angry despair.
Nevertheless, the character so variously estimated, so tenderly
loved, so loathed, so despised, was one character; modified, swiftly
or slowly, as its natural elements developed or decayed under the
various influences of struggle, of success, of long endurance, of
hope deferred, and of bitter disappointment. The gay, kind, brave,
loyal, and clement Prince Charlie became the fierce, shabby, battered
exile, homeless, and all but friendless. The change, of course, was
not instantaneous, but gradual; it was not the result of one, but of
many causes. Even out of his final degradation, Charles occasionally
speaks with his real voice: his inborn goodness of heart, remarked
before his earliest adventures, utters its protest against the self
he has become; just as, on the other hand, long ere he set his foot
on Scottish soil, his father had noted his fatal inclination to wine
and revel.
The processes in this change of character, the events, the
temptations, the trials under which Charles became an altered man,
have been very slightly studied, and, indeed, have been very
obscurely known. Even Mr. Ewald, the author of the most elaborate
biography of the Prince, {13} neglected some important French printed
sources, while manuscript documents, here for the first time
published, were not at his command. The present essay is itself
unavoidably incomplete, for of family papers bearing on the subject
many have perished under the teeth of time, and in one case, of rats,
while others are not accessible to the writer. Nevertheless, it is
hoped that this work elucidates much which has long been veiled in
the motives, conduct, and secret movements of Charles during the
years between 1749 and the death, in 1766, of his father, the Old
Chevalier. Charles then emerged from a retirement of seventeen
years; the European game of Hide and Seek was over, and it is not
proposed to study the Prince in the days of his manifest decline, and
among the disgraces of his miserable marriage. His 'incognito' is
our topic; the period of 'deep and isolated enterprise' which puzzled
every Foreign Office in Europe, and practically only ended, as far as
hope was concerned, with the break-up of the Jacobite party in 1754-
1756, or rather with Hawke's defeat of Conflans in 1759.
Ours is a strange and melancholy tale of desperate loyalties, and of
a treason almost unparalleled for secrecy and persistence. We have
to do with the back-stairs of diplomacy, with spies and traitors,
with cloak and sword, with blabbing servants, and inquisitive
ambassadors, with disguise and discovery, with friends more staunch
than steel, or weaker than water, with petty jealousies, with the
relentless persecution of a brave man, and with the consequent ruin
of a gallant life.
To understand the psychological problem, the degradation of a
promising personality, it is necessary to glance rapidly at what we
know of Charles before his Scottish expedition.
To begin at the beginning, in physical qualities the Prince was
dowered by a kind fairy. He was firmly though slimly built, of the
best stature for strength and health. 'He had a body made for war,'
writes Lord Elcho, who hated him. The gift of beauty (in his case
peculiarly fatal, as will be seen) had not been denied to him. His
brow was high and broad, his nose shapely, his eyes of a rich dark
brown, his hair of a chestnut hue, golden at the tips. Though his
eyes are described as blue, both in 1744 by Sir Horace Mann, and in
later life (1770) by an English lady in Rome, though Lord Stanhope
and Mr. Stevenson agree in this error, brown was really their colour.
{15a} Charles inherited the dark eyes of his father, 'the Black
Bird,' and of Mary Stuart. This is manifest from all the original
portraits and miniatures, including that given by the Prince to his
secretary, Murray of Broughton, now in my collection. In boyhood
Charles's face had a merry, mutinous, rather reckless expression, as
portraits prove. Hundreds of faces like his may be seen at the
public schools; indeed, Charles had many 'doubles,' who sometimes
traded on the resemblance, sometimes, wittingly or unwittingly,
misled the spies that constantly pursued him. {15b} His adherents
fondly declared that his natural air of distinction, his princely
bearing, were too marked to be concealed in any travesty. Yet no man
has, in disguises of his person, been more successful. We may grant
'the grand air' to Charles, but we must admit that he could
successfully dissemble it.
About 1743, when a number of miniatures of the Prince were done in
Italy for presentation to adherents, Charles's boyish mirth, as seen
in these works of art, has become somewhat petulant, if not arrogant,
but he is still 'a lad with the bloom of a lass.' A shade of
aspiring melancholy marks a portrait done in France, just before the
expedition to Scotland. Le Toque's fine portrait of the Prince in
armour (1748) shows a manly and martial but rather sinister
countenance. A plaster bust, done from a life mask, if not from Le
Moine's bust in marble (1750), was thought the best likeness by Dr.
King. This bust was openly sold in Red Lion Square, and, when
Charles visited Dr. King in September 1750, the Doctor's servant
observed the resemblance. I have never seen a copy of this bust, and
the medal struck in 1750, an intaglio of the same date, and a very
rare profile in the collection of the Duke of Atholl, give a similar
idea of the Prince as he was at thirty. A distinguished artist, who
outlined Charles's profile and applied it to another of Her present
Majesty in youth, tells me that they are almost exact counterparts.
Next we come to the angry eyes and swollen features of Ozias
Humphreys's miniature, in the Duke of Atholl's collection, and in his
sketch published in the 'Lockhart Papers' (1776), and, finally, to
the fallen weary old face designed by Gavin Hamilton. Charles's
younger brother, Henry, Duke of York, was a prettier boy, but it is
curious to mark the prematurely priestly and 'Italianate' expression
of the Duke in youth, while Charles still seems a merry lad. Of
Charles in boyhood many anecdotes are told. At the age of two or
three he is said to have been taken to see the Pope in his garden,
and to have refused the usual marks of reverence. Walton, the
English agent in Florence, reports an outbreak of ferocious temper in
1733. {17a} Though based on gossip, the story seems to forebode the
later excesses of anger. Earlier, in 1727, the Duc de Liria, a son
of Marshal Berwick, draws a pretty picture of the child when about
seven years old:-
'The King of England did not wish me to leave before May 4, and I was
only too happy to remain at his feet, not merely on account of the
love and respect I have borne him all my life, but also because I was
never weary of watching the Princes, his sons. The Prince of Wales
was now six and a half, and, besides his great beauty, was remarkable
for dexterity, grace, and almost supernatural cleverness. Not only
could he read fluently, but he knew the doctrines of the Christian
faith as well as the master who had taught him. He could ride; could
fire a gun; and, more surprising still, I have seen him take a
crossbow and kill birds on the roof, and split a rolling ball with a
shaft, ten times in succession. He speaks English, French, and
Italian perfectly, and altogether he is the most ideal Prince I have
ever met in the course of my life.
'The Duke of York, His Majesty's second son, is two years old, and a
prodigy of beauty and strength.' {17b}
Gray, certainly no Jacobite, when at Rome with Horace Walpole speaks
very kindly of the two gay young Princes. He sneers at their
melancholy father, of whom Montesquieu writes, 'ce Prince a une bonne
physiononie et noble. Il paroit triste, pieux.' {18a} Young Charles
was neither pious nor melancholy.
Of Charles at the age of twenty, the President de Brosses (the author
of 'Les Dieux Fetiches') speaks as an unconcerned observer. 'I hear
from those who know them both thoroughly that the eldest has far
higher worth, and is much more beloved by his friends; that he has a
kind heart and a high courage; that he feels warmly for his family's
misfortunes, and that if some day he does not retrieve them, it will
not be for want of intrepidity.' {18b}
Charles's gallantry when under fire as a mere boy, at the siege of
Gaeta (1734), was, indeed, greatly admired and generally extolled.
{18c} His courage has been much more foolishly denied by his enemies
than too eagerly applauded by friends who had seen him tried by every
species of danger.
Aspersions have been thrown on Charles's personal bravery; it may be
worth while to comment on them. The story of Lord Elcho's
reproaching the Prince for not heading a charge of the second line at
Culloden, has unluckily been circulated by Sir Walter Scott. On
February 9, 1826, Scott met Sir James Stuart Denham, whose father was
out in the Forty-five, and whose uncle was the Lord Elcho of that
date. Lord Elcho wrote memoirs, still unpublished, but used by Mr.
Ewald in his 'Life of the Prince.' Elcho is a hostile witness: for
twenty years he vainly dunned Charles for a debt of 1,5001.
According to Sir James Stuart Denham, Elcho asked Charles to lead a
final charge at Culloden, retrieve the battle, or die sword in hand.
The Prince rode off the field, Elcho calling him 'a damned, cowardly
Italian--.'
No such passage occurs in Elcho's diary. He says that, after the
flight, he found Charles, in the belief that he had been betrayed,
anxious only for his Irish officers, and determined to go to France,
not to join the clans at Ruthven. Elcho most justly censured and
resolved 'never to have anything more to do with him,' a broken vow!
{19a} As a matter of fact, Sir Robert Strange saw Charles vainly
trying to rally the Highlanders, and Sir Stuart Thriepland of Fingask
gives the same evidence. {19b}
In his seclusion during 1750, Charles wrote a little memoir, still
unpublished, about his Highland wanderings. In this he says that he
was 'led off the field by those about him,' when the clans broke at
Culloden. 'The Prince then changed his horse, his own having been
wounded by a musket-ball in the shoulder.' {20a}
The second-hand chatter of Hume, in his letter to Sir John Pringle
(February 13, 1773), is unworthy of serious attention.
Helvetius told Hume that his house at Paris had sheltered the Prince
in the years following his expulsion from France, in 1748. He called
Charles 'the most unworthy of mortals, insomuch that I have been
assured, when he went down to Nantz to embark on his expedition to
Scotland, he took fright and refused to go on board; and his
attendants, thinking the matter gone too far, and that they would be
affronted for his cowardice, carried him in the night time into the
ship, pieds et mains lies.'
The sceptical Hume accepts this absurd statement without even asking,
or at least without giving, the name of Helvetius's informant. The
adventurer who insisted on going forward when, at his first landing
in Scotland, even Sir Thomas Sheridan, with all the chiefs present,
advised retreat, cannot conceivably have been the poltroon of Hume's
myth. Even Hume's correspondent, Sir John Pringle, was manifestly
staggered by the anecdote, and tells Hume that another of his fables
is denied by the very witness to whom Hume appealed. {20b} Hume had
cited Lord Holdernesse for the story that Charles's presence in
London in 1753 (1750 seems to be meant) was known at the time to
George II. Lord Holdernesse declared that there was nothing in the
tale given by Hume on his authority! That Charles did not join the
rallied clans at Ruthven after Culloden was the result of various
misleading circumstances, not of cowardice. Even after 1746 he
constantly carried his life in his hand, not only in expeditions to
England (and probably to Scotland and Ireland), but in peril from the
daggers of assassins, as will later be shown.
High-spirited and daring, Charles was also hardy. In Italy he
practised walking without stockings, to inure his feet to long
marches: he was devoted to boar-hunting, shooting, and golf. {21a}
He had no touch of Italian effeminacy, otherwise he could never have
survived his Highland distresses. In travelling he was swift, and
incapable of fatigue. 'He has,' said early observer, 'THE HABIT OF
KEEPING A SECRET.' Many secrets, indeed, he kept so well that
history is still baffled by them, as diplomatists were perplexed
between 1749 and 1766. {21b}
We may discount Murray of Broughton's eulogies Charles's Greek,
Latin, and Hebrew, and his knowledge of history and philosophy,
though backed by the Jesuit Cordara. {21c} Charles's education had
been interrupted by quarrels between his parents about Catholic or
Protestant tutors. His cousin and governor, Sir Thomas Sheridan (a
descendant of James II.), certainly did not teach him to spell; his
style in French and English is often obscure, and, when it is clear,
we know not whether he was not inspired by some more literary
adviser. In matters of taste he was fond of music and archaeology,
and greatly addicted to books. De Brosses, however, considered him
'less cultivated than Princes should be at his age,' and d'Argenson
says that his knowledge was scanty and that he had little
conversation. A few of his books, the morocco tooled with the Prince
of Wales's feathers, remain, but not enough to tell us much about his
literary tastes. On these, however, we shall give ample information.
In Paris, after Culloden, he bought Macchiavelli's works, probably in
search of practical hints on state-craft. In spite of a proclamation
by Charles, which Montesquieu applauded, he certainly had no claim to
a seat in the French Academy, which Montesquieu playfully offered to
secure for him.
In brief, Charles was a spirited, eager boy, very capable of
patience, intensely secretive, and, as he showed in 1745-1746,
endowed with a really extraordinary clemency, and in one regard,
where his enemies were concerned, with a sense of honour most unusual
in his generation. His care for the wounded, after Prestonpans, is
acknowledged by the timid and Whiggish Home, in his 'History of the
Rebellion,' and is very warmly and gracefully expressed in a letter
to his father, written at Holyrood.' {23a} He could not be induced
to punish miscreants who attempted his life and snapped pistols in
his face. He could hardly be compelled to retort to the English
offer of 30,0001. for his head by issuing a similar proclamation
about 'the Elector.' 'I smiled and created it' (the proclamation of
a reward of 30,000l. for his head) 'with the disdain it deserved,
upon which they' (the Highlanders) 'flew into a violent rage, and
insisted upon my doing the same by him.' This occurs in a letter
from Charles to James, September 10, 1745, dated from Perth. A copy
is found among Bishop Forbes's papers. Here Charles deplores the
cruelties practised under Charles II. and James II., and the
consequent estrangement of the Duke of Argyll. {23b}
In brief, the contest between Charles and Cumberland was that of a
civilised and chivalrous commander against a foe as treacherous and
cruel as a Huron or an Iroquois. On this point there is no
possibility of doubt. The English Government offered a vast reward
for Charles, dead or alive. The soldiers were told significantly, by
Cumberland, that he did not want prisoners. On the continent
assassins lurked for the Prince, and ambassadors urged the use of
personal violence. Meanwhile the Prince absolutely forbade even a
legitimate armed attack directed mainly against his enemy, then red-
handed from the murder of the wounded.
With this loyalty to his foes, with this clemency to enemies in his
power, Charles certainly combined a royal grace, and could do
handsome things handsomely. Thus, in 1745, some of the tenants of
Oliphant of Gask would not don the white cockade at his command. He
therefore 'laid an arrest or inhibition on their corn-fields.'
Charles, finding the grain hanging dead-ripe, as he marched through
Perthshire, inquired the cause, and when he had learned it, broke the
'taboo' by cutting some ears with his sword, or by gathering them and
giving them to his horse, saving that the farmers might now, by his
authority, follow his example and break the inhibition. {24a}
Making every allowance for an enthusiasm of loyalty on the part of
the narrators in Bishop Forbes's MS. 'Lyon in Mourning' (partly
published by Robert Chambers in 'Jacobite Memoirs' {24b}), it is
certain that the courage, endurance, and gay content of the Prince in
his Highland wanderings deserve the high praise given by Smollett.
Thus, in many ways we see the elements of a distinguished and
attractive character in Charles. His enemies, like the renegade Dr.
King, of St. Mary's Hall (ob. 1763), in his posthumous 'Anecdotes,'
accused the Prince of avarice. He would borrow money from a lady,
says King, while he had plenty of his own; he neglected those who had
ruined themselves for his sake. Henry Goring accused the Prince of
shabbiness to his face, but assuredly he who insisted on laying down
money on the rocks of a deserted fishers' islet to pay for some dry
fish eaten there by himself and his companions--he who gave liberally
to gentle and simple out of the treasure buried near Loch Arkaig, who
refused a French pension for himself, and asked favours only for his
friends--afforded singular proofs of Dr. King's charge of selfish
greed. The fault grew on him later. After breaking with the French
Court in 1748, Charles had little or nothing of his own to give away.
His Sobieski jewels he had pawned for the expenses of the war, having
no heart to wear them, he said, 'on this side of the water.' He was
often in actual need, though we may not accept d'Argenson's story of
how he was once seen selling his pistols to a gun-maker. {25a} If
ever he was a miser, that vice fixed itself upon him in his utter
moral ruin.
Were there, then, no signs in his early life of the faults which grew
so rapidly when hope was lost? There were such signs. As early as
1742, James had observed in Charles a slight inclination to wine and
gaiety, and believed that his companions, especially Francis
Strickland, {25b} were setting him against his younger brother, the
Duke of York, who had neither the health nor the disposition to be a
roysterer. {26a}
Again, on February 3, 1747, James recurs, in a long letter, to what
passed in 1742, 'because that is the foundation, and I may say the
key, of all that has followed.' Now in 1742 Murray of Broughton paid
his first visit to Rome, and was fascinated by Charles. This unhappy
man, afterwards the Judas of the cause, was unscrupulous in private
life in matters of which it is needless to speak more fully. He was,
or gave himself the air of being, a very stout Protestant. James
employed him, but probably liked him little. It is to be gathered,
from James's letter of February 3, 1747, that he suspected Charles of
listening to advice, probably from Murray, about his changing his
religion. 'You cannot forget how you were prevailed upon to speak to
your brother' (the devout Duke of York) 'on very nice and delicate
subjects, and that without saying the least thing to me, though we
lived in the same house . . . You were then much younger than you are
now, and therefore could be more easily led by specious arguments and
pretences. . . . It will, to be sure, have been represented to you
that our religion is a great prejudice to our interest, but that it
may in some measure be remedied by a certain free way of thinking and
acting.' {26b}
In 1749 James made a disagreeable discovery, which he communicated to
Lord Lismore. A cassette, or coffer, belonging to Charles, had,
apparently, been left in Paris, and, after many adventures on the
road, was brought to Rome by the French ambassador. James opened it,
and found that it contained letters 'from myself and the Queen.' But
it also offered proof that the Prince had carried on a secret
correspondence with England, long before he left Rome in 1744.
Probably his adherents wished James to resign in his favour. {27a}
As to religion, Dr. King admits that Charles was no bigot, and
d'Argenson contrasted his disengaged way of treating theology with
the exaggerated devoutness of the Duke of York. Even during the
march into England, Lord Elcho told an inquirer that the Prince's
religion 'was still to seek.' Assuredly he would never make
shipwreck on the Stuart fidelity to Catholicism. All this was deeply
distressing to the pious James, and all this dated from 1742, that
is, from the time of Murray of Broughton's visit to Rome.
Indifference to religious strictness was, even then, accompanied by a
love of wine, in some slight degree. Already, too, a little rift in
the friendship of the princely brothers was apparent; there were
secrets between them which Henry must have communicated to James.
As for the fatal vice of drink, it is hinted at on April 15, 1747, by
an anonymous Paris correspondent of Lord Dunbar's. Charles had about
him 'an Irish cordelier,' one Kelly, whom he employed as a secretary.
Kelly is accused of talking contemptuously about James. 'It were to
be wished that His Royal Highness would forbid that friar his
apartment, because he passes for a notorious drunkard . . . and His
Royal Highness's character, in point of sobriety, has been a little
blemished on this friar's account.' {28a}
The cold, hunger, and fatigue of the Highland distresses had, no
doubt, often prompted recourse to the national dram of whiskey, and
Charles would put a bottle of brandy to his lips 'without ceremony,'
says Bishop Forbes. The Prince on one occasion is said to have drunk
the champion 'bowlsman' of the Islands under the table. {28b}
What had been a jovial feast became a custom, a consolation, and a
curse, while there is reason, as has been seen, to suppose that
Charles, quite early in life, showed promise of intemperance. In
happier circumstances these early tastes might never have been
developed into a positive disease. James himself, in youth, had not
been a pattern of strict sobriety, but later middle age found him
almost ascetic.
We have sketched a character endowed with many fine qualities, and
capable of winning devoted affection. We now examine the rapid
decline of a nature originally noble.
Returned from Scotland in 1746, Prince Charles brought with him a
head full of indigested romance, a heart rich in chimerical
expectations. He now prided himself on being a plain hardy
mountaineer. He took a line of his own; he concealed his measures
from the spy-ridden Court of his father in Rome; he quarrelled with
his brother, the Duke of York, when the Duke accepted a cardinal's
hat. He broke violently with the French king, who would not aid him.
He sulked at Avignon. He sought Spanish help, which was refused. He
again became the centre of fashion and of disaffection in Paris.
Ladies travelled from England merely to see him in his box at the
theatre. Princesses and duchesses 'pulled caps for him.' Naturally
cold (as his enemies averred) where women were concerned, he was now
beleaguered, besieged, taken by storm by the fair. He kept up the
habit of drinking which had been noted in him even before his
expedition to Scotland. He allowed his old boyish scepticism
(caused by a mixed Protestant and Catholic education) to take the
form of studied religious indifference. After defying and being
expelled by Louis XV., he adopted (what has never, perhaps, been
observed) the wild advice of d'Argenson ('La Bete,' and Louis's ex-
minister of foreign affairs), he betook himself to a life of darkling
adventures, to a hidden and homeless exile. In many of his journeys
he found Pickle in his path, and Pickle finally made his labours
vain. The real source of all this imbroglio, in addition to an
exasperated daring and a strangely secretive temperament, was a deep,
well-grounded mistrust of the people employed by his father, the old
'King over the water.' Whatever James knew was known in London by
next mail. Charles was aware of this, and was not aware that his own
actions were almost as successfully spied upon and reported. He
therefore concealed his plans and movements from James, and even--
till Pickle came on the scene--from Europe and from England. The
result of his reticence was an irremediable rupture between 'the King
and the Prince of Wales--over the water,' an incurable split in the
Jacobite camp.
The general outline here sketched must now be filled up in detail.
The origo mali was the divisions among the Jacobites. Ever since
1715 these had existed and multiplied. Mar was thought to be a
traitor. Atterbury, in exile, suspected O'Brien (Lord Lismore). The
Earl Marischal and Kelly {30a} were set against James's ministers,
Lord Sempil, Lord Lismore, and Balhaldie, the exiled chief of the
Macgregors. Lord Dunbar (Murray, brother of Lord Mansfield) was in
James's disgrace at Avignon. Sempil, Balhaldie, Lismore were 'the
King's party,' opposed to Marischal, Kelly, Sheridan, Lally
Tollendal, 'the Prince's party.' Each sect inveighed against the
other in unmeasured terms of reproach. This division widened when
Charles was in France, just before the expedition to Scotland.
One of James's agents in Paris, Lord Sempil, writes to him on July 5,
1745, with warnings against the Prince's counsellors, especially Sir
Thomas Sheridan (Charles's governor, and left-handed cousin) and
Kelly. They, with Lally Tollendal and others, arranged the descent
on Scotland without the knowledge of James or Sempil, whom Charles
and his party bitterly distrusted, as they also distrusted Lord
Lismore (O'Brien), James's other agent. While the Prince was in
Scotland (1745-1746), even before Prestonpans, the Jacobite affairs
in France were perplexed by the action of Lismore, Sempil, and
Balhaldie, acting for James, while the old Earl Marischal (who had
been in the rising of 1715, and the Glenshiel affair of 1719) acted
for the Prince. With the Earl Marischal was, for some time, Lord
Clancarty, of whom Sempil speaks as 'a very brave and worthy man.'
{31a} On the other hand, Oliver Macallester, the spy, describes
Clancarty, with whom he lived, as a slovenly, drunken, blaspheming
rogue, one of whose eyes General Braddock had knocked out with a
bottle in a tavern brawl! Clancarty gave himself forth as a
representative of the English Jacobites, but d'Argenson, in his
'Memoires,' says he could produce no names of men of rank in the
party except his own. D'Argenson was pestered by women, priests, and
ragged Irish adventurers. In September 1745, the Earl Marischal and
Clancarty visited d'Argenson, then foreign minister of Louis XV. in
the King's camp in Flanders. They asked for aid, and the scene, as
described by the spy Macallester, on Clancarty's information, was
curious. D'Argenson taunted the Lord Marischal with not being at
Charles's side in Scotland. To the slovenly Clancarty he said, 'Sir,
your wig is ill-combed. Would you like to see my perruquier? He
manages wigs very well.' Clancarty, who wore 'an ordinary black tie-
wig,' jumped up, saying in English, 'Damn the fellow! He is making
his diversion of us.' {32a} The Lord Marischal was already on bad
personal terms with Charles. Clancarty was a ruffian, d'Argenson was
the adviser who suggested Charles's hidden and fugitive life after
1748. The singular behaviour of the Earl Marischal in 1751-1754 will
afterwards be illustrated by the letters of Pickle, who drew much of
his information from the unsuspicious old ambassador of Frederick the
Great to the Court of Versailles. It is plain that the Duke of
Ormonde was right when he said that 'too many people are meddling in
your Majesty's affairs with the French Court at this juncture'
(November 15, 1745). The Duke of York, Charles's brother, was on the
seaboard of France in autumn 1745. At Arras he met the gallant
Chevalier Wogan, who had rescued his mother from prison at Innspruck.
{32b} Clancarty, Lord Marischal, and Lally Tollendal were pressing
for a French expedition to start in aid of Charles. Sempil,
Balhaldie, Lismore, were intriguing and interfering. Voltaire wrote
a proclamation for Charles to issue. An expedition was arranged,
troops and ships were gathered at Boulogne. Swedes were to join from
Gothenburg. On Christmas Eve, 1745, nothing was ready, and the
secret leaked out. A million was sent to Scotland; the money arrived
too late; we shall hear more of it. {33a} The Duke of York, though
he fought well at Antwerp, was kneeling in every shrine, and was in
church when the news of Culloden was brought to him. This
information he gave, in the present century, to one of the Stair
family. {33b} The rivalries and enmities went on increasing and
multiplying into cross-divisions after Charles made his escape to
France in August 1746. He was filled with distrust of his father's
advisers; his own were disliked by James. The correspondence of
Horace Mann, and of Walton, an English agent in Florence, shows that
England received all intelligence sent to James from Paris, and knew
all that passed in James's cabinet in Rome. {33c} The Abbe Grant was
suspected of being the spy.
Among so many worse than doubtful friends, Charles, after 1746, took
his own course; even his father knew little or nothing of his
movements. Between his departure from Avignon (February 1749) and
the accession of Pickle to the Hanoverian side (Autumn 1749 or 1750),
Charles baffled every Foreign Office in Europe. Indeed, Pickle was
of little service till 1751 or 1752. Curious light on Charles's
character, and on the entangled quarrels of the Jacobites, is cast by
d'Argenson's 'Memoires.' In Spring, 1747, the Duke of York
disappeared from Paris, almost as cleverly as Charles himself could
have done. D'Argenson thus describes his manoeuvre. 'He fled from
Paris with circumstances of distinguished treachery' (insigne
fourberie) towards his brother, the Prince. He invited Charles to
supper; his house was brilliantly lighted up; all his servants were
in readiness; but HE had made his escape by five o'clock in the
afternoon, aided by Cardinal Tencin. His Governor, the Chevalier
Graeme, was not in the secret. The Prince waited for him till
midnight, and was in a mortal anxiety. He believed that the English
attempts to kidnap or assassinate himself had been directed against
his brother. At last, after three days, he received a letter from
the Duke of York, 'explaining his fatal design' to accept a
cardinal's hat. 'Prince Charles is determined never to return to
Rome, BUT RATHER TO TAKE REFUGE IN SOME HOLE IN A ROCK.'
Charles, in fact, saw that, if he was to succeed in England, he could
not have too little connection with Rome. D'Argenson describes his
brother Henry as 'Italian, superstitious, a rogue, avaricious, fond
of ease, and jealous of the Prince.' Cardinal Tencin, he says, and
Lord and Lady Lismore, have been bribed by England to wheedle Henry
into the cardinalate, 'which England desires more than anything in
the world.' Charles expressed the same opinion in an epigram. Lady
Lismore, for a short time believed to be the mistress of Louis XV.,
was deeply suspected. Whatever may be the truth of these charges, M.
de Puysieux, an enemy of Charles, succeeded at the Foreign Office to
d'Argenson, who had a queer sentimental liking for the Prince.
Cardinal Tencin was insulted, and was hostile; the Lismores were
absolutely estranged, if not treacherous; there was a quarrel between
James and Henry in Rome, and Charles, in Paris. {35a} Such was the
state of affairs at the end of 1747, while Pickle was still a
prisoner in the Tower of London, engaged, he tells us, in acts of
charity towards his fellow-captives!
Meanwhile Charles's private conduct demands a moment's attention.
Madame de Pompadour was all powerful at Court. {35b} This was,
therefore, a favourable moment for Charles, in a chivalrous affection
for the injured French Queen (his dead mother's kinswoman), to insult
the reigning favourite. Madame de Pompadour sent him billets on that
thick smooth vellum paper of hers, sealed with the arms of France.
The Prince tossed them into the fire and made no answer; it is Pickle
who gives us this information. Maria Theresa later stooped to call
Madame de Pompadour her cousin. Charles was prouder or less politic;
afterwards he stooped like Maria Theresa.
For his part, says d'Argenson, the Prince 'now amused himself with
love affairs. Madame de Guemene almost ravished him by force; they
have quarrelled, after a ridiculous scene; he is living now with the
Princesse de Talmond. He is full of fury, and wishes in everything
to imitate Charles XII. of Sweden and stand a siege in his house like
Charles XII. at Bender.' This was in anticipation of arrest, after
the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in which his expulsion from France was
one of the conditions. This Princesse de Talmond, as we shall see,
was the unworthy Flora Macdonald of Charles in his later wanderings,
his protectress, and, unlike Flora, his mistress. She was not young;
Madame d'Aiguillon calls her vieille femme in a curious play, 'La
Prison du Prince Charles Edouard Stuart,' written by d'Argenson in
imitation of Shakespeare. {36a} The Princesse, nee Marie
Jablonowski, a cousin of the Queen of France and of Charles, married
Anne Charles Prince de Talmond, of the great house of La Trimouille,
in 1730. She must have been nearly forty in 1749, and some ten years
older than her lover.
We shall later, when Charles is concealed by the Princesse de
Talmond, present the reader with her 'portrait' by the mordant pen of
Madame du Deffand. Here Voltaire's rhymed portrait may be cited:
Les dieux, en la donnant naissance
Aux lieux par la Saxe envahis,
Lui donnerent pour recompense
Le gout qu'on ne trouve qu'en France,
Et l'esprit de tous les pays.
The Princesse, who frequented the Philosophes, appears to have
encouraged Charles in free thinking and ostentatious indifference in
religion.
'He is a handsome Prince, and I should love him as much as my wife
does,' says poor M. de Talmond, in d'Argenson's play, 'but why is he
not saintly, and ruled by the Congregation de Saint Ignace, like his
father? It is Madame de Talmond who preaches to him independence and
incredulity. She is bringing the curse of God upon me. How old will
she be before the conversion for which I pray daily to Saint Francois
Xavier?'
Such was Madame de Talmond, an old mistress of a young man, flighty,
philosophical, and sharp of tongue.
On July 18, 1748, Charles communicated to Louis XV. his protest
against the article of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle which drove him
out of every secular state in Europe. Louis broke a solemn treaty by
assenting to this article. Charles published his protest and sent it
to Montesquieu. He complained that Montesquieu had not given him the
new edition of his book on the Romans. 'La confiance devroit etre
mieux etabli entre les auteurs: j'espere que ma facon de penser pour
vous m'attirera la continuation de votre bonne volonte pour moi.'
{37a} Montesquieu praised Charles's 'simplicity, nobility, and
eloquence': 'comme vous le dites tres bien, vous estes un auteur.'
'Were you not so great a Prince, the Duchesse de Guillon'
(d'Aiguillon) 'and I would secure you a place in the Academy.'
The Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who later watched by Montesquieu's death-
bed, was a friend of Charles. She and Madame de Talmond literally
'pull caps' for him in d'Argenson's play. But she was in favour of
his going to Fribourg with a pension after the Peace: Madame de
Talmond encouraged resistance. Louis's minister, M. de Cousteille,
applied to Fribourg for an asylum for Charles on June 24, 1748. On
September 8, Burnaby wrote, for England, a long remonstrance to the
'Laudable States of Fribourg,' calling Charles 'this young Italian!'
The States, in five lines, rebuked Burnaby's impertinence, as
'unconfined in its expressions and so unsuitable to a Sovereign State
that we did not judge it proper to answer it.' {38a}
To Fribourg Charles would not go. He braved the French Court in
every way. He even insisted on a goldsmith's preferring his order
for a great service of plate to the King's, and, having obtained the
plate, he feasted the Princesse de Talmond, his friend and cousin,
the Duc de Bouillon, and a crowd of other distinguished people. {38b}
In his demeanour Charles resolutely affronted the French Ministers.
There were terrible scenes with Madame de Talmond, especially when
Charles was forbidden the house by her husband. Charles was led away
from her closed door by Bulkeley, the brother-in-law of Marshal
Berwick, and a friend of Montesquieu's. {39a} Thus the violence
which afterwards interrupted and ended Charles's liaison with Madame
de Talmond had already declared itself. One day, according to
d'Argenson, the lady said, 'You want to give ME the second volume in
your romance of compromising Madame de Montbazon [his cousin] with
your two pistol-shots.' No more is known of this adventure. But
Charles was popular both in Court and town: his resistance to
expulsion was applauded. De Gevres was sent by the King to entreat
Charles to leave France; 'he received de Gevres gallantly, his hand
on his sword-hilt.' D'Argenson saw him at the opera on December 3,
1748, 'fort gai et fort beau, admire de tout le public.'
On December 10, 1748, Charles was arrested at the door of the opera
house, bound hand and foot, searched, and dragged to Vincennes. The
deplorable scene is too familiar for repetition. One point has
escaped notice. Charles (according to d'Argenson) had told de Gevres
that he would die by his own hand, if arrested. Two pistols were
found on him; he had always carried them since his Scottish
expedition. But a PAIR OF COMPASSES was also found. Now it was with
a pair of compasses that his friend, Lally Tollendal, long afterwards
attempted to commit suicide in prison. The pistols were carried in
fear of assassination, but what does a man want with a pair of
compasses at the opera? {40a}
After some days of detention at Vincennes, Charles was released, was
conducted out of French territory, and made his way to Avignon, where
he resided during January and February 1749. He had gained the
sympathy of the mob, both in Paris and in London. Some of the French
Court, including the Dauphin, were eager in his cause. Songs and
poems were written against Louis XV, D'Argenson, as we know, being
out of office, composed a play on Charles's martyrdom. So much
contempt for Louis was excited, that a nail was knocked into the
coffin of French royalty. The King, at the dictation of England, had
arrested, bound, imprisoned, and expelled his kinsman, his guest, and
(by the Treaty of Fontainebleau) his ally.
Applause and pity from the fickle and forgetful the Prince had won,
but his condition was now desperate. Refusing to accept a pension
from France, he was poor; his jewels he had pawned for the Scottish
expedition. He had disobeyed his father's commands and mortally
offended Louis by refusing to leave France. His adherents in Paris
(as their letters to Rome prove) were in despair. His party, as has
been shown, was broken up into hostile camps. Lochiel was dead.
Lord George Murray had been insulted and estranged. The Earl
Marischal had declined Charles's invitation to manage his affairs
(1747). Elcho was a persistent and infuriated dun. Clancarty was
reviling Charles, James, Louis, England, and the world at large.
Madame de Pompadour, Cardinal Tencin, and de Puysieux were all
hostile. The English Jacobites, though loyal, were timid. Europe
was hermetically sealed against the Prince. Refuge in Fribourg,
where the English threatened the town, Charles had refused. Not a
single shelter was open to him, for England's policy was to drive him
into the dominions of the Pope, where he would be distant and
despised. Of advisers he had only such attached friends as Henry
Goring, Bulkeley, Harrington, or such distrusted boon companions as
Kelly--against whom the English Jacobites set all wheels in motion.
Charles's refuge at Avignon even was menaced by English threats
directed at the Pope. The Prince tried to amuse himself; he went to
dances, he introduced boxing matches, {41a} just as years before he
had brought golf into Italy. But his position was untenable, and he
disappeared.
From the gossip of d'Argenson we have learned that Charles was no
longer the same man as the gallant leader of the race to Derby, or
the gay and resourceful young Ascanius who won the hearts of the
Highlanders by his cheerful courage and contented endurance. He was
now embittered by defeat; by suspicions of treachery which the Irish
about him kindled and fanned, by the broken promises of Louis XV., by
the indifference of Spain. He had become 'a wild man,' as his
father's secretary, Edgar, calls him--'Our dear wild man.' He
spelled the name 'L'ome sauvage.' He was, in brief, a desperate, a
soured, and a homeless outcast. His chief French friends were
ladies--Madame de Vasse, Madame de Talmond, and others. Montesquieu,
living in their society, and sending wine from his estate to the
Jacobite Lord Elibank; rejoicing, too, in an Irish Jacobite
housekeeper, 'Mlle. Betti,' was well disposed, like Voltaire, in an
indifferent well-bred way. Most of these people were, later,
protecting and patronising the Prince when concealed from the view of
Europe, but theirs was a vague and futile alliance. Charles and his
case were desperate.
In this mood, and in this situation at Avignon, he carried into
practice the counsel which d'Argenson had elaborated in a written
memoir. 'I gave them' (Charles and Henry) 'the best possible
advice,' says La Bete. 'My "Memoire" I entrusted to O'Brien at
Antwerp. Therein I suggested that the two princes should never
return to Italy, BUT THAT FOR SOME YEARS THEY SHOULD LEAD A HIDDEN
AND WANDERING LIFE BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN. Charles might be given
a pension and the vicariat of Navarre. This should only be allowed
to slip out by degrees, while England would grow accustomed to the
notion that they were NOT in Rome, and would be reduced to mere
doubts as to their place of residence. Now they would be in Spain,
now in France, finally in some town of Navarre, where their authority
would, by slow degrees, be admitted. Peace once firmly established,
it would not be broken over this question. They would be in a
Huguenot country, and able to pass suddenly into Great Britain.' {43}
This was d'Argenson's advice before Henry fled Rome to be made a
cardinal, and before the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, closing Europe
against Charles, was concluded. The object of d'Argenson is plain;
he wished to keep Charles out of the Pope's domains, as England
wanted to drive the Prince into the centre of 'Popery.' If he
resided in Rome, Protestant England would always suspect Charles;
moreover, he would be remote from the scene of action. To the Pope's
domains, therefore, Charles would not go. But the scheme of skulking
in France, Spain, and Navarre had ceased to be possible. He,
therefore, adopted 'the fugitive and hidden life' recommended by
d'Argenson; he secretly withdrew from Avignon, and for many months
his places of residence were unknown.
'Charles,' says Voltaire, 'hid himself from the whole world.' We
propose to reveal his hiding-places.
CHAPTER III--THE PRINCE IN FAIRYLAND--FEBRUARY 1749-SEPTEMBER 1750--
I. WHAT THE WORLD SAID
Europe after Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle--A vast gambling establishment-
-Charles excluded--Possible chance in Poland--Supposed to have gone
thither--'Henry Goring's letter'--Romantic adventures attributed to
Charles--Obvious blunders--Talk of a marriage--Count Bruhl's opinion-
-Proposal to kidnap Charles--To rob a priest--The King of Poland's
ideas--Lord Hyndford on Frederick the Great--Lord Hyndford's mare's
nest--Charles at Berlin--'Send him to Siberia'--The theory
contradicted--Mischievous glee of Frederick--Charles discountenances
plots to kill Cumberland--Father Myles Macdonnell to James--London
conspiracy--Reported from Rome--The Bloody Butcher Club--Guesses of
Sir Horace Mann--Charles and a strike--Charles reported to be very
ill--Really on the point of visiting England--September 1750.
