either a nation or an individual. It is evident that Charles Stuart, with the instinct of a doomed man, felt that nothing which could overtake him could be so fatal and terrible as a return to his captivity. Had he died on Culloden field, had his boat been swamped by the bitter northern waves, and he himself disappeared for ever into their stormy abysses, it would have been well for the exile. What was ill for him was to leave that land in which he found himself, even in his worst privations, a man and a Prince, with an independent existence, and not a miserable puppet of fortune. Neither, perhaps, could better have been for the country itself, which thus rushed upon a glorious destruction, killing by one splendid act the old life which was doomed too, and must have died by inches had there been no Forty-five. It is something to call forth that highest bloom of antique virtue, that unequalled faithfulness, devotion, and honour which throw an everlasting glory up

that appeal that went to their hearts? Lochiel, too, came convinced of the rashness, nay madness, of the enterprise," as Lord Mahon tells us in his admirable narrative, "and determined to urge Charles to desist from it and return to France till a more favourable opportunity." His brother Fassifern entreated him to send his decision by letter. "If this Prince once sets eyes on you," says the sagacious Highlander, "he will make you do what he pleases." But Lochiel, strong in his own prudence, went on like the rest to protest and remonstrate. The argument was long between the Adventurer and the chief. At last Charles brought it to a climax. "I am resolved to put all to the hazard," he said. "In a few days I will raise the Royal standard, and proclaim to the people of Britain that Charles Stuart is come over to claim the crown of his ancestors, or perish in the attempt. Lochiel, who, my father has often told me, was our firmest friend, may stay at home and learn from the newspapers the fate of his Prince." on the death-struggle of the highland clans. Against this final argument no Highland It is something for a man to prove himself heart could stand. "Not so," said Lochiel, generous in victory, gay, friendly, magnanmoved out of all prudence; "I will share imous, and gentle, when fortune smiles on the fate of my Prince, whatever it may be, him-patient, tender, cheerful, and unreand so shall every man over whom nature pining in the heaviest calamities. The man or fortune has given me any power." This and the race embarked together in a venwas the result of every personal meeting be- ture which could not but bring tragic and tween Charles and the Highland chiefs. terrible consequences to both. They did Those who kept aloof, in some instances, their best to overthrow the foundations of escaped the fascination. Sir Alexander all our national peace, and plunge us once Macdonald and the Chief of Macleod stood more into the chaos from which we were esout prudently, withdrawing themselves from caping. They put everything on the cast, all intercourse with the royal suppliant. He pledging their very existence, with scarce landed on the mainland on the 25th July, a possibility of ultimate success, and no surrounded by Highland guards, and a de- hopes but those roused by emotion and votion all the more intense and priceless excitement, without foundation or reality. that it was tinged with despair, and began Yet who can say that they did amiss? in that distant corner of the empire which Ages of pitiful quiet in a borrowed palace he intended to conquer, the brief, brilliant, were not worth that one brief year of life extraordinary campaign, four months of un- to the leader of this wildest of forlorn hopes. expected and half-miraculous triumph, which And what would have been a century of was to be followed by such overthrow, such ebbing existence, struggles with now cussuffering and calamity, as reason had pre- toms, and sick efforts to retain the past, dicted and enthusiasm defied. in comparison with the passion and agony of Celtic Scotland, thus accomplished, as it were, at a stroke, with accompaniment of some of the noblest emotions and greatest acts of which human nature is capable? They marched with the wild pibroch wailing over them, with waving plaids and antiquated shields, and hearts full of primitive virtues, passions, and errors, for which the world had grown too old, straight into the jaws of destruction-into the valley of death, into the mouth of hell. It was the end of a race, of a condition of things, of an ancient, noble, and most unfortunate dynasty. Valour unsurpassed, fidelity un

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We are obliged, in practical life, to judge by the common human standard of failure and success. And according to that standard, this enterprise, doomed from its beginning, and which even in the heart of its leaders was an alternative of despair, can be considered only as a piece of tragic folly, madly conceived and bitterly punished. But there are other views which in the calm of ages, even the most pitiful spectator may be allowed to take, and which point out the great but difficult truth, that pain, calamity, and havoc are not the worst misfortunes that can befall

equalled, mercy even, unlooked-for companion, marched with them, a guard of honour, to the inevitable tomb. And in the face of all after horrors, all suffering, death, and ruin, let us say it was done well.