Europe, after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, was like a vast political
gambling establishment. Nothing, or nothing but the expulsion of
Prince Charles from every secular State, had been actually settled.
Nobody was really satisfied with the Peace. The populace, in France
as in England, was discontented. Princes were merely resting and
looking round for new combinations of forces. The various Courts,
from St. Petersburg to Dresden, from London to Vienna, were so many
tables where the great game of national faro was being played, over
the heads of the people, by kings, queens, abbes, soldiers,
diplomatists, and pretty women. Projects of new alliances were
shuffled and cut, like the actual cards which were seldom out of the
hands of the players, when Casanova or Barry Lyndon held the bank,
and challenged all comers. It was the age of adventurers, from the
mendacious Casanova to the mysterious Saint-Germain, from the
Chevalier d'Eon to Charles Edward Stuart. That royal player was
warned off the turf, as it were, ruled out of the game. Where among
all these attractive tables was one on which Prince Charles, in 1749,
might put down his slender stake, his name, his sword, the lives of a
few thousand Highlanders, the fortunes of some faithful gentlemen?
Who would accept Charles's empty alliance, which promised little but
a royal title and a desperate venture? The Prince had wildly offered
his hand to the Czarina; he was to offer that hand, vainly stretched
after a flying crown, to a Princess of Prussia, and probably to a
lady of Poland.
At this moment the Polish crown was worn by Augustus of Saxony, who
was reckoned 'a bad life.' The Polish throne, the Polish alliance,
had been, after various unlucky adventures since the days of Henri
III. and the Duc d'Alencon, practically abandoned by France. But
Louis XV. was beginning to contemplate that extraordinary intrigue in
which Conti aimed at the crown of Poland, and the Comte de Broglie
was employed (1752) to undermine and counteract the schemes of
Louis's official representatives. {46a} As a Sobieski by his
mother's side, the son of the exiled James (who himself had years
before been asked to stand as a candidate for the kingdom of Poland),
Charles was expected by politicians to make for Warsaw when he fled
from Avignon. It is said, on the authority of a Polish manuscript,
'communicated by Baron de Rondeau,' that there was a conspiracy in
Poland to unseat Augustus III. and give the crown to Prince Charles.
{46b} In 1719, Charles's maternal grandfather had declined a Russian
proposal to make a dash for the crown, so the chivalrous Wogan
narrates. In 1747 (June 6), Chambrier had reported to Frederick the
Great that Cardinal Tencin was opposed to the ambition of the Saxon
family, which desired to make the elective crown of Poland hereditary
in its house. The Cardinal said that, in his opinion, there was a
Prince who would figure well in Poland, le jeune Edouard (Prince
Charles), who had just made himself known, and in whom there was the
stuff of a man. {46c} But Frederick the Great declined to interfere
in Polish matters, and Tencin was only trying to get rid of Charles
without a rupture. In May 1748, Frederick refused to see Graeme, a
Jacobite who was sent to demand a refuge for the Prince in Prussia.
{46d} Without Frederick and without Sweden, Charles in 1749 could do
nothing serious in Poland.
The distracted politics of Poland, however, naturally drew the
attention of Europe to that country when Charles, on February 28,
vanished out of Avignon 'into fairyland,' like Frederick after
Molwitz. Every Court in Europe was vainly searched for 'the boy that
cannot be found.' The newsletters naturally sent him to Poland, so
did Jacobite myth.
The purpose of this chapter is to record the guesses made by
diplomatists at Charles's movements, and the expedients by which they
vainly endeavoured to discover him. We shall next lift, as far as
possible, the veil which has concealed for a century and a half
adventures in themselves unimportant enough. In spite of
disappointments and dark hours of desertion, Charles, who was much of
a boy, probably enjoyed the mystery which he now successfully
created. If he could not startle Europe by a brilliant appearance on
any stage, he could keep it talking and guessing by a disappearance.
He obviously relished secrecy, pass-words, disguises, the
'properties' of the conspirator, in the spirit of Tom Sawyer and
Huckleberry Finn. He came of an evasive race. His grandfather, as
Duke of York, had fled from England disguised as a girl. His father
had worn many disguises in many adventures. HE had been 'Betty
Burke.'
Though it is certain that, in March 1749 (the only month when he
almost evades us), Charles could not have visited Berlin, Livadia,
Stockholm, the reader may care to be reminded of a contemporary
Jacobite romance in which he is made to do all these things. A
glance should be cast on the pamphlet called 'A Letter from H. G---g,
Esq.' (London, 1750). The editor announces that the letter has been
left in his lodgings by a mistake; it has not been claimed, as the
person for whom it was meant has gone abroad, and so the editor feels
free to gratify 'the curiosity of the town.' The piece, in truth, is
a Jacobite tract, meant to keep up the spirits of the faithful, and
it is probable that the author really had some information, though he
is often either mistaken, or fables by way of a 'blind.' About
February 11, says the scribe (nominally Henry Goring, Charles's
equerry, an ex-officer of the Queen of Hungary), a mysterious
stranger, the 'Chevalier de la Luze,' came to Avignon, and was
received by the Prince 'with extraordinary marks of distinction.'
'He understood not one word of English,' which destroys, if true, the
theory that the Earl Marischal, or Marshal Keith, is intended.
French and Italian he spoke well, but with a foreign accent. Kelly
ventured to question the Prince about the stranger, but was rebuffed.
One day, probably February 24, the stranger received despatches, and
vanished as he had come. The Prince gave a supper (d'Argenson's
'ball'), and, when his guests had retired, summoned Goring into his
study. He told Goring that 'there were spies about him' (the Earl
Marischal, we know, distrusted Kelly); he rallied him on a love-
affair, and said that Goring only should be his confidant. Next
morning, very early, they two started for Lyons, disguised as French
officers. As far as Lyons, indeed, the French police actually traced
them. {49a} But, according to the pamphlet, they did not stop in
Lyons; they rested at a small town two leagues further on, whence the
Prince sent dispatches to Kelly at Avignon. Engaging a new valet,
Charles pushed to Strasbourg, where he again met La Luze, now
described as 'a person whose extraordinary talents had gained him the
confidence one of the wisest Princes in Europe,' obviously pointing
to Frederick of Prussia, the master of Marshal Keith, and the friend
and host of his brother, the Earl Marischal. At Strasbourg, Charles
rescued a pretty young lady from a fire; she lost her heart at once
to the 'Comte d'Espoir' (his travelling title), but the Prince
behaved like Scipio, not to mention a patriarch famous for his
continence. 'I am no stoic,' said His Royal Highness to La Luze,
'but I have always been taught that pleasures, how pardonable soever
in themselves, become highly criminal when indulged to the prejudice
of another,' adding many other noble and unimpeachable sentiments.
After a romantic adventure with English or Scottish assassins, in
which His Royal Highness shot a few of them, the travellers arrived
at Leipzig. La Luze now assumed his real name, and carried Charles,
by cross roads, to 'a certain Court,' where he spent ten days with
much satisfaction. He stayed at the house of La Luze (Berlin and the
Earl Marischal appear to be hinted at, but the Marischal told Pickle
that he had never seen Charles at Berlin), secret business was done,
and then, through territories friendly or hostile, 'a certain port'
was reached. They sailed (from Dantzig?), were driven into a hostile
port (Riga?), escaped and made another port (Stockholm?) where they
met Lochgarry, 'whom the Prince thought had been one of those that
fell at Culloden.'
This is nonsense. Lochgarry had been with Charles after Culloden,
and had proposed to waylay Cumberland, which the Prince forbade.
Murray of Broughton, in his examination, and Bishop Forbes agree on
this point, and James, we know, sent, by Edgar, a message to
Lochgarry on Christmas Eve, 1748. {50a} Charles, therefore, knew
excellently well that Lochgarry did NOT die at Culloden. After
royal, but very secret entertainment 'in this kingdom' (Sweden?),
Charles went into Lithuania, where old friends of his maternal
ancestors, the Sobieskis, welcomed him. He resumed a gaiety which he
had lost ever since his arrest at the opera in Paris, and had 'an
interview with a most illustrious and firm friend to his person and
interest.' Though his marriage, says the pamphleteer, had been much
talked of, 'he has always declined making any applications of that
nature himself. It was his fixed determination to beget no royal
beggars.' D'Argenson reports Charles's remark that he will never
marry till the Restoration, and, no doubt, he was occasionally this
mood, among others. {51a} The pamphleteer vows that the Prince
'loves and is loved,' but will not marry 'till his affairs take a
more favourable turn.' The lady is 'of consummate beauty, yet is
that beauty the least of her perfections.'
The pamphlet concludes with vague enigmatic hopes and promises, and
certainly leaves its readers little wiser than they were before. In
the opinion of the Messrs. 'Sobieski Stuart' (who called themselves
his grandsons), Charles really did visit Sweden, and his jewel, as
Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Stockholm, is still
preserved there. {51b} The castle where he resided in Lithuania, it
is said, is that of Radzivil. {51c} The affectionate and beautiful
lady is the Princess Radzivil, to whom the newspapers were busy
marrying Charles at this time. The authors of 'Tales of the
Century,' relying on some vague Polish traditions, think that a party
was being made to raise the Prince to the Polish crown. In fact,
there is not a word of truth in 'Henry Goring's letter.'
We now study the perplexities of Courts and diplomatists. Pickle was
not yet at hand with accurate intelligence, and, even after he began
to be employed, the English Government left their agents abroad to
send in baffled surmises. From Paris, on March 8, Colonel Joseph
Yorke (whom d'Argenson calls by many ill names) wrote, 'I am told for
certain that he [the Prince] is now returned to Avignon.' {52a}
Mann, in Florence, hears (March 7) that the Prince has sent a Mr.
Lockhart to James to ask for money, but that was really done on
December 31, 1748. {52b} On March 11, Yorke learned from Puysieux
that the Prince had been recognised by postboys as he drove through
Lyons towards Metz; probably, Puysieux thought, on 'an affair of
gallantry.' Others, says Yorke, 'have sent him to Poland or Sweden,'
which, even in 1746, had been getting ready troops to assist Charles
in Scotland. {52c} On March 20, Yorke hints that Charles may be in
or near Paris, as he probably was. Berlin was suggested as his
destination by Horace Mann (April 4). Again, he has been seen in
disguise, walking into a gate of Paris (April 11). {52d} On April
14, Walton, from Florence, writes that James has had news of his son,
is much excited, and is sending Fitzmorris to join him. The Pope
knows and is sure to blab. {52e} On May 3, Yorke mentions a rumour,
often revived, that the Prince is dead. On May 9, the Jacobites in
Paris show a letter from Oxford inviting Charles to the opening of
the Radcliffe, 'where they assure him of better reception than the
University has had at Court lately.' {53a} Mann (May 2) mentions the
Radzivil marriage, arranged, in a self-denying way, by the Princesse
de Talmond. On May 17, Yorke hears from Puysieux that the French
ambassador in Saxony avers that Charles is in Poland, and that Sir
Charles Williams has remonstrated with Count Bruhl. On May 1, 1749,
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams wrote from Leipzig to the Duke of
Newcastle. He suspects that Charles is one of several persons who
have just passed through Leipzig on the way to Poland; Count Bruhl is
'almost certain' of it. {53b} On May 5 (when Charles was really in
or near Venice), Hanbury Williams sends a copy of his remonstrance
with Bruhl.
'I asked Count Bruhl whether, in the present divided and factious
state of the nobility of Poland, His Polish Majesty would like to
have a young adventurer (who can fish in no waters that are not
troubled, and who, by his mother, is allied to a family that once sat
upon the Polish throne) to go into that country where it would be
natural for him to endeavour to encourage factions, nourish
divisions, and foment confederations to the utmost of his power, and
might not the evil-minded and indisposed Poles be glad to have such a
tool in their hands, which at some time or other they might make use
of to answer their own ends? To this Count Bruhl answered in such
terms as I could wish, and I must do him the justice to say that he
showed the best disposition to serve His Majesty in the affair in
question; but I am yet of opinion that, whatever is done effectually
in this case, must be done by the Court of Petersburg, and I would
humbly advise that, as soon as it is known for certain that the
Pretender's son is in Poland, His Majesty should order his minister
at the Court of Petersburg to take such steps as His Majesty's great
wisdom shall judge most likely to make the Czarina act with a proper
vigour upon this occasion.
'Your Grace knows that the republic of Poland is at present divided
into two great factions, the one which is in the interest of Russia,
to which the friends of the House of Austria attach themselves; the
other is in the interest of France and Prussia. As I thought it most
likely, if the Pretender's son went into Poland, he would seek
protection from the French party, I have desired and requested the
French ambassador that he would write to the French resident at
Warsaw, and to others of his friends in Poland, that he might be
informed of the truth of the Pretender's arrival, and the place that
he was at in Poland, as soon as possible, and that when he was
acquainted with it he would let me know what came to his knowledge,
all which he has sincerely promised me to do, and I do not doubt but
he will keep his word. . . . It is publicly said that the
Pretender's son's journey to Poland is with a design to marry a
princess of the House of Radzivil.
'As soon as I hear anything certain about the Pretender's son being
in Poland, I will most humbly offer to your Grace the method that I
think will be necessary for His Majesty to pursue with respect to the
King and republic of Poland, in case His Majesty should think fit not
to suffer the Pretender's son to remain in that country.
'C. HANBURY WILLIAMS.'
On May 12, Williams believes that Charles is NOT in Poland. On May
18, he guesses (wrongly) that the Prince is in Paris. On May 25, he
fancies--'plainly perceives'--that the French ambassador at Dresden
believes in the Polish theory. On June 9, Bruhl tells Williams
(correctly) that Charles is in Venice. On June 11, Hanbury Williams
proposes to have a harmless priest seized and robbed, and to kidnap
Prince Charles! I give this example of British diplomatic energy and
chivalrous behaviour.
From Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.
'Dresden: June 11, N.S. 1749.
' . . . Count Bruhl has communicated to me the letters which he
received by the last post from the Saxon resident at Venice, who says
that the Pretender's son had been at Venice for some days; that he
has received two expresses from his father at Rome since his being
there; but that nobody knew how long he intended to stay there. . .
Mons. Bruhl further informs me that he hears from Poland that the
Prince of Radzivil, who is Great General of Lithuania, has a strong
desire to marry his daughter to the Pretender's son. The young lady
is between eleven and twelve years old, very plain, and can be no
great fortune, for she has two brothers; but yet Mons. Bruhl is of
opinion that there is some negotiation on foot for this marriage,
which is managed by an Italian priest who is a titular bishop, whose
name is Lascarisk (sic), and who lives in and governs the Prince
Radzivil's family. This priest is soon to set out for Italy, under
pretence of going to Rome for the Jubilee year, but Mons. Bruhl
verily thinks that he is charged with a secret commission for
negotiating the above-mentioned marriage. If His Majesty thinks it
worth while to have this priest watched, I will answer for having
early intelligence of the time he intends beginning his journey, and
then it would be no difficult matter to have him stopped, and his
papers taken from him, as he goes through the Austrian territories
into Italy. The more I think of it the more I am persuaded that the
Pretender's son will not go into Poland for many reasons, especially
for one, which is that for a small sum of money I will undertake to
find a Pole who will engage to seize upon his person in any part of
Poland, and carry him to any port in the north that His Majesty shall
appoint. I have had offers of this sort already made me, to which
your Grace may be sure I gave no answer, except thanking the persons
for the zeal they showed for the King, my master, but I am convinced
that the thing is very practicable.
'I had this day the honour to dine with the King of Poland, and, as I
sat next to him at table, he told me that he was very glad to hear
that the Pretender's son was at length found to be at Venice, for
that he would much rather have him there than in Poland; to which I
answered that I was very glad, upon His Polish Majesty's account,
that the Pretender's son had not thought fit to come into any of His
Majesty's territories, since I believed the visit would be far from
being agreeable. To which the King of Poland replied that IT WOULD
BE A VERY DISAGREEABLE VISIT TO HIM, and after that expressed himself
in the handsomest manner imaginable with respect to His Majesty, and
the regard he had for his Sacred person and Royal House; and I am
convinced if the Pretender's son had gone into Poland, His Polish
Majesty and his minister would have done everything in their power to
have drove him out of that kingdom as soon as possible.
'C. HANBURY WILLIAMS.
'P.S.--Since my writing this letter, Count Bruhl tells me that the
news of the Pretender's son's being at Venice is confirmed by letters
from his best correspondent at Rome, but both accounts agree in the
Pretender's son's being at Venice incognito, and that he appears in
no public place, so that very few people know of his being there. . .
. C. H. W.'
In 1751, Hanbury Williams renewed his proposal about waylaying
Lascaris.
Charles, as we shall see, was for a short time at Venice in May 1749.
Meanwhile the game of hide and seek through Europe went on as merrily
as ever. Lord Hyndford, so well known to readers of Mr. Carlyle's
'Frederick,' now opens in full cry from Moscow, but really on a
hopelessly wrong scent. As illustrating Hyndford's opinion of
Frederick, who had invested him with the Order of the Thistle, we
quote this worthy diplomatist:
Lord Hyndford to the Duke of Newcastle. {58a}
'Moscow: June 19, 1749.
' . . . I must acquaint your Grace of what I have learnt, through a
private canal, from the last relation of Mr. Gross, the Russian
minister at Berlin, although I dare say it is no news to your Grace.
Mr. Gross writes that, some days before the date of his letter, the
Pretender's eldest son arrived at Potsdam, and had been very well
received by the King of Prussia, General Keith, and his brother, the
late Earl Marshal; and all the other English, Scotch, and Irish
Jacobites in the Prussian service were to wait upon him. This does
not at all surprise me; but Mons. Valony, the French minister, went
likewise to make his compliments at a country house, hired on purpose
for this young vagabond. This is all that I know as yet of this
affair in general, for the Chancellor has not thought proper as yet
to inform me of the particulars. However, this public, incontestable
proof of the little friendship and regard the King of Prussia has for
His Majesty and His Royal Family, and for the whole British nation,
will, I hope, open the eyes of the people who are blind to that
Prince's monstrous faults, if any such are still left amongst us, and
I doubt not but it will save His Majesty the trouble of sending Sir
C. Hanbury Williams or any other minister to that perfidious Court.
'HYNDFORD.'
This was all a mare's nest; but Hyndford is for kidnapping the
Prince. He writes:
'Moscow: June 26, 1749.
'My Lord,--Since the 19th inst., which was the date of my last letter
to your Grace, I have been with the Chancellor, who made his excuses
that he had not sooner communicated to me the intelligence which Mr.
Gross, the Russian minister at Berlin, had sent him concerning the
Pretender's eldest son. The Chancellor confirmed all that I wrote to
your Grace on the 19th upon that subject, and he told me that he had
received a second letter from Mr. Gross, wherein that minister says
that the Young Pretender had left the country house where he was, in
the neighbourhood of Berlin, and had entirely disappeared, without
its being hitherto possible for him, Mr. Gross, or Count Choteck, the
Austrian minister, to find out the route he has taken, although it is
generally believed that he is gone into Poland; and that now the King
of Prussia and his ministers deny that ever the Pretender's son was
there, and take it mightily amiss of anybody that pretends to affirm
it. I am sorry that the Russian troops are not now in Poland, for
otherwise I believe it would have been an easy matter to prevail upon
this Court to catch this young knight errant and to send him to
Siberia, where he would not have been any more heard of; and if the
Court of Dresden will enter heartily into such a scheme, it will not
be impossible yet to apprehend him, and as it is very probable that
the King of Prussia has sent him into Poland to make a party and
breed confusion, it appears to be King Augustus's interest to secure
him.
'HYNDFORD.'
Many months later, on Feb. 2, 1749-1750, Lord Hyndford, writing from
Hanover, retracted. The rumour of Charles's presence at Berlin, he
found, was started by Count de Choteck, the Austrian ambassador. In
fact, Choteck used to meet a fair lady secretly in a garden near
Berlin, and near the house of Field-Marshal Keith and his brother,
Lord Marischal. Hard by was an inn, where a stranger lodged, a rich
and handsome youth, whom Choteck, meeting, took for Prince Charles.
He was really a young Polish gentleman, into whose reasons for
retirement we need not examine.
Frederick, in his mischievous way, wrote about all this from Potsdam,
on June 24, 1749:
'We have played a trick on Choteck; he spends much on spies, and, to
prove that he is well served, he has taken it into his head that
young Edouard, really at Venice, is at Berlin. He has been very busy
over this, and no doubt has informed his Court.'
On July 7, 1749, Frederick, in a letter to his minister at Moscow,
said that only dense ignorance could credit the Berlin legend. {61}
These documents certainly demonstrate that the Prince fluttered the
Courts, and that the Jacobite belief in English schemes to kidnap or
murder him was not a mere mythical delusion. Only an opportunity was
wanted. He had spared the Duke of Cumberland's life, even after the
horrors of Culloden. But Hanbury Williams knows a Pole who will
waylay him; Hyndford wants to carry him off to Siberia. It was not
once only, on the other hand, but twice at least, that Charles
protected the Butcher, Cumberland. In 1746 he saved his enemy from
Lochgarry's open attempt. In 1747 (May 4), a certain Father Myles
Macdonnell wrote from St. Germain to James in Rome. He dwells on the
jealousies among the Jacobites, and particularly denounces Kelly,
then a trusted intimate of Charles. Kelly, he says, is a drunkard,
and worse! It was probably he who raised 'a scruple' against a
scheme relating to 'Cumberland's hateful person.' 'Honest
warrantable people from London' came to Paris and offered 'without
either fee or reward' to do the business. What was the 'business,'
what measures were to be taken against 'Cumberland's hateful person'?
Father Myles Macdonnell, writing to James, a Catholic priest to a
Catholic King, does not speak of ASSASSINATION. He talks of 'the
scruple raised against securing Cumberland's person.' 'I suspect
Parson Kelly of making a scruple of an action the most meritorious
that could possibly be committed,' writes Father Myles. {62a} The
talk of kidnapping, in such cases as those of Cumberland and Prince
Charles--men of spirit and armed--is a mere blind. Murder is meant!
Father Myles's letter proves that (unknown to James in Rome) there
was a London conspiracy to kill the Butcher, but Prince Charles again
rejected the proposal. He was less ungenerous than Hyndford and
Hanbury Williams. The amusing thing is that the English Government
knew, quite as well as Father Macdonnell or James, all about the
conspiracy to slay the Duke of Cumberland. Here is the information,
which reached Mann through Rome. {62b}
From Mr. Thomas Chamberlayne to Sir H. Mann.
'Capranica: November 18, 1747.
' . . . The family at Rome . . . was informed, by one who arrived
there last October from London, that there are twelve persons, whose
names I could not learn, but none of distinction, that are formed in
a club or society, and meet at the Nag's Head in East Street,
Holborn. They have bound themselves under most solemn oaths that
this winter they will post themselves in different parts of the City
of London mostly frequented by His Royal Highness, the Duke of
Cumberland, in his night visits [to whom?], and are resolved to lay
violent hands on his royal person. The parole among the different
parties in their respective posts is The Bloody Butcher. They are
all resolute fellows, who first declared at their entering in this
conspiracy to despise death or torture. This motive is worthy of
your care, so I am certain you'll make proper use of it . . .
'THOMAS CHAMBERLAYNE.'
If Charles afterwards attempted to repay in kind the attentions of
his royal cousins, or of their ministers, this can hardly be reckoned
inhuman. If he was fluttering the Courts, they--Prussia, Russia,
France, Poland--were leading him the life of a tracked beast. They
were determined to drive him into the Papal domains; even in Venice
he was harried by spies. {63} On May 30, to retrace our steps, Mann,
from Florence, reports that Charles has arrived at the Papal Nuncio's
in Venice, attended by one servant in the livery of the Duke of
Modena. Walton adds that he has not a penny (June 6). Walton (July
11) writes from Florence that the Prince is reported from Venice to
have paid assiduous court to the second daughter of the Duke of
Modena, a needy potentate, but that he suddenly disappeared.' {64}
On Sept. 5, 1749, Walton says he is in France. On Sept. 26, Walton
writes that he is offering his sword to the Czarina, who declines.
He is at Lubeck, or (Oct. 3) at Avignon. On Oct. 20, Mann writes
that, from Lubeck, Charles has asked the Imperial ambassador at Paris
to implore the Kaiser to give him an asylum in his States. On Oct.
31, Mann only knows that the Pope and James 'reciprocally ask each
other news about' the Prince. On Jan. 23, 1750, poor Mann is 'quite
at a loss.' James receives letters from the Prince, but never with
date of place, otherwise Mann would have been better informed.
Walton hears that James believes Charles to be imprisoned in a French
fortress. From Paris, Jan. 17, 1750, Albemarle wrote that he heard
the Prince was in Berlin. The Prince later told Pickle that he had
been in Berlin more than once, and, as we shall see, Frederick amused
him with hopes of assistance. Kelly has left Charles's followers in
distress at Avignon. Kelly, in fact, received his conge; he was
distrusted by the Earl Marischal, and Carte, the historian. On Jan.
28, Albemarle hears that Charles has been in Paris 'under the habit
of a Capuchine Fryar,' and this WAS a disguise of his, according to
Pickle.
Meanwhile the French Government kept protesting their total
ignorance. On April 3, 1750, Walton announces that James has had a
long letter from Charles containing his plans and those of his
adherents, for which he demands the Royal approval. James has sent a
long letter to Charles by the courier of the Duc de Nivernais, the
French ambassador in Rome. By the middle of June, James is reported
by Walton to be full of hope, and to have heard excellent news. But
these expectations were partly founded on a real scheme of Charles,
partly on a strike of colliers at Newcastle. A mob orator there
proclaimed the Prince, and the Jacobites in Rome thought that His
Royal Highness was heading the strike! {65a} In July, the same
illusions were entertained. On August 12, Albemarle, from Paris,
reports the Prince to be dangerously ill, probably not far from the
French capital. He was really preparing to embark for England.
Albemarle, by way of trap, circulated in the English press a forged
news-letter from Nancy in Lorraine, dated August 24, 1750. It
announced Charles's death of pneumonia, in hopes of drawing forth a
Jacobite denial. This stratagem failed. On August 4, James, though
piqued by being kept in the dark, sent Charles a fresh commission of
regency. {65b} Of the Prince's English expedition of September 1750,
the Government of George II. knew nothing. Pickle was in Rome at the
moment, not with Charles; what Pickle knew the English ministers
knew, but there is a difficulty in dating his letters before 1752,
and I am not aware that any despatches of his from Rome are extant.
We have now brought the history to a point (September 1750) where the
Prince, for a moment, emerges from fairyland, and where we are not
left to the perplexing conjectures of diplomatists in Paris, Dresden,
Florence, Hanover, and St. Petersburg. In September 1750, Charles
certainly visited London. There is a point of light. We now give an
account of his actual movements in 1749-1750.
CHAPTER IV--THE PRINCE IN FAIRYLAND. II.--WHAT ACTUALLY OCCURRED
Charles mystifies Europe--Montesquieu knows his secret--Sources of
information--The Stuart manuscripts--Charles's letters from Avignon--
A proposal of marriage--Kennedy and the hidden treasure--Where to
look for Charles--Cherchez la femme!--Hidden in Lorraine--Plans for
entering Paris--Letter to Mrs. Drummond--To the Earl Marischal--
Starts for Venice--At Strasbourg--Unhappy Harrington--Letter to
James--Leaves Venice 'A bird without a nest'--Goes to Paris--The
Prince's secret revealed--The convent of St. Joseph--Curious letter
as Cartouche--Madame de Routh--Cartouche again--Goring sent to
England--A cypher--Portrait of Madame de Talmond--Portrait of Madame
d'Aiguillon--Intellectual society--Mademoiselle Luci--'Dener Bash'--
The secret hoard--Results of Goring's English mission--Timidity of
English Jacobites--Supply of money--Charles a bibliophile--'My big
muff'--A patron of art--Quarrels with Madame de Talmond--Arms for a
rising--Newton on Cluny--Kindness to Monsieur Le Coq--Madame de
Talmond weary of Charles--Letters to her--Charles reads Fielding's
novels--Determines to go to England--Large order of arms--Reproached
by James--Intagli of James--En route for London--September 1750.
The reader has had an opportunity of observing the success of Charles
in mystifying Europe. Diplomatists, ambassadors, and wits would have
been surprised, indeed, had they known that one of the most famous
men of the age possessed the secret for which they were seeking. The
author of 'L'Esprit des Lois' could have enlightened them, for
Charles's mystery was no mystery to Montesquieu, who was friendly
with Scottish and English Jacobites. The French Ministers, truly or
falsely, always professed entire ignorance. They promised to arrest
the Prince wherever he might be found on French soil, and transport
him to sea by Civita Vecchia. {68} It will be shown later that, at
least in the autumn of 1749, this ignorance was probably feigned.
What is really known of the movements of the Prince in 1749?
Curiously enough, Mr. Ewald does not seem to have consulted the
'Stuart Papers' at Windsor, while the extracts in Browne's 'History
of the Highland Clans' are meagre. To these papers then we turn for
information. The most useful portions are NOT Charles's letters to
James. These are brief and scanty. Thus he writes from Avignon
(January 15, 1749), 'We are enjoying here the finest weather ever was
seen.' He always remarks that his health 'is perfect.' He orders
patterns for his servants' liveries and a button, blue and yellow,
still remains in a letter from Edgar! The button outlasts the
dynasty. Our intelligence must be extracted from ill-spelled,
closely scrawled, and much erased sheets of brown paper, on which
Charles has scribbled drafts for letters to his household, to Waters,
his banker in Paris, to adherents in Paris or London, and to ladies.
The notes are almost, and in places are quite, illegible. The Prince
practised a disguised hand, and used pseudonyms instead of names.
Many letters have been written in sympathetic ink, and then exposed
to fire or the action of acids. However, something can be made out,
but not why he concealed his movements even from his banker, even
from his household, Oxburgh, Kelly, Harrington, and Graeme. It is
certain that he started, with a marriage in his eye, from Avignon on
February 28, 1749, accompanied by Henry Goring, of the Austrian
service. There had already been a correspondence, vaguely hinted at
by James's secretary, Edgar, between Charles and the Duke and a
Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. On February 24, 1749, Charles drafted,
at Avignon, a proposal for the hand of the Duke's daughter. He also
drafted (undated) a request to the King of Poland for leave to bring
his wife, the Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, into Polish territory.
{69} We may imagine His Polish Majesty's answer. Of course, the
marriage did not take place.
Charles had other secrets. On February 3, 1749, he wrote to Waters
about the care to be taken with certain letters. These were a
correspondence with 'Thomas Newton,' (Major Kennedy), at Mr.
Alexander Macarty's, in Gray's Inn, London. Newton was in relations
with Cluny Macpherson, through a friend in Northumberland. Cluny,
skulking on his Highland estates, was transmitting or was desired to
transmit a part of the treasure of 40,000 louis d'or, buried soon
after Culloden at the head of Loch Arkaig. {70a} Of this fatal
treasure we shall hear much. A percentage of the coin was found to
be false money, a very characteristic circumstance. Moreover, Cluny
seems to have held out hopes, always deferred, of a rising in the
Highlands. Charles had to be ready in secrecy, to put himself at the
head of this movement. There was also to be an English movement,
which was frowned on by official Jacobitism. On February 3, 1749,
Charles writes from Avignon to 'Thomas Newton' (Kennedy) about the
money sent south by Cluny. He repeated his remarks on March 6,
giving no place of residence. But probably he was approaching Paris,
dangerous as such a visit was, for in a note of March 6 to Waters, he
says that he will 'soon call for letters.' {70b} His noms de guerre
at this time were 'Williams' and 'Benn'; later he chose 'John
Douglas.' He was also Smith, Mildmay, Burton, and so forth.
There should have been no difficulty in discovering Charles. Modern
police, in search of a person who is 'wanted,' spy on his mistress.
Now the Princesse de Talmond, when out of favour at Versailles, went
to certain lands in Lorraine, near her exiled king, Stanislas. In
Lorraine, therefore, at Luneville, the Court of the ex-king of
Poland, or at Commercy, Bar-le-Duc, or wherever the Princesse de
Talmond might be, Charles was sure to be heard of by an intelligent
spy, if permitted to enter the country. Consequently, we are not
surprised to find Charles drafting on April 3, at Luneville (where he
resided at the house of one Mittie, physician of the ex-king of
Poland), a 'Project for My arrival in Paris. Mr. Benn [himself] must
go straight to Dijon, and his companion, Mr. Smith [Goring], to
Paris. Mr. Smith will need a chaise, which he must buy at Luneville.
Next he will take up the servant of C. P. [Prince Charles] at Ligny,
but on leaving that place Mr. Smith must ride on horseback, and the
chaise can go there as if for his return to Paris; the person in it
seeming to profit by this opportunity. Mr. Benn [the Prince] must
remain for some days, as if he wanted to buy a trunk, and will give
his own as if in friendship to Mr. Smith; all this seeming mere
chance work. Next, Mr. Smith will go his way and his friend will go
his, after waiting a few days, and on arriving at Dijon must write to
nobody, except the letter to W- [Waters]. The Chevalier Graeme, whom
he must see (and to whom he may mention having been at Dijon on the
Prince's business, without naming his companion, but as if alone),
knows nothing, and Graeme must be left in the dark as if he (Mr.
Smith) [Goring] were in the same case, and were waiting new orders in
total ignorance, not having seen me for a long time.' {71}
There follow a few private addresses in Paris; and the name, to be
remarked, of 'Mademoiselle Ferrand.'
All this is very puzzling; we only make out that, by some confusion
of the personalities of 'Benn' (the Prince) and 'Mr. Smith' (Goring),
Charles hoped to enter Paris undetected. Yet he WAS seen 'entering a
gate of Paris in disguise.' Doubtless he had lady allies, but a
certain Mademoiselle Ferrand, to whom he wrote, he seems not to have
known personally. We shall find that she was later of use to him,
and indeed his most valuable friend and ally.
Next, we find this letter of April 10 to Madame Henrietta Drummond,
doubtless of the family of Macgregor, called Drummond, of Balhaldie.
Charles appears to have had enough of Paris, and is going to Venice.
He is anxious to meet the Earl Marischal.
'April 10, 1749.
'I have been very impatient to be able to give you nuse of me as I am
fully persuaded of yr Friendship, and concern for everything that
regards me; I send you here enclosed a Letter for Ld Marishal, be
pleased to enclose it, and forward it without loss of time; the
Bearer (he is neither known by you or me), is charged to receive at
any time what Letters you want to send me, and you may be shure of
their arriving safe. Iff Lord Marishal agrees with my Desier when
you give his Packet to yr Bearer, you must put over it en Dilligence,
iff otherwise, direct by my Name as I sign it here. I flatter myself
of the Continuation of your Friendship, as I hope you will never
doubt of mine which shall be constant. I remain yr moste obedient
humble Servant
'JOHN DOUGLAS.
'P.S.--Tell ye Bearer when to comback for the answer of ye enclosed
or any other Letters you want to send me.
'P.S. to Lord Marischal.--Whatever party you take, be pleased to keep
my writing secret, and address to me at Venise to the Sig. Ignazio
Testori to Mr. de Villelongue under cover to a Banquier of that town,
and it will come safe to me.
'To Md. Henrietta Drummond.'
Charles, on April 20, wrote another letter to the Lord Marischal,
imploring for an interview, at some place to be fixed. But the old
Lord was not likely to go from Berlin to Venice, whither Charles was
hastening.
It is perfectly plain that, leaving Avignon on February 28, Charles
was making for Paris on March 6 by a circuitous route through
Lorraine (where he doubtless met Madame de Talmond), and a double
back on Burgundy. What he did or desired in Paris we do not know.
He is said to have visited Lally Tollendal, and he must have seen
Waters, his banker. By April 10 he is starting for Venice, where he
had, as a boy, been royally received. But, in 1744, the Republic of
Venice had resumed relations with England, interrupted by Charles's
too kind reception in 1737. The whole romance, therefore, of Henry
Goring's letter, and all the voyages to Stockholm, Berlin, Lithuania,
and so forth, are visions. Charles probably saw some friends in
Paris, was tolerated in Lorraine (where his father was protected
before 1715), and he vainly looked for a home in any secular State of
Europe. This was all, or nearly all, that occurred between March and
May 1749. Europe was fluttered, secret service money was poured out
like water, diplomatists caballed and scribbled despatches, all for
very little. The best place to have hunted for Charles was really at
Luneville, near the gay Court of his kinsman, the Duke Stanislas
Leczinski, the father of the Queen of France. There Charles's
sometime admirer, Voltaire, was a welcome guest; thither too (as we
saw) went his elderly cousin, people said his mistress, the Princesse
de Talmond. But the English diplomatists appear to have neglected
Luneville. D'Argenson was better informed.
On April 26 Charles was at Strasbourg. Here, D'Argenson says, he was
seen, and warned to go, by an ecuyer of the late Cardinal Rohan.
Hence he wrote again to the Earl Marischal at Berlin. From this note
it is plain that he had sent Goring ('Mr. Smith') to the Earl;
Goring, indeed, had carried his letters of April l0-20. He again
proposes a meeting with the Earl Marischal at Venice. He will
'answer for the expenses,' and apologises for 'such a long and
fatiguing journey.' He wrote to Waters, 'You may let Mr. Newton know
that whenever he has thoroly finished his Business, Mr. Williams [the
Prince] will make him very wellcum in all his Cuntrihouses.'
The 'business' of 'Mr. Newton' was to collect remittances from Cluny.
On April 30, the Prince, as 'Mr. Williams,' expresses 'his surprise
and impatience for the delay of the horses [money] and other goods
promised by Mr. Newton.'
On May 3, Charles wrote, without address, to Goring, 'I go strete to
Venice, and would willingly avoid your Garrison Towns, as much as
possible: id est, of France. I believe to compass that by goin by
Ruffach to Pfirt: there to wate for me. The Chese [chaise] you may
either leve it in consine to your post-master of Belfort, or, what is
still better, to give it to the bearer.'
Goring and Harrington were to meet the bearer at Belfort, but
Harrington seems to have been mystified, and to have failed in
effecting a junction. The poor gentleman, we learn, from letters of
Stafford and Sheridan, Charles's retainers at Avignon, could scarcely
raise money to leave that town. Sir James Harrington was next to
meet Charles at Venice. He was to carry a letter for Charles to a
Venetian banker. 'Nota bene, that same banquier, though he will
deliver to me your letter, knows nothing about me, nor who I am. . .
. Change your name, and, in fine, keep as private as possible, till
I tell you what is to be done.' Harrington failed, and lay for
months in pawn at Venice, pouring out his griefs in letters to
Goring. He was a lachrymose conspirator.
These weary affairs are complicated by mysterious letters to ladies:
for example to Mademoiselle Lalasse, 'Je vous prie, Mademoiselle, de
rendre justice a mon inviolable attachement . . .' (May 3). He
gives her examples of his natural and of his disguised handwriting;
probably she helped him in forwarding his correspondence. Charles's
chief anxiety was to secure the Lord Marischal. Bulkeley and the
official English Jacobites kept insisting that he should have a man
with him who was trusted by the party. Kelly was distrusted, though
Bulkeley defends him, and was cashiered in autumn. Charles's friends
also kept urging that he must 'appear in public,' but where?
Bulkeley suggested Bologna. The Earl Marischal, later (July 5), was
for Fribourg. No place was really both convenient and possible. On
May 17 Charles wrote from Venice to the Earl Marischal, 'I am just
arrived, but will not be able for some days, to know what reception
to meet with.' He fears he 'may be chased from hence,' and his fears
were justified. On the same day (May 17) he wrote to Edgar in Rome,
'Venice, next to France, is the best for my interest, and the only
one in Italy.'
Venice ejected the Prince. On May 26 he wrote to his father:
'Sir,--I received last night from ye Nuntio a definitive answer about
my project, which is quite contrary to my expectation; as I have
nothing further to do here, and would not run the least risk of being
found out, I depart this very evening, having left a direction to the
said Nuntio how to forward my letters for me.' On the same day he
wrote to Chioseul de Stainville, the minister at Versailles of the
Empress, 'Could an anonymous exiled Prince be received by the Kaiser
and the Queen of Hungary? He would remain incognito.'
On June 3 Charles wrote to James, without address or news, and to
Bulkeley. 'Now my friend must skulk to the perfect dishonour and
glory of his worthy relations, until he finds a reception fitting at
home or abroad.' On the back of the draft he writes:
'What can a bird do that has not found a right nest? He must flit
from bough to bough--ainsi use les Irondel.'
Probably Charles, after a visit, perhaps, to Ferrara, returned to
Paris and his Princess. We find a draft thus conceived and spelled:
'ARRENGEMENT.
'Goring to come here immediately, he to know nothing but that I am
just arrived. I am not to go to Paris, but at the end of the month,
as sooner no answer can be had, moreover perhaps obliged to wait
another, which would oblige me to remain to long in P.' He also
(June 3) wrote to Montesquieu, from whom (I think) there is an
unsigned friendly letter. He sent compliments to the Duchesse
d'Aiguillon, a lady much attached to Montesquieu. An unsigned
English letter (June 5) advised him to appear publicly. People are
coming to inquire into reports about his character, 'after which it
is possible some proposals may be made to you.' The writer will say
more when 'in a safer place.'
Newton (Kennedy), meanwhile, had been imprisoned and examined in
London, but had been released, and was at Paris. He bought for the
Prince 'a fine case of double barrill pistols, made by Barber,' and
much admired 'on this side.' Charles expresses gratitude for the
gift. Newton had been examined by the Duke of Newcastle about the
40,000 louis d'or buried at Loch Arkaig in 1740, but had given no
information. On June 26 Charles again asks Bulkeley, 'What CAN a
bird do that has found no right nest?'
On June 30 the Prince was probably in Paris, whither we have seen
that he meant to go. He had 'found a right nest,' and a very curious
nest he had found. The secret of the Prince's retreat became known,
many years later, to Grimm, the Paris correspondent of Catherine the
Great. Charles's biographers have overlooked or distrusted Grimm's
gossip, but it is confirmed by Charles's accidentally writing two
real names, in place of pseudonyms, in his correspondence. The
history of his 'nest' was this. After her reign as favourite of
Louis XIV., Madame de Montespan founded a convent of St. Joseph, in
the Rue St. Dominique, in the Faubourg St. Germain. Attached to the
convent were rooms in which ladies of rank might make a retreat, or
practically occupy chambers. {79}
About this convent and its inmates, Grimm writes as follows:
'The unfortunate Prince Charles, after leaving the Bastille [really
Vincennes] lay hidden for three years in Paris, in the rooms of
Madame de Vasse, who then resided with her friend, the celebrated
Mademoiselle Ferrand, at the convent of St. Joseph. To Mademoiselle
de Ferrand the Abbe Condillac owed the ingenious idea of the statue,
which he has developed so well in his treatise on "The Sensations."
The Princesse de Talmond, with whom Prince Charles was always much in
love, inhabited the same house. All day he was shut up in a little
garderobe of Madame de Vasse's, whence, by a secret staircase, he
made his way at night to the chambers of the Princesse. In the
evening he lurked behind an alcove in the rooms of Mademoiselle
Ferrand. Thus, unseen and unknown, he enjoyed every day the
conversation of the most distinguished society, and heard much good
and much evil spoken of himself.
'The existence of the Prince in this retreat, and the profound
mystery which so long hid him from the knowledge of the world, by a
secret which three women shared, and in a house where the flower of
the city and the Court used to meet, seems almost miraculous. M. de
Choiseul, who heard the story several years after the departure of
the Prince, could not believe it. When Minister of Foreign Affairs
he wrote to Madame de Vasse and asked her for the particulars of the
adventure. She told him all, and did not conceal the fact that she
had been obliged to get rid of the Prince, because of the too lively
scenes between him and Madame de Talmond. They began in tender
effusions, and often ended in a quarrel, or even in blows. This fact
we learn from an intimate friend of Madame de Vasse.' {80}
There is exaggeration here. The Prince was not living a life
'fugitive and cloistered' for three whole unbroken years. But the
convent of St. Joseph was one of his hiding-places from 1749 to 1752.
Of Madame de Vasse I have been unable to learn much: a lady of that
name was presented at Court in 1745, and the Duc de Luynes describes
her as 'conveniently handsome.' She is always alluded to as 'La
Grandemain' in Charles's correspondence, but once he lets her real
name slip out in a memorandum. Mademoiselle Ferrand's father is
apparently described by d'Hozier as 'Ferrand, Ecuyer, Sieur des
Marres et de Ronville en Normandie.' Many of Charles's letters are
addressed to 'Mademoiselle Luci,' SISTER of 'La Grandemain.' Now
Madame de Vasse seems, from a passage in the Duc de Luynes's
'Memoires,' to have been the only daughter of her father, M. de Peze.
But once, Charles, writing to 'Mademoiselle Luci,' addresses the
letter to 'Mademoiselle La Marre,' for 'Marres.' Now, as Marres was
an estate of the Ferrands, this address seems to identify
'Mademoiselle Luci' with Mademoiselle Ferrand, the intimate friend,
not really the sister, of Madame de Vasse. Mademoiselle Ferrand, as
Grimm shows, had a taste for philosophy. We shall remark the same
taste in the Prince's friend, 'Mademoiselle Luci.'
Thus the secret which puzzled Europe is revealed. The Prince, sought
vainly in Poland, Prussia, Italy, Silesia, and Staffordshire, was
really lurking in a fashionable Parisian convent. Better had he been
'where the wind blows over seven glens, and seven Bens, and seven
mountain moors,' like the Prince in the Gaelic fairy stories.
We return to details. On June 30, 1749, the Prince, still homeless,
writes a curious letter to Mademoiselle Ferrand:
'The confidence, Mademoiselle, which I propose to place in you may
seem singular, as I have not the good fortune to know you. The
Comtesse de Routh, however, will be less surprised.' This lady was
the wife of an Irishman commanding a regiment in the French service,
one of those stationed on the frontier of Flanders. 'You
[Mademoiselle Ferrand], who have made a Relation de Cartouche [the
famous robber], may consent to be the depositary of my letter. I
pray you to give this letter to the Comtesse de Routh, and to receive
from her all the packets addressed to Monsieur Douglas.' He then
requests Madame de Routh not to let the Waterses know that she is the
intermediary.
The reason for all this secrecy is obvious. D'Argenson (not the
Bete, but his brother) had threatened Waters with the loss of his
head if he would not tell where the Prince was concealed {82}. The
banker did not want to know the dangerous fact, and was able to deny
his knowledge with a clear conscience.
On July 23 Charles again wrote to Mademoiselle Ferrand: 'It is very
bold of Cartouche to write once more, without knowing whether you
wish to be concerned with him, but people of our profession are
usually impudent, indeed we must be, if we are to earn our bread. . .
. I pray you to have some confidence in this handwriting, and to
believe that Cartouche, though he be Cartouche, is a true friend. As
for his smuggling business, even if it does not succeed as he hopes,
he will be none the less grateful to all who carry his flag, as he
will be certain that, if he fails, it is because success is
impossible.' {83}
This letter was likely to please a romantic girl, as we may suppose
Mademoiselle Ferrand to have been, despite her philosophy.
Stafford and Sheridan now kept writing pitiful appeals for money from
Avignon. Charles answers (July 31, 1749):
'I wish I were in a situation at present to relive them I estime, in
an exotick cuntry that desiers nothing else but to exercise their
arbitrary power in distressing all honest men, even them that [are]
most allies to their own Soverain.'
Charles, in fact, was himself very poor: when money came in, either
from English adherents or from the Loch Arkaig hoard, he sent large
remittances to Avignon.
Money did come in, partly, no doubt, from English adherents. We find
the following orders from the Prince to Colonel Goring.
From the Prince to Goring.
'Ye 31st July, 1749.
'I gave you Lately a proof of my Confidence, by our parting together
from Avignion, so that you will not be surprized of a New Instance.
You are to repair on Receipt of this to London, there to Let know to
such friends as you can see, my situation, and Resolutions; all
tending to nothing else but the good and relieve of our Poor Country
which ever was, and shall be my only thoughts. Take Care of yr.Self,
do not think to be on a detachement, but only a simple Minister that
is to comback with a distinct account from them parts, and remain
assured of my Constant friendship and esteem.
'C. P. R. For GORING.
'P.S.--Cypher.
'I. S h a l. C o n q u e r.
'3 w k y p t d b q x m f.
'My name shall be John Douglas.
'Jean Noe D'Orville & fils. A Frankfort sur Maine, a Banquier of
that Town.'
The Prince may have been at Frankfort, but, as a rule, he was hiding
in Lorraine when not in Paris or near it, and, as we have seen, was
under the protection of various French and fashionable Flora
Macdonalds. Of these ladies, 'Madame de Beauregard' and the
Princesse de Talmond are apparently the same person. With them, or
her (she also appears as la tante and la vieille), Charles's
relations were stormy. He wearied her, he broke with her, he scolded
her, and returned to her again. Another protectress, Madame
d'Aiguillon, was the mistress of the household most frequented by
Montesquieu, le filosophe, as Charles calls him. Madame du Deffand
has left to us portraits of both the Princesse de Talmond and Madame
d'Aiguillon.
'Madame de Talmond has beauty and wit and vivacity; that turn for
pleasantry which is our national inheritance seems natural to her. .
. . But her wit deals only with pleasant frivolities; her ideas are
the children of her memory rather than of her imagination. French in
everything else, she is original in her vanity. Ours is more
sociable, inspires the desire to please, and suggests the means.
Hers is truly Sarmatian, artless and indolent; she cannot bring
herself to flatter those whose admiration she covets. . . . She
thinks herself perfect, says so, and expects to be believed. At this
price alone does she yield a semblance of friendship: semblance, I
say, for her affections are concentrated on herself . . . She is as
jealous as she is vain, and so capricious as to make her at once the
most unhappy and the most absurd of women. She never knows what she
wants, what she fears, whom she loves, or whom she hates. There is
no nature in her expression: with her chin in the air she poses
eternally as tender or disdainful, absent or haughty; all is
affectation. . . . She is feared and hated by all who live in her
society. Yet she has truth, courage, and honesty, and is such a
mixture of good and evil that no steadfast opinion about her can be
entertained. She pleases, she provokes: we love, hate, seek, and
avoid her. It is as if she communicated to others the eccentricity
of her own caprice.'
Where a character like hers met a nature like the Prince's, peace and
quiet were clearly out of the question.
Madame du Deffand is not more favourable to another friend of
Charles, Madame d'Aiguillon. This lady gave a supper every Saturday
night, where neither her husband, the lover of the Princesse de
Conti, nor her son, later the successor of Choiseul as Minister of
Louis XV., was expected to appear. 'The most brilliant men, French
or foreign, were her guests, attracted by her abundant, active,
impetuous, and original intellect, by her elevated conversation, and
her kindness of manner.' {86} She was, according to Gustavus III.,
'the living gazette of the Court, the town, the provinces, and the
academy.' Voltaire wrote to her rhymed epistles. Says Madame du
Deffand, 'Her mouth is fallen in, her nose crooked, her glance wild
and bold, and in spite of all this she is beautiful. The brilliance
of her complexion atones for the irregularity of her features. Her
waist is thick, her bust and arms are enormous. yet she has not a
heavy air: her energy gives her ease of movement. Her wit is like
her face, brilliant and out of drawing. Profusion, activity,
impetuosity are her ruling qualities . . . She is like a play which
is all SPECTACLE, all machines and decorations, applauded by the pit
and hissed by the boxes. . . . '
Montesquieu was hardly a spectator in the pit, yet he habitually
lived at Madame d'Aiguillon's; 'she is original,' he said, and she,
with Madame Dupre de Saint-Maur, watched by the death-bed of the
philosopher. {87}
In unravelling the hidden allusions of Charles's correspondence, I at
first recognised Madame d'Aiguillon in Charles's friend 'La
Grandemain.' The name seemed a suitable sobriquet, for a lady with
gros bras, like Madame d'Aiguillon, might have large hands. The
friendship of 'La Grandemain' with the philosophe, Montesquieu, also
pointed to Madame d'Aiguillon. But Charles, at a later date, makes a
memorandum that he has deposited his strong box, with money, at the
rooms of La Comtesse de Vasse, in the Rue Saint Dominique, Faubourg
St. Germain. That box, again, as he notes, was restored by 'La
Grandemain.' This fact, with Grimm's anecdote, identifies 'La
Grandemain,' not with Madame d'Aiguillon, but with Madame de Vasse,
'the Comtesse,' as Goring calls her, though Grimm makes her a
Marquise. If Montesquieu's private papers and letters in MS. had
been published in full, we should probably know more of this matter.
His relations with Bulkeley were old and most intimate. Before he
died he confessed to Father Routh, an Irish Jesuit, whom Voltaire
denounces in 'Candide.' This Routh must have been connected with
Colonel Routh, an Irish Jacobite in French service, husband of
Charles's friend, 'la Comtesse de Routh.' Montesquieu himself,
though he knew, as we shall show, the Prince's secret, was no
conspirator. Unluckily, as we learn from M. Vian's life of the
philosopher, his successors have been very chary of publishing
details of his private existence. It is, of course, conceivable that
Helvetius, who told Hume that his house had sheltered Charles, is the
philosophe mentioned by Mademoiselle Luci and Madame de Vasse. But
Charles's proved relations with Montesquieu, and Montesquieu's known
habit of frequenting the society of his lady neighbours in the
convent of St. Joseph, also his intimacy with Charles's friend
Bulkeley, who attended his death-bed, all seem rather to point to the
author of 'L'Esprit des Lois.' The philosophes, for a moment, seem
to have expected to find in Prince Charlie the 'philosopher-king' of
Plato's dream!
The Prince's distinguished friends unluckily did not succeed in
inspiring him with common sense.
On August 16 he defends the conduct of cette home, ou tete de fer
(himself), and he writes a few aphorisms, Maximes d'un l'ome sauvage!
He aimed at resembling Charles XII., called 'Dener Bash' by the
Turks, for his obstinacy, a nickname also given by Lord Marischal to
the Prince. Like Balen, he was termed 'The Wild,' 'by knights whom
kings and courts can tame.' He writes to the younger Waters,
To Waters, Junior.
'Ye 21st August, 1749.
'I receive yrs. of ye 8th. Current with yr two as mentioned and I
heve send their Answers for Avignon, plese to Enclose in it a Credit
for fifteen thousand Livers, to Relive my family there, at the
disposal of Stafford and Sheridan. I am sorry to be obliged oftener
to draw upon you, than to remit, and cannot help Reflection on this
occasion, on the Misery of that poor Popish Town, and all their
Inhabitants not being worth four hundred Louidors. Mr. B. [Bulkeley]
Mistakes as to my taking amis anything of him, on the contrary I am
charmed to heve the opinion of everybody, particularly them Like him,
as I am shure say nothing but what they think: but as I am so much
imbibed in ye English air, where My only Concerns are, I cannot help
sometimes differing with ye inhabitants of forain Climats.
'I remain all yours.
'15,000 ff. Credit for Stafford and Sheridan at Avignon.'
'Newton' kept writing, meanwhile, that Cluny can do nothing till
winter, 'on account of the sheilings,' the summer habitations of the
pastoral Highlanders. There may have been sheilings near the hiding-
places of the Loch Arkaig treasure. On September 30 we find Charles
professing his inebranlable amitie for Madame de Talmond. He bids
his courier stop at Luneville, as she may be at the Court of
Stanislas there.
The results of Goring's mission to England may be gleaned from a
cypher letter of 'Malloch' (Balhaldie) to James. Balhaldie had been
in London; he found the party staunch, 'but frighted out of their
wits.' The usual names of the official Jacobites are given--
Barrymore, Sir William Watkyns Wynne, and Beaufort. But they are all
alarmed 'by Lord Traquair's silly indiscretion in blabbing to Murray
of Broughton of their concerns, wherein he could be of no use.' They
had summoned Balhaldie, and complained of the influence of Kelly, an
adviser bequeathed to Charles by his old tutor, Sir Thomas Sheridan,
now dead. 'They saw well that the Insurrection Sir James Harrington
was negotiating, to be begun at Litchfield Election and Races, in
September '47, was incouraged, and when that failed, the Insurrection
attempted by Lally's influence on one Wilson, a smuggler in Sussex,
which could serve no end save the extinction of the unhappy men
concerned in them; therefore they had taken pains to prevent any.
They lamented the last steps the Prince had taken here as scarcely
reparable.'
Goring had now been with them, and they had insisted on the Prince's
procuring a reconciliation with the French Court. 'Goring's only
business was to say that the Prince had parted with Kelly, Lally, Sir
James Graeme, and Oxburgh, and the whole, and to assure friends in
England that he would never more see any one of them.' Charles was,
therefore, provided by his English friends with 15,000l., and the
King's timid party of men with much to lose won a temporary triumph.
He sent 21,000 livres to his Avignon household, adding, 'I received
yours with a list of my bookes: I find sumne missing of them.
Particularly Fra Paulo [Sarpi] and Boccaccio, which are both rare.
If you find any let me know it.'
Charles was more of a bibliophile than might be guessed from his
orthography.
On November 22, 1749, Charles, from Luneville, wrote a long letter
to a lady, speaking of himself in the third person. All approaches
to Avignon are guarded, to prevent his return thither. 'Despite the
Guards, they assure me that he is in France, and not far from the
capital. The Lieutenant of Police has been heard to say, by a person
who informed me, that he knew for certain the Prince had come in
secret to Paris, and had been at the house of Monsieur Lally. The
King winks at all this, but it is said that M. de Puysieux and the
Mistress (Madame de Pompadour) are as ill disposed as ever. I know
from a good source that 15,000l. has been sent to the Prince from
England, on condition of his dismissing his household.' {91}
The spelling of this letter is correct, and possibly the Prince did
not write it, but copied it out. That Louis XV. winked at his
movements is probable enough; secretive as he was, the King may have
known what he concealed even from his Minister, de Puysieux.
On December 19, the Prince, who cannot have been far from Paris,
sent Goring thither 'to get my big Muff and portfeul.' I do not know
which lady he addressed, on December 10, as 'l'Adorable,' 'avec toute
la tendresse possible.' On November 28, 'R. Jackson' writes from
England. He saw Dr. King (of St. Mary Hall, Oxford), who had been at
Lichfield races, 'and had a list of the 275 gentlemen who were
there.' This Mr. Jackson was going to Jamaica, to Henry Dawkins,
brother of Jemmy Dawkins, a rich and scholarly planter who played a
great part, later, in Jacobite affairs.
In 1750, February found Charles still without a reply to his letter
of May 26, in which he made an anonymous appeal for shelter in
Imperial territories. Orders to Goring, who had been sent to Lally,
bid him 'take care not to get benighted in the woods and dangerous
places.' A good deal is said about a marble bust of the Prince at
which Lemoine is working, the original, probably, of the plaster
busts sold in autumn in Red Lion Square. 'Newton' (January 28)
thinks Cluny wilfully dilatory about sending the Loch Arkaig
treasure, and AEneas Macdonald, the banker, one of the Seven Men of
Moidart, accuses 'Newton' (Kennedy) of losing 8001. of the money at
Newmarket races! In fact, Young Glengarry and Archibald Cameron had
been helping themselves freely to the treasure at this very time,
whence came endless trouble and recriminations, as we shall see. {92}
On January 25 the Prince was embroiled with Madame de Talmond. He
writes, obviously in answer to remonstrances:
'Nous nous prometons de suivre en tout les volontes et les
arrangemens de notre fidele amie et alliee, L. P. D. T.; nous retirer
aux heures qu'il lui conviendra a la ditte P, soit de jour, soit de
nuit, soit de ses etats, en foy de quoi nous signons. C.'
He had begun to bore the capricious lady.
Important intrigues were in the air. The Prince resembled 'paper-
sparing Pope' in his use of scraps of writing material. One piece
bears notes both of February and June 1750. On February 16 Charles
wrote to Mr. Dormer, an English Jacobite:
'I order you to go to Anvers, and there to execute my instructions
without delay.'
Goring carried the letter. Then comes a despatch of June, which will
be given under date.
Concerning the fatal hoard of Loch Arkaig, 'Newton' writes thus:-
Tho. Newton to ---
'March 18, 1750.
'You have on the other side the melancholy confirmation of what I
apprehended. Dr. Cameron is no doubt the person here mentioned that
carryd away the horses [money], for he is lately gone to Rome, as is
also young Glengery, those and several others of them, have been very
flush of money, so that it seems they took care of themselves. C.
[Cluny] in my opinion is more to be blamed than any of them, for if
he had a mind to act the honest part he certainly could have given up
the whole long since. They will no doubt represent me not in the
most advantageous light at Rome, for attempting to carry out of their
country what they had to support them. I hope they will one day or
other be obliged to give an acct. of this money, if so, least they
shd. attempt to Impose upon you, you'l find my receipts to C. will
exactly answer what I had already the honour of giving you an acct.
of.'
Again 'Newton' writes:
(Tho. Newton--From G. Waters's Letter.)
'April 27, 1750.
'I am honored with yours of the 6th. Inst. and nothing could equal my
surprize at the reception of the Letter I sent you. I did not expect
C [Cluny] was capable of betraying the confidence you had in him, and
he is the more culpable, as I frequently put it in his power to
acquit himself of his duty without reproach of any side. Only
Cameron is returned from Rome greatly pleased with the reception he
met there. I have not seen him, but he has bragged of this to many
people here since his return. I never owned to any man alive to have
been employed in that affair.'
In spite of Newton, it is not to be credited that Cluny, lurking in
many perils on Ben Alder, was unfaithful about the treasure.
Meanwhile, Young Glengarry (whose history we give later), Archibald
Cameron (Lochiel's brother), Sir Hector Maclean, and other Jacobites,
were in Rome, probably to explain their conduct about the Loch Arkaig
treasure to James. He knew nothing about the matter, and what he
said will find its proper place when we come to investigate the
history of Young Glengarry. The Prince at this time corresponded a
good deal with 'Mademoiselle Luci,' that fair philosophical recluse
who did little commissions for him in Paris. On April 4 he wants a
list of the books he left in Paris, and shows a kind heart.
'Pray take care of the young surgeon, M. Le Coq, and see that he
wants for nothing. As the lad gets no money from his relations, he
may be in need.' Charles, on March 28, writes thus to 'Madame de
Beauregard,' which appears to be an alias of Madame de Talmond:
The Prince.
March 28, 1750.
'A Md. Bauregor. Je vois avec Chagrin que vous vous tourmentes et
mois aussi bien innutillement, et en tout sans [sens]. Ou vous
voules me servire, ou vous ne Le voules pas; ou vous voules me
protege, ou non; Il n'y a acune autre alternative en raison qui puis
etre. Si vous voules me servire il ne faut pas me soutenire toujours
que Blan [blanc] est noire, dans Les Chose Les plus palpable: et
jamais Avouer que vous aves tort meme quant vous Le santes. Si vous
ne voules pas me servire, il est inutile que je vous parle de ce qui
me regarde: si vous voules me protege, il ne faut pas me rendre La
Vie plus malheureuse qu'il n'est. Si vous voules m'abandoner il faut
me Le dire en bon Francois ou Latin. Visus solum' [sic].
Madame de Talmond sheltered the Prince both in Lorraine and in Paris.
They were, unluckily, born to make each other's lives
'insupportable.'
Charles wrote this letter, probably to Madame d'Aiguillon, from
Paris:
May 12, 1750.
'La Multitude d'affaire de toute Espece dont j'ai ete plus que
surcharge, Madame, depuis plus de quatre Mois, Chose que votre
Chancelier a du vous attester, ne m' avois permis de vous rappeller
Le souvenir de vos Bontes pour Moi; qualque Long qu'ait ete Le
Silance que j'ai garde sur Le Desir que j'ai d'en meriter La
Continuation j'espere qu'il ne m'en aura rien fait perdre: j'ose
meme presumer Encore asses pour me flater qu'une Longue absence que
je projette par raison et par une necessite absolue, ne m'efacera pas
totalement de votre souvenir; Daigne Le Conserver, Madame a quelquun
qui n'en est pas indigne et qui cherchera toujours a Le meriter par
son tendre et respectueux attachement--a Paris Le 12 May, 1750.'
A quaint light is thrown on the Prince's private affairs (May 12) by
Waters's note of his inability to get a packet of Scottish tartan,
sent by Archibald Cameron, out of the hands of the Custom House. It
was confiscated as 'of British manufacture.' Again, on May 18,
Charles wrote to Mademoiselle Luci, in Paris. She is requested 'de
faire avoire une ouvrage de Mr. Fildings, (auteur de Tom Jones) qui
s'apel Joseph Andrews, dans sa langue naturelle, et la traduction
aussi.' He also wants 'Tom Jones' in French, and we may infer that
he is teaching to some fair pupil the language of Fielding. He asks,
too, for a razor-case with four razors, a shaving mirror, and a
strong pocket-book with a lock. His famous 'chese de post' (post-
chaise) is to be painted and repaired.
Business of a graver kind is in view. 'Newton' (April 24) is to get
ready to accompany the Prince on a long journey, really to England,
it seems. Newton asked for a delay, on account of family affairs.
He was only to be known to the bearer as 'Mr. Newton,' of course not
his real name.
On May 28, Charles makes a mote about a mysterious lady, really
Madame de Talmond.
Project.
'If ye lady abandons me at the last moment, to give her the letter
here following for ye F. K. [French King], and even ye original, if
she thinks it necessary, but with ye greatest secrecy; apearing to
them already in our confidence that I will quit the country, if she
does not return to me immediately.'
Drafts of letters to the French King, in connection with Madame de
Talmond--to be delivered, apparently, if Charles died in England--
will be given later. To England he was now bent on making his way.
'Ye Prince is determined to go over at any rate,' he wrote on a draft
of May 3, 1750. {97} 'The person who makes the proposal of coming
over assures that he will expose nobody but himself, supposing the
worst.' Sir Charles Goring is to send a ship for his brother, Henry
Goring, to Antwerp, early in August. 'To visit Mr. P. of D.
[unknown] . . . and to agree where the arms &c. may be most
conveniently landed, the grand affair of L. [London?] to be attempted
at the same time.' There are notes on 'referring the Funds to a free
Parliament,' 'The Tory landed interest wished to repudiate the
National Debt,' 'To acquaint particular persons that the K. [King]
will R--' (resign), which James had no intention of doing.
In preparation for the insurrection Charles, under extreme secrecy,
deposited 186,000 livres ('livers!') with Waters. He also ordered
little silver counters with his effigy, as the English Government
came to know, for distribution, and he commanded a miniature of
himself, by Le Brun, 'with all the Orders.' This miniature may have
been a parting gift to Madame de Talmond, or one of the other
protecting ladies, 'adorable' or quarrelsome. It is constantly
spoken of in the correspondence.
The real business in hand is revealed in the following directions for
Goring. The Prince certainly makes a large order on Dormer, and it
is not probable, though (from the later revelations of James Mohr
Macgregor) it is possible, that the weapons demanded were actually
procured.
June 8.
Letter and Directions for Goring.--'Mr. Dutton will go directly to
Anvers and there wait Mr. Barton's arrival and asoon as you have
received his Directions you'l set out to join me, in the mean time
you will concert with Dormer the properest means of procuring THE
THINGS ['arms,' erased] I now order him, in the strictest secrecy,
likewise how I could be concealed in case I came to him, and the
safest way of travelling to that country?'
For Mr. Dormer. Same Date. Anvers.
'As you have already offered me by ye Bearer, Mr. Goring, to furnish
me what Arms necessary for my service I hereby desire you to get me
with all ye expedition possible Twenty Thousand Guns, Baionets,
Ammunition proportioned, with four thousand sords and Pistols for
horces [cavalry] in one ship which is to be ye first, and in ye
second six thousand Guns without Baionets but sufficient Amunition
and Six thouzand Brode sords; as Mr. Goring has my further Directions
to you on them Affaires Leaves me nothing farther to add at present.'
On June 11, Charles remonstrated with Madame de Talmond: if she is
tired of him, he will go to 'le Lorain.' 'Enfin, si vous voulez ma
vie, il faut changer de tout.' On June 27, Newton repeated his
expressions of suspicion about Cluny, and spoke of 'disputes and
broils' among the Scotch as to the seizure of the Loch Arkaig money.
On July 2, Charles, in cypher, asked James for a renewal of his
commission as Regent. Goring, or Newton, was apparently sent at
least as far as Avignon with this despatch. He travelled as Monsieur
Fritz, a German, with complicated precautions of secrecy. James sent
the warrant to be Regent on parchment--it is in the Queen's Library--
but he added that Charles was 'a continual heartbreak,' and warned
his son not to expect 'friendship and favours from people, while you
do all that is necessary to disgust them.' He 'could not in decency'
see Charles's envoy (August 4). On the following day Edgar wrote in
a more friendly style, for this excellent man was of an amazing
loyalty.
From James Edgar.
'August 5, 1750: Rome.
'Your Royal Highness does me the greatest pleasure in mentioning the
desire you have to have the King's head in an intaglio. There is
nobody can serve you as well in that respect as I, so I send you by
the bearers two, one on a stone like a ruby, but it is a fine
Granata, and H.M.'s hair and the first letters of his name are on the
inside of it. The other head is on an emerald, a big one, but not of
a fine colour; it is only set in lead, so you may either set it in a
ring, a seal, or a locket, as you please: they are both cut by
Costanzia, and very well done.'
These intagli would be interesting relics for collectors of such
flotsam and jetsam of a ruined dynasty. On August 25, Charles
answered Edgar. He is 'sorry that His Majesty is prevented against
the most dutiful of sons.' He sends thanks for the engraved stones
and the powers of Regency. This might well have been James's last
news of Charles, for he was on his way to London, a perilous
expedition. {101}
CHAPTER V--THE PRINCE IN LONDON; AND AFTER.--MADEMOISELLE LUCI
(SEPTEMBER 1750-JULY 1751)
The Prince goes to London--Futility of this tour--English Jacobites
described by AEneas Macdonald--No chance but in Tearlach--Credentials
to Madame de Talmond--Notes of visit to London--Doings in London--
Gratifying conversion--Gems and medals--Report by Hanbury Williams--
Hume's legend--Report by a spy--Billets to Madame de Talmond--
Quarrel--Disappearance--'The old aunt'--Letters to Mademoiselle Luci-
-Charles in Germany--Happy thought of Hanbury Williams--Marshal
Keith's mistress--Failure of this plan--The English 'have a clue'--
Books for the Prince--Mademoiselle Luci as a critic--Jealousy of
Madame de Talmond--Her letter to Mademoiselle Luci--The young lady
replies--Her bad health--Charles's reflections--Frederick 'a clever
man'--A new adventure.
The Prince went to London in the middle of September 1750; and why
did he run such a terrible risk? Though he had ordered great
quantities of arms in June, no real preparations had been made for a
rising. His Highlanders--Glengarry, Lochgarry, Archy Cameron,
Clanranald--did not know where he was. Scotland was not warned. As
for England, we learn the condition of the Jacobite party there from
a letter by AEneas Macdonald, the banker, to Sir Hector Maclean--Sir
Hector whom, in his examination, he had spoken of as 'too fond of the
bottle.' {103} AEneas now wrote from Boulogne, in September 1750.
He makes it clear that peace, luxury, and constitutionalism had eaten
the very heart out of the grandsons of the cavaliers. There was
grumbling enough at debt, taxes, a Hanoverian King who at this very
hour was in Hanover. Welsh and Cheshire squires and London aldermen
drank Jacobite toasts in private. 'But,' says AEneas, 'there are not
in England three persons of distinction of the same sentiments as to
the method of restoring the Royal family, some being for one way,
some for another.' They have neither heart nor money for an armed
assertion of their ideas. In 1745, Sir William Watkins Wynne (who
stayed at home in Wales) had not 200l. by him in ready money, and
money cannot be raised on lands at such moments. Yet this very man
was believed to have spent 120,000l. in contested elections. 'It is
very probable that six times as much money has been thrown away upon
these elections'--he means in the country generally--'as would have
restored the King.' AEneas knew another gentleman who had wasted
40,000l. in these constitutional diversions. 'The present scheme,'
he goes on, 'is equally weak.' The English Jacobites were to seem to
side with Frederick, the Prince of Wales, in opposition, and force
him, when crowned, 'to call a free Parliament.' That Parliament
would proclaim a glorious Restoration. In fact, the English
Jacobites were devoured by luxury, pacific habits, and a desire to
save their estates by pursuing 'constitutional methods.' These, as
we shall see, Charles despised. If a foreign force cannot be landed
(if landed it would scarcely be opposed), then 'there is no method so
good as an attempt such as Terloch [Tearlach] made: if there be arms
and money: men, I am sure, he will find enough. . . . One thing you
may take for granted, that Terloch's appearance again would be worth
5,000 men, and that without him every attempt will be vain and
fruitless.' AEneas, in his examination, talked to a different tune,
as the poor timid banker, distrusted and insulted by ferocious
chieftains.
'Terloch' was only too eager to 'show himself again'; money and arms
he seems to have procured (d'Argenson says 4,000,000 francs!), but
why go over secretly to London, where he had no fighting partisans?
There are no traces of a serious organised plan, and the Prince
probably crossed the water, partly to see how matters really stood,
partly from restlessness and the weariness of a tedious solitude in
hiding, broken only by daily quarrels and reconciliations with the
Princesse de Talmond and other ladies.
We find a curious draft of his written on the eve of starting.
'Credentials given ye 1st. Sept, 1750. to ye P. T.' (Princesse de
Talmond).
'Je me flate que S.M.T.C. [Sa Majeste Tres Chretien] voudra bien
avoire tout foi et credi a Madame La P. de T., ma chere Cousine, come
si s'etoit mois-meme; particulierement en l'assurant de nouveau come
quois j'ai ses veritable interest plus a cour que ses Ministres,
etant toujours avec une attachemen veritable et sincere pour sa sacre
persone. C. P. R.' (Charles, Prince Regent).
Again,
A Mr. Le Duc de Richelieu.
'Je comte sur votre Amitie, Monsieur, je vous prie d'etre persuade de
la mienne et de ma reconnaissance.
'All these are deponed, not to be given till farther orders.'
What use the Princesse de Talmond was to make of these documents, on
what occasion, is not at all obvious. That the Prince actually went
to London, we know from a memorandum in his own hand. 'My full
powers and commission of Regency renewed, when I went to England in
1750, and nothing to be said at Rome, for every thing there is known,
and my brother, who has got no confidence of my Father, has always
acted, as far as his power, against my interest.' {105}
Of Charles's doings in London, no record survives in the Stuart
Papers of 1750. We merely find this jotting:
'Parted ye 2d. Sep. Arrived to A. [Antwerp] ye 6th. Parted from
thence ye 12th. Sept. E. [England] ye 14th, and at L. [London] ye
16th. Parted from L. ye 22d. and arrived at P. ye 24th. From P.
parted ye 28th. Arrived here ye 30th Sept. If she [Madame de
Talmond, probably] does not come, and ye M. [messenger] agreed on to
send back for ye Letters and Procuration [to] ye house here of P. C.
and her being either a tretor or a hour, to chuse which, [then] not
to send to P. even after her coming unless absolute necessity order,
requiring it then at her dor.'
On the back of the paper is:
'The letter to Godie [Gaudie?] retarded a post; ye Lady's being
arrived, or her retard to be little, if she is true stille.'
Then follow some jottings, apparently of the lady's movements. 'N.S.
[New style] ye 16th. Sept. Either ill counselled or she has made a
confidence. M. Lorain's being here [the Duke of Lorraine, ex-King of
Poland, probably, a friend of Madame de Talmond] ye 12th. Sept. To
go ye same day with ye King, speaking to W. [Waters?] ye last day,
Madame A. here this last six weeks.'
These scrawls appear to indicate some communication between Madame de
Talmond, the Duke of Lorraine, and Louis XV. {106}
In London Charles did little but espouse the Anglican religion. Dr.
King, in his 'Anecdotes,' tells how the Prince took the refreshment
of tea with him, and how his servant detected a resemblance to the
busts sold in Red Lion Square. He also appeared at a party at Lady
Primrose's, much to her alarm. {107} He prowled about the Tower with
Colonel Brett, and thought a gate might be damaged by a petard. His
friends, including Beaufort and Westmoreland, held a meeting in Pall
Mall, to no purpose. The tour had no results, except in the harmless
region of the fine arts. A medal was struck, by Charles's orders,
and we have the following information for collectors of Jacobite
trinkets. The English Government, never dreaming that the Prince was
in Pall Mall, was well informed about cheap treasonable jewellery.
'Paris: August 31, 1750.
'The Artist who makes the seals with the head of the Pretender's
eldest Son, is called le Sieur Malapert, his direction is hereunder,
he sells them at 3 Livres apiece, but by the Dozen he takes less.
'It is one Tate, who got the engraving made on metal, from which the
Artist takes the impression on his Composition in imitation of fine
Stones of all colours. This Tate was a Jeweller at Edinborough,
where he went into the Rebellion and having made his escape, has
since settled here, but has left his wife and Family at Edinborough.
He is put upon the list of the French King's Bounty for eight hundred
Livres yearly, the same as is allowed to those that had a Captain's
Commission in the Pretender's Service and are fled hither. It is
Sullivan and Ferguson who employ Tate to get the 1,500 Seals done, he
being a man that does still Jeweller's business and follows it. The
Artist has actually done four dozen of seals, which are disposed of,
having but half a dozen left. He expects daily an order for the said
quantity more--As there are no Letters or Inscription about it, the
Artist may always pretend that it is only a fancy head, though it is
in reality very like the Pretender's Eldest Son.' {108}
Oddly enough, we find Waters sealing, with this very intaglio of the
Prince, a letter to Edgar, in 1750. It is a capital likeness.
Wise after the event, Hanbury Williams wrote from Berlin (October 13,
1750) that Charles was in England, 'in the heart of the kingdom, in
the county of Stafford.' By October 20, Williams knows that the
Prince is in Suffolk. All this is probably a mere echo of Charles's
actual visit to London, reverberated from the French Embassy at
Berlin, and arriving at Hanbury Williams, he says, through an
Irishman, who knew a lacquey of the French Ambassador's. In English
official circles no more than this was known. Troops were
concentrated near Stafford after Charles had returned to Lorraine.
Hume told Sir John Pringle a story of how Charles was in London in
1753, how George II. told the fact to Lord Holdernesse, and how the
King expressed his good-humoured indifference. But Lord Holdernesse
contradicted the tale, as we have already observed. If Hume meant
1750 by 1733 he was certainly wrong. George was then in Hanover. In
1753 I have no proof that Charles was in London, though Young
Glengarry told James that the Prince was 'on the coast' in November
1752. If Charles did come to London in 1753, and if George knew it,
the information came through Pickle to Henry Pelham, as will appear
later. Hume gave the Earl Marischal as his original authority. The
Earl was likely to be better informed about events of 1752-1753 than
about those of September 1750.
After Charles's departure from London, the English Government
received information from Paris (October 5, 1750) to the following
effect:
'Paris: October 5, 1750.
'It is supposed that the Pretender's Son keeps at Montl'hery, six
leagues from Paris, at Mr. Lumisden's, or at Villeneuve St. Georges,
at a small distance from Town, at Lord Nairn's; Sometimes at Sens,
with Col. Steward and Mr. Ferguson; when at Paris, at Madme. la
Princesse de Talmont's, or the Scotch Seminary; nobody travels with
him but Mr. Goring, and a Biscayan recommended to him by Marshal
Saxe: the young Pretender is disguised in an Abbe's dress, with a
black patch upon his eye, and his eyebrows black'd.
'An Officer of Ogilvie's Regimt. in this Service listed lately. An
Irish Priest, who belonged to the Parish Church of S. Eustache at
Paris, has left his Living, reckoned worth 80l. St. a year, and is
very lately gone to London to be Chaplain to the Sardinian Minister:
he has carried with him a quantity of coloured Glass Seals with the
Pretender's Son's Effigy, as also small heads made of silver gilt
about this bigness [example] to be set in rings, as also points for
watch cases, with the same head, and this motto round "Look, Love,
and follow."' {110}
On October 30, Walton wrote that James was much troubled by a letter
from Charles, doubtless containing the news of his English failure;
perhaps notifying his desertion of the Catholic faith. On January
15, 1751, Walton writes that James has confided to the Pope that
Charles is at Boulogne-sur-Mer, which he very possibly was. On
January 9 and 22, Horace Mann reports, on the information of Cardinal
Albani, that James and the Duke of York are ill with grief.
'Something extraordinary has happened to the Pretender's eldest son.'
He had turned Protestant, that was all. But Cardinal Albani
withdraws his statement, and thinks that nothing unusual has really
occurred. In fact, Charles, as we shall see, had absolutely vanished
for three months.
Charles returned to France in September 1750, and renewed his
amantium irae with Madame de Talmond. Among the Stuart Papers of
1750 are a number of tiny billets, easily concealed, and doubtless
passed to the lady furtively. 'Si vous ne voulez, Reine de Maroc,
pas cet faire, quelle plaisir mourir de chagrin et de desespoire!'
'Aiez de la Bonte et de confience pour celui qui vous aime et vous
adore passionement.'
To some English person:
'Ask the Channoine where you can by hocks [buy hooks!] and lines for
fishing, and by a few hocks and foure lines.' {111}
The Princess writes:
'Je partirai dimanche comme j'ai promis au Roy de Pologne'
(Stanislas). 'Je vous embrasse bien tendrement, si vous etes tel que
vous devez etre a mon egard.' She is leaving for Commercy. On the
reverse the Prince has written, 'Judi. Je comance a ouvrire mes yeux
a votre egar, Madame, vous ne voulez pas de mois, ce soire, malgre
votre promes, et ma malheureuse situation.'
The quarrels grew more frequent and more embittered. We have marked
his suspicious view of the lady's movements. On September 26, 1750,
she had not returned, and he wrote to her in the following terms.
The Prince.
September 26, 1750.
'Je pars, Madame, dans L'instant, en Sorte que vous feriez
reflection, et retourniez au plus vite, tout doit vous Engager, si
vous avez de l'amitie pour mois, Car je ne puis pas me dispenser de
vous repeter, Combien chaque jour de votre absence faira du tor a mes
affaier outre Le desire d'avoire une Coinpagnie si agreable dans une
si triste solitude, que ma malheureuse situation m'oblige
indispensablement de tenire. J'ai cesse [?] des Ordres positive a
Mlle. Luci, de ne me pas envoier La Moindre Chose meme une dilligence
come aussi de mon cote je n'en veres rien, jusqu'a ce que vous soiez
arrive.
'Quant vous partires alors Mdll. Luci vous remettera tout ce quil
aura pour mois, vous rien de votre cote que votre personne.'
On the same paper Charles announces his intention of going instantly
to 'Le Lorain.' There must have been a great quarrel with Madame de
Talmond, outwearied by the exigencies of a Prince doomed to a triste
solitude after a week of London. On September 30 he announces to
Waters that there will be no news of him till January 15, 1751. For
three months he disappears beyond even his agent's ken. On October
20 he writes to Mademoiselle Luci, styling himself 'Mademoiselle
Chevalier,' and calling Madame de Talmond 'Madame Le Nord.' The
Princesse de Talmond has left him, is threatening him, and may ruin
him.
'Le October 20, 1750.
'A Mll. Luci: Mademoiselle Chevalier est tres affligee de voir le
peu d'egard que Madame Lenord a pour ses Interest. La Miene du 12
auroit ete La derniere mais cette dame a ecrit une Letre en date du
18 a M. Le Lorrain qui a choque cette Demoiselle [himself], Et je
puis dire avec raison quelle agit come Le plus Grand de ses ennemis
par son retard, elle ajoute encor a cela des menaces si on La presse
d'avantage, et si l'on se plain de son indigne procede. Md. Poulain
seroit deja partit, et partiroit si cette dame lui en donnoit Les
Moiens. Je ne puis trop vous faire connoitre Le Tort que Md. Lenord
fait a cette demoiselle en abandonant sa societe et La risque qu'elle
fait courir a Md. de Lille qui par La pouroit faire banqueroute.
'A Mdll. La Marre.
Chez M. Lecuyer tapisse [Tapissier].
Grande Rue Garonne, Faubourg
St. Germain a Paris.
'Vous pouvez accuser La reception de cette Lettre par Le premier
Ordinaire a M. Le Vieux [Old Waters].
'Adieu Mdll.
'Je vous embrace de tout mon Cour.'
On November 7 Charles writes again to Mademoiselle Luci: the
Princesse de Talmond is here la vieille tante: now estranged and
perhaps hostile. Madame de la Bruere is probably the wife of M. de
la Bruere, whom Montesquieu speaks highly of when, in 1749, he was
Charge d'Affaires in Rome. {113}
'Le 7 Nov. 1750.
'Mdlle. Luci,--Je suis fort Etone Mademoiselle qu'une fame de cette
Age qu'a notre Tante soi si deresonable. Elle se done tout La paine
immaginable pour agire contre Les interets de sa niece par son retard
du payment dont vous m'avez deja parle.
'Voici une lettre que je vous prie de cachete, et d'y mettre son
adress, et de l'envoier sur Le Champ a Madame de Labruiere. Il est
inutile d'hors en avant que vous communiquier aucune Chose de ce qui
regard Mlle. Chevalier [himself], a Md. la Tante [Talmond] jusqu'a ce
que Elle pense otrement, car, il n'est que trop cler ques es procedes
sont separes et oposes a ce qui devroit etre son interet. Je vous
embrace de tout mon Coeur.'
These embraces are from the supposed Mademoiselle Chevalier. There
is no reason to suppose a tender passion between Charles and the girl
who was now his Minister of Affairs, Foreign and Domestic. But
Madame de Talmond, as we shall learn, became jealous of Mademoiselle
Luci.
His deeper seclusion continues.
Madame de Talmond, in the following letter, is as before, la tante.
The 'merchandise' is letters for the Prince, which have reached
Mademoiselle Luci, and which she is to return to Waters, the banker.
'Le 16 Nov. 1750.
'A Mdll. Luci: Je vous ai ecrit Mademoiselle, Le 7, avec une incluse
pour Md. de La Bruiere, je vous prie de m'en accuser la reception a
l'adresse de M. Le Vieux [Old Waters], et de me donner des Nouvelles
de M. de Lisle [unknown]; pour se que regarde Les Marchandises de
modes que vous avez chez vous depuis que j'ai en Le plaisir de vous
voire et que cette Tante [Madame de Talmond] veut avoire l'indignite
d'en differer le paiement, il faut que vous les renvoiez au memes
Marchands de qui vous Les avez recu et leur dire que vous craignez ne
pas avoir de longtems une occasion favorable pour Les debiter, ainsi
qu'en attendant vous aimez mieux quelles soieut dans leurs mains que
dans Les votres. Je vous embrasse de tout mon Coeur.'
By November 19, Charles is indignant even with Mademoiselle Luci, who
has rather tactlessly shown the letter of November 7 to Madame de
Talmond, la tante, la vieille Femme. Oh, the unworthy Prince!
Charles's epistle follows:
19th Nov.
'Je suis tres surprise, Mademoiselle, de votre Lettre du 15, par
Laquelle vous dites avoire montres a la tante une Lettre touchant les
Affaires de Mdlle. Chevalier, cependant la mienne du 7 dont vous
m'accuses La reception vous marquoit positivement Le contraire, Mr.
De Lisle ne voulant pas qu'on parlet a cette vieille Femme jesqu'a ce
qu'elle changeat de sentiment, et qu'elle paix la somme si necessaire
a son Commerce. Ne vous serriez vous pas trompee de l'adresse de
l'incluse pour la jeune Marchande de Mdlle. La bruiere--Vous devez
peut ete La connoitre; si cela est, je vous prie de me le Marquer et
d'y remedier au plutot. Enfin Mademoiselle vous me faites tomber des
nues et les pauvretes que vous me marquez sont a mepriser. Elles ne
peuvent venir que de cette tante, ce sont des couleurs qui ne peuvent
jaimais prendre.
'Adieu Mdlle., n'attendez plus de mes nouvelles jusqu'a ce que le
paiement soit fait. Soiez Toujours assuree de ma sincere amitie.'
Charles's whole career, alas! after 1748, was a set of quarrels with
his most faithful adherents. This break with his old mistress,
Madame de Talmond, is only one of a fatal series. With Mademoiselle
Luci he never broke: we shall see the reason for this constancy.
His correspondence now includes that of 'John Dixon,' of London, a
false name for an adherent who has much to say about 'Mr. Best' and
'Mr. Sadler.' The Prince was apparently at or near Worms; his
letters went by Mayence. On December 30 he sends for 'L'Esprit des
Lois' and 'Les Amours de Mlle. Fanfiche,' and other books of
diversified character. On Decemuber 31, his birthday, he wrote to
Waters, 'the indisposition of those I employ has occasioned this long
silence.' Mr. Dormer was his chief medium of intelligence with
England. 'Commerce with Germany' is mentioned; efforts, probably, to
interest Frederick the Great. On January 27, 1751, Mademoiselle Luci
is informed that la tante has paid (probably returned his letters),
but with an ill grace. Cluny sends an account of the Loch Arkaig
money (only 12,981l. is left) and of the loyal clans. Glengarry's
contingent is estimated at 3,000 men. In England, 'Paxton' (Sir W.
W. Wynne) is dead. On February 28, 1751, Charles is somewhat
reconciled to his old mistress. 'Je me flatte qu'en cette Nouvelle
Annee vous vous corrigerez, en attendant je suis come je serois
toujours, avec toutte la tendresse et amitie possible, C. P.'
It is, of course, just possible that, from October 1750 to February
1751, Charles was in Germany, trying to form relations with Frederick
the Great. Goring, under the name of 'Stouf,' was certainly working
in Germany. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams at Berlin wrote on February
6, 1751, to the Duke of Newcastle:
'Hitherto my labours have been in vain. But I think I have at
present hit upon a method which may bring the whole to light. And I
will here take the liberty humbly to lay my thoughts and proposals
before Your Grace. Feldt Marshal Keith has long had a mistress who
is a Livonian, and who has always had an incredible ascendant over
the Feldt Marshal, for it was certainly upon her account that his
brother, the late Lord Marshal, quitted his house, and that they now
live separately. About a week ago (during Feldt Marshal Keith's
present illness) the King of Prussia ordered that this woman should
be immediately sent out of his dominions. Upon which she quitted
Berlin, and is certainly gone directly to Riga, which is the place of
her birth. Now, as I am well persuaded that she was in all the Feldt
Marshal's secrets, I would humbly submit it to Your Grace, whether it
might NOT BE PROPER FOR HIS MAJESTY to order his Ministers at the
Court of Petersburgh to make instance to the Empress of Russia, that
this woman might be obliged to come to Petersburgh, where, IF PROPER
MEASURES WERE TAKEN WITH HER, she may give much light into this, and
perhaps into other affairs. The reason why I would have her brought
to Petersburgh is, that if she is examined at Riga, that examination
would probably be committed to the care of Feldt Marshal Lasci, who
commands in Chief, and constantly resides there, and I am afraid,
would not take quite so much pains to examine into the bottom of an
affair of this nature, as I could wish . . .
'C. HANBURY WILLIAMS.
It is not hard to interpret the words 'proper measures' as understood
in the land of the knout. The mistress of Field Marshal Keith could
not be got at; she had gone to Sweden, and this chivalrous proposal
failed. The woman was not tortured in Russia to discover a Prince
who was in or near Paris. {118}
At the very moment when Williams, from Berlin, was making his manly
suggestion, Lord Albemarle, from Paris (February 10, 1751), was
reporting to his Government that Charles had been in Berlin, and had
been received by Frederick 'with great civility.' The King, however,
did not accede to Charles's demand for his sister's hand. This
report is probably incorrect, for Charles's notes to Mademoiselle
Luci at this time indicate no great absence from the French capital.
On February 17, 1751, the English Government, like the police,
'fancied they had a clue.' The Duke of Bedford wrote to Lord
Albemarle, 'His Majesty would have your Excellency inform M. Puysieux
that you have it now in your power to have the Young Pretender's
motions watched, in such a manner as to be able to point out to him
where he may be met with; and that his Majesty doth therefore insist
that, in conformity to the treaties now subsisting between the two
nations he be immediately obliged to leave France. . . . He must be
sent by sea, either into the Ecclesiastical States, or to such other
country at a distance from France, as may render it impossible for
him to return with the same facility he did before.' {119}
These hopes of Charles's arrest were disappointed.
On March 4, young Waters heard of the Prince at the opera ball in
Paris. He sent the Prince a watch from the Abbess of English nuns at
Pontoise. Charles was always leaving his watches under his pillow.
He certainly was not far from Paris. He scolded Madame de Talmond
for returning thither (March 4), and sent to Mademoiselle Luci a
commission for books, such as 'Attilie tragedie' ('Athalie') and
'Histoire de Miss Clarisse, Lettres Anglaises '(Richardson's
'Clarissa'), and 'La Chimie de Nicola' (sic). Mademoiselle Luci,
writing on March 5, tells how the Philosophe (Montesquieu,), their
friend, has heard a Monsieur Le Fort boast of knowing the Prince's
hiding-place. 'The Philosophe turned the conversation.' The Prince
answers that Le Fort is tres galant homme, but a friend of la tante
(Madame de Talmond), who must have been blabbing. He was in or near
Paris, for he corresponded constantly with Mademoiselle Luci. The
young lady assures him that some new philosophical books which he had
ordered are worthless trash. 'L'Histoire des Passions' and 'Le
Spectacle de l'Homme' are amateur rubbish; 'worse was never printed.'
The Prince now indulged in a new cypher. Walsh (his financial
friend) is Legrand, Kennedy is Newton (as before), Dormer at Antwerp
(his correspondent with England) is Mr. Blunt, 'Gorge in England'
(Gorge!) is Mr. White, and so on. Owing to the death of Frederick,
Prince of Wales, there was a good deal of correspondence with 'Dixon'
and 'Miss Fines'--certainly Lady Primrose--while Dixon may be James
Dawkins, or Dr. King, of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. On May 16, Charles
gave Goring instructions as to 'attempting the Court of Prussia, or
any other except France, after their unworthy proceedings.' Goring
did not set out till June 21, 1751. From Berlin the poor man was to
go to Sweden. In April, Madame de Talmond was kind to Charles 'si
malheureux et par votre position et par votre caractere.'
Mademoiselle Luci was extremely ill in May and June, indeed till
October; this led to a curious correspondence in October between her
and la vieille tante. Madame de Talmond was jealous of Mademoiselle
Luci, a girl whom one cannot help liking. Though out of the due
chronological course, the letters of these ladies may be cited here.
From Madame de Beauregard (Madame de Talmond) to Mademoiselle Luci.
'October 19, 1751.
'The obstinacy of your taste for the country, Mademoiselle, in the
most abominable weather, is only equalled by the persistence of your
severity towards me. I have written to you from Paris, I have
written from Versailles, with equal success--not a word of answer!
Whether you want to imitate, or to pay court to our amie [the Prince]
I know not, but would gladly know, that I may yield everything with a
good grace, let it cost what it will. As a rule it would cost me
much, nay, all, to sacrifice your friendship. But I have nothing to
contest with old friends, who are more lovable than myself. On my
side I have only the knowledge and the feeling of your worth, which
require but discernment and justice. From such kinds of
accomplishments as these, YOU are dispensed. So serious a letter
might be tedious without being long, but it is saddened also by the
weary weight of my own spirits. Will you kindly give me news of your
health and of your return to town? I am sorry that Paris does not
interest me; I am going to Fontainebleau at the end of the week.'
Mademoiselle Luci replies with dignity.
'October 22, 1751.
'Madame,--A fever, and many other troubles, have prevented me from
answering the three letters with which you have honoured me. Permit
me to mingle a few complaints with my thanks! Were I capable of the
sentiments which you attribute to me, I could not deserve your
flattering esteem. Its expressions I should be compelled to regard
merely as an effort of extreme politeness on your side. Assuredly,
Madame, I am strongly attached to Madame your friend [the Prince];
for her I would suffer and do everything short of stooping to an act
of baseness. If, Madame, you have not found in me virtues which will
assure you of this, at least trust my faults! My character is not
supple. The one thing which makes my frankness endurable is, that it
renders me incapable of conduct for which I should have to blush.
Believe, then, Madame, that I can preserve my friendship for your
friend, without falling, as you suspect, into the baseness of paying
court to her [the Prince], in spite of the respect which I owe to
YOU.'
The letters of the ladies (in French) are copied by the Prince's
hand, nor has he improved the orthography. I therefore translate
these epistles.
On July 10, 1751, after a tremendous quarrel with Madame de Talmond,
Charles wrote out his political reflections. France must apologise
to him before he can enter into any measures with her Court. 'I have
nothing at heart but the interest of my country, and I am always
ready to sacrifice everything for it, Life and rest, but the least
reflection as to ye point of honour I can never pass over. There is
nobody whatsoever I respect more as ye K. of Prussia; not as a K. but
as I believe him to be a clever man. Has he intention to serve me?
Proofs must be given, and ye only one convincive is his agreeing to a
Marriage with his sister, and acknowledging me at Berlin for what I
am.' He adds that he will not be a tool, 'like my ansisters.'
Such were Charles's lonely musings, such the hopeless dreams of an
exile. He had now entered on his attempt to secure Prussian aid, and
on a fresh chapter of extraordinary political and personal intrigues.
CHAPTER VI--INTRIGUES, POLITICAL AND AMATORY. DEATH OF MADEMOISELLE
LUCI, 1752
Hopes from Prussia--The Murrays of Elibank--Imprisonment of Alexander
Murray--Recommended to Charles--The Elibank plot--Prussia and the
Earl Marischal--His early history--Ambassador of Frederick at
Versailles--His odd household--Voltaire--The Duke of Newcastle's
resentment--Charles's view of Frederick's policy--His alleged
avarice--Lady Montagu--His money-box--Goring and the Earl Marischal--
Secret meetings--The lace shop--Albemarle's information--Charles at
Ghent--Hanbury Williams's mares' nests--Charles and 'La Grandemain'--
She and Goring refuse to take his orders--Appearance of Miss
Walkinshaw--Her history--Remonstrances of Goring--'Commissions for
the worst of men'--'The little man'--Lady Primrose--Death of
Mademoiselle Luci--November 10, date of postponed Elibank plot--
Danger of dismissing an agent.
We have seen that Charles's hopes, in July 1751, were turned towards
Prussia and Sweden. To these Courts he had sent Goring in June.
Meanwhile a new and strange prospect was opening to him in England.
On the right bank of Tweed, just above Ashiesteil, is the ruined
shell of the old tower of Elibank, the home of the Murrays. A famous
lady of that family was Muckle Mou'd Meg, whom young Harden, when
caught while driving Elibank's kye, preferred to the gallows as a
bride. In 1751 the owner of the tower on Tweed was Lord Elibank; to
all appearance a douce, learned Scots laird, the friend of David
Hume, and a customer for the wines of Montesquieu's vineyards at La
Brede. He had a younger brother, Alexander Murray, and the politics
of the pair, says Horace Walpole, were of the sort which at once kept
the party alive, and made it incapable of succeeding. Their measures
were so taken that they did not go out in the Forty-five, yet could
have proved their loyalty had Charles reached St. James's in triumph.
Walpole calls Lord Elibank 'a very prating, impertinent Jacobite.'
{125} As for the younger brother, Alexander Murray, Sir Walter Scott
writes, in his introduction to 'Redgauntlet,' 'a young Scotchman of
rank is said to have stooped so low as to plot the surprisal of St.
James's Palace and the assassination of the Royal family.'
This was the Elibank plot, which we shall elucidate later.
In the spring and summer of 1751, Alexander Murray had lain in
Newgate, on a charge of brawling at the Westminster election. He was
kept in durance because he would not beg the pardon of the House on
his knees: he only kneeled to God, he said. He was released by the
sheriffs at the close of the session, and was escorted by the
populace to Lord Elibank's house in Henrietta Street. He then
crossed to France, and, in July 1751, 'Dixon' (Dr. King?) thus
reports of him to Charles:
'My lady [Lady Montagu or Lady Primrose?] says that M. [Murray] is
most zealously attached to you, and that he is upon all occasions
ready to obey your commands, and to meet you when and where you
please . . . He assures my lady that he can raise five hundred men
for your service in and about Westminster.'
These men were to be used in a plot for seizing the Royal family in
London. This scheme went on simmering, blended with intrigues for
Prussian and Swedish help, and, finally, with a plan for a
simultaneous rising in the Highlands. And this combination was the
last effort of Jacobitism before the general abandonment of Charles
by his party.
The hopes, as regarded Prussia, were centred in Frederick's friend,
the brother of Marshal Keith, the Earl Marischal. The Earl was by
this time an old man. At Queen Anne's death he had held a command in
the Guards, and if he had frankly backed Atterbury when the bishop
proposed to proclaim King James, the history of England might have
been altered, and the Duke of Argyll's regiment, at Kensington, would
have had to fight for the Crown. {126} The Earl missed his chance.
He fought at Shirramuir (1715), and he with his brother, later
Marshal Keith, was in the unlucky Glensheil expedition from Spain
(1719). That endeavour failed, leaving hardly a trace, save the
ghost of a foreign colonel which haunts the roadside of Glensheil.
From that date the Earl was a cheery, contented, philosophic exile,
with no high opinion of kings. Spain was often his abode, where he
found, as he said, 'his old friend, the sun.' In 1744 he declined to
accompany the Prince, in a herring-boat, to Scotland. In the Forty-
five he did not cross the Channel, but, as we have seen, endeavoured
to wring men and money from d'Argenson. In 1747 the Earl, then at
Treviso, declined to be Charles's minister on the score of 'broken
health.' {127a} Charles, as we saw, vainly asked the Earl for a
meeting at Venice in 1749. Indeed, Charles got nothing from his
adherent but a mother-of-pearl snuff-box, with the portrait of the
old gentleman. {127b} The Earl dwelt, not always on the best terms,
with his brother, Marshal Keith, at Berlin, and was treated as a real
friend, for a marvel, by Frederick.
On July 20 the Earl had seen Goring at Berlin, and wrote to Charles.
Nothing, he said, could be done by Swedish aid. If Sweden moved,
Russia would attack her, nor could Frederick, in his turn, assail
Russia, for Russia and the Empress Maria Theresa would have him
between two fires. {127c} Frederick now (August 1751) took a step
decidedly unfriendly as regarded his uncle of England. He sent the
Earl Marischal as his ambassador to the Court of Versailles. This
was precisely as if the United States were to send a banished Fenian
as their Minister to Paris. The Earl was proscribed for treason in
England, and, as we shall see, his house in Paris became the centre
of truly Fenian intrigues. On these the worthy Earl was wont to give
the opinion of an impartial friend. All this was known to the
English Government, as we shall show, through Pickle, and the
knowledge must have strained the relations between George II. and
'our Nephew,' as Horace Walpole calls Frederick of Prussia.
The Earl's household, when he left Potzdam in August 1751 for Paris,
is thus described by Voltaire: 'You will see a very pretty little
Turkess, whom he carries with him: they took her at the siege of
Oczakow, and made a present of her to our Scot, who seems to have no
great need of her. She is an excellent Mussalwoman: her master
allows her perfect freedom of conscience. He has also a sort of
Tartar Valet de chambre [Stepan was his name], who has the honour to
be a Pagan.' {128a} On October 29, Voltaire writes that he has had a
letter from the Earl in Paris. 'He tells me that his Turk girl, whom
he took to the play to see Mahomet [Voltaire's drama] was much
scandalised.'
Voltaire was to receive less agreeable news from the friend of
Frederick. 'Some big Prussian will box your ears,' said the Earl
Marischal, after Voltaire's famous quarrel with his Royal pupil.
The appointment of an attainted rebel to be Ambassador at Versailles
naturally offended England. The Duke of Newcastle wrote to Lord
Hardwicke: {128b}
'One may easily see the views with which the King of Prussia has
taken this offensive step: first, for the sake of doing an
impertinence to the King; then to deter us from going on with our
negotiations in the Empire, for the election of a King of the Romans,
and to encourage the Jacobite party, that we may apprehend
disturbances from them, if a rupture should ensue in consequence of
the measures we are taking abroad.' He therefore proposes a subsidy
to Russia, to overawe Frederick.
At Paris, Yorke remonstrated. Hardwicke writes on September 10,
1751:
'I am glad Joe ventured to say what he did to M. Puysieux,' but 'Joe'
spoke to no purpose.
James was pleased by the Earl Marischal's promotion and presence in
Paris. Charles, at first, was aggrieved. He wrote:
'L. M. coming to Paris is a piece of French politics, on the one side
to bully the people of England; on the other hand to hinder our
friends from doing the thing by themselves, bambouseling them with
hopes. . . . They mean to sell us as usual. . . . The Doctor [Dr.
King] is to be informed that Goring saw Lord Marischal, but nothing
to be got from him.'
The Prince mentions his 'distress for money,' and sends compliments
to Dawkins, 'Jemmy Dawkins,' of whom we shall hear plenty. He sends
'a watch for the lady' (Lady Montagu?).
I venture a guess at Lady Montagu, because Dr. King tells, as a proof
of Charles's avarice, that he took money from a lady in Paris when he
had plenty of his own. {130a}
Now, on September 15, 1751, Charles sent to Dormer a receipt for 'One
Thousand pounds, which he paid me by orders for account of the Right
Honourable Vicecountess of Montagu,' signed 'C. P. R.' {130b} Again,
on quitting Paris on December 1, 1751, he left, in a coffer, '2,250
Louidors, besides what there is in a little bag above, amounting to
about 130 guines, and od Zequins or ducats.' These, with 'a big box
of books,' were locked up in the house of the Comtesse de Vasse, Rue
St. Dominique, Faubourg de St. Germain, in which street Montesquieu
lived. The deposit was restored later to Charles by 'Madame La
Grandemain,' 'sister' of Mademoiselle Luci. In truth, Charles, for a
Prince with an ambition to conquer England, was extremely poor, and a
loyal lady did not throw away her guineas, as Dr. King states, on a
merely avaricious adventurer. Charles (August 25, 1751) was in
correspondence with 'Daniel Macnamara, Esq., at the Grecian Coffee-
house, Temple, London,' who later plays a fatal part in the Prince's
career.
This is a private interlude: we return to practical politics.
No sooner was the Earl Marischal in Paris than Charles made advances
to the old adherent of his family. He sent Goring post-haste to the
French capital. Goring, who already knew the Earl, writes (September
20, 1731): 'My instructions are not to let myself be seen by anybody
whatever but your Lordship.' The Earl answers on the same day: 'If
you yourself know any safe way for both of us, tell it me. There was
a garden belonging to a Mousquetaire, famous for fruit, by Pique-
price, beyond it some way. I could go there as out of curiosity to
see the garden, and meet you to-morrow towards five o'clock; but if
you know a better place, let me know it. Remember, I must go with
the footmen, and remain in coach as usual, so that the garden is
best, because I can say, if it came possibly to be known, that it was
by chance I met you.'
'An ambassador,' as Sir Henry Wotton remarked, 'is an honest man sent
to lie abroad for his country,' an observation taken very ill by
Gentle King Jamie. {131}
Goring replied that the garden was too public. The night would be
the surest time. Goring could wear livery, or dress as an Abbe. The
Tuileries, when 'literally dark,' might serve. On September 23, the
Earl answers, 'One of my servants knows you since Vienna.' Goring,
as we know, had been in the Austrian service. 'I will go to the
Tuileries when it begins to grow dark, if it does not rain, for it
would seem too od that I had choose to walk in rain, and my footman
would suspect, and perhaps spye. I shall walk along the step or
terrace before the house in the garden.' {132a}
So difficult is it for an ambassador to dabble in treasonable
intrigue, especially when old, and when the weather is wet. Let us
suppose that Goring and the Earl met. Goring's business was to ask
if the Earl 'has leave to disclose the secret that was not in his
power to do, last time you saw him. I am ready to come myself, and
meet him where he pleases.'
Meetings were difficult to arrange. We read, in the Prince's hand:
To Lord M. from Goring.
'18th Oct. 1751.
'Saying he had received an express from the Prince with orders to
tell him [Lord M.] his place of residence, and making a suggestion of
meeting at Waters's House.
'Answer made 18th. Oct. by Lord M.
'You may go to look for Lace as a Hamborough Merchant. I go as
recommended to a Lace Shop by Mr. Waters and shall be there as it
grows dark, for a pretence of staying some time in the house you may
also say you are recommended by Waters.
'Mr Vignier Marchand de Doreure rue du Route, au Soleil D'or.
Paris.'
(Overleaf.)
'18th Oct 1751.
'I shall be glad to see you when you can find a fit place, but to
know where your friend is is necessary unfit. Would Waters's house
be a good place? Would Md Talmont's, mine is not, neither can I go
privately in a hackney coach, my own footman would dogg me, here
Stepan knows you well since Vienna.' (Stepan was the Tartar valet.)
It is clear that Charles was now near Paris, and that the Ambassador
of Prussia was in communication with him. What did the English
Government know of this from their regular agents?
On October 9, Albemarle wrote from Paris that Charles was believed to
have visited the town. His 'disguises make it very difficult' to
discover him. Albemarle gives orders to stop a Dr. Kincade at Dover,
and seize his papers. He sends a list of traffickers between England
and the Prince, including Lochgarry, 'formerly in the King's service,
and very well known; is now in Scotland.' 'The Young Pretender has
travelled through Spain and Italy in the habit of a Dominican Fryar.
He is expected soon at Avignon. He was last at Berlin and Dantzich,
and has nobody with him but Mr. Goring.' This valuable information
is marked 'Secret!' {133a}
On October 10, Albemarle writes that Foley, a Jacobite, is much with
the Earl Marischal. On October 30, Dr. Kincaid had not yet set out.
But (December 1) Dr. Kincaid did start, and at Dover 'was culled like
a flower.' On St. Andrew's Day (November 30) there was a Jacobite
meeting at St. Germains. Albemarle had a spy present, who was told
by Sullivan, the Prince's Irish friend, that Charles was expected at
St. Germains by the New Year. The Earl Marischal would have kept St.
Andrew's Day with them, but had to go to Versailles. Later we learn
that no papers were found on Dr. Kincaid. On January 5, 1752,
Albemarle mentions traffickings with Ireland. On August 4, 1752,
Mann learns from a spy of some consequence in Rome that the Prince is
in Ireland. His household in Avignon is broken up--which, by
accident, is true. 'Something is in agitation'--valuable news!
The English Government, it is plain, was still in the dark. But
matters were going ill for Charles. In February 1752, Waters,
respectfully but firmly, declined to advance money. Charles
dismissed in March all his French servants at Avignon, and sold the
coach in which Sheridan and Strafford were wont to take the air.
Madame de Talmond was still jealous of Mademoiselle Luci. Money came
in by mere driblets. 'Alexander' provided 300l., and 'Dixon,' in
England, twice sends a humble ten pounds. Charles transferred his
quarters to the Netherlands, residing chiefly at Ghent, where he was
known as the Chevalier William Johnson.
The English Government remained unenlightened. The Duke of
Newcastle, on January 29, 1752, had 'advice that the Pretender's son
is certainly in Silesia,' and requests Sir Charles Hanbury Williams
to make inquiries. {135}
On April 23, 1752, when Charles was establishing himself at Ghent,
and trying to raise loans in every direction, the egregious Sir
Charles hears that the Prince is in Lithuania, with the Radzivils.
On April 27, Williams, at Leipzig, is convinced of this, and again
proposes to waylay and seize the papers of a certain Bishop Lascaris,
as he passes through Austrian territory on his way to Rome. In
Lithuania the Prince might safely have been left. He could do the
Elector of Hanover no harm anywhere, except by such Fenian
enterprises as that which Pickle was presently to reveal. The
anxious and always helpless curiosity of George II. and his agents
about the Prince seems especially absurd, when they look in the ends
of the earth for a man who is in the Netherlands.
At Ghent, May 1752, Charles to all appearances was much less busied
with political conspiracies than with efforts to raise the wind.
Dormer, at Antwerp, often protests against being drawn upon for money
which he does not possess, and Charles treated a certain sum of 200l.
as if it were the purse of Fortunatus, and inexhaustible. 'Madame La
Grandemain' writes on May 5 that she cannot assist him, and le
Philosophe (Montesquieu), she says, is out of town. On May 12 the
Prince partly explains the cause of his need of money. He has taken,
at Ghent, 'a preti house, and room in it to lodge a friend,' and he
invites Dormer to be his guest. The house was near the Place de
l'Empereur, in 'La Rue des Varnsopele' (?). He asks Dormer to send
'two keces of Books:' indeed, literature was his most respectable
consolation. Old Waters had died, and young Waters was requested to
be careful of Charles's portrait by La Tour, of his 'marble bousto'
by Lemoine, and of his 'silver sheald.' To Madame La Grandemain he
writes in a peremptory style: 'Malgre toute votre repugnance je vous
ordonne d'executer avec toutes les precautions possibles ce dont je
vous ai charge.' What was this commission? It concerned 'la
demoiselle.' 'You must overcome your repugnance, and tell a certain
person [Goring] that I cannot see him, and that, if he wishes to be
in my good graces, he must show you the best and most efficacious and
rapid means of arriving at the end for which I sent him to you. I
hope that this letter will not find you in Paris.'
I have little doubt that the 'repugnances' of 'Madame La Grandemain'
were concerned with the bringing of Miss Walkinshaw to the Prince.
The person who is in danger of losing the Prince's favour is clearly
Goring, figuring under the name of 'Stouf,' and, at this moment, with
'Madame La Grandemain' in the country.
The facts about this Miss Walkinshaw, daughter of John Walkinshaw of
Barowfield, have long been obscure. We can now offer her own account
of her adventures, from the archives of the French Foreign Office.
{137} In 1746 (according to a memoir presented to the French Court
in 1774 by Miss Walkinshaw's daughter, Charlotte) the Prince first
met Clementina Walkinshaw at the house of her uncle, Sir Hugh
Paterson, near Bannockburn. The lady was then aged twenty: she was
named after Charles's mother, and was a Catholic. The Prince
conceived a passion for her, and obtained from her a promise to
follow him 'wherever providence might lead him, if he failed in his
attempt.' At a date not specified, her uncle, 'General Graeme,'
obtained for her a nomination as chanoinesse in a chapitre noble of
the Netherlands. But 'Prince Charles was then incognito in the Low
Countries, and a person in his confidence [Sullivan, tradition says]
warmly urged Miss Walkinshaw to go and join him, as she had promised,
pointing out that in the dreadful state of his affairs, nothing could
better soothe his regrets than the presence of the lady whom he most
loved. Moved by her passion and her promise given to a hero admired
by all Europe, Miss Walkinshaw betook herself to Douay. The Prince,
at Ghent, heard news so interesting to his heart, and bade her go to
Paris, where he presently joined her. They renewed their promises
and returned to Ghent, where she took his name [Johnson], was treated
and regarded as his wife, later travelled with him in Germany, and
afterwards was domiciled with him at Liege, where she bore a
daughter, Charlotte, baptized on October 29, 1753.' {138}
So runs the memoir presented to the French Court by the Prince's
daughter, Charlotte, in 1774. Though no date is assigned, Miss
Walkinshaw certainly joined Charles in the summer of 1752. 'Madame
La Grandemain' and Goring were very properly indisposed to aid in
bringing the lady to Charles. The Prince this replies to the
remonstrances of Goring ('Stouf').
To M. Stouf.
'June 6, 1752.
'It is not surprising that I should not care to have one in my Family
that pretends to give me Laws in everything I do, you know how you
already threatened to quit me If I did not do your will and pleasure.
What is passed I shall forget, provided you continue to do yr. Duty,
so that there is nothing to be altered as to what was settled. Do
not go to Lisle, but stay at Coutray for my farther orders. As to ye
little man [an agent of Charles] he need never expect to see me
unless he executes ye Orders I gave him. I send you 50 Louisdors so
that you may give ye Frenchman what is necessary.
'The little man' is, probably, Beson, who was also recalcitrant.
Goring replies in the following very interesting letter. He
considered his errand unworthy of a man of honour.
From Stouf.
'I did not apprehend the money you sent by Dormer was for me, but
thought, as you write in yours, to furnish the little man for the
journey to Cambray, and that very reasonably, for with what he had of
me he could not do it. On his refusing to go I sent it back. He
says he has done what lays in his power, as Sullivan's letter
testifies, that his desires to serve you were sincere, for which you
abused him in a severe manner. Believe me, Sir, such commissions are
for the worst of men, and such you will find enough for money, but
they will likewise betray you for more. Virtue deserves reward and
you treat it ill, I can only lament this unfortunate affair, which if
possible to prevent, I would give my life with pleasure.
'You say nothing is to be altered in regard to the plan. Pray Sir
reflect on Lady P. [Primrose] who will expect the little man. {139}
He was introduced to her, and told her name. What frights will she
and all friends be in, when they know you sent him away, for fear he
should come over [to England] and betray them! I assure you all
honest men will act as we have done, and should you propose to all
who will enter into yr. service to do such work, they will rather
lose their service than consent. Do you believe Sir that Lrd.
Marischal, Mr. Campbell, G. Kelly, and others would consent to do it?
Why should you think me less virtuous? My family is as ancient, my
honour as entire. . . . I from my heart am sorry you do not taste
these reasons, and must submit to my bad fortune . . for as to my
going to Courtray nobody will know it, and if any accident should
happen to you by the young lady's means [Miss Walkinshaw], I shall be
detested and become the horrour of Mankind, but if you are determined
to have her, let Mr. Sullivan bring her to you here, or any where
himself. The little man will carry your letter to him, as he has
done it already I suppose he wont refuse you.
'You sent a message for the pistols yourself, and as you had not
given him the watch, he sent it, lest he should be accused of a
design to keep it. We have no other Messages to send, since you have
forbid us coming near you . . . for God's sake Sir let me have an
audience of you; I can say more than I can write.'
Thus, from the beginning, Charles's friends foreboded danger in his
liaison. Miss Walkinshaw had a sister, 'good Mrs. Catherine
Walkinshaw, the Princess dowager's bed-chamber woman.' Lady Louisa
Stuart knew her, and described to Scott 'the portly figure with her
long lace ruffles, her gold snuff-box, and her double chin.' {141}
The English Jacobites believed that Clementina was sent as a spy on
Charles, communicating with her sister in London. In fact, Pickle
was the spy, but Charles's refusal to desert his mistress broke up
the party, and sealed his ruin. So much Goring had anticipated. The
'Lady P.' referred to as 'in a fright' is Lady Primrose. An English
note of May 1752 represents 'Miss Fines' as about to go to France,
where 'Lady P.' or 'Lady P. R.' actually arrived in June. The Prince
answered Goring thus:
The Prince to Stouf in reply.
'I hereby order you to go to Lisle there to see a Certain person in
case she has something new to say, and Let her know that Everything
is to be as agreed on, except that, on reflection, I think it much
better not to send ye French man over, for that will avoid any
writing, and Macnamara can be sent, to whom one can say by word of
mouth many things further. As I told you already nothing is to be
chenged, on your Side, and you are to be anywhere in my Neiborod for
to be ready when wanted. . . . Make many kinde Compliments from me
to her and all her dear family.
'Burn this after reading.'
Charles also wrote to 'Lady P. R.' in a conciliatory manner. Goring
met 'the Lady' at Lens: she was indignant at the dismissal of 'the
little Frenchman,' merely because he was no Englishman. 'It would be
unjust to refuse that name to one who had served you so faithfully.'
Goring was still (June 18) 'at Madame La Grandemain's.' 'The Lady'
in this correspondence may be Miss Walkinshaw or may be Lady
Primrose, probably the latter. Indeed, it is by no means absolutely
certain that the errand which Goring considered so dishonourable was
connected with Miss Walkinshaw alone. The Elibank plot must have
been maturing, though no light is thrown on it by the papers of the
summer of 1752. Did Goring regard that plot as 'wicked,' or did he
object to escorting Miss Walkinshaw?
There were clearly two difficulties. One concerned Miss Walkinshaw,
the other, Lady Primrose. She, as a Jacobite conspirator, had been
used to seeing 'the little man,' a Frenchman, whom Charles threatens
to dismiss. If dismissed, he would be dangerous. Charles's hatred
and distrust of the French now extended to 'the little man.' It is
barely conceivable that Miss Walkinshaw had left England under Lady
Primrose's escort, of course under the pretext of going to join her
chapter of canonesses in the Low Countries. If she announced, when
once in France, her desire to go to Charles as his mistress, Lady
Primrose's position would be most painful, and Goring might well
decline to convoy Miss Walkinshaw. But the political and the amatory
plot are here inextricably entangled. As to the wickedness of the
Elibank plot, if Goring hesitated over that, Forsyth, in his 'Letters
from Italy,' tells a curious tale accepted by Lord Stanhope.
Charles, on some occasion, went to England in disguise, and was
introduced into a room full of conspirators. They proposed some such
night attack on the palace as Murray's, but Charles declined to be
concerned in it, unless the personal safety of George II. and his
family was guaranteed. Charles certainly always did discountenance
schemes of assassination; we shall see a later example. But, if
Pickle does not lie, in a letter to be cited later, Lord Elibank, a
most reputable man, saw no moral harm in his family plot. Was Goring
more sensitive? All this must be left to the judgment of the reader.
In October 1752 a very sad event occurred. 'Madame La Grandemain'
had to announce the death of her 'sister:' the Prince, in a note to a
pseudonymous correspondent, expresses his concern for 'poor
Mademoiselle Luci.' And so this girl, with her girlish mystery and
romance, passes into the darkness from which she had scarcely
emerged, carrying our regrets, for indeed she is the most
sympathetic, of the women who, in these melancholy years, helped or
hindered Prince Charles. 'As long as I have a Bit of Bred,' Charles
writes to an unknown adherent, 'you know that I am always ready to
shere it with a friend.' In this generous light we may fancy that
Mademoiselle Luci regarded the homeless exile whom Goring was obliged
to reprove in such uncourtly strains.
Madame La Grandemain, writing on November 5, 1752, expresses her
inconsolable sorrow for her 'sister's' death, and says that she has
made arrangements, as regards the Prince's affairs, in case of her
own decease. The Prince, on November 10, 1752, sends his
condolences, and this date is well worth remembering. For, according
to Young Glengarry, in a letter to James cited later, November 10 was
either the day appointed for the bursting of the Elibank plot, or was
the day on which the date of the explosion was settled. As to that
plot, the papers of Prince Charles contain no information. Documents
so compromising, if they ever existed, have been destroyed. {144}
CHAPTER VII--YOUNG GLENGARRY
Pickle the spy--Not James Mohr Macgregor or Drummond--Pickle was the
young chief of Glengarry--Proofs of this--His family history--His
part in the Forty-five--Misfortunes of his family--In the Tower of
London--Letters to James III.--No cheque!--Barren honours--In London
in 1749--His poverty--Mrs. Murray of Broughton's watch--Steals from
the Loch Arkaig hoard--Charges by him against Archy Cameron--Is
accused of forgery--Cameron of Torcastle--Glengarry sees James III.
in Rome--Was he sold to Cumberland?--Anonymous charges against
Glengarry--A friend of Murray of Broughton--His spelling in evidence
against him--Mrs. Cameron's accusation against Young Glengarry--Henry
Pelham and Campbell of Lochnell--Pickle gives his real name and
address--Note on Glengarry family--Highlanders among the Turks.
In November 1752, if not earlier, a new fountain of information
becomes open to us, namely, the communications made by Pickle the spy
to the English Government. His undated letters to his employers are
not always easily attributed to a given month or year, but there can
be mo mistake in assigning his first DATED letter to November 2,
1752. {145}
The spy called Pickle was a descendant of Somerled and the Lords of
the Isles. In her roll-call of the clans, Flora MacIvor summons the
Macdonalds:
'O sprung from the kings who in Islay held state,
Proud chiefs of GLENGARRY, Clanranald, and Sleat,
Combine like three streams from one mountain of snow,
And resistless in union rush down on the foe!'
Pickle was the heir to the chieftainship of GLENGARRY; he was
ALASTAIR RUADH MACDONNELL (or Mackdonnell, as he often writes it),
son of John Macdonnell, twelfth of Glengarry. Pickle himself, till
his father's death in 1754, is always spoken of as 'Young Glengarry.'
We shall trace the steps by which Young Glengarry, the high-born
chief of the most important Catholic Jacobite clan, became PICKLE,
the treacherous correspondent of the English Government. On first
reading his letters in the Additional MSS. of the British Museum, I
conceived Pickle to be a traitorous servant in the household of some
exiled Jacobite. I then found him asserting his rank as eldest son
of the chief of a great clan; and I thought he must be personating
his master, for I could not believe in such villainy as the treason
of a Highland chief. Next, I met allusions to the death of his
father, and the date (September 1, 1754) corresponded with that of
the decease of Old Glengarry. Presently I observed the suspicions
entertained about Young Glengarry, and the denunciation of him in
1754 by Mrs. Cameron, the widow of the last Jacobite martyr,
Archibald Cameron. I also perceived that Pickle and Young Glengarry
both invariably spell 'who' as 'how.' Next, in Pickle's last extant
epistle to the English Government (1760), he directs his letters to
be sent to 'Alexander Macdonnell, Glengarry, Fort William.' Finally,
I compared Pickle's handwriting, where he gives the name 'Alexander
Macdonnell,' with examples of Young Glengarry's signature in legal
documents in the library of Edinburgh University. The writing, in my
opinion, was the same in both sets of papers. Thus this hideous
charge of treachery is not brought heedlessly against a gentleman of
ancient, loyal, and honourable family. Young Glengarry died unarmed,
at home, on December 23, 1761, leaving directions that his political
papers should be burned, and the present representatives of a
distinguished House are not the lineal descendants of a traitor.
The grandfather of Alastair Ruadh Macdonnell (alias Pickle, alias
Roderick Random--he was fond of Dr. Smollett's new novels--alias
Alexander Jeanson, that is, Alastair, son of Ian), was Alastair Dubh,
Black Alister, 'who, with his ponderous two-handed sword, mowed down
two men at every stroke' at Killiecrankie, and also fought at
Shirramuir. At Killiecrankie he lost his brother, and his son Donald
Gorm (Donald of the Blue Eyes), who is said to have slain eighteen of
the enemy. At Shirramuir, when Clanranald fell, Glengarry tossed his
bonnet in the air, crying in Gaelic, 'Revenge! Revenge! Revenge to-
day, and mourning to-morrow.' He then led a charge, and drove the
regular British troops in rout. He received a warrant of a peerage
from the King over the water.
This hero seems a strange ancestor for a spy and a traitor, like
Pickle. Yet we may trace an element of 'heredity.' About 1735 a
member of the Balhaldie family, chief of Clan Alpin or Macgregor,
wrote the Memoirs of the great Lochiel, published in 1842 for the
Abbotsford Club. Balhaldie draws rather in Clarendon's manner a
portrait of the Alastair Macdonnell of 1689 and of 1715. Among other
things he writes:
'Most of his actions might well admitt of a double construction, and
what he appeared generally to be was seldome what he really was. . .
. Though he was ingaged in every attempt that was made for the
Restoration of King James and his family, yet he managed matters so
that he lossed nothing in the event. . . . The concerts and
ingagements he entered into with his neighbours . . . he observed
only in so far as suited with his own particular interest, but still
he had the address to make them bear the blame, while he carried the
profits and honour. To conclude, he was brave, loyal, and
wonderfully sagacious and long-sighted; and was possessed of a great
many shineing qualities, blended with a few vices, which, like
patches on a beautifull face, seemed to give the greater eclat to his
character.'
Pickle, it will be discovered, inherited the ancestral 'vices.'
'What he appeared generally to be was seldome what he really was.'
His portrait, {149a} in Highland dress, displays a handsome, fair,
athletic young chief, with a haughty expression. Behind him stands a
dark, dubious-looking retainer, like an evil genius.
Alastair Dubh Macdonnell died in 1724, and was succeeded by his son
John, twelfth of Glengarry. This John had, by two wives, four sons,
of whom the eldest, Alastair Ruadh, was Pickle. Alastair held a
captain's commission in the Scots brigade in the French service. In
March 1744, he and the Earl Marischal were at Gravelines, meaning to
sail with the futile French expedition from Dunkirk. In June 1745,
Glengarry went to France with a letter from the Scotch Jacobites,
bidding Charles NOT to come without adequate French support. Old
Glengarry, in January 1745, had 'disponed' his lands to Alastair his
son, for weighty reasons to him known. {149b} Such deeds were common
in the Highlands, especially before a rising.
From this point the movements of Young Glengarry become rather
difficult to trace. If we could believe the information received
from Rob Roy's son, James Mohr Macgregor, by Craigie, the Lord
Advocate, Young Glengarry came over to Scotland in La Doutelle, when
Charles landed in Moidart in July 1745. {150a} This was not true.
Old Glengarry, with Lord George Murray, waited on Cope at Crieff in
August, when Cope marched north. Cope writes, 'I saw Glengarry the
father at Crieff with the Duke of Athol; 'tis said that none of his
followers are yet out, tho' there is some doubt of his youngest son;
the eldest, as Glengarry told me, is in France.' {150b} On September
14, Forbes of Culloden congratulated Old Glengarry on his return
home, and regretted that so many of his clan were out under
Lochgarry, a kinsman. {150c} Old Glengarry had written to Forbes
'lamenting the folly of his friends.' He, like Lovat, was really
'sitting on the fence.' His clan was out; his second son AEneas led
it at Falkirk. Alastair was in France. At the close of 1745,
Alastair, conveying a detachment of the Royal Scots, in French
service, and a piquet of the Irish brigade to Scotland, was captured
on the seas and imprisoned in the Tower of London. {150d} In January
1746 we find him writing from the Tower to Waters, the banker in
Paris, asking for money. Almost at this very time Young Glengarry's
younger brother, AEneas, who led the clan, was accidentally shot in
the streets of Falkirk by a Macdonald of Clanranald's regiment. The
poor Macdonald was executed, and the Glengarry leader, by Charles's
desire, was buried in the grave of Wallace's companion, Sir John the
Graeme, as the only worthy resting-place. Many Macdonalds deserted.
{151a}
After Culloden (April 1746), an extraordinary event took place in the
Glengarry family. Colonel Warren, who, in October 1746, carried off
Charles safely to France, arrested, in Scotland, Macdonell of
Barrisdale, on charges of treason to King James. {151b} Barrisdale
had been taken by the English, but was almost instantly released
after Culloden. One charge against him, on the Jacobite side, was
that he had made several gentlemen of Glengarry's clan believe that
their chief meant to deliver them up to the English. Thereon
'information was laid' (by the gentlemen?) against Old Glengarry.
Old Glengarry's letters in favour of the Prince were discovered; he
was seized, and was only released from Edinburgh Castle in October
1749.
Here then, in 1746, were Old Glengarry in prison, Young Glengarry in
the Tower, and Lucas lying in the grave of Sir John the Graeme.
Though only nineteen, AEneas was married, and left issue. The family
was now in desperate straits, and already a SOUGH of treason to the
cause was abroad. Young Glengarry says that he lay in the Tower for
twenty-two months; he was released in July 1747. The Rev. James
Leslie, writing to defend himself against a charge of treachery
(Paris, May 27, 1752), quotes a letter, undated, from Glengarry.
'One needs not be a wizard to see that mentioning you was only a
feint, and the whole was aimed at me.' {152a} If this, like Leslie's
letter, was written in 1752, Glengarry was then not unsuspected. We
shall now see how he turned his coat.
On January 22, 1748, he writes to James from Paris, protesting
loyalty. But 'since I arrived here, after my tedious confinement in
the Tower in London, I have not mett with any suitable
encouragement.' Glengarry, even as Pickle, constantly complains that
his services are not recognised. Both sides were ungrateful! In the
list of gratuities to the Scotch from France, Glengarry l'Aine gets
1,800 livres; Young Glengarry is not mentioned. {152b} From Amiens,
September 20, 1748, Young Glengarry again wrote to James. He means
'to wait any opportunity of going safely to Britain' on his private
affairs. These journeys were usually notified by the exiles; their
mutual suspicions had to be guarded against. In December, Young
Glengarry hoped to succeed to the Colonelcy in the Scoto-French
regiment of Albany, vacated by the death of the Gentle Lochiel.
Archibald Cameron had also applied for it, as locum tenens of his
nephew, Lochiel's son, a boy of sixteen. James replied, through
Edgar, that he was unable to interfere and assist Glengarry, as he
had recommended young Lochiel. What follows explains, perhaps, the
circumstance that changed Young Glengarry into Pickle.
'His Majesty is sorry to find you so low in your circumstances, and
reduced to such straits at present as you mention, and he is the more
sorry that his own situation, as to money matters, never being so bad
as it now is, he is not in a condition to relieve you, as he would
incline. But His Majesty being at the same time desirous to do what
depends on him for your satisfaction, he, upon your request, sends
you here enclosed a duplicate of your grandfather's warrant to be a
Peer. You will see that it is signed by H. M. and I can assure you
it is an exact duplicate copie out of the book of entrys of such like
papers.' {153a}
It is easy to conceive the feelings and to imagine the florid
eloquence of Young Glengarry, when he expected a cheque and got a
duplicate copy of a warrant (though he had asked for it) to be a
Peer--over the water! As he was not without a sense of humour, the
absurdity of the Stuart cause must now have become vividly present to
his fancy. He must starve or 'conform,' that is, take tests and
swallow oaths. But it was not necessary that he should sell himself.
Many loyal gentlemen were in his position of poverty, but perhaps
only James Mohr Macgregor and Samuel Cameron vended themselves as
Glengarry presently did.
Glengarry loitered in Paris. On June 9, 1749, he wrote to the
Cardinal Duke of York. He explained that, while he was in the Tower,
the Court of France had sent him 'unlimited credit' as a Highland
chief. He understood that he was intended to supply the wants of the
poor prisoners, 'Several of whom, had it not been our timely
assistance [Sir Hector Maclean was with him] had starved.' Sir
Hector tells the same tale. From Sir James Graeme, Glengarry learned
that the Duke of York had procured for him this assistance. But now
the French War Office demanded repayment of the advance, and detained
four years of his pay in the French service. He 'can't receive his
ordinary supply from home, his father being in prison, and his lands
entirely destroyed.' To James's agent, Lismore, he tells the same
story, and adds, 'I shall be obliged to leave this country, if not
relieved.' {154} Later, in 1749, we learn from Leslie that he
accompanied Glengarry to London, where Glengarry 'did not intend to
appear publicly,' but 'to have the advice of some counsellors about
an act of the Privy Council against his returning to Great Britain.'
At this time Leslie pledged a gold repeater, the property of Mrs.
Murray, wife of that other traitor, Murray of Broughton. 'Glengarry,
after selling his sword and shoe-buckles to my certain knowledge was
reduced to such straits, that I pledged the repeater for a small sum
to relieve him, and wrote to Mr. Murray that I had done so.' He
pledged it to Clanranald. Mrs. Murray was angry, for (contrary to
the usual story that she fled after the Prince to France) she was
living with her husband at this time. {155a}
Here then, in July or August 1749, is Young Glengarry in extreme
distress at London. But AEneas Macdonald, writing to Edgar from
Boulogne on October 12, 1751, says, 'I lent Young Glengarry 50l. when
he was home in 1744, and I saw him in London just at the time I got
out of gaol in 1749, and though in all appearance HE HAD PLENTY OF
CASH, yet' he never dreamed of paying AEneas his 50l! 'Nothing could
have lost him but falling too soon into the hands of bad
counsellors.'
I regret to say that the pious AEneas Macdonald was nearly as bad a
traitor as any of these few evil Highland gentlemen. His examination
in London was held on September 16, 1746. {155b} Herein he regaled
his examiners with anecdotes of a tavern keeper at Gravelines 'who
threatened to beat the Pretender's son'; and of how he himself made
Lord Sempil drunk, to worm his schemes out of him. It is only fair
to add that, beyond tattle of this kind, next to nothing was got out
of AEneas, who, in 1751, demands a Jacobite peerage for his family,
that of Kinloch Moidart.
So much, at present, for AEneas. If we listen to Leslie, Young
Glengarry was starving in July or August 1749; if we believe AEneas,
he had 'plenty of cash' in December of the same year. Whence came
this change from poverty to affluence? We need not assume it to be
certain that Glengarry's gold came out of English secret service
money. His father had been released from prison in October 1749, and
may have had resources. We have already seen, too, that Young
Glengarry was accused of getting, in the winter of 1749, his share of
the buried hoard of Loch Arkaig. Lord Elcho, in Paris, puts the
money taken by Young Glengarry and Lochgarry (an honest man) at 1,200
louis d'or. We have heard the laments of 'Thomas Newton' (Kennedy),
who himself is accused of peculation by AEneas Macdonald, and of
losing 800l. of the Prince's money at Newmarket. {156} We do not
know for certain, then, that Young Glengarry vended his honour when
in London in autumn 1749. That he made overtures to England, whether
they were accepted or not, will soon be made to seem highly probable.
We return to his own letters. In June 1749 he had written, as we
saw, from Paris, also to Lismore, and to the Cardinal Duke of York.
On September 23, 1749, he again wrote to Lismore from Boulogne. He
says he has been in London (as we know from Leslie), where his
friends wished him to 'conform' to the Hanoverian interest. This he
disdains. He has sent a vassal to the North, and finds that the
clans are ready to rise. If not relieved from his debt to the French
War Office he must return to England.
He did return in the winter of 1749, and he accompanied his cousin,
Lochgarry (a truly loyal man), to Scotland, where he helped himself
to some of the hoard of gold. On January 16, 1750, he writes to
Edgar from Boulogne, reports his Scotch journey, and adds that he is
now sent by the clans to lay their sentiments before James, in Rome.
He then declares that Archibald Cameron has been damping all hearts
in the Highlands. 'I have prevented the bad consequences that might
ensue from such notions; but one thing I could not prevent was his
taking 6,000 louis d'ors of the money left in the country by his
Royal Highness, which he did without any opposition, as he was privy
to where the money was laid, only Cluny Macpherson obliged him to
give a receipt for it. . . . I am credibly informed he designs to
lay this money in the hands of a merchant in Dunkirk, and enter
partners with him. . . .' He hopes that James will detain Archibald
Cameron in Rome, till his own arrival. He protests that it is 'very
disagreeable to him' to give this information. {157}
As we have already seen, 'Newton,' since 1748, had been in England,
trying to procure the money from Cluny: we have seen that Archibald
Cameron, Young Glengarry, and others, had obtained a large share of
the gold in the winter of 1749. Charges of dishonesty were made on
all sides, and we have already narrated how Archibald Cameron, Sir
Hector Maclean, Lochgarry, and Young Glengarry carried themselves and
their disputes to Rome (in the spring of 1750), and how James
declined to interfere. The matter, he said, was personal to the
Prince. But the following letter of James to Charles deserves
attention.
The King to the Prince.
'March 17, 1750.
'You will remark that at the end of Archy's paper, it is mentioned as
if a certain person should have made use of my name in S---d, AND
HAVE EVEN PRODUCED A LETTER SUPPOSED TO BE MINE to prove that he was
acting by commission from me: what there may be in the bottom of all
this I know not, but I think it necessary you should know that since
your return from S---d I never either employed or authorized the
person, or anybody else, to carry any commissions on politick affairs
to any of the three kingdoms.'
Now this certain person, accused by 'Archy' (Archibald Cameron) of
forging a letter from James, with a commission to take part of the
hidden hoard, is Young Glengarry. In his letter of October 12, 1751,
AEneas Macdonald mentions a report 'too audacious to be believed;
that Glengarry had counterfeited his Majesty's signature to gett the
money that he gott in Scotland.' Glengarry 'was very capable of
having it happen to him,' but HE accused Archibald Cameron, and the
charge still clings to his name. Even now Cameron is not wholly
cleared. On November 21, 1753, his uncle, Ludovic Cameron of
Torcastle, wrote to the Prince from Paris:
'My nephew, Dr. Cameron, had the misfortune to take away a round sum
of your highness's money, and I was told lately that it was thought I
should have shared with him in that base and mean undertaking. I
declare, on my honour and conscience, that I knew nothing of the
taking of the money, until he told it himself in Rome, where I
happened to be at the time, and that I never touched one farthing of
it, or ever will.' {159}
Cluny, as well as Cameron, was this gentleman's nephew. The
character of Archibald Cameron is so deservedly high, the praises
given to him by Horace Walpole are so disinterested, that any
imputation on him lacks credibility. One is inclined to believe that
there is a misunderstanding, and that what money Cameron took was for
the Prince's service. Yet we find no proof of this, and Torcastle's
letter is difficult to explain on the hypothesis of Cameron's
innocence. Glengarry tried to secure himself by a mysterious
interview with the King. On May 23, at Rome, he wrote to Edgar. 'As
His Majesty comes into town next week, and that I can't, in your
absence, have an audience with such safety, not choising to confide
myself on that particular to any but you; I beg you'l be so good as
contrive, if His Majesty judges it proper, that I have the honour of
meeting him, in the duskish, for a few moments.'
No doubt Glengarry was brought to the secret cellar, whence a dark
stair led to James's furtive audience chamber.
We must repeat the question, Was Young Glengarry, while with James in
Rome, actually sold to the English Government at this time? We have
seen that he was in London in the summer of 1749. On August 2 of
that year, the Duke of Cumberland wrote to the Duke of Bedford, who,
of all men in England, is said by Jacobite tradition to have most
frequently climbed James's cellar stair! Cumberland speaks of 'the
goodness of the intelligence' now offered to the Government. 'On my
part, I bear it witness, for I never knew it fail me in the least
trifle, and have had very material and early notices from it. How
far the price may agree with our present saving schemes I don't know,
but good intelligence ought not to be lightly thrown away.' {160}
Was Glengarry (starving in August 1749) the source of the
intelligence which, in that month, Cumberland had already found
useful? The first breath of suspicion against Glengarry, not as a
forger or thief (these minor charges were in the air), but as a
traitor, is met in an anonymous letter forwarded by John Holker to
young Waters. {161} A copy had also been sent to Edgar at Rome.
Already, on November 30, 1751, some one, sealing with a stag's head
gorged, and a stag under a tree in the shield, had written to Waters,
denouncing Glengarry's suspected friend, Leslie the priest, as 'to my
private knowledge an arrant rogue.' Leslie has been in London, and
is now off to Lorraine. 'He is going to discover if he can have any
news of the Prince in a country which, it is strongly suspected, His
Royal Highness has crossed or bordered on more than once.' In the
later anonymous letter we are told of 'a regular correspondence
between John Murray [of Broughton, the traitor] and Samuel Cameron'--
a spy of whom we shall hear again. 'What surprises people still more
is that Mr. Macdonald of Glengarrie, who says that he is charged with
the affaires of his Majesty, is known to be in great intimacy with
Murray, and to put Confidence in one Leslie, a priest, well known for
a very infamous character, and who, I'm authorised to say, imposed
upon one of the first personages in England by forging the Prince's
name.'
The anonymous accusers were Blair and Holker, men known to Edgar and
Waters, but not listened to by Charles. Glengarry, according to his
anonymous accuser of February 1752, was in London nominally 'on the
King's affaires.' On July (or, as he spells it, 'Jully') 15, 1751,
Young Glengarry wrote from London to James and to Edgar. He says, to
James, that the English want a Restoration, but have 'lost all
martial spirit.' To Edgar he gave warning that, if measures were not
promptly taken, the Loch Arkaig hoard would be embezzled to the last
six-pence. 'I must drop the politicall,' he says; he will no longer
negotiate for James, but 'my sword will be always drawn amongst the
first.'
The letter to James is printed by Browne; {162a} that to Edgar is not
printed. And now appears the value of original documents. In the
manuscript Glengarry spells 'who' as 'how': in the printed version
the spelling is tacitly corrected. Now Pickle, writing to his
English employers, always spells 'who as 'how,' an eccentricity not
marked by me in any other writer of the period. This is a valuable
trifle of evidence, connecting Pickle with Young Glengarry. In an
undated letter to Charles, certainly of 1751, Glengarry announces his
approaching marriage with a lady of 'a very Honourable and loyall
familie in England,' after which he will pay his share of the Loch
Arkaig gold. He ends with pious expressions. When at Rome he had
been 'an ardent suitor' to the Cardinal Duke 'for a relick of the
precious wood of the Holy Cross, in obtaining which I shall think
myself most happy.' {162b}
In 1754, two years after the anonymous denunciation, we find a
repetition of the charge of treachery against Glengarry. On January
25, 1754, Mrs. Cameron, by that time widow of Archibald, sends to
Edgar, in Rome, what she has just told Balhaldie about Young
Glengarry. Her letter is most amazing. 'I was telling him
[Balhaldie] what character I heard of Young Glengarry in England,'
where she had vainly thrown herself at the feet of George II.,
praying for her husband's life. 'Particularly Sir Duncan Campbell of
Lochnell [Mrs. Cameron was a Campbell] told me, and others whom he
could trust, that in the year 1748, or 1749, I don't remember which,
as he, Sir Duncan, was going out of the House of Commons, Mr. Henry
Pelham, brother to the Duke of Newcastle, and Secretary of State,
called on him, and asked if he knew Glengarry? Sir Duncan answered
he knew the old man, but not the young. Pelham replied, it was Young
Glengarry he spoke of; for that he came to him offering his most
faithful and loyal services to the Government in any shape they
thought proper, as he came from feeling the folly of any further
concern with the ungrateful family of Stuart, to whom he and his
family had been too long attached, to the absolute ruin of themselves
and country.'
It is difficult to marvel enough at the folly of Pelham in thus
giving away a secret of the most mortal moment. Mrs. Cameron did not
hear Lochnell's report till after the mischief was wrought, the great
scheme baffled, and her husband traduced, betrayed, and executed. By
January 1754, Pickle had done the most of his business, as will
appear when we come to study his letters. In these Henry Pelham is
always 'my great friend,' with him Pickle communicates till Pelham's
death (March 1754), and his letters are marked by the Duke of
Newcastle, 'My Brother's Papers.'
All this may be called mere circumstantial evidence. The anonymous
denouncer may have been prejudiced. Mrs. Cameron's evidence is not
at firsthand. Perhaps other Highland gentlemen spelled 'who' as
'how.' Leslie was not condemned by his ecclesiastical superiors, but
sent back to his mission in Scotland. {164} But Pickle, writing as
Pickle, describes himself, we shall see, in terms which apply to
Young Glengarry, and to Young Glengarry alone. And, in his last
letter (1760), Pickle begs that his letters may be addressed 'To
Alexander Macdonnell of Glengarry by Fort Augustus.' It has been
absurdly alleged that Pickle was James Mohr Macgregor. In 1760,
James Mohr had long been dead, and at no time was he addressed as
Alexander Macdonnell of Glengarry. Additional evidence of Pickle's
identity will occur in his communications with his English employers.
He was not likely to adopt the name of Pickle before the publication
of Smollett's 'Peregrine Pickle' in 1751, though he may have earlier
played his infamous part as spy, traitor, and informer.
* * * * *
NOTE.
The Family of Glengarry.
ALASTAIR RUADH MACDONELL, alias Pickle, Jeanson, Roderick Random, and
so forth, died, as we saw, in 1761. He was succeeded by his nephew
Duncan, son of AEneas, accidentally shot. at Falkirk in 1746. Duncan
was followed by Alastair, Scott's friend; it was he who gave Maida to
Sir Walter. Alastair, the last Glengarry who held the lands of the
House, died in January 1828. Scott devotes a few lines of his
journal to the chief (January 21, 1828), who shot a grandson of Flora
Macdonald in a duel, and disputed with Clanranald the supremacy of
the Macdonalds. Scott says 'he seems to have lived a century too
late, and to exist, in a state of complete law and order, like a
Glengarry of old, whose will was law to his Sept. Warm-hearted,
generous, friendly, he is beloved by those who knew him . . . To me
he is a treasure . . . ' {165} He married a daughter of Sir William
Forbes, a strong claim on Scott's affection. He left sons who died
without offspring; his daughter Helen married Cunninghame of
Balgownie, and is represented by her son, J. Alastair Erskine-
Cunninghame, Esq., of Balgownie. If Charles, half brother of
Alastair Ruadh (Pickle), who died in America, left no offspring, the
House of Glengarry is represented by AEneas Ranald Westrop
Macdonnell, Esq., of the Scotus branch of Glengarry. According to a
letter written to the Old Chevalier in 1751, by Will Henderson in
Moidart, young Scotus had extraordinary adventures after Culloden.
The letter follows. I published it first in the Illustrated London
News.
To the King. From W. Henderson in Moydart.
'October 5, 1750.
'Sir,--After making offer to you of my kind compliments, I thought it
my indispensable duty to inform you that one Governor Stewart of the
Isle of Lemnos on the coast of Ethiopia in ye year 1748 wrot to
Scotland a letter for Stewart of Glenbucky concerning Donald McDonell
of Scothouse younger, and John Stewart with 20 other prisoners of our
countrymen there, to see, if by moyen of ransome they could be
relieved. The substance of the Letter, as it came with an Irish Ship
this year to Clyde, is as follows:
'That Donald McDonell of Scothouse, younger, and first cousin german
to John McDonell of Glengarry, and with John Stewart of Acharn and
other 20 persons mortally wounded in the Battle of Culloden, were by
providence preserved, altho without mercy cast aboard of a ship in
Cromarty Bay the very night of the Battle, and sailed next morning
for Portsmouth, where they were cast again aboard of an Indiaman to
be carried, or transported without doom or law to some of the british
plantations, but they had the fate to be taken prisoners by a Salle
Rover or a Turkish Privatir or Pirat, who, after strangling the
captain and crew, keeped the 22 highlanders in their native garb to
be admired by the Turks, since they never seed their habit, nor heard
their languadgue befor, and as providence would have it, the Turks
and Governor Stewart came to see the Rarysho, and being a South
country hiland man, that went over on the Darien expedition, and yet
extant, being but a very young boy when he went off, seeing his
countrymen, spok to them with surprize in their native tong or
language, and by comoning but a short time in galick, found in
whose's army they served, and how they suffered by the fate of war
and disaster, after which he ordered them ashoar, and mitigated their
confinement as far as lay'd in his power, but on them landing, by the
Turks' gelosie [jealousy?] they were deprived of all writting
instroments, for fear they sho'd give their friends information of
the place they were in, and so it would probably happen them during
life: if John Stewart of Acharn had not got his remot cousin
Governor Stewart to writt a letter and inclosed one from himself
giving particular information of Scothouse, wishing and begging all
frinds concerned to procure written orders from the King of France to
his Ambassador at Constantinopol for to make all intercession for the
relesement of the forsaid Two Gentlemen and other 20 British
christians in the King His Majesty's Name, or to recommend their
condition to his holyness to see if by ransome they might be relived.
And they'll always be gratefull to their Deliverurs, to this pious
end. I make chuse of you to inform your Master, who's the capablest
person under God to do for them, which will with other infinit titles
endear you to your fast friends in Scotland, and especially to your
Will Henderson, who lives there 13 years past among the MacDonalds of
Clanranald, so I hope you'll make use of what I have wrot, to the end
I intend, and God will give the due reward . . . I remain, etc.'
In fact, the younger Scotus was not taken prisoner at Culloden, but
remained in the Highlands, and is mentioned by Murray of Broughton,
in his account of his expenditure, and of the Loch Arkaig treasure,
published by Robert Chambers as an Appendix to his 'History of the
Rising of 1745.'
CHAPTER VIII--PICKLE AND THE ELIBANK PLOT
The Elibank plot--George II. to be kidnapped--Murray and Young
Glengarry--As Pickle, Glengarry betrays the plot--His revelations--
Pickle and Lord Elibank--Pickle meets Charles--Charles has been in
Berlin--Glengarry writes to James's secretary--Regrets failure of
plot--Speaks of his illness--Laments for Archy Cameron--Hanbury
Williams seeks Charles in Silesia--Pickle's 'fit of sickness'--His
dealings with the Earl Marischal--Meets the Prince at the masked
ball--'A little piqued'--Marischal criticises the plot to kidnap
George II.--'A night attack'--Other schemes--Charles's poverty--'The
prophet's clothes'--Mr. Carlyle on Frederick the Great--Alleges his
innocence of Jacobite intrigues--Contradicts statesmen--Mr. Carlyle
in error--Correspondence of Frederick with Earl Marischal--The Earl's
account of English plotters--Frederick's advice--Encouragement
underhand--Arrest of Archy Cameron--His early history--Plea for
clemency--Cameron is hanged--His testimony to Charles's virtues--His
forgiveness of his enemies--Samuel Cameron the spy--His fate--Young
Edgar on the hidden treasure--The last of the treasure--A salmo
ferox.
The Stuart Papers, we have said, contain no hints as to the Elibank
plot of November 1752, unless Goring's scruples were aroused by it.
It was suggested and arranged by Alexander Murray, younger brother of
Lord Elibank, whom young Edgar describes as 'having a very light
head; he has drunk deep of the Garron' (Garonne?). {169} With a set
of officers in the French service, aided by Young Glengarry (who had
betrayed the scheme) and 400 Highlanders, Murray was to attack St.
James's Palace, and seize the King. If we may believe Young
Glengarry (writing to Edgar in Rome), Charles was 'on the coast,' but
NOT in London. Pickle's letters to his English employers show that
the design was abandoned, much to his chagrin. As Glengarry, he
expresses the same regret in a letter to Edgar. We now offer
Pickle's letters. He is at Boulogne, November 2, 1752.
Add. B.M. MSS. 32,730.
'Boulogne: November 2, 1752.
My dear Sir,--My friends will be most certainly greatly surprised at
my silence, but I have such reasons that I can clear all at meeting.
I have been so hurried, what with posting, what with Drinking, and
other matters of greater weight than they dream of, that I have not
had a moment, as the french says, Sans temoigne, till now; thus
rendered my writing impracticable. Next Post brings a letter to my
friend, and I hope he will not grudge to send Credit to this place,
for I am to take a trip for ten days, the Jurny is of importance,
it's likewise very expencive, and I must give mony. After this trip,
my stay here will be short, for I dare not be explicite on a certain
point. I can answer for myself--but how soon my letter is received,
I beg remittance. You'll think all this very strange, and confus'd,
but I assure you, THERE YOU'L SOON HEAR OF A HURLY BURLY; but I will
see my friend or that can happen. I wish I had the Highland
pistoles. If Donald wants mony, pray give him. He is to come with a
Shoot of Close to me, when I receive Credit. I WILL RUN AT LEAST TOW
HUNDRED LEAGUES POST. You'l hear from me when I write to my friend.
Aquent them of what I write, and ever believe me
'Yours unalterable
'JEANSON. {171}
'Don't proceed in your jurney, till you have further advice--Direct
for me as Johnny directs you.
To the Provost.
Add. 32,730.
'Boulogne: November 4, 1752.
'Dear Sir--By this post I write to my great friend [Henry Pelham], I
hope what I say will prove agreeable, and as I am sure what I write
will be communicated to Grand Papa [Gwynne Vaughan] I beg he excuses
my not writing. Besides it would be both dangerous and precarious,
as I have not a moment to write but after 12 at night, being hurried
at all other hours with company. If the credit I demand be sent, I
will immediately proceed to Paris--If not, I will return directly.
Without a trip to Paris, I can't come at the bottom of matters. I
wish I had the Pistoles. I beg you'l give my servt. any little thing
he wants, and let him come off by the first ship without faile. Let
me hear from you upon recet, and derect for me simply to this place
in french or English. I have told friends here that I expect a
considerable remittance from Baron Kenady [Newcastle], and that how
soon I receve it, I go for a trip to Paris. This admits of no delay.
My kind respects to Grand papa and allways believe me, Dr. Sir,
'Your sincere and affte. friend
'ALEXR. JEANSON.
'To Mr. William Blair, at Mr. Brodie's in Lille Street, Near Leister
fields--London.
(marked) 'PICKLE.' {172}
The following letter of November 4 is apparently to Henry Pelham. If
Charles was in Berlin, as Pickle says here, about August 1752, the
Stuart Papers throw no light on the matter. What we know of
Frederick's intrigues with the Jacobites will find its place in the
record of the following year, 1753. Pickle here confesses that his
knowledge of future intrigues is derived from Frederick's ambassador
at Versailles, the Earl Marischal.
The letter to Pelham follows:
'Bologne: November 4, 1752.
'Sir--Tho' I delayd till now aquenting you of my arrival this side of
the watter, yet I hope you will not attribute my silence either to
neglect or forgetfulness of my friends. I mostly pass my time in
company of my old aquentences how [who] have each in theire turn
entertaind me handsomely. I am now returning the compliment.
'Notwithstanding my endeavours, I have lost sight of 6 [Goring]--I
took a trip in hopes to meet him, at which time I had a long chatt
with 69 [Sir James Harrington], how [who] is in top spirits, and
assures me that very soon a scene will be opend that will astonish
most of Envoys. Whatever may be in this, I can for certain assure
you, that 51 [King of Prussia] will countenance it, for three months
ago 80 [Pretender's Son] was well received there. He has left that
part, for he was within these twenty days not the distance of thirty
leagues from this town. This depend upon, and was you to credit all
he says, it would be justly termd what the french term Merveille;
whatever is in it they keep all very hush from 8 [Pretender] tho I
have some reason to believe that 72 [Sir John Graeme] was dispatched
to him leatly, for he disappear'd from Paris four days ago. Whatever
tune they intend to play of this, Battery 66 [Scotland] is not
desir'd to mouve, untill his neibour [London] pulls off the mask. If
0l--2d [French Ministry] countenances 80 [Pretender's Son], its thro
the influence of 51 [King of Prussia]. I have some reason to believe
they dow, for 80 [Pretender's Son] is accompanied by one of that
faction. I suspect its 59 [Count Maillebois] but I cant be positive
untill I go to Paris, which I think a most necessary chant [jaunt] in
this juncture, for if 2 [Lord Marshall] has no finger in the piy, I
lost my host of all. When I am a few days at Paris, I take a trip
sixty leagues farther South to meet 71 [Sir J. Graemne or Sir James
Harrington] and some other friends, when I will be able to judge of
matters by my reception from them and 01-2d [French Ministry], {174}
and if the last are concerned I must beg leave not to write upon
these topicks, for no precaution can prevent a discovery in this
country; should this be the case, and that anything particular cast
up, I will make the quickest dispatch to lay before you IN PERSON all
I can learn of these affairs--I only wait here for your orders, and
be assur'd whatever they be they will be obeyd with pleasure. I have
not had time to write to my worthy old friend [Gwynne Vaughan], so I
beg you'l aquent him that the place he visits ought [to] be looked
after with a watchful eye--I doubt not but D. B. [Bruce, an English
official] has inform'd you of his receving a few lines from me by
last post, in which I aquented him that I was necessitated to thro a
way some mony, and be at a very considerable expence. I dow not
pretend to make a particular demand yet I assure you 200l. St. is
necessary, and I intirely reffer to yourself to diminish or augment,
only I beg you be convinced that no selfish interesting view
occasions my making this demand, but only that I would be vext want
of cash would disapoint either of us in our expectations, since I dow
assure you that I dont look upon anything I tuch upon such journeys
as solid, for it does not long stick in my pockets. I will drop this
point, being fully perswaded if my correspondence proves anything
amusing, such Bagatelle will not be grudged, but if I go forward, I
beg credit be sent me either upon this place or Paris, any mony I
receve passes for being remitted by the order of Baron Kenady {175}
[Newcastle]. All this is fully submitted to your better judgement,
only I beg you'l be fully perswaded how much I have the honour to
remain, Sir,
'Your most obedient and most humble Servt.,
'ALEXR. JEANSON.
P.S. Lord Strathallan left this a few days ago, to meet Lord George
[Murray] some says at the Hague, others at his house near Claves (?).
'(PICKLE.)'
The following undated 'Information' appears to have been written by
Pickle on his return from France, early in December. It is amazing
to find that, if we can believe a spy, Lord Elibank himself was in
the plot. The scene between the political economist and the
swaggering Celt, when Pickle probably blustered about the weakness of
deferring the attack which he had already betrayed, may be imagined.
Information.
'December 1752.
'The Young Pretender about the latter end of September [1752] sent
Mr. Murray [of Elibank] for Lochgary and Doctor Archabald Cameron.
They meet him at Menin. He informed them that he hoped he had
brought matters to such a bearing, particularly at the King of
Prussia's Court, whom he expected in a short time to have a strong
alliance with--that he did not desire the Highlanders to rise in Arms
untill General Keith was landed in the North of Scotland with some
Swedish troops. He likewise assur'd them that some of the greatest
weight in England, tho' formerly great opposers to his family, were
engaged in this attempt, and that he expected to meet with very
little opposition. In consequence of this he gave Lochgary, Doctor
Cameron, Blairfety, Robertson of Wood Streat, Skalleter, mony; and
sent them to Scotland, so as to meet several highland gentlemen at
the Crief Market for Black Cattel. Cameron Cassifairn and Glenevegh
were those how [who] were to carry on the Correspondence twixt the
Southern Jakobits and Clunie Mackpherson. Lochgary was after the
general meeting at Menin with the Young Pretender, for two nights at
Gent in Flanders. I was at Boulogne when Sir James Harrinton gave me
directions to go to Gent, but to my great surprize as I lighted of
horseback at Furnes was tipt upon the shoulder by one Morison
[Charles's valet] how [who] desir'd me to stop for a little at the
Inn. I was not long there when the Young Pretender enter'd my room.
The discourse chiefly turn'd upon the Scheme in England, when he
repeated the same assurances as to Lochgary, but in stronger terms,
and with the adition that the Swedes were to embark at Gattenburgh
[Gothenburg], and that Mr. Murray was sent with commissions for me,
and full instructions how I was to act in Scotland. The Young
Chevalier was so positive of his schemes succeeding, that he told me
he expected to be in London very soon himself, and that he was
determin'd to give the present Government no quiet until he succeeded
or dyed in the attempt. I came over here [to England] by his express
orders; I waited of Lord Elibank who, after the strong assurances of
the Young Pretender, surprised me to the greatest degree, by telling
me that all was put off for some time, and that his Brother [Murray]
had repassd the seas in order to aquent the Young Pretender of it,
and from him he was to go streight for Paris to Lord Marishal. Its
not above nine days since I left the Young Pretender at Furnes. When
he was at Menin a French gentleman attended him. Goren [Goring] has
been within these two months twice in England, and Mr. Murray three
times since he first went over. Its not above five days since Mr.
Murray left London. Probably the landing for England was to be from
France, as there is 12,000 troops in Flanders more than the ordinary
compliment. This the Comon French takes notice off. But I can say
nothing of this with certainty. The Young Chevalier has more than
once seen the King of Prussia, but none other of his Court, that I
ever could learn, but General Keith.
'Sir John Douglas, Mr. Charteris, {178} and Heparn of Keith, are in
the secret. The Young Chevalier has been in close correspondence
with England for a year and a halph past. Mr. Carte the Historian
has carried frequent messages. They NEVER COMMIT ANYTHING TO
WRITING. Elderman Hethcot is a principall Manager. The very words
the Young Pretender told me was that all this schemne was laid and
transacted by Whiggers, that no Roman Catholick was concerned, and
oblidged me to give my word and honour that I would write nothing
concerning him or his plan to Rome. After what I said last night
this is all that occurs to me for the present. I will lose no time
in my transactions, and I will take care they will allways be
conforme to your directions, and as I have throwen myself entirely
upon you, I am determined to run all hazards upon this occasion,
which I hope will entittle me to your favour and his Majestys
protection. Dec. 1752.'
Pickle, of course, broke his 'word and honour' about not writing to
Rome. In April 1753, to anticipate a little, he indited the
following epistle to Edgar. He can have had no motive, except that
of alarming James by the knowledge that his son had been on the eve
of a secret and perilous enterprise, in which he was still engaged.
Glengarry here confirms the evidence against himself by allusions to
his dangerous illness in the spring of 1753. To this he often refers
when he corresponds, as Pickle, with his English employers.
MackDonell to Edgar.
'Arras: April 5, 1753.
'Sir, I frequently Intended since my coming to this Country to renew
our former corespondence. But as I had nothing to say worth your
notice, that I could with prudence comitt to writing, I choise rather
to be silent than to trouble you with my Letters: yet I cant perswad
myself to leave this Country without returning you many thanks for
your former friendship and good offices, and at same time assuring
you of the great Value and Estime I allways had, and still have for
you.
'I would gladly comunicate to his Majesty the leate Schemes, and
those still persuid, upon the same fondation. But as I am hopfull
that his Majesty is fully Informed of all that is past, and what is
now a Transacting, I will not trouble his Majesty with a repetition
of facts, which I am hopfull he has been Informed off from the
fountaine head. All I will say is that for my owne parte I will
allways make very great difference t'wixt English promasis and
Action, and am more fully confirmed in this opinion SINCE THE TENTH
OF NOV. LAST, when the Day was fixt; But when matters come to the
puish, some frivolous excuses retarded this great and Glorious blow;
Thank God the Prince did not venture himself then at London, {180}
tho he was upon the Coast ready at a Call to put himself at their
head. I wish he may not be brought to venture sow far, upon the
stress laid upon a suden blow, to be done by the English; we will see
if the Month of May or June will produce something more effective
than Novr., and I am sorry to aquent you that the sow great stress
laid upon those projects is lick to prove fatal to some, for
Lochgary, and Doctor Archibald Cameron, were sent to the Highlands to
prepair the Clans to be in readiness: thire beeing sent was much
against my opinion, as I allways ensisted, and will allways persist,
that no stirr should be done there untill the English would be so
farr engaged that they could not draw back. I hope his Majesty will
aprove of my Conduct in this. Doctor Cameron was taken by a party of
soldiers in Boruder [?], and is now actually secured in the Castel of
Edinr. Loch still remains but what his fate will be is very
precarious. The concert in Novr. was that I was to remain in London,
as I had above four hundred Brave Highlanders ready at my call, and
after matters had broke out there to sett off directly for Scotland
as no raising would be made amongst the Clans without my presence.
Now I beg in laying this before the King, you'l at same time assure
his Majesty of my constant resolution to venture my owne person, let
the consequence be what it will and dow everything that can convince
his Majesty of my Dutifull attachmt to his sacred person and Royal
Cause, for which I am ready to Venture my all, and nothing but the
hand I had in those leate and present Schemes and the frequent jants
I was oblidged to take in Consequence, Has hindered me from beeing
settled in a very advantagious and honorable way, being affraid that
Matrimony might Incline me to a less active life than my Prince's
affairs now requires. I belive in a few days that I will take a
private start to London, tho I am still so weake after my leate
Illness at Paris {181} that I am scarse yet able to undergo much
fatigue. I have left directions with Mr. Gordon, principal of the
Scots Colledge, to forward any letters for me to a friend at
Boulogne, HOW [who] has a secure way of forwarding by trading ships
any Letters for me.
'I will be very glad to hear from you particularly as I Expect to
return in a few weeks back to France. I have one favour to ask of
you, and I hope it wont displeace his Majesty; Its, that whatever I
write upon this topick, be neither shown or comunicated to any other
person, as there are reports that people with you comumicate their
Intelligence too freely to the Court of france, which von know may go
farther, and prove of dangerous consequence. I hope the freedom with
which I express myself will be wholly attributed to the warmth of my
zeall for the good of the cause, and it beg you'l forgive the hurry I
am in writing this, and I rely upon your friendship to Excuse the
same towards his Majesty in case you think Proper to lay this hurried
scrawle before him, for what with the fatigue of posting and Other
Affairs, I am so Tumbled. I wish with all my heart you may conceve
the sincer true and reale sentiments which Induced me to write so
freely, and as the Gentilman with whom I send this to Paris is just
ready to set off, I beg you'll allow me to conclude, and I hope
you'll not faile to lay me at his Majesty's and Royal Emmency's feet
and at same time to Believe me Sir
'Your most obedient and most humble Servt
'MACKDONELL.'
Edgar probably did not reply directly. John Gordon, of the Scots
College in Paris, writes to Edgar:
'Paris: 19th August.
'I had the favour of yours of the 17th. July in Course. I found an
opportunity lately to acquaint Glengarie of what you wrot me on his
account some time ago in answer to his from Arras; he desires me to
thank you for what you say obliging to him, and begs youll accept of
his best compliments.'
It will be remarked that Pickle, who had informed the English
Government of Archy Cameron's and Lochgarry's mission to Scotland in
September 1752, in his letter to Edgar laments Archy's capture!
Hypocrisy was never carried so far. To Cameron and his fate we
return later.
The Stuart Papers contain nothing of interest about Charles for some
time after Mademoiselle Luci's death and the postponement of the
Elibank plot. The news of the Prince's conversion was spread by
himself, in October 1752. Sir James Harrison was charged to inform
Lord Denbigh, who thought the change 'the best and happiest thing.'
Lady Denbigh, 'a most zealous smart woman,' saw Mr. Hay at Sens, and
received from him some of the Prince's hair, wherewith 'she would
regale three or four of her acquaintances, and each of them set in
heart-form, encircled with diamonds.' {183a} Cardinal Tencin also
heard of the conversion. In January 1753, Charles was in Paris. His
creditors were clamorous, and he deplores his 'sad situation.' {183b}
On January 24 he was more in funds, thanks to a remittance from Rome.
Hanbury Williams, meanwhile, was diligently hunting for him in
Silesia! On January 17 and February 11, 1753, Williams wrote long
letters from Dresden. He had sent an honest fellow of a spy into
Silesia, where the spy got on the tracks of a tall, thin, fair
gentleman, a little deaf, travelling with a single servant, who took
coffee with him. The master spoke no German, the servant had a
little German, and the pair were well provided with gold. As Charles
was a little deaf, this enigmatic pair must be the Prince and Goring.
Hanbury Williams was energetic, but not well informed. {184} By
February 18, 1753, the excellent Williams learned from Count Bruhl
that Charles was DEAD, 'in one of the seaports of France.' Meanwhile
the English Government knew, though they did not tell Williams, all
that they needed to know, through their friend Pickle. Williams they
kept in the dark.
In March 1753, Charles was trafficking with Hussey, lieutenant-
colonel of a regiment stationed in Luxembourg. He conceived a plan
for sending Goring to Spain, and he put some boxes of his, long kept
by 'La Grandemain,' into the hands of Waters. He wrote a mutilated
letter to Alexander Murray in Flanders, and there our information, as
far as the Stuart Papers go, fails us. But Pickle steps in with the
following letter. He describes the illness about which, as we saw,
he wrote to Edgar in April of this year. Here follows his letter:
Add. 32,843.
'17th March, 1753.
Dr. Sir,--I receved some time ago your kind favour, and no doubt
you'll be greatly surprised at my long silence which nothing could
have occasiond but a violent fitt of sickness, which began with a
stich that seasd me as I was coming from the Town of Sence, in fine
it threw me into a violent fever that confin'd me to my bed twenty
days. I was let blood ten times, which has so reduc'd me, that I am
but in a very weake situation still. This with my long stay here,
has quite exausted my finances, and oblidg'd me to contract 300
Livres, tow of which I am bound to pay in the month of Aprile, and if
I am not suplay'd, I am for ever undon. I beg you'l represent this
to Grandpapa, upon whose friendship, I allways relay. The inclosed
is for him, and I hope to see him soon in person, tho. I am to make a
little tour which will still augment my Debts and think myself very
lucky to find credit. Let me heare from you after you see Grandpapa,
for there is no time to be lost, but pray don't sign that fellow's
name you made use of to my Correspondent. It occasions ---'s [the
Prince's?] speculations, you know he is sharp. I don't comprehend
what you would be at in your last. What regards my cusins I don't
comprehend. I will soon remouve my dr. mistres jelousies, if she has
any . . . The old woman you mention is a great tatteler, but knows
nothing solid but what regards Court amours and little intrigues. I
hope to overtake her in your City, as I believe she will not incline
to come so soon over as she leatly recev'd the news of her son's
being kill'd in a dowell by one of the petit masters of this
Capitall. The Deer hunting will be dangerous without a good set of
hounds which will prove expencive and very trubelsome. If I don't
hear upon recet I will conclude I am entirely neglected and dropt. I
beg you'l offer my dutiful respects to Grandpapa, and all friends,
and still believe me, Dear Sir,
'Your sincere and affte. friend
'ALEXR. PICKLE.
'To Mr. William Blair, at Mr. Brodie's in Lille Street, near Leister
fields--London.'
This illness of Pickle's was troublesome: it is to be feared the
poor gentleman never quite recovered his health. As usual, he is in
straits for money. England was already ungrateful. Here follows
another despatch
Add. 32,843.
'Paris: March 15, 1753.
Dr. Sir,--I had a long letter leatly from Mr. Cromwell [Bruce]
contining in chief tow Artickles by way of charge; the first
complaining of my long silence--t'other for not keeping a due and
regular correspondence . . .What I beg you assure my mistress of, is,
that had there been any new mode worth her notice invented since I
gave her one exact patron of the last [the Elibank plot], I would not
have neglected to have sent her due patrons. Please aquent my
mistress that of leate they have comenced some new fashions in the
head dresses, very little varying from the former one, yet they
estime it is a masterpiece in its kind, for my part, I have but a
slight idea of it, though they bost the people of the first rank of
our country will use it. I would have wrot of this sooner, but my
illness occasiond my not knowing anything of the matter till very
leatly, and I was so very ill, that it was impossible for me to
write, as you may see by Mr. Cromwell's letter. You may remember,
dr. Papa, that I was always very desirous that my love intrigues
should be secret from all mortalls but those agreed upon, and that my
letters might be perus'd by non, but by my mistress and you, now if
you have people how [who] were, and a few that still are, at the
helme, that don't act honourably, I can't be possitive, neither will
I mention them at this distance, beeing myself a little credulous, as
I have but one under architect's word for it. Were I to credit some
of the managers, some of the fundation stones are pleacd upon a very
sandy ground, but our little thin friend, the Embassador [Earl
Marischal?], gives it little or no credit, it may be but a puff in
hopes to create suspicion, and make one of each other mistrustfull.
In consequence of all this the managers have derected our Northern
friends [Lochgarry and the clans] to keep their posts. I can answer
for such as regards me, and I beg least the Company [Jacobites] make
banckrout that you proteck my parte of them. I am now pretty well
recover'd of my leate illness, tho' I have been very much afraid of a
relapse, having catch'd a violent cold at the Masquerad ball of Lundi
Gras, beeing over perswaded to accompany our worthy friend Mr. Murray
to that diversion, where I was greatly astonish'd to find Mr. STRANGE
[Prince Charles] whom I imagin'd to be all this time in Germanie, for
I took it for granted that he went for Berlin when I meet him at
Furnes. I know not how long his stay was at Paris, for I was A
LITTLE PICKT THAT HE DID NOT INQUIRE AFTER ME DURING MY ILLNESS. He
left this early Tuesday morning, and our friend Mr. Murray gave him
the convoie for some days, and yesterday he returnd to town. I am to
dine with him this day, and you may be sure, we will not forget to
drink a bumper to our British friends and your health and prosperity
in particular.
'I leave this in a cuple of days, and I must, tho, with reluctance,
aquent you, my dear Papa, that my long stay here, together with my
illness, has runn me quite aground, which forct me to borow very near
150l. St. and Mr. Woulf, Banquier, has my note payable the 5th of
Aprile to his correspondent at Boulogne. As for the remaining 50,
its not so pressing, as I had it from my Collegian friends [Scots
College], now if I'm not enabled to pay this triffle, my credit,
which was always good in this country, will be blown . . . I beg you
ly me at my charming Mistress' feet [Pelham], and assure her how
ardent my desires are to preserve her love and affections, which I
hope very soon to assure her personally.
'I ever remain, my dear Papa
'Your most obedient, and most oblidged humble servt
'ALEXR. JACKSON.'
'P.S. Tho' I am still very weake, I will endeavour to leave this
upon the 18th. Instant, and I stear my course for Imperiall
Flanders.'
The following communication is undated, but, from the reference to
Pickle's illness, it must be of March or April 1753. In April,
Glengarry informed Edgar, as we saw, that he was going to England
from Arras. He apparently went over, and handed in this
intelligence. If he speaks truth, the Earl Marischal criticised the
Elibank plot as a candid friend. There exists evidence of a spy on a
spy, who tracked Glengarry to the Earl Marischal's house. 'Swem-rs
M. P.' is a Mr. Swymmer.
Add. 33,050.
'Pickle remaind about ten days at Boulogne, where he was frequently
in company with Sir J. Harrington who at that instant knew as little
as Pickle of the P. Destination. Sir J. H-a-r-t-n was much cast down
at the grand affair's [Elibank plot] being retarded. He wrote to Ld.
S-t-ln [Strathallan] aquenting him therewith, for Ld. S-t-ln and
Young Ga [Glengarry?] had been sent some time before to sound Ld.
George Murray, not knowing how he stood affected, as he [Prince
Charles] had once greatly disoblidgd him. S. J. H-a-r-t-n aquenting
them of the disappointment in England, stopt further proceedings, so
they return'd back to Boulogne. Pickle went streight from Boulogne
to Paris, where he was very intimate with Ld. Marischal; few days
past but Pickle was at his lodgings or M-r-l- at Pickle's. Ld. M-r-
l- was first aquented with the intended insurrection in England by
Goring who waited of him by his master's [Charles's] particular
order, a person of distinction spoke very seriously to M-r-l- upon
this head. Pickle does not know how [who] this was, M-r-l- declining
to mention names, yet he estem'd this person as a man of weight, and
good judgement, this person was publick at Paris, but waited of M-r-l
at night--Carte has been several times over, he is trusted, and it is
by his means chiefly, that the P. turn'd off Kelly, as Mr. Carte
inform'd the P. that persons of note would enter upon no scheme with
him whilst that fellow shar'd his confidence. Sir Jo: A-s-ly [?]
was over, and Pickle believes he met the P. at Paris. The pretence
of Mr. Swem-rs, Memr. of Pt. traveling abroad with his lady, was to
settle the English Scheme. Ld. M-r-l has not seen the P. but twice,
before Pickle went over. He never saw him at Berlin, THO' HE
BELIEVED THAT HE HAD TAKEN SEVERAL TRIPS TO THAT COURT. He saw
Goring twice at Berlin. M-r-l knew nothing of a foreign Invation,
and did not believe there could be any in time of peace. Pickle one
day asking his opinion of their affairs, he answer'd that he could
say nothing upon the head with certainty, he kept his mind to
himself, that when they ask'd his Opinion, he told them he COULD NOT
JUDGE SO WELL AS THEY, SINCE HE WAS QUITE A STRANGER TO LONDON, AND
TO THE DIFFERENT POSTS, AND MANNER OF PLACING THEIR GUARDS, BUT THAT
IF THEY EXECUTED ACCORDING TO THEIR PLAN LAID BEFORE HIM, HE DOUBTED
NOT BUT THEY MIGHT SUCCEED, but Pickle making some objections as to
the veracity of this plan, told him that he could not positively
contradick them, and tell the P. that they impost upon him, for, says
he, "what Opinion, Mr. Pickle, can I entertain of people that
propos'd that I should abandon my Embassy, and embark headlong with
them? what can I answer, when they assure me that B-d-rl, S-dh G-me-
ele [?] with others of that party have agreed when once matters break
out, to declare themselves? But you need not, Mr. Pickle, be
apprehensive, you may safely waite the event, as you are not desir'd
to make any appearance [in Scotland] untill London and other parts of
England pulls off the mask, or untill there is a foreign landing."
This, and matters much of the same nature were the ordinary topicks
of Mrl and Pickle's conversation.
'Pickle was not above six weeks in France, when he was determin'd to
return, but was prevented by M-r-y [Count Murray, Elibank's brother]
aquenting him that he would soon see the P. personally. Of this he
at once aquented Mr. Cromwell [Bruce, English official] and that it
was the only thing that detain'd him, but as Pickle in the interim
went to Sens, in his return to Paris, HE WAS SEASED WITH A FLUXION DE
POITRINE which had very near tript up his hiells. Pickle, when he
recover'd, went to the Opera Ball, here to his great surprise he met
the P. who received him very kindly, and he still insisted upon
foreign assistance, and the great assurances he had from England, and
that he expected matters would go well in a very little time, he
often mentioned foreign assistance by the Court of Berlin's
influence, from Swedland. His conversation with Pickle was in
general terms. Pickle told him that he intended returning to
Britain. "Well then," says he, "I hope soon to send you an agreeable
message, as you'l be amongest the very first aquented when matters
coms to a Crisis: for my parte I hope to have one bold puish for
all;" then after assurances of his friendship, he went off, and
Pickle has not seen him since; this was upon Lundie Gras. He left
Paris that very morning, and Capt. Murray gave him the Convoy, and
was absent four days. A few days after this, Pickle met, by meare
accident, Goring going to Ld. Mrl. Gor was then upon his way to
England where he did not tarry above six days. D.K-ns [Dawkins] went
leatly over, and brought mony for the P. Pickle believes upwards of
4,000l. St. There is few weeks but Sir J. H-a-r-t-n leeves messages
by means of the Smugglers. Eldermen Blastus Heth [Heathcote] B-n J-
r-n-d Black, with many others, are mannagers in the City. IF
ANYTHING IS TO BE ATTEMPTED, ITS TO BE EXECUTED BY A SET OF RESOLUTE
DARING YOUNG FELLOWS, LAID ON BY A SET OF YOUNG GENTLEMEN, CONDUCTED
BY A FEW REGULAR OFFICERS. If ever any attempt is made, it's to be a
Night onset, and if they succeed in 'scaping the Guards then all will
declare. The P. has been tampering with the Scots Dutch, he saw some
of them. Pickle cant condescent who they were, his Agents spoke to
many of them. No Officers are fitter for such attempts, as they are
both brave and experienced. The P. depends upon having many friends
in the Army, there being not a few added to their number by the [Duke
of Cumberland's] conduct towards many gallant gentlemen and men of
property, but whatever steps they have been taking, to sound or gaine
over either Officers of the Land or Sea Service, they still keep a
dead secret. As for B-r [Beaufort?], Ld. W-r-d [Westmoreland] Sir
Jo-s-ps with other of the Cohelric [choleric?] and [Bould?] Pickle is
very ready, as he is not accustom'd to such Surnames and titles, to
forget them, but assemblys of that nature are pretty publick, members
of such meetings can't escape the vigilancy of the Ministry: Murray,
when he came over in Novr. last, brought over several manefestos to
England, with a very ample comission for --- [Glengarry?] to raise
the Clans and command in Chief untill an Expressd Generall Officer
landed, and even then the Clans were to have a particular Commander
(a Highlander) this they insisted upon, knowing what tools they have
been in times past to Low Country Commanders, no more experienced
than the most ordinary amongest themselves. --- [?] was pitched
upon, as the P. believed he would readily comploy with any reasonable
plan that would be concerted by the Commander in Chief, what Pickle
asserts as to this, will probably be known by others. Neith. Drum.
Heb, were pitched upon to try the pulse of D. H. [Hamilton?] and
other nobelmen and gentlemen of the South. Aber-ny with some of the
excepted Skulkers were to manadge and concert matters with the North
Country Lowlanders, and Menzy of Cul-d-re was to be agent betwixt the
Lowlands and bordering Highlands. Several were sent to Scotland by
the P. and mony given them in order to prepaire the people.
' --- [Glengarry] can fully answer for the Highlands, for nothing can
be transacted there without his knowledge, as his Clan must begin the
play, or they can come to no head there. What Pickle knows of
English schemes he can't be so positive, as he was not designed to be
an actor upon that Stage, yet in time he may perhaps be more
initiated in those misterys, as they now believe that Pickle could
have a number of Highlanders even in London to follow him, but
whatever may happen, you may always rely upon Pickle's attachment.'
To be 'pick't' (piqued) by the Prince's neglect to inquire about
Pickle's precious health is very characteristic of Glengarry. His
vanity and pride are alluded to by men of all parties.
Pickle's remarks on Charles's receipt of 4,000l. must be erroneous.
His Royal Highness was in the very lowest water, and could not afford
a new suit of clothes for his servant Daniel, 'the profet,' as he
once calls him. This we learn from the following letter to Avignon:
To Sheridan and Stafford. From the Prince.
'April 10, 1753.
'This is to let you know that as I am extremely necessitous for
money, it engages me out of economi to send for Daniell's Close which
you are to Pack up in his own trunc, and to send it adresed to Mr.
Woulfe to Paris, but let there be in ye trunc none of Daniel's Papers
or anything else except his Close.'
Meanwhile, on March 20, 1753, Archy Cameron had been arrested. His
adventure and his death, with the rumours which flew about in
society, bring us into collision with a great authority, that of Mr.
Carlyle.
'If you, who have never been in rich Cyrene, know it better than I,
who HAVE, I much admire your cleverness,' said the Delphian Oracle to
an inquiring colonist. Mr. Carlyle had never lived in the Courts of
Europe about 1753; none the less, he fancied he knew more of them,
and of their secrets, than did their actual inhabitants, kings,
courtiers, and diplomatists. We saw that, in September 1752,
according to Pickle, Prince Charles sent Archibald Cameron and
Lochgarry to Scotland, with a mission to his representative, Cluny
Macpherson, and the clans. The English Government, knowing this and
a great deal more through Pickle, hanged Cameron, in June 1753, on no
new charge, but on the old crime of being out in the Forty-five. Sir
Walter Scott was well aware of the circumstances. We have already
quoted his remark. 'The ministers thought it prudent to leave Dr.
Cameron's new schemes in concealment, lest by divulging them they had
indicated the channel of communication which, it is well known, they
possessed to all the plots of Charles Edward.'
Mr. Carlyle, however, knew better. After giving a lucid account of
the differences which, in 1752-1753, menaced the peaceful relations
between England and Prussia; after charging heavily in favour of his
hero Frederick, Mr. Carlyle refers to Archibald Cameron. Cameron, he
says, was 'a very mild species of Jacobite rebel. . . . I believe he
had some vague Jacobite errands withal, never would have harmed
anybody in the rebel way, and might with all safety have been let
live. . . . ' But 'His Grace the Duke of Newcastle and the English
had got the strangest notion into their head; . . . what is certain,
though now well nigh inconceivable, it was then, in the upper classes
and political circles, universally believed that this Dr. Cameron was
properly an emissary of the King of Prussia, that Cameron's errand
here was to rally the Jacobite embers into a flame, . . . ' and that
Frederick would send 15,000 men to aid the clans. These ideas of the
political circles Mr. Carlyle thinks 'about as likely as that the
Cham of Tartary had interfered in the Bangorian Controversy.' {196a}
Now, Horace Walpole says {196b} 'intelligence had been received some
time before [through Pickle] of Cameron's intended journey to
Britain, with a commission from Prussia to offer arms to the
disaffected Highlanders . . . . That Prussia, who opened her
inhospitable doors to every British rebel, should have tampered in
such a business, was by no means improbable. . . . Two sloops were
stationed to watch, yet Cameron landed.' Writing to Mann (April 27,
1753), Horace Walpole remarks: 'What you say you have heard of
strange conspiracies fomented by OUR NEPHEW [Frederick] is not
entirely groundless.' He adds that Cameron has been taken while
'feeling the ground.'
Information as to Frederick's 'tampering' with Jacobitism came to the
English Government not only through Pickle, but through Count
Kaunitz, the Austrian minister. On December 30, 1753, Mr. Keith
wrote to the Duke of Newcastle from the Imperial Court. He had
thanked Count Kaunitz for his intelligence, and had expressed the
wish of George II. for news as to 'the place of the Young Pretender's
abode.' He commented on Frederick's 'ill faith and ambition,' which
'could not fail to set the English nation against his interest, by
showing the dangerous effects of any increase of force, or power, in
a Prince capable of such horrid designs.' {197}
As between Mr. Carlyle in 1853, and the diplomatists of Europe in
1753, the game is unequal. The upper classes and political circles
knew more of their own business than the sage of Ecclefechan.
Frederick, as Walpole said, WAS 'tampering' with the Jacobites. He
as good as announced his intention of doing so when he sent the Earl
Marischal to Paris, where, however, the Earl could NOT wear James's
Green Ribbon of the Thistle! But, to Frederick, the Jacobites were
mere cards in his game. If England would not meet his views on a
vexed question of Prussian merchant ships seized by British
privateers, then he saw that a hand full of Jacobite trumps might be
useful. The Earl Marischal had suggested this plan. {198a} The
Earl wrote from Paris, February 10, 1753: 'The King of England shows
his ill-will in his pretensions on East Frisia, in the affairs of the
Empire, and in revoking the guarantee of Silesia. Your Majesty,
therefore, may be pleased to know the strength of the party hostile
to him at home, in which, and in the person of Prince Edouard
[Charles] you may find him plenty to do, if he pushes you too far.'
The Earl then suggests sending a rich English gentleman to Frederick;
this was Mr. James Dawkins, of the Over Norton family, the explorer
of Palmyra. Pickle mentions him as 'D-k-ns.'
Frederick did not expect a rupture with England, but condescended to
see the Earl's friend, Mr. Dawkins. On May 7 the Earl announces his
friend's readiness to go to Berlin, and says that there is a project
maturing in England. The leaders are Dawkins, Dr. King of Oxford,
'homme d'esprit, vif, agissant,' and the Earl of Westmoreland, 'homme
sage, prudent, d'une bonne tete, bon citoyen, respectable, et
respecte.' {198b} They will communicate with Frederick through the
Earl Marischal, if at all. 'The Prince knows less of the affair than
Dawkins does. The Prince's position, coupled with an intrepidity
which never lets him doubt where he desires, causes others to form
projects for him, which he is always ready to execute. I have no
direct communication with him, not wishing to know his place of
concealment: we correspond through others.'
Frederick (May 29, 1753) thinks the plot still crude, and advises the
Jacobites to tamper with the British army and navy. 'It will be for
my interest to encourage them in their design underhand, and without
being observed. You will agree with me that the state of European
affairs does not permit me to declare myself openly. If the English
throne were vacant, a well conceived scheme might succeed under a
Regency.'
Such is the attitude of Frederick. He receives a Jacobite envoy; he
listens to tales of conspiracies against his uncle; he offers
suggestions; he will encourage treason sous main. In fact, Frederick
behaves with his usual cold, curious, unscrupulous skill.
Frederick's letters have brought us to May 1753, when Archy Cameron,
in the Tower of London, lay expecting his doom. While kings,
princes, ambassadors, statesmen, and highland chiefs were shuffling,
conspiring, peeping, lying and spying, the sole burden of danger fell
on Archibald Cameron, Lochgarry, and Cluny. They were in the
Elector's domains; their heads were in the lion's mouth. We have
heard Young Glengarry accuse both Archy Cameron and Cluny of
embezzling the Prince's money in the Loch Arkaig hoard, but
Glengarry's accusations can scarcely have been credited by Charles,
otherwise he would not have entrusted the Doctor with an important
mission. Cluny's own character, except by Kennedy and Young
Glengarry, is unimpeached, and Lochgarry bore the stoutest testimony
to his honour.
The early biography of Archibald Cameron is interesting. As the
youngest son of old Lochiel, he, with his famous brother 'the gentle
Lochiel,' set about reforming the predatory habits of their clan,
with considerable success. Archibald went to Glasgow University, and
read Moral Philosophy 'under the ingenious Dr. Hutchinson.' He
studied Medicine in Edinburgh and in France; then settled in
Lochaber, and married a lady of the clan of Campbell. He was
remarked for the sweetness of his manners, and was so far from being
a violent Jacobite that he dissuaded his brother, Lochiel, from going
to see the Prince at his first landing in 1745. This account of his
conversion, from 'The Gentleman's Magazine' (June 1753), is naif.
'Dr. Cameron was at last brought to engage by the regard due to a
benefactor and a brother, who was besides his Chief as head of his
Clan, AND THREATENED TO PISTOL HIM IF HE DID NOT COMPLY.' Wounded at
Falkirk (the ball was never extracted), he served at Culloden,
escaped to France with Lochiel, was surgeon in his regiment, and
later in Lord Ogilivie's, was guardian of Lochiel's son, and, as we
know, came and went from Scotland with Lochgarry and Young Glengarry.
His last trip to Scotland was undertaken in September 1752. Of his
adventures there in concerting a rising we know nothing. On March 20
he was detected near Inversnaid (possibly through a scoundrel of his
own name), and was hunted by a detachment of the Inversnaid garrison.
They were long baffled by children set as sentinels, who uttered loud
cries as the soldiers approached. At last they caught a boy who had
hurt his foot, and from him discovered that Cameron was in a house in
a wood. Thence he escaped, but was caught among the bushes and
carried to Edinburgh by Bland's dragoons. On April 17 he was
examined by the Council at the Cockpit in Whitehall. He was
condemned on his attainder for being out in 1745, {201} and his wife
in vain besieged George II. and the Royal Family with petitions for
his life. 'The Scots Magazine' of May 1753 contains a bold and manly
plea for clemency. 'In an age in which commiseration and beneficence
is so very conspicuous among all ranks, and on every occasion, we
have reason to hope that pity resides in that place where it has the
highest opportunity of imitating the divine goodness in saving the
distressed.'
They 'sought for grace at a graceless face.' Mrs. Cameron was shut
up with her husband to prevent her troubling any of the Royal Family
or nobility with petitions in his favour. On June 8, Cameron was
hanged and disembowelled, but NOT while alive, as was the custom. A
London letter of June 9 says 'he suffered like a brave man, a
Christian, and a gentleman. . . . His merit is confessed by all
parties, and his death can hardly be called untimely, as his
behaviour rendered his last day worth an age of common life.'
'One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name!'
As Scott remarks, 'When he lost his hazardous game Dr. Cameron only
paid the forfeit which he must have calculated upon.' The
Government, knowing that plots against George II. and his family were
hatching daily, desired to strike terror by severity. But Prince
Charles, when in England and Scotland, more than once pardoned
assassins who snapped pistols in his face, till his clemency excited
the murmurs of his followers and the censures of the Cameronians.
They wrote thus:
'We reckon it a great vice in Charles, his foolish pity and lenity in
sparing these profane blasphemous Red Coats, that Providence put into
his hand, when, by putting then to Death, this poor Land might have
been eased of the heavy Burden of these Vermin of Hell.' {202}
Cameron was deprived in prison of writing materials, but he managed
to secure a piece of pencil, with which on scraps of paper he wrote
his last words to his friends. These were obtained by Mrs. Cameron,
and are printed in the 'State Trials.' {203} Never was higher
testimony borne to man than by Cameron to Prince Charles.
'As I had the honour from the time of the Royal youth's setting up
his Father's standard, to be almost constantly about his person, till
November 1748 . . . I became more and more captivated with his
amiable and princely virtues, which are, indeed, in every instance so
eminently great as I want words to describe.
'I can further affirm (and my present situation, and that of my dear
Prince too, can leave no room to suspect me of flattery) that as I
have been his companion in the lowest degree of adversity that ever
prince was reduced to, so I have beheld him too, as it were, on the
highest pinnacle of glory, amidst the continual applauses, and I had
almost said, adorations, of the most brilliant Court in Europe; yet
he was always the same, ever affable and courteous, giving constant
proofs of his great humanity, and of his love for his friends and his
country. . . . And as to his courage, none that have ever heard of
his glorious attempt in 1745 can, I should think, call it in
question.'
Cameron adds that if he himself WAS engaged in a new plot, 'neither
the fear of the worst death their malice could invent, nor much less
their flattering promises, could have extorted any discovery of it
from me.' He forgives all his enemies, murderers, and false
accusers, from 'the Elector of Hanover and his bloody son, down to
Samuel Cameron, the basest of their spies.'
As to the Prince's religion, Cameron says (June 1753):
'I likewise declare, on the word of a dying man, that the last time I
had the honour to see H.R.H. Charles, Prince of Wales, he told me
from his own mouth, and bid me assure his friends from him, that he
was a member of the Church of England.'
Who was this Samuel Cameron, who stained by treachery the glorious
name of Lochiel's own clan? On this point the following letter,
written after Archy's death, casts some light. We have already seen
that Samuel Cameron was accused of being in communication with Murray
of Broughton, as also was Young Glengarry. Young Edgar, in French
service, writes thus to his uncle, James's secretary, from Lille:
'Samuel Cameron, whom Archy mentions in the end of his speech, is the
same that Blair and Holker wrote to me about when at Rome, the end of
1751. He has been a constant correspondent of John Murray's, and all
along suspected of being a spy. Cameron's remarks leave it without a
doubt.' Samuel, Edgar adds, is now a half-pay lieutenant in French
service, at Dunkirk. Lord Ogilvie and Lochiel mean to secure him,
but Lord Lewis Drummond does not think the evidence sufficient. From
'The Scots Magazine' of September 1753, we learn that a court-martial
of Scottish officers was held on Samuel at Lille, and, in April 1754,
we are told that, after seven months' detention, he was expelled from
France, and was condemned to be shot if he returned. His sentence
was read to him on board a ship at Calais, and we meet him no more.
Dr. Cameron was buried in a vault of the Savoy Chapel, and, in 1846,
her present Majesty, with her well-known sympathy for the brave men
who died in the cause of her cousins, permitted a descendant of the
Doctor to erect a monument to his memory. This was destroyed in a
fire on July 7, 1864, but now a window in stained glass commemorates
'a brave man, a Christian, and a gentleman.'
The one stain on Cameron's memory, thrown, as on Cluny's, by Young
Glengarry, may be reckoned as effaced. Whatever really occurred as
to the Loch Arkaig treasure, it did not destroy the Prince's
confidence in the last man who laid down his life for the White Rose.
Before Archy Cameron's death, young Edgar had written thus from Lille
to old Edgar in Rome:
'May 2, 1753.
'We have no account of Cameron except by the Gazete. It is thought
that all the others who have been apprehended either had of the
Prince's money in their hands, or that the Government expects they
can make some discoverys about it; I wish with all my heart the Gov.
had got it in the beginning, for it has given the greatest stroke to
the cause that can be imagined, it has divided the different clans
more than ever, and even those of the same clan and family; so that
they are ready to destroy and betray one another. Altho I have not
altered my opinion about Mr. M--- [Murray] yet as he may on an
occasion be of great use to the cause with the Londoners--I thought
it not amiss to write him a line to let him know the regard you had
for him, for as I know him to be vastly vain and full of himself I
thought this might be a spur to his zeale.'
So practically closes the fatal history of the Loch Arkaig treasure.
Cluny later bore back to France, it seems, the slender remains of the
40,000 louis d'or. But this accursed gold had set clan against clan,
kinsman against kinsman, had stained honourable names, and, probably,
had helped to convert Glengarry into Pickle.
The Highlanders yet remember the Prince's treasure. A few years ago,
a Highland clergyman tells me, he was trolling with a long line in
Loch Arkaig. He hooked something heavy, which came slowly to hand,
with no resistance but that of weight. 'You have caught one of the
Prince's money bags,' said the boatman, when suddenly the reel
shrieked, and a large salmo ferox sped out into the loch. My friend
landed him; he weighed fifteen pounds, and that is the latest news of
Prince Charles's gold!
CHAPTER IX--DE PROFUNDIS
Charles fears for his own safety--Earl Marischal's advice--Letter
from Goring--Charles's danger--Charles at Coblentz--His changes of
abode--Information from Pickle--Charles as a friar--Pickle sends to
England Lochgarry's memorial--Scottish advice to Charles--List of
loyal clans--Pickle on Frederick--On English adherents--'They drink
very hard'--Pickle declines to admit arms--Frederick receives Jemmy
Dawkins--His threats against England--Albemarle on Dawkins--Dawkins
an archaeologist--Explores Palmyra--Charles at feud with Miss
Walkinshaw--Goring's Illness--A mark to be put on Charles's daughter-
-Charles's objets d'art--Sells his pistols.
The ill news of Archy Cameron's arrest (March 20, 1753) soon reached
Charles. On April 15 he wrote to 'Mr. Giffard' (the Earl Marischal)
in Paris. He obviously feared that the intelligence which led to
Cameron's capture might throw light on his own place of residence.
His friends, at least, believed that if he were discovered his life
would be in danger. He says:
To Mr. Giffard (Earl Marischal), from P.
'April 13, 1763.
'I am extremely unnesi by the accident that has hapened to a Certain
person. you Now [know] how much I was against people in that Service.
{208} My antipathi, iff possible, increses every day, which makes me
absolutely determined whatever hapens never to aproch their Country,
or have to do with anibody that comes with them. I have been on ye
point of leaving this place,--but thought it better to differ it
untill I here from you. My entention was to go to Francfor Sur Main
and from thence to Bal in Swise, but without ever trespassing in ye
F. Dominions, be pleased to send back by M. Dumon yr opinion of what
Town in ye Queen of H. D. [Hungary's dominions] [Maria Theresa] would
be ye best for me to go to.--would not D's Cuntry House be good:
perhaps I may get it for six months . . .
'JOHN DOUGLAS.'
On April 29, misled it seems by a misapprehension of Lord Marischal's
meaning, Charles had moved to Cologne, and notified the fact to Stouf
(Goring). Goring replied:
From Stouf.
'Paris: May 8, 1753.
'The message delivered to you by Mr. Cambell has been falsely
represented to you, or not rightly understood; the noble person Mr.
Cambell mentions to have sent you a positive message to leave Gand
and retire to Cologne, denies to have sent you any positive message
at all on that account. He was indeed very anxious for your safety,
and of opinion that since the taking of Mr. Cameron your person ran
an inevitable danger, if you staid where you then were, and gave as
his opinion only, that the dominions of the Elector of Cologne and
the Palatinate appeared to be the safest, by reason of those princes
being in interests opposite to the Court of Hanover, but was very far
from saying you would be safe there, or indeed anywhere. How is it
possible a man of his sense could think, much less a prince like you,
who have so many powerfull enemies, that any place could guard you
from them? No sir, he is of opinion that nothing can save your life
but by yr taking just measures and prudent precautions to hyde
yourself from them.
'These are the sentiments of the noble person you mention in yours of
the 29th. whose name I do not put on paper, he having desired me
never to do it till he gave me leave. He told me further that it
would be more for your interest he should not know as yet where you
were; and bid me advise you to have a care how you walked out of town
near the Rhine, for in your taking such walks it would be easy for
five or six men to seise your person and put you in a boat, and Carry
you to Holland who have territories but one quarter of an hour
distant from ye town. . . . '
The Elibank game can be played by two or more, and princes have been
kidnapped in our own day. The Earl Marischal thought Charles's life
in danger from the English.
On May 5, young Edgar noted the safe return of Lochgarry from
Scotland. Charles went to Coblentz, but was anxious to return to
Ghent. In June he tried Frankfort-on-the-Maine: his letters to 'La
Grandemain' show him in correspondence with M. St. Germain, whether
the General or the famous 'deathless charlatan' does not appear. In
July he took a house in Liege. He asks Dormer for newspapers: 'I am
a sedentary man: ye gazetes is en amusement to me.' On August 12 he
desires an interview 'with G' (Glengarry), and here is Pickle's
account of the interview:
'Before Pickle set out for France he writt to Loch Gairy, now Lieut.
Col. of Lord Ogleby's Regiment in Garrison at Air, to meet him at
Calais. Upon Pickle's arrivall at Calais, he met Loch Gairy there,
and it was agreed between them that Loch Gairy should next morning
set out to notify Pickle's arrivall to the Young Pretender, and that
Pickle should move forward to see Sir James Harrington at Simer [?]
near Bulloighn, and from thence to come to Ternan in about a week to
meet Loch Gairy. Soon after Pickle arrived at Ternan, Loch Gairy
came to him, and told him the youth [Prince Charles] would be there
next morning, and he came accordingly without any servant, having
with him only a French Gentleman, who has serv'd in the Army, but has
of late travell'd about with the Young Pretender; Loch Gairy left
them at Ternan and set out for Air. Soon after, the YOUNG PRETENDER,
THE FRENCH GENTLEMAN, AND PICKLE SET OUT FOR PARIS, the Young
Pretender being disguis'd with a Capouch. The Young Pretender shew'd
Pickle Loch Gairy's report of his late Expedition with Dr. Cameron to
Scotland, and also the List hereunto annex'd of the numbers of the
disaffected Clans that Doctor Cameron and he had engaged in the
Highlands, and also an Extract of a memorial or Scheme sent over to
the Pretender from some of his friends in England. The Pretender
seem'd fond of Loch Gairy's paper; [he said] that he had been of late
hunted from place to place all over Flanders by a Jew sent out of
England to watch him. The Pretender talked very freely with Pickle
of affairs, but did not seem to like the Scheme sent him out of
England about the Parliament, that it would be very expensive, and
that he expected no good from the Parliament; that Loch Gairy was
trusted by him with most of his motions, and how to send to him; that
he has been a Rambling from one place to another about Flanders,
generally from near Brussells towards Sens, and on the Borders of
France down towards Air, except some small excursions he made; once
he went to Hamburgh. He told Pickle that another rising in Scotland
would not do untill a war broke out in the North, in that case he
expected great things from Sweden would be done for him, by giving
him Men, Arms and Ammunition: when Pickle talk'd to him of the King
of Prussia, he said he expected nothing thence, as the King of
Prussia is govern'd by his interest or resentment only--That he had
sent Mr. Goring to Sweden, where he had found he had many friends--
That Goring had also been at Berlin to propose a Match for the Young
Pretender, with the King of Prussia's Sister, and that he had since
sent for Sir John Graham to Berlin to make the same proposals, that
they were both answer'd very civilly, that it was not a proper time,
but they had no encouragement to speak further upon the Subject--The
Pretender said that he beleiv'd he had many friends in England, but
that he had no fighting friends; the best service his friends in
England could do him at present was to supply him with money--The
night they arriv'd at Paris, the Pretender went to a Bagnio--Pickle
thinks it is call'd Gains' Bagno, and from thence to Sir John
Graeme's House, as Pickle believes, but where he went, or how long he
staid at Paris, he does not know. The Pretender said he should now
get quit of the Jew, as he intended going to Lorain; he ask'd Pickle
if he would go with him. Pickle says that Sir John Graeme, Sir James
Harrington, and Goring, and Loch Gairy are the Pretender's chief
Confidents and Agents, and know of his motions from place to place;
that Goring is now ill, having been lately cut for a Fistula. Pickle
kept himself as private as he could at Paris, went no where but to
Lord Marshall's, and once to wait upon Madame Pier Cour, Monsr.
D'Argenson's Mistress, who offer'd to recommend him to Monsr.
D'Argenson if he inclin'd to return to the French Service. {213}
Pickle believes Monsr. D'Argenson and Monsr. Paris Mont Martell are
the Pretenders chiefest friends at the Court of France; HE SAYS THAT
MRS. WALKINGSHAW IS NOW AT PARIS BIG WITH CHILD, that the Pretender
keeps her well, and seems to be very fond of her--He told Pickle that
he hath seen the Paper that was in Lord Marshall's hands, No. 2;
which Lord Marshall return'd to Sir John Graeme, declaring that he
would not meddle whatever his Brother [Marshal Keith] might do, that
Lord Marshall would receive no papers from little people. Pickle
believes that the paper was given to Lord Marshall by Mr. Swimmer, or
a Knight that has lately been abroad, who is now in Parliament--
Pickle has been told that the Pension lately given to the Cardinal
out of the Abbey of St. Aman, 'twas for the Young Pretender's behoof,
and that Mr. O'brien, commonly call'd Lord Lismore, and Mr. Edgar,
are the chief people about the Old Pretender at Rome--Pickle says
that all the disaffected people that come over from France call upon
Sir James Harrington near Bulloign, but the Young Pretender has a
Correspondence with England, by means of one Dormer, a Merchant at
Antwerp, who Pickle believes is Brother to a Lord Dormer.'
Pickle, of course, forwarded to the English Government a copy of
Lochgarry's report and list of clans. These follow.
'Partly extracted from Loch Gairy's Memorial to the Pretender after
his return from Scotland, 1749 or 1750.
'It is the greatest consequence to your R.H. not to delay much longer
making at attempt in Scotland. Otherwise it will be hardly possible
to bring the Clans to any head, it would be no difficult matter at
this instant to engage them once more to draw their swords.
'Because, besides their natural attachment to Your R.H. there is,
most undoubtedly such a spirit of revenge still subsisting amongst
the Clans who suffer'd, and such a general discontent amongst the
others who have been scandalously slighted by the Government, that if
made a right use of, before it extinguishes, must unavoidably produce
great and good effects.
'In the present situation of your R.H. it is evident that the most
simple scheme, and that in which the whole plan is seen at once is
most proper for your R.H. to take in hand. It is without doubt that
London would be the most proper place for the first scene of action,
because it is the Fountain and Source of power, riches and influence.
But the eye of the Government is so watchfull at the Fountain head
that one can't easily comprehend, what they [the Jacobites] can be
able to shew against six thousand of the best Troops in Britain which
can be brought together against them upon the first alarm. That
England will do nothing, or rather can do nothing without a foreign
Force, or an appearance in Scotland, such as was in 45. In either of
these cases there is all the reason to believe that England would do
wonders. But am afraid its impossible for your R.H. to procure any
Foreign assistance in the present situation of Europe, therefore the
following Proposals are most humbly submitted to your R.H.
'That your R.H. emply such persons as will be judg'd most proper to
negotiate a sum of money at Paris, London and Madrid, which is very
practicable to be accomplish'd by known and skilfull persons, the sum
may be suppos'd to be 200,000l., to be directly remitted to one
centrical place (suppose Paris), this money to be lodg'd in the hands
of Mons. De Montmartell, who can easily remitt any sum as demanded to
any trading town in Europe. Sufficient quantity of Arms, Ammunition,
etc. to be purchas'd, which can be done in some of the Hans Towns in
the North, which can be done without giving any umbrage, supposing
them bought for some Plantation, which is, now a common Transaction,
especially in these Towns.
'Two stout ships to be purchas'd which is so common a transaction in
Trade, more so now than ever, so much that I am told it might even be
done at London, the Ships is absolutely necessary to batter down the
small Forts on the Western Coast of the Highlands, which your R.H.
knows greatly annoy'd us in 45, and prevented several Clans joining
with their whole strength. When every thing is ready, your R.H. to
pitch upon a competent number of choice Officers, of whom there are
plenty, both in France, Holland, Germany and Spain, all Scots, or of
Scots extraction, eminent for their loyalty and military capacity.
Your R.H. to land where you landed before, or rather in Lochanuie.
Your R.H. will have an army by the management and influence of
yourself, and by their Concertion already agreed upon with me before
you are twenty days landed, of at least six thousand Men, and there
is actually but six Batallions of Foot, and two Regiments of Dragoons
in Scotland, and your R.H. can have 2,000 good men ere you are eight
and forty hours landed.
'If the enemy take the field they will make but a feint resistance
against such a resolute determined set of men. Your R.H. has all
advantages over the regular Troops in Scotland, you can always attack
them and force them to Battle without ever being forct but when its
judg'd advantageous--this is certain you can move your Army across
the Country in three or four days, which will take the regular Troops
as many weeks. You can make them starve and rot with cold and
fluxes, and make them dwindle away to nothing if they were triple
your Number, and without striking a stroak, if we take the advantage
the Countrey and Climate affords--the renown'd King Robert Bruce, Sir
William Wallace, and the late Marquis of Montrose, of which your R.H.
is a perfect model, made always use of this advantage with infallible
success against their Enemys.
'It is a truth not disputed by any who knows the nature of the
affair, that if your R.H. had oblig'd the regular forces in Scotland
in 1746 to make one other Winter Campain without giving then battle
(than which nothing was more easy) two thirds of them at least had
been destroyed, whilst ten such Campains would have only more and
more invigorated our R.H.'s Army. If this project be not long
delayed, and that your R.H. persists in putting it into Execution,
you will in all human probability drive your Enemys before you like a
parcel of Sheep.'
There follows:
'A LIST OF THE CLANS GIVEN BY LOCH GAIRY TO THE PRETENDER IN
CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR AGREEMENT WITH HIM.
'Your R.H. arriving with money, Arms, and a few choice Officers, will
find the following Clans ready to join, this Computation of them
being very moderate, and most of them have been always ready to join
the R. Strd under the most palpable disadvantages.
'The Mackdonells, as matters stand at present, by Young G---
[Glengarry's] concurrence only . . . . . . 2,600
By G--- Interest the Bearer [Lochgarry] can answer for the Mackleans
at least . . . . . . . . 700
There is little doubt but the Mackkenzies would all join G--- as
related to the most considerable Gentlemen of this Clan, and the
Bearer can answer for at least . . . . 900
The Bearer having sounded several Gentlemen of the name of MacLeod
over whom G--- as being nearly connected has great influence, the
Bearer can answer for at least . . . 450
The Bearer answers for the MackInnans, MackLeods of Rasa--at least .
. . . . 300
The Bearer answers for the Chisolms . . . 200
The Bearer answers for the Robertsons . . . 250
Camerons . . . 500
Stuart of Alpin . . . 250
McNeals of Barra . . . 150
MackPhersons . . . 350
McIntoshes . . . 350
Frazers . . . 400
MackGregors . . . 200
Athol men, at least . . . 500
Out of Brodulbin . . . . 300
Duke of Gordon's Interest Glenlivat and Strathdon, at least . . . 500
M'Dugalls, McNobbs and McLouchlins . . . 250
The Bearer has tamper'd with the Grants, and if properly managed, at
least . . . 500
Good men . . . . 9,660
'Besides the great Dependance on the Low Countreys and of other Clans
that in all probability will join your R.H. the above mentioned Clans
have not lost a thousand men during the transactions of 45 and 46,
and by consequence are most certainly as numerous as they were then,
and for the reasons already given they are readier and more capable
for action at present than they were in 45. One reason in particular
is worth your R.H.'s Observation, that since the end of the late War
there has been by an exact Computation, between six and seven
thousand men reform'd out of the British and Dutch Service, most of
whom were of the Loyal Clans, and are now at home.'
We have provisionally dated this communication of Pickle's in August
or September, when Charles wished to see 'G.' A date is given by the
reference to Miss Walkinshaw's condition. Her child, born in Paris,
was baptized at Liege in October 1753. So far, according to Pickle,
Charles seemed 'very fond of her.' This did not last.
It may be observed that Lochgarry's Memorial shows how great was the
influence of Young Glengarry. Nearly 5,000 men await his word. And
Young Glengarry, as Pickle, was sending the Memorial to Henry Pelham!
On his return to London, Pickle gave the following information, in
part a repetition of what he had already stated:
' . . . Pickle, since he has been in England, generally heard of the
Young Pretender by Lochgary who requested him by directions from the
Young Pretender, to make the last trip that he went upon to France,
the intent of which was to communicate to Pickle the scheme that he
[Lochgarry] and Dr. Cameron had concerted in the Highlands, and to
offer him some arms to be landed at different times upon any part of
his estate that he should appoint, but which Pickle absolutely
refus'd to consent to, as he might be ruind by a discovery, and which
could hardly be avoided, as the country was so full of Troops, and
NOBODY AS YET KNOWING IN WHAT MANNER THE FORFEITED ESTATES WOULD BE
SETTLED;--Pickle believes that some friends of P. Charles of Lorraine
in Hainault, often harbour the Young Pretender, and favor him in his
rambles;--that at the Court of France, Monsr. D'Argenson {219} is his
chief friend in the Ministry, that Monsr. Puysieux was his enemy, as
was also Monsr. St. Contest, who is a creature of Puysieux. Pickle
looks upon the Duke of Richlieu, and all that are related to the
family of Lorraine, to be friends of the Pretender's that Monsr.
Paris Montmartell is the Pretender's great friend, and told Pickle he
would contrive to raise 200,000l. for his Service, upon a proper
occasion. Pickle was told by the Pretender himself, that Madame
Pompadour was not his friend, for that she had been gaind over by
considerable sums of money from England, and had taken offence at
him, for his slighting two Billetts that had been sent by her to him,
which he had done for fear of giving umbrage to the Queen of France
and her relations; as to the French King, Pickle has had no
opportunity of knowing much of his disposition, but does not look
upon him as a well wisher to the Pretender's Cause, unless it be at
any time to serve his own purpose.
'As to the King of Prussia, Pickle can say but little about him,
having never been employd in that Quarter, and knows no more than
what he has been told by the Young Pretender, which was, that he had
sent Collonel Goring to Berlin to ask the K. of Prussia's Sister in
marriage; that Goring had been received very cooly, and had had no
favourable answer; that he afterwards had sent Sir John Graeme, whose
reception was better, and that he soon went himself to Berlin, where
he was well received, but the affair of the marriage was declin'd.
That the K. of Prussia advised him to withdraw himself privately from
Berlin, and retire to Silesia, and to keep himself conceal'd for some
time, in some Convent there. That the K. of Prussia told the
Pretender he would assist him in procuring him six thousand Swedes
from Gottenburgh, with the Collusion of the Court of France, but
Pickle understood that this was to take place in the Event only of a
War breaking out.
'Pickle since his return to England, has been but once at a Club in
the City, where they drink very hard, but at which, upon account of
the expence, HE CANNOT BE AS FREQUENTLY AS HE WOULD WISH TO BE, nor
can he afford to keep company with people of condition at this end of
the Town. The Jacobites in England don't choose to communicate any
of their schemes to any of the Irish or Scots, from the latter of
whom all that they desire, is a rising upon a proper occasion;--That
he does not personally know much of the heads of the Party in
England--only as he has seen lists of their names in the Pretender's
and Ld. Marishall's hands;--such as he knows of them would certainly
introduce him to others were he in a condition of defraying the
expence that this would be attended with, which he is not, being
already endebted to several people in this Town and has hitherto had
no more than his bare expences of going backwards and forwards for
these three years past . . . '
It is needless to say that this piece deepens the evidence connecting
Pickle with Glengarry. Poor James Mohr had no estates and no
seaboard whereon to land arms. At the close of the letter, in autumn
1753, Pickle speaks of his three years' service. He had, therefore,
been a spy since 1750, when he was in Rome. Now James Mohr, off and
on, had been a spy since 1745, at least.
We may now pursue the course of intrigues with Prussia. Frederick,
on June 6, 1753, the day before Cameron's execution, wrote to the
Earl Marischal. He wished that Jemmy Dawkins's affair was better
organised. But, 'in my present situation with the King of England,
and considering his action against me, it would be for the good of my
service that you should secretly aid by your good advice these
people' (the Dawkins conspirators). {222a} So the Cham of Tartary
DOES interfere in the Bangorian Controversy, despite Mr. Carlyle! It
is easy to imagine how this cautious encouragement, sous main, would
be exaggerated in the inflamed hopes of exiles. The Earl Marischal
had in fact despatched Dawkins to Berlin on May 7, not letting him
know that Frederick had consented to his coming. {222b} Dawkins was
to communicate his ideas to Marshal Keith. The Earl did not believe
in a scheme proposed by Dawkins, and was convinced that foreign
assistance was necessary. This could only come from Prussia, Sweden,
France, or Spain. Prussia has no ships, but few are needed, and
merchant vessels could be obtained. The Earl would advise no
Prussian movement without the concurrence of France. But France is
unlikely to assent, and Sweden is divided by party hatreds. He
doubts if France was ever well disposed to the House of Stuart. The
Spanish have got the ships and got the men, but are hampered by
engagements with Austria and Savoy.
Frederick saw Dawkins at Berlin, but did not think his plans well
organised. He preferred, in fact, to await events, and to keep up
Jacobite hopes by vague encouragement. On June 16, 1753, Frederick
writes to his agent, Michell, in London. He does not believe that
England will go to war with him for a matter of 150,000 crowns,
'which they refuse to pay to my subjects,' on account of captures
made by English privateers. But, 'though the English King can do me
much harm, I CAN PAY HIM BACK BY MEANS WHICH PERHAPS HE KNOWS NOTHING
OF AND DOES NOT YET BELIEVE IN . . . I command you to button
yourself up on this head' (de vous tenir tout boutonne), 'because
these people must not see my cards, nor know what, in certain events,
I am determined to do.' {223} He was determined to use the Jacobites
if he broke with England. On August 25, 1753, Frederick wrote to
Klinggraeffen, at Vienna, that the English Ministry was now of milder
mood, but in September relations were perilous again. On July 4,
1753, the Earl told Marshal Keith that a warrant was out against
Dawkins. {224a} In fact, to anticipate dates a little, the English
Government knew a good deal about Jemmy Dawkins, the explorer of
Palmyra, and envoy to His Prussian Majesty. Albemarle writes from
Paris to Lord Holdernesse (December 12, 1753): {224b}
'As yet my suspicions of an underhand favourer of their cause being
come from England, and addressing himself to the late Lord Marshall,
can only fall on one person, and that is Mr. Dawkins, who has a
considerable property in one of our settlements in the West Indies.
This is the gentleman who travelled in Syria with Mr. Bouverie (since
dead) and Mr. Wood, who is now with the Duke of Bridgewater, and who
are publishing an account of their view of the Antiquities of
Palmeyra. Mr. Dawkins came from England to Paris early the last
spring (1753), and was almost constantly with the late Lord Marshall.
He used sometimes to come to my house too. In May he obtained a pass
from this Court to go to Berlin, by the late Lord Marshall's means,
as I have the greatest reason to believe, for he never applied to me
to ask for any such, nor ever mentioned to me his intention of taking
that journey, and by a mistake, Monsr. de St. Contest put that pass
into my hands, as it was for an Englishman, which I have kept, and
send it enclosed to your Lordship. But whether Mr. Dawkins never
knew that it had been delivered to me, or was ashamed to ask it of
me, as it had not been obtained through my Channell, or was afraid of
my questioning him about it, or about his journey, I cannot say;
however he went away without it, not long after its date, which is
the 2d. of May. And he returned from thence to Compiegne, the latter
end of July, which was a few days before the Court left that place.
'Since that he went to England, where, I believe, he now is, having
had the Superintendency of the Publication of the work above
mentioned [on Palmyra]. Mr. Dawkins, as well as his Uncle, who lives
in Oxfordshire [near Chipping Norton], is warmly attached to the
Pretender's interest, which with the circumstances I have related of
him, which agree with most of those hinted at in Your Lordship's
letter, particularly as to times, are very plausible grounds of my
mistrusts of him. I shall make the strictest inquiries concerning
him, as he is the only person of note, either British or Irish, who
to my knowledge came here from England about the time your Lordship
mentions--who frequented assiduously the late Lord Marshall
[attainted, but alive!] who passed from thence to Berlin--and in
short whose declared principles in the Jacobite Cause, and whose
abilities, made him capable of the commission he may be supposed to
be engaged in.
'I shall not be less attentive to get all the intelligence I can, of
any other person under this description, who may at any time,
frequent the late Lord Marshall, and to give Your Lordship an exact
account of what shall come to my knowledge. If, on Your Lordship's
part, you could come at any further discovery concerning Mr. Dawkins,
I hope you will inform me of so much of it as may be of any service
to me in my inquiries. The extreme caution and prudence with which,
Your Lordship informs me, the late Lord Marshall conducts himself,
for fear of risking the secret, will, I apprehend, make it impossible
for me to penetrate into the instruction he may be charged with, in
this respect, from his master, or how far he is intrusted with His
Prussian Majesty's intentions. I have not the least doubt of the
late Lord Marshall's being in correspondence with the Pretender's
elder Son, who was lately (as I was informed some time after he left
it) at the Abbaye of S. Amand, not far from Lisle, which is most
convenient for him, his brother, the Cardinal, being, as I am
assured, Abbot of that Monastery. As for the lady described under
the character of la bonne amie de Monsieur de Cambrai, that is Mrs.
Obrian, whose husband is, by the Pretender's favour, the mock Earl of
Lismore, a follower of his fortunes, and supposed to have a
considerable share in his confidence.'
From the Same.
'Paris: Tuesday, December 18, 1753.
' . . . I must take this opportunity to rectify a small mistake in my
last letter, relating to the Abbaye of St. Amand, of which I had been
informed that the Pretender's younger Son, the Cardinal, was Abbot.
It is the Abbaye of Aucline of which he is Commendatory, and which is
at much about the same distance from Lille as the other. It is the
more probable that the Pretender's Elder Son was there last autumn,
as he might take that opportunity of seeing the Princess of Rohan [a
relation of the Prince of Soubise], an ancient flame of his who went
to Lille at the time of the encampment in Flanders, under that
Prince's command.'
Apparently the warrant against Jemmy Dawkins was not executed. We
shall meet him again. Meanwhile there were comings and goings
between Goring and the Earl Marischal in July 1753. In September,
Goring was ill, and one Beson was the Prince's messenger (July 2,
September 5, 1753). On September 5, Charles made a memorandum for
Beson's message to the Earl Marischal. 'I will neither leave this
place, nor quit ye L. [the lady, Miss Walkinshaw]. I will not trust
myself to any K. or P. I will never go to Paris, nor any of the
French dominions.' The rest is confused, ill-spelled jottings about
money, which Beson had failed to procure in London. {227} On
September 12; Charles scrawls a despairing kind of note to Goring.
He writes another, underscored, dismissing his Avignon household,
that is, 'my Papist servants!' 'My mistress has behaved so
unworthily that she has put me out of patience, and as she is a
Papist too, I discard her also! . . . Daniel is charged to conduct
her to Paris.'
This was on November 12. On October 29, Miss Walkinshaw's child,
Charlotte, had been baptized at Liege. Charles's condition was evil.
He knew he was being tracked, he knew not by whom. Hope deferred, as
to Prussia, made his heart sick. Moreover, on August 19, 1752,
Goring had written from Paris that he was paralysed on one side
(Pickle says that his malady was a fistula). Goring expressed
anxiety as to Charles's treatment of an invalided servant. 'You
should know by what I have often expressed to you [Charles answered
on November 3] that iff I had but one Lofe of Bred, I would share it
with you. The little money that I have deposed on my good friend's
hands you know was at your orders, and you would have been much in ye
rong to have let yourself ever want in ye least.'
Again, on November 12, he writes to Goring:
To Mr. Stouf.
'November 12.
'I am extremely concerned for yr health, and you cannot do me a
greater Cervice than in taking care of yrself for I am not able to
spare any of my true friends.'
Dr. King, as we have said, accuses Charles of AVARICE. Charles II.,
in exile, would not, he says, have left a friend in want. Though
distressed for money, the Prince does not display a niggardly temper
in these letters to Goring. He had to defray the expenses of many
retainers; he intended to dismiss his Popish servants, his household
at Avignon, and to part with Dumont. We shall read Goring's
remonstrances. But the affair of Daniel's 'close' proves how hardly
Charles was pressed. On December 16, 1752, he indulged in a few
books, including Wood and Dawkins's 'Ruins of Palmyra,' a stately
folio. One extraordinary note he made at this time: 'A marque to be
put on ye Child, iff i part with it.' The future 'Bonny Lass of
Albanie' was to be marked, like a kelt returned to the river in
spring. 'I am pushed to ye last point, and so won't be cagioled any
more.' He collected his treasures left with Mittie, the surgeon of
Stanislas at Luneville. Among these was a couteau de chasse, with a
double-barrelled pistol in a handle of jade. D'Argenson reports that
the Prince was seen selling his pistols to an armourer in Paris. Who
can wonder if he lost temper, and sought easy oblivion in wine!
CHAPTER X--JAMES MOHR MACGREGOR
Another spy--Rob Roy's son, James Mohr Macgregor--A spy in 1745--At
Prestonpans and Culloden--Escape from Edinburgh Castle--Billy
Marshall--Visit to Ireland--Balhaldie reports James's discovery of
Irish Macgregors--Their loyalty--James Mohr and Lord Albemarle--James
Mohr offers to sell himself--And to betray Alan Breck--His sense of
honour--His long-winded report on Irish conspiracy--Balhaldie--Mrs.
Macfarlane who shot the Captain--Her romance--Pitfirrane Papers--
Balhaldie's snuff-boxes--James Mohr's confessions--Balhaldie and
Charles--Irish invasion--Arms in Moidart--Arms at the house of Tough-
-Pickle to play the spy in Ireland--Accompanied by a 'Court Trusty'--
Letter from Pickle--Alan Breck spoils James Mohr--Takes his snuff-
boxes--Death of James Mohr--Yet another spy--His wild information--
Confirmation of Charles's visit to Ireland.
From the deliberate and rejoicing devilry of Glengarry, and from
Charles's increasing distress and degradation, it is almost a relief
to pass for a moment to the harmless mendacity of a contemporary spy,
Rob Roy's son, James Mohr Macgregor, or Drummond. This highland
gentleman, with his courage, his sentiment, and his ingrained
falseness, is known to the readers of Mr. Stevenson's 'Catriona.'
Though unacquainted with the documents which we shall cite, Mr.
Stevenson divined James Mohr with the assured certainty of genius.
From first to last James was a valiant, plausible, conscienceless,
heartless liar, with a keen feeling for the point of honour, and a
truly Celtic passion of affection for his native hand.
As early at least as the spring of 1745, James Mohr, while posing as
a Jacobite, was in relations with the law officers of the Crown in
Scotland. {231a} James's desire then was to obtain a commission in a
Highland regiment, and as much ready money as possible. Either he
was dissatisfied with his pay as a spy, or he expected better things
from the Jacobites, for, after arranging his evidence to suit his
schemes, he took up arms for the Prince. He captured with a handful
of men the fortress of Inversnaid; he fell, severely wounded, at
Prestonpans, and called out, as he lay on the ground, 'My lads, I am
not dead! By God! I shall see if any of you does not do his duty.'
Though he fought at Culloden, James appears to have patched up a
peace with the Government, and probably eked out a livelihood by
cattle-stealing and spying, till, on December 8, 1750, he helped his
brother Robin to abduct a young widow of some property. {231b} Soon
after he was arrested, tried, and lodged, first in the Tolbooth,
next, for more security, in Edinburgh Castle.
On November 16, 1752, James, by aid of his daughter (Mr. Stevenson's
Catriona), escaped from the Castle disguised as a cobbler. {232a} It
has often been said that the Government connived at James's escape.
If so, they acted rather meanly in sentencing 'two lieutenants' of
his guard 'to be broke, the sergeant reduced to a private man, and
the porter to be whipped.' {232b}
The adventures of James after his escape are narrated by a writer in
'Blackwood's Magazine' for December 1817. This writer was probably a
Macgregor, and possessed some of James's familiar epistles.
Overcoming a fond desire to see once more his native hills and his
dear ones (fourteen in all), James, on leaving Edinburgh Castle, bent
his course towards the Border. In a dark night, on a Cumberland
moor, he met the famed Billy Marshall, the gipsy. Mr. Marshall,
apologising for the poverty of his temporary abode, remarked that he
would be better housed 'when some ill-will which he had got in
Galloway for setting fire to a stackyard would blow over.' Three
days later Billy despatched James in a fishing boat from Whitehaven,
whence he reached the Isle of Man. He then made for Ireland, and my
next information about James occurs in a letter of Balhaldie, dated
August 10, 1753, to the King over the Water. {232c} Balhaldie's
letter to Rome, partly in cypher, runs thus, and is creditable to
James's invention:
'James Drummond Macgregor, Rob Roy's son, came here some days agoe,
and informed me that, having made his escape from Scotland by
Ireland, he was addressed to some namesakes of his there, who
acquainted him that the clan Macgregor were very numerous in that
country, under different names, the greatest bodies of them living
together in little towns and villages opposite to the Scottish
coast.' They had left Scotland some one hundred and fifty years
before, when their clan was proscribed. James 'never saw men more
zealously loyal and clanish, better looked, or seemingly more
intrepid and hardy. . . . No Macgregors in the Scotch highlands are
more willing or ready to joyn their clan in your Majesty's service
than they were, and for that end to transport 3,000 of their name and
followers to the coast of Argileshyre.' They will only require
twenty-four hours 'to transport themselves in whirries of their own,
even in face of the enemy's fleet, of which they are not affrayed.'
The King, in answer (September 11, 1753), expressed a tempered
pleasure in Mr. Macgregor's information, which, he said, might
interest the Prince. On September 6, 1753, Lord Strathallan, writing
to Edgar from Boulogne, vouches only for James's courage. 'As to
anything else, I would be sorry to answer for him, as he had but an
indifferent character as to real honesty.' On September 20, James
Mohr, in Paris, wrote to the Prince, anxious to know where he was,
and to communicate important news from Ireland. Probably James got
no reply, for on October 18, 1753, Lord Holdernesse wrote from
Whitehall to Lord Albemarle, English ambassador in Paris, a letter
marked 'Very secret,' acknowledging a note of Lord Albemarle's. Mr.
Macgregor had visited Lord Albemarle on October 8th and 10th, with
offers of information. Lord Holdernesse, therefore, sends a safe-
conduct for Macgregor's return. {234} We now give Macgregor's letter
of October 12, 1733, to Lord Albemarle, setting forth his sad case
and honourably patriotic designs:
MS. Add. 32,733.
'Paris: October 12, 1753. Mr. James Drummond.
'My Lord,--Tho' I have not the Honour to be much acquainted with Your
Lordship, I presume to give you the trouble of this to acquaint your
lordship that by a false Information I was taken prisoner in Scotland
in November 1751 and by the speat [spite] that a certain Faction in
Dundas, Scotland, had at me, was trayd by the Justiciary Court at
Edinburgh, when I had brought plenty of exculpation which might free
any person whatever of what was alledged against me, yet such a Jurie
as at Dundas was given me, thought proper to give in a special
verdict, finding some parts of the Layable [libel] proven, and in
other parts found it not proven. It was thought by my friends that I
would undergo the Sentence of Banishment, which made me make my
escape from Edinburgh Castle in Novr. 1752, and since was forced to
come to France for my safety. I ALWAYS HAD IN MY VEW IF POSSABLE TO
BE CONCERNED IN GOVERNMENT'S SERVICE, {235} and, FOR THAT PURPOSE,
thought it necessar ever since I came to France to be as much as
possable in company with the Pretender's friends, so far as now I
think I can be one useful Subject to my King and Country, upon giving
me PROPER INCOURAGEMENT.
'In the first place I think its in my power to bring Allan Breack
Stewart, the suposd murdrer of Colin Campbell of Glenouir, late
factor of the forfet Estate of Ardsheal, to England and to deliver
him in safe custody so as he may be brought to justice, and in that
event, I think the delivering of the said murderer merits the getting
of a Remission from his Majesty the King, especially as I was not
guilty of any acts of treason since the Year 1746, and providing your
lordship procures my Remission upon delivering the said murderer, I
hereby promise to discover a very grand plott on footing against the
Government, which is more effectually carried on than any ever since
the Family of Stewart was put off the Throne of Britain, and besides
to do all the services that lays in my power to the Government.
'Only with this provision, that I shall be received into the
Government's Service, and that I shall have such reward as my Service
shall meritt, I am willing, if your lordship shall think it
agreeable, to go to England privily and carry the murderer [Allan
Breck] alongest with me, and deliver him at Dover to the Military,
and after waite on such of the King's friends as your lordship shall
appoint. If your lordship think this agreeable, I should wish
General Campbell would be one of those present as he knows me and my
family, and besides that, I think to have some Credit with the
General, which I cannot expect with those whom I never had the Honour
to know. Either the General or Lieutt. Colln. John Crawford of
Poulteney's Regiment would be very agreeable to me, as I know both of
these would trust me much, and at the same time, I could be more free
to them than to any others there. Your lordship may depend [on] the
motive that induces me to make this Offer at present to you, in the
Government's name, is both honourable and just, {236} so that I hope
no other constructions will be put on it, and for your lordship's
further satisfaction, I say nothing in this letter, but what I am
determined to perform, and as much more as in my power layes with
that, and that all I have said is Trueth, and I shall answer to God.
'JAS. DRUMMOND.'
James was sent over to England, and we now offer the results of his
examination in London, on November 6, 1753. The following document
deals with the earlier part of Mr. Macgregor's appalling revelations,
and describes his own conduct on landing in France, after a tour in
the Isle of Man and Ireland, in December 1752. That he communicated
his Irish mare's nest to Charles, as he says he did, is very
improbable. Like Sir Francis Clavering, as described by the
Chevalier Strong, James Mohr 'would rather he than not.' However, he
certainly gave a version of his legend to the Old Chevalier in Rome.
Extract of the Examination of Mr. James Drummond.
'That about the 8th. of May following (vizt. May 1753) He (Mr. D.)
did set out for France, and arrived at Boulogne on the 16th. where He
met with Lord Strathalane, and as He (Mr. D.) was asking after the
Young Pretender, His Lordship told Him that He had seen a letter from
Him (the Young Pretender) lately to Sir James Harrington, at which
time he (the Young Pretender), was lodged at an Abbe's House, about a
League and Half from Lisle, whereupon He (Mr. D.) communicated to his
Lordship, in the presence of Capt. Wm. Drummond, and Mr. Charles
Boyde, the Commission, with which He was charged. That thereupon His
Lordship undertook to wait upon the Young Pretender with the Irish
Proposal, and advised Him (Mr. D.) to go and stay at Bergue, till He
(Lord Strathalane) came to Him there. That on the 20th. June
following, His Lordship wrote Him (Mr. D.) a Letter (which is
hereunto annexed) to this effect--"That he (Lord Strathalane) had
laid Mr. Savage's Proposal before the Young Pretender, who desired,
that he, (Mr. D.) would repair to Paris, and that He had sent Him
(Mr. D.) a Bill upon Mr. Waters (the Banker) to pay His charges.
{238} That He (Mr. D.) did accordingly go to Paris, and that upon
His arrival there, He first waited upon Mr. Gordon, Principal of the
Scot's College, but that nothing particular passed there. (N.B.
There is not one word, in any of Mr. Drummond's papers, of His [the
Prince's] intending to go to Berlin.) (Official Note.)'
Nobody, of course, can believe a word that James Mohr ever said, but
his disclosures, in the following full report of his examination,
could only have been made by a person pretty deep in Jacobite plans.
For example, Balhaldie, chief of the Macgregors, did really live at
Bievre, as James Mohr says. There was in Edinburgh at this time a
certain John Macfarlane, w.s., whose pretty wife, in 1716, shot dead
an English captain, nobody ever knew why. She fled to the Swintons
of Swinton, who concealed her in their house. One day Sir Walter
Scott's aunt Margaret, then a child of eight, residing at Swinton,
stayed at home when the family went to church. Peeping into a
forbidden parlour she saw there a lovely lady, who fondled her, bade
her speak only to her mother, and vanished while the little girl
looked out of the window. This appearance was Mrs. Macfarlane, who
shot Captain Cayley, and was now lying perdue at Swinton.
Now, in 1753 the pretty lady's husband, Mr. Macfarlane, was agent in
Scotland for Balhaldie. To him Balhaldie wrote frequently on
business, sent him also a 'most curious toy,' a tortoise-shell snuff-
box, containing, in a secret receptacle, a portrait of King James
VIII. Letters of his, in April 1753, show that James Mohr was so far
right; Balhaldie WAS living at Bievre, in a glen three leagues from
Paris, and was amusing himself by the peaceful art of making loyal
snuff-boxes in tortoise-shell. {239}
As to Bievre, then, James Mohr was right. He may or may not have
lied in the following paper, when he says that the Prince was coming
over, with Lord Marischal, to the Balhaldie faction of Jacobites, who
were more in touch with the French Court than his own associates.
Mr. Trant, of whom James Mohr speaks, was really with the Prince, as
Pickle also asserts, and as the Stuart Papers prove. Probably he was
akin to Olive Trant, a pretty intriguer of 1715, mentioned by
Bolingbroke in his famous letter to Wyndham. As to Ireland, James
Mohr really did take it on his way to France, though his promises in
the name of 'the People of Fingal' are Irish moonshine. Were arms,
as James Mohr says, lodged in Clanranald's country, Moidart? Pickle
refused to let them be landed in Knoydart, his own country, and
thought nothing of the kind could be done without his knowledge.
James Mohr may really have had news of arms landed at the House of
Tough on the Forth, near Stirling, where they would be very
convenient. Pickle, I conceive, was not trusted by Clanranald, and
Cameron he had traduced. If James Mohr by accident speaks the truth
in the following Information, more was done by Lochgarry and Cameron
than Pickle wotted of during the autumn of 1752 and the spring of
1753. The arms may have been those ordered by Charles in 1750.
Here is James Mohr's Confession, made in London, November 6, 1753:
{240}
'That, in June 1753, the Pretender's Son wrote to Mr. McGregor of
Bolheldies, in a most sincere manner, that he wanted He should
undertake His Service, as formerly: Bolheldies refused to undertake
anything for him, till such time, as He was reconciled with his
Father, and make acknowledgements for His Misconduct to the King of
France, and then, that He was willing to enter upon His affairs only,
in concert with the Earl of Mareschal, and none other, for that He
could not trust any about Him: Upon which, the Pretender's Son wrote
Him a second time, assuring Bolheldies, that He would be entirely
advised by Him, and at the same time, that He expected no see Him
soon, when things would be concerted to His Satisfaction. {241}
'About the middle of September, the Pretender's Son arrived in Paris,
in company with one Mr. Trent [Trant], and Fleetwood, two English
Gentlemen, who carried Him from South of Avignon [probably a lie],
and when they came thro' Avignon, He was called Mr. Trent's Cousin,
and thereafter, upon all their Journey, till they landed at Paris.
During his stay at Paris, He stayed at Mr. John Water's House.
Immediately upon His arrival at Paris, Bolheldies was sent for, who
stay'd with Him only that night: The next day, He went to Baivre
[Bievre], where He lives, Two Leagues South of Paris: How soon
Bolheldies went Home, He sent Express to Mr. Butler, the King of
France's Master of the Horse, and also a great Favorite: Mr. Butler
came upon a Sunday Morning to Baivre, and about 3 o'clock in the
Afternoon, the Earl of Marischal sent an Express to Bolheldies; and
after Receipt of this Express, Mr. Butler went off to Versailles:
That evening, Bolheldies told me, that now He hoped, the Prince, as
He called Him, would be advised by His best friends, for that He
seems to have a full view of what Folly He had committed, by being
advised and misled, by a Parcel of such Fools, as has been about Him,
since the year 1745. But now, providing He would stand firm to His
promise, to stand by the Earl of Mareschal and His advice, that He
hoped His Affairs might soon be brought on a right Footing; He added
further, That he was still afraid of His breaking thro' concert; That
He was so headstrong, how soon He saw the least appearance of
success, That He might come to ruin His whole Affairs, as He did,
when He stole away to Scotland, in the year 1745, by the advice of
John Murray, Callie [Kelly], Sheridan, and such other Fools.
'I then told Bolheldies, that He had been at great pains to get the
Restoration of the Family Stuart brought about, and that tho' He
succeeded, he might be very ill rewarded, in the Event, and He and
His Clan, probably, on the first discontent, be ruined, as that
Family had done formerly, to gratify others, for that it seems, He
had forgot, that very Family in King Charles's time, persecuted the
whole of His Clan, in a most violent manner; {242} and I added
farther, that the whole of His Clan would be much better pleased, if
He did but procure Liberty from the Government to return Home, and
live the remainder of His Days among His Friends. Bolheldies assured
me, that He was willing to go Home, providing He had the least
consent from the Government; Only, He would not chuse to be put under
any Restrictions, than to live as a peaceable Subject.
'He added further, that He was so much afraid of the Pretender's Son
being so ill to manage, and also that the Irish would break thro'
Secret, That he could heartily wish not to be concerned, could he but
fall on a Method to get clear of it; But at present, that He had
engaged to enter upon some Business with the Earl of Mareschal; and
especially, about those Proposals from Ireland, which He thought very
probable, if Matters were carried on by people of sense, that knew
how to manage, for that all this affair depended on keeping the
Government ignorant of what was doing. Four days after this, there
was a meeting held, Two Leagues South from Baivre, by the Pretender's
Son, Earl of Mareschal, Bolheldies, Mr. Butler, Mr. Gordon, Principal
of the Scots College, Mr. Trent, and Fleetwood, and some other
English Gentlemen, whom Bolheldies did not inform me of.
'When Bolheldies returned Home, He told me, the Irish Proposals were
accepted of, and for that purpose, that there were some Persons to be
sent both to Scotland, and Ireland, and that I was appointed to be
one of those for Ireland, to transact the affairs with the People of
Fingal, especially as Mr. Savage had desired, that if any should be
sent, that I would be the person intrusted in their affair. {243}
That Col. and Capt. Browne, Capt. Bagget, were to be sent along with
Mr. McDiarmid: Bolheldies also said, that He was afraid, he would be
obliged to take a trip to England, some time in winter, for that some
certain Great Men there would trust none other to enter on business
with them, as Lord Sempil was dead, but that, if [he] could help it,
He did not incline to go. That those, that were to be appointed to
go to Scotland, were entirely refer'd to him, and Mr. Gordon the
Principal. The management of the Scots affairs is entirely refer'd
to Stirling of Kear, Mr. Murray of Abercarney, Mr. Smith, and Sr.
Hugh Paterson [uncle of Miss Walkinshaw!]. That Mr. Charles has
promised to manage the Duke of Hamilton, and Friends . . . Bolheldies
assured me, that any, that pleased to join from France, would not be
hindered: and that there was a Method fallen upon to get Two Ships
of War, as also plenty of arms, and ammunition, which would be sent
by the Ships, to both Ireland and Scotland. That the Irish propose
to raise 14,000 Men [!], and in two days time, to have them embarked
in Wherries from Dublin, Rush, Skeddish, and Drogheda, and from
thence transported, in six hours, to North Wales, or, in Twenty-four
hours, to Scotland, either of which as the service required;
providing always, that the 2 Ships of War were sent to escort them,
as also Arms and ammunition and Money. That it was proposed by both
the Earl of Mareschal, and Bolheldies, that 11,000 should land in
North Wales, and 3,000 in Campbelltown of Kentyre in Argyleshire; for
that those in Argyleshire that were well affected to their cause,
would have a good opportunity to rise, by leading 3,000 Irish. That
McDonald of Largye has proposed that there will rise, from that end
of Argyleshire 2,500 Men, including the Duke of Hamilton's Men from
Arran; To wit, the McDonalds of Largye, the McNeils, McAlisters,
Lamonds, and McLawchlans, with what Sr. James Campbell of Auchinbreck
can rise; and those from Campbelltown to march to the Head of
Argyleshire, and to Perthshire, where they were to be joind by the
North Country Clans, which with the Irish, and those from
Argyleshire, was computed to be near 14,000 Men, and to be commanded
by the Earl of Mareschal, and Lord George Murray. {245}
'Bolheldies assured me . . . that the Pretender's Son made a proposal
to His Father to resign the Crown in his Favor: It was refused; and
it was desired of Him not to make any further Proposals of that kind.
Bolheldies was desired to go to Rome, to expostulate with the
Pretender, which he begged to be excused, for that it was contrary to
his Opinion, and that He did not approve of the Proposal, would never
desire the Old Gentleman to resign. He told me, that this Proposal
proceeded from the English, as the Young Pretender had owned that He
was Protestant . . .
'It consists with my knowledge, that there were lodged, in
Clanronald's Country, 9,000 Stands of Arms under the care of Ronald
McDonald, Brother to the late Kinloch Moydart, Mr. McDonald of
Glenaladale, and the Baillie of Egg, and kept still by them, in as
good order as possible. That one, John McDonald, who is my own
Cousin German, and is also Cousin German to Glenaladale, met with me
in the Braes of Argyleshire, in March last [James was not in Scotland
at that date!]; when He told me, that if there was an Invasion that
they had plenty of Arms; and told the way and manner they had then
preserved: But immediately before they were lodged in their hands,
that Dr. Cameron had taken away, without orders, 250 Stands. That
they might be got in Order, in six days time, by very few hands; for
that they had sustained very little damage. It's certain, some
little pains might find them out. . . . Bolheldies assured me, that
Sr. John Graham was sent by the Young Pretender's Orders, to deliver
Capt. Ogelvie 8,000 Swords, which had lain at Berlin [?], since the
last affair, that he was to deliver them to Capt. Ogelvie, at or near
Dunkirk, concealed into wine Hogsheads; and that Capt. Ogelvie was to
land them at Airth, in the Frith of Forth; and to get them conveyed
to the house of Tough, where they were to remain under the charge of
Mr. Charles Smith, whose Son is married to the Heiress of Tough. The
House of Tough is two miles above Stirling. I also saw Mr. Binglie,
Under Master of the Horse, sent by Mr. Butler, and met at Bolheldie's
House, by young Sheridan, who is always with the Young Pretender.
{246} . . .
'That the Irish Proposal, sent by me was thus: In way to France, I
came to the Isle of Man, where I had occasion to meet one Mr. Patrick
Savage, to whom I was recommended by a Friend in Scotland; This Mr.
Savage is an Irishman, and was in Scotland some time before I had
seen Him: He was informed by Sir Archibald Stewart of Castle-Milk
near Greenock, that Sir Archibald had seen Dr. Cameron in
Stirlingshire; who told Him, that He hoped the Restoration would
happen soon, for that preparations were a making for it, and that He
had been sent to Scotland to transact some affairs for that purpose.
Mr. Savage told me, in the year 1745, if the Pretender's son had sent
but the least notice to Ireland, that He might have got 10,000 or
12,000 Men, for that they at that time had formed a scheme, for that
purpose, expecting to have had a message. . . . Mr. Savage assured
me, that there were two Lords concerned, who put it out of his power
to let their Names be known, till I came with a commission from the
Young Pretender, and then, that they would frankly see me, and take
me to their Houses to make up matters . . . '
The pleased reader will observe that Mr. Macgregor's Irish myth
(though here sadly curtailed) has swollen to huge proportions since
he communicated his tale of long lost Macgregors to the Old Chevalier
in August. Whether the Prince was really turning to Balhaldie and
official Jacobitism or not, is matter of doubt. Mr. Macgregor's
Information having been swallowed and digested by Lord Holdernesse,
Pickle was appealed to for confirmation. We have seem his unfriendly
report of Mr. Macgregor's character, as a spy mistrusted by both
sides. But among other precautions an English official suggested the
following:
'That, if it's thought proper, Mr. --- [Pickle clearly] should be
sent to Ireland forthwith, to know the whole of those concerned in
the Irish Plot of the People of Fingal, that He could have a TRUSTY
in Company, sent from the Secretary, who would undergo any borrowed
name, and was to be Companion in the affair to Mr. --- [Pickle].
That particularly those Lords should be known, as also such of the
People of Connaght as could be discovered. That Mr. --- [Pickle] is
willing to undertake whatever in his power lays, to shew the zeal,
wherewith He is inclined to serve the Government, but that He will
not chuse to go to Ireland, UNLESS A COURT TRUSTY IS SENT WITH HIM,
who will be eye witness to His Transactions with the Irish, as Mr. --
- [Pickle] will tell that he [the English companion] is a Trusty sent
by the Pretender's Son.'
I detect Pickle under 'Mr. ---,' because later he was sent in a
precisely similar manner into Scotland, accompanied by a 'Court
Trusty,' or secret service man, named Bruce, who, under the style of
'Cromwell,' sent in reports along with those despatched by Pickle
himself. Whether Pickle really went to Ireland to verify Mr.
Macgregor's legends or not, I am unable to say. The following note
of his (December 13, 1753) suggests that he went either on that or a
similar errand.
Add. 32,730.
'Grandpapa,--In consequence of what past at our last meeting I have
wrot to my Correspondent, fixing the time and place of meeting, and
at leatest I ought seet off the 20th. pray then, when and where are
we to meet? If not soon, I must undow what I have begun. Excuse my
anxiety, and believe me most sincerely with great estime and
affection
'Your most oblidged humble Servt.
PICKLE.
'13th December, 1753.
'To the Honble. Quin Vaughan, at his house in Golden Square.'
Here James Mohr Macgregor slips out of our narrative. He was
suspected by Balhaldie of having the misfortune to be a double-dyed
scoundrel. This impression Mr. Macgregor's letters to 'his dear
Chief' were not quite able to destroy. The letters (Dunkirk, April
6, and May 1, 1754) are published in 'Blackwood's Magazine' for
December 1817. James tells Balhaldie that he had visited England,
and had endeavoured to deliver Alan Breck, 'the murderer of Glenure,'
to the Government, and to make interest for his own brother, Robin
Oig. But Robin was hanged for abducting the heiress of Edenbelly,
and Alan Breck escaped from James Mohr with the spolia opima,
including 'four snuff-boxes,' made, perhaps, by Balhaldie himself.
In England, James Mohr informs Balhaldie, he was offered 'handsome
bread in the Government service' as a spy. But he replied, 'I was
born in the character of a gentleman,' and he could only serve 'as a
gentleman of honour.'
James, in fact, had sold himself too cheap, and had done the Devil's
work without the Devil's wages. Probably the falsehood of his Irish
myth was discovered by Pickle, and he was dismissed. James's last
letter to Balhaldie is of September 25, 1754 (Paris), and he prays
for a loan of the pipes, that he may 'play some melancholy tunes.'
And then poor James Mohr Macgregor died, a heart-broken exile. His
innocent friend, in 'Blackwood's Magazine,' asks our approbation for
James's noble Highland independence and sense of honour!
There was another spy, name unknown, whose information about the
Prince, in 1753, was full and minute, whether accurate or not. It is
written in French. {250} About the end of June 1753, Charles,
according to this informer, passed three months at Luneville; he came
from Prussia, and left in September for Paris. Thence Charles went
to Poland and Prussia, then to Strasbourg, back to Paris, thence to
Liege, and thence to Scotland. Prussia and Denmark were next
visited, and Paris again in January 1754. As a rule, Charles was in
Scotland, or Liege, collecting an army of deserters. This valuable
news reached the Duke of Newcastle on October 30, 1754.
As to the Irish plot reported by James Mohr, I found, among the
papers of the late Comte d'Albanie, a letter from an Irish gentleman,
containing record of a family tradition. Charles, it was said, had
passed some time near the Giant's Causeway: the date was uncertain,
the authority was vague, and there is no other confirmation of James
Mohr's preposterous inventions. {251}
CHAPTER XI--'A MAN UNDONE.' 1754
Jacobite hopes--Blighted by the conduct of Charles--His seclusion--
His health is affected--His fierce impatience--Miss Walkinshaw--
Letter from young Edgar--The Prince easily tracked--Fears of his
English correspondents--Remonstrances of Goring--The English demand
Miss Walkinshaw's dismissal--Danger of discarding Dumont--Goring
fears the Bastille--Cruelty of dismissing Catholic servants--
Charles's lack of generosity--Has relieved no poor adherents--Will
offend both Protestants and Catholics--Opinion of a Protestant--
Toleration desired--Goring asks leave to resign--Charles's answer--
Goring's advice--Charles's reply--Needs money--Proceedings of Pickle-
-In London--Called to France--To see the Earl Marischal--Charles
detected at Liege--Verbally dismisses Goring--Pickle's letter to
England--'Best metal buttons'--Goring to the Prince--The Prince's
reply--Last letter from Goring--His ill-treatment--His danger in
Paris--His death in Prussia--The Earl Marischal abandons the Prince--
His distress--'The poison.'
The year 1754 saw the practical ruin of Charles, and the destruction
of the Jacobite party in England. The death of Henry Pelham, in
March, the General Election which followed, the various discontents
of the time, and a recrudescence of Jacobite sentiment, gave them
hopes, only to be blighted. Charles no longer, as before, reports,
'My health is perfect.' The Prince's habits had become intolerable
to his friends. The 'spleen,' as he calls it, had marked him for its
own. His vigorous body needed air and exercise; unable to obtain
these, it is probable that he sought the refuge of despair. Years
earlier he had told Mademoiselle Luci that the Princesse de Talmond
'would not let him leave the house.' Now he scarcely ventured to
take a walk. His mistress was obviously on ill terms with his most
faithful adherents; the loyal Goring abandoned his ungrateful
service; the Earl Marischal bade him farewell; his English partisans
withdrew their support and their supplies. The end had come.
The following chapter is written with regret. Readers of Dickens
remember the prolonged degradation of the young hero of 'Bleak
house,' through hope deferred and the delays of a Chancery suit.
Similar causes contributed to the final wreck of Charles. The
thought of a Restoration was his Chancery suit. A letter of November
1753, written by the Prince in French, is a mere hysterical outcry of
impatience. 'I suffocate!' he exclaims, as if in a fever of unrest.
He had indulged in hopes from France, from Spain, from Prussia, from
a Highland rising, from a London conspiracy. Every hope had deceived
him, every Prince had betrayed him, and now he proved false to
himself, to his original nature, and to his friends. The venerable
Lord Pitsligo, writing during the Scotch campaign of 1745, said: 'I
had occasion to discover the Prince's humanity, I ought to say
tenderness: this is giving myself no great airs, for he shows the
same disposition to everybody.' Now all is changed, and a character
naturally tender and pitiful has become careless of others, and even
cruel.
The connection with Miss Walkinshaw was the chief occasion of many
troubles. On January 14, 1754, young Edgar wrote from Aisse to his
uncle, in Rome, saying that Clementina Walkinshaw 'has got in with
the Prince, borne two children to him [probably only one], and got an
extreme ascendant over him. The King's friends in England are firmly
persuaded of this being true, and are vastly uneasy at it, especially
as his sister is about Frederick's widow (the Dowager Princess of
Wales), and has but an indifferent character. This story gives me
very great concern, and, if true, must be attended with bad
consequences, whether she truly be honest or not.' {254}
The fact was that, being now accompanied by a mistress and a child,
Charles was easily traced. His personal freedom, if not his life,
was endangered, and if he were taken and his papers searched, his
correspondents would be in peril. On January 4, 1754, Dormer wrote,
warning the Prince that 'a young gentleman in hiding with a mistress
and child' was being sought for at Liege, and expressing alarm for
himself and his comrades. Dormer also reproached Charles for
impatiently urging his adherents to instant action. Goring, as
'Stouf,' wrote the following explicit letter from Paris on January
13, 1754. As we shall see, he had been forbidden by the French
Government to come within fifty leagues of the capital, and the
Bastille gaped for him if he was discovered.
Goring, it will be remarked, warns Charles that his party are weary
of his demands for money. What did he do with it? His wardrobe, as
an inventory shows, was scanty; no longer was he a dandy: seventeen
shirts, six collars, three suits of clothes, three pocket-
handkerchiefs were the chief of his effects. He did not give much in
charity to poor adherents, as Goring bitterly observes. We learn
that the English insist on the dismissal of Miss Walkinshaw. To
discard Dumont, as Charles proposed, was to provide England with an
informer. The heads of English gentlemen would be at the mercy of
the executioners of Archy Cameron. To turn adrift Charles's Catholic
servants was impolitic, cruel, and deeply ungrateful. This is the
burden of Goring's necessary but very uncourtly epistle, probably
written from 'La Grandemain's' house:
'You say you are determined to know from your professed friends what
you are to depend on. I wish it may answer your desires, you are
master, Sir, to take what steps you please, I shall not take upon me
to contradict you, I shall only lay before you what I hear and see,
if it can be of any service to you, I shall have done my duty in
letting you know your true interest, if you think it such. In the
first place, I find they [the English adherents] were surprized and
mortifyed to see the little man [Beson] arrive with a message from
you, only to desire money, so soon after the sum you received from
the gentlemen I conducted to you, and some things have been said on
the head not much to the advancement of any scheme for your service.
Secondly they sent me a paper by Sir James Harrington of which what
follows is a copy word for word:
'"Sir, your friend's Mistress is loudly and publickly talked off and
all friends look on it as a very dangerous and imprudent step, and
conclude reasonably that no Corespondance is to be had in that
quarter, without risk of discovery, for we have no opinion in England
of female politicians, or of such women's secrecy in general. You
are yourself much blamed for not informing our friends at first, that
they might take the alarum, and stop any present, or future
transactions, with such a person. What we now expect from you, is to
let us know if our persuasion can prevail to get rid of her."
'For God's sake, Sir, what shall I say, or do, I am at my wits end,
the greif I have for it augments my illness, and I can only wish a
speedy end to my life. To make it still worse you discard Dumont; he
is a man I have little regard for, His conduct has been bad, but he
has kept your secret, now, Sir, to be discarded in such a manner he
will certainly complain to Murray and others; it will come to your
friends' ears, if he does not go to England and tell them himself.
He knows Mac. {256} Mead and D. [Dawkins] what will our friends think
of you, Sir, for taking so little care of their lives and fortunes by
putting a man in dispair who has it in his power to ruin them, and
who is not so ignorant as not to know the Government will well reward
him. Nay, he can do more: he can find you out yourself, or put your
enemies in a way to do it, which will be a very unfortunate
adventure.
'As for me it is in his power to have me put into the Bastille when
he pleases. Perhaps he may not do this, but sure it is too dangerous
to try whether he will or no; they must be men of very tryed Virtue
who will suffer poverty and misery when they have a way to prevent
it, so easy too, and when they think they only revenge themselves of
ingratitude; for you will always find that men generally think their
services are too little rewarded, and, when discarded, as he will be
if you dont recall ye sentence, what rage will make him do I shall
not answer for. If, Sir, you continue in mind to have him sent off I
must first advise those gentlemen [the English adherents] that they
may take propper measures to put themselves in Safety by leaving the
Country, or other methods as they shall like best. Now, Sir, whether
such a step as this will not tend more to diminish than augment your
Credit in England I leave you to determine; I only beg of you, Sir,
to give me timely notice that I may get out of the way of that horrid
Bastille, and put our friends on their guard, I cannot but lament my
poor friend Colonel H. who must be undone by it. Ld M. [Marischal]
thinks it too dangerous a tryall of that man's honour: for my part I
shall not presume to give my own opinion, only beg of you once again
that we may have time to shift for ourselves. I am obliged to you,
Sir, for your most gracious Concern for my health; the doctors have
advised me to take the air as much as my weakness will permit, are
much against confinement, and would certainly advise me against the
Bastille as very contrary to my distemper!
'I have one thing more to lay before you of greatest Consequence:
you order all your Catholick Servants to be discarded, consider, Sir,
the thing well on both sides; first the good that it will produce on
the one side, and the ill it may produce on the other; it may indeed
please some few biggotted protestants, for all religions have their
biggots, but may it not disgust the great number of ye people, to see
you discard faithfull men, for some of them went through all dangers
with you in Scotland, upon account of their religion--without the
least provision made for them. Your saying, Sir, that necessity
obliges you to do it, will look a little strange to those people who
send you money, and know how far you can do good with it. I assure
you, Sir, if you did necessary acts of Generosity now and then, that
people may see plainly that you have a real tenderness for those that
suffer for you, you would be the richer for it, more people would
send money than now do, and they that have sent would send more, when
they saw so good use made of it.
'I have been hard put to it when I have been praising your good
qualities to some of our friends, they have desired me to produce one
single instance of any one man you have had the Compassion to relieve
with the tenderness a King owes to a faithfull subject who has served
him with the risk of his life and fortune. {259}
'Now Sir, another greater misfortune may happen from sending off
these servants in so distinguishing a manner; you will plese to
remember that in the Course of your affairs the Protestants employ
the Papists; the Papists join with the Protestants in sending you
money and in everything that can hasten your restoration, they are a
great body of men and if they should once have reason to believe they
should be harder used under your government than they are under the
Usurper, self preservation would oblige them to maintain the Usurper
on the throne, and be assured if they take this once in their heads,
they have it in their power to undoe you.
'A man of sense and great riches as well as birth, a great friend of
yours, talking with me some time past of your royal qualities (note
this man is a most bigotted Protestant), was observing the happyness
all ranks of men would have under your reign; he considered you, Sir,
as father to the whole nation, that no one set of men would be
oppressed, papists, presbyterians, quakers, anabaptists,
antitrinitarians, Zwinglians, and forty more that he named, though
they differ, in their Creed, under so great and good a prince as you,
would all join to love and respect you; that he was sure you would
make no distinction between any of them, but let your Royal bounty
diffuse itself equally on all. He said further that for you to
disgust any of them, as they all together compose the body, so
disgusting any one set of men was as if a man in full vigour of
health should cut off one of his leggs or arms. He concluded with
saying he was sure you was too prudent to do anything of that kind,
to summ up all, he said that he looked on you as a prince divested of
passions; that the misfortunes and hardships you had undergone had
undoubtedly softened your great Mind so far as to be sensible of the
misfortunes of others, for which reason he would do all that lay in
his power to serve you; these reflections, Sir, really are what
creates you the love of your people in general, and gains you more
friends than yr Royal Birth.
'Observe, Sir, what will be the event of your discarding these poor
men, all of them diserving better treatment from you: they will come
to Paris begging all their way, and show the whole town, English,
French, and strangers, an example of your Cruelty, their Religion
being all their offence; do you think, Sir, your Protestants will
believe you the better protestant for it? If you do, I am affraid
you will find yourself mistaken; it will be a handle for your enemies
to represent you a hippocrite in your religion and Cruel in your
nature, and show the world what those who serve you are to expect.
'Now, Sir, do as you think fitt, but let me beg of you to give such
Comitions to somebody else; as I never could be the author of any
such advice, so I am incapable of acting in an affair that will do
you, Sir, infinite prejudice, and cover me with dishonour, and am,
besides these Considerations, grown so infirm that I beg your R.H.
will be graciously pleased to give me leave to retire. . . . I may
have been mistaken in some things, which I hope you will pardon, I do
not write this as my own opinion, but really to get your affairs in a
true light. . . I sware to the great God that what I write is truth,
for God's sake Sir have compassion on yourself . . . you say you
"will take your party," alas, Sir, they will coldly let you take it,
don't let your spleen get the better of your prudence and judgement .
. .
'One reflection more on what you mention about ye papist servants,
may not the keeping publickly in employment ye two papist gentlemen
[Sheridan and Stafford] do more harm than turning away three or four
papist footmen, who can, by their low situation, have no manner of
influence over your affairs . . . one of the papist footmen is
besides a relation {261} of the poor man who was lately hanged . . .
when all this comes to be publick it will much injure your carackter.
To summ up all, these commissions you give me, give me such
affliction as will certainly end my life, they are surely calculated
by you for that very reason. . . . I once more beg you will
graciously please to permit me to retire, I will let my family know
that my bad health only is the reason, and I don't doubt they will
maintain me.
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.
{254} Stuart Papers.
{256} Probably Glengarry.
{259} This too well confirms Dr. King's charges.
{261} Goring must mean a clansman--a Cameron.
{263} Goring was probably at the Convent of St. Joseph, with Madame
de Vasse.
{265} See Memoires of Madame Hausset, and the De Goncourts on Madame
de Pompadour.
{267} These letters have been printed in full by Mr. Murray Rose
(Scotsman, March 15, 1895). Mr. Murray Rose attributes them to James
Mohr Macgregor, wrongly, of course.
{268} That is, seats for Jacobites should be purchased at the
General Election.
{271} The surgeon of Luneville, with whom Charles had resided
secretly.
{273} 'Women' refers to Miss Walkinshaw. It is clear that Charles
had rejected MacNamara's request for her dismissal, described by Dr.
King.
{274} Browne, iv. 120, 121.
{277a} Culloden Papers, p. 412.
{277b} Robertson of Inerchraskie to Forbes of Culloden. September
23, 1745.
{278} Manuscripts in the Charter Chest at Cluny Castle. Privately
printed.
{280a} Pickle was inducted into his estates, before the Bailies of
Inverness and a jury, on February 2, 1758. The 'Retour' is cited in
Mr. Mackenzie's History of the Macdonalds.
{280b} The story is in Mr. Mackenzie's History of the Macdonalds.
{281} All this is probably false.
{284} Mr. Bruce, October 10, 1754, to Gwynn Vaughan, Esq.
{285} Arniston Memoirs, edited by G. W. T. Omond, p. 153. Mr.
Dundas of Arniston has kindly supplied a copy containing what is
omitted in Mr. Omond's book--Pickle's dealings with his tenantry.
{286} See Macallester's huge and intolerably prolix book, A Series
of Letters (London: 1767).
{287} D'Argenson, July 1755.
{288} S. P. France, 468.
{292a} Browne, iv. 124.
{292b} Ibid. iv. 125.
{293} Ewald's Prince Charles, ii. 223-228. From State Papers.
{294} Letter to Edgar, September 16, 1755.
{296a} Madame Adelaide, according to gossip in the Scots Magazine.
{296b} Pol. Corr. xi. p. 37. No. 7,199, and p. 63.
{297} I have never seen this document.
{298} A full account of Macallester, from which these remarks are
taken, was published by myself in the English Illustrated Magazine.
{301} Archives of French Foreign Office. Angleterre. 81. fol. 11.
{302a} Pol. Corr. xiii. 320. No. 8,660.
{302b} See Le Secret du Roi, by the Duc de Broglie.
{303} Memoire of Charlotte Stuart. French Foreign Office. 1774.
{306} Mr. Alexander Pelham Trotter has kindly permitted me to
consult this document in his possession.
{309a} D'Aiguillon.
{309b} Prince de Soubise.
{312} As is proved by Murray's letter of December 10.
{316} Memoire of Charlotte Stuart. 1774.
{317} Charles, as Lumisden writes (December 3, 1760), 'positively
insists on having the young filly returned to him.'
{321} The article on the Tales of the Century in the Quarterly
Review (vol. lxxxi. p. 57) was not 'by Lockhart,' as Mr. Ewald says,
and is not, in fact, accurate.
{323} Nothing in the Stuart Papers confirms the story that Charles
was at the Coronation of George III., in 1761. In the present
century Cardinal York told a member of the Stair family that the
Prince visited England in 1763. It may have been then that he saw
Murray of Broughton, and was seen by Murray's child, afterwards the
actor known to Sir Walter Scott.
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