have just quoted. In word and deed, as in
outward bearing, the young paladin bore
himself like a knight of romance.
He put
on with his Highland garb the spirit of his
earlier forefathers. Immediately after this
ceremony, and not more than a month from
the moment of his landing, in his eagerness
to encounter Cope, whom he had thus
promised to meet, he marched sixteen miles
in boots; "and one of the heels coming
off, the Highlanders said they were unco
glad to hear it, for they hoped the want of
the heel would make him march more at
leisure. So speedily he marched that he
was like to fatigue them all." Whatever
his army had to bear, Charles took a share
in their privations. He lived hardly, slept
on the heather by their side, marched at
their side across moor and hill, watched
late and rose up early, like a man to the
manner born. He did what was more as-
tonishing still in that age and on such an
enterprise. He paid for everything his ar-

The standard was raised on the 19th of August in Glenfinnan. On the eve of this ceremony a party of Keppoch's men, aided by a detachment of Camerons, surprised and took captive two companies of soldiers on their way to reinforce the garrison at Fort William- -an auspicious beginning to the struggle. When Charles approached Glenfinnan with his body-guard of Macdonalds, he was chilled and disappointed to find it silent and deserted, not a man yet of his host having assembled at the trystingplace. "Uncertain, and anxious for his fate," says Lord Mahon, "the Prince entered one of the neighbouring hovels, and waited for about two hours -a dreary break in the high current of excitement which must have carried him along. At length the Camerons appeared defiling over my consumed, insisted on the strictest disthe hill, six hundred valiant men, advanc- cipline, punished all marauders, and had ing "in two lines of three men abreast, be- his accounts kept with the precision of a tween which were the English companies private household. The wild clans came taken on the 16th, marching as prisoners, down from the hills full of the instinct of and disarmed." This sight alone was plunder, with the Adventurer at their head, enough to raise to certainty the hopes of an enthusiastic and imaginative race. In presence of the triumphant Highlanders and the captive Southrons emblems of the two races, no doubt, in many a sparkling Celtic eye the standard flew forth to the Highland winds. It was unfurled by old Tullibardine - the Duke of Athole, as he was called, though his younger brother at the moment enjoyed the title and possessions of the house. "Such loud huzzas and schiming of bonnets up into the air, appearing like a cloud, was not heard of for a long time," says a certain Terence Mulloy, evidently repeating the description given by one of the prisoners. Old Athole was above seventy when he threw forth those crimson folds into the Highland air and proclaimed King James. Gallant old age, dauntless youth, the enthusiasm of victory, the sullen silence of the captives amid all that wild outburst of rejoicing, make up another of the wonderful pictures of which this story is full. When Charles had addressed his Highlanders, he turned, courteous as a true Prince, to the English captain, who stood by. You may go to your General," he said; "tell him what you have seen, and that I am coming to give him battle;" and thus dismissed with chivalrous promptitude the honourable enemy. "No gentleman could be better used than he was," adds the authority we

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who firmly believed himself the rightful Prince of the rich country through which they passed. Had they cleared everything before them, it would have been a natural result to be expected in the circumstances; but nothing of the kind appears to have taken place. "It was not uncommon, indeed," says Lord Mahon, "for the Highlanders to stop some respectable portly citizen as he passed along, levelling their muskets at him with savage and threatening gestures; but on being asked by the trembling townsman what they wanted, they usually answered, a bawbee!"" Charles himself levied contributions from the towns through which he passed; but he suffered no invasion of the rights of private property. In the Jacobite Memoirs will be found an entire account-book, with all its quaint details, interspersed with bits of pathetic history, showing the careful regulation of his expenditure. "The Prince paid well for everything he got," says the steward who furnished this remarkable record, “and always ordered drink-money to be given liberally where he lodged." His courteous generosity to his prisoners has already been mentioned. When called upon to rejoice that his enemies were at his feet, he turned away compassionate, lamenting the fate of

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his father's deluded subjects. "And when urged to make reprisals upon the English captives for cruelties inflicted or his friends,

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6

his high nature revolted against the sug-left the path clear for the invaders. As gestion. "I cannot in cold blood take they marched, stream after stream joined away lives which I have spared in the heat them; here an entire clan, there a smaller of action," said the noble young Adventur- party. The gentlemen of the country joined er; nor would he ever threaten to do so, the Prince's march after the Highland line saying, with still greater magnanimity, that was passed, bringing true hearts and stout it was below him to make empty threats courage, if not so many additional broadwhich he never would put into execution. swords. When any doubtful man fell in It was with the greatest difficulty that he his way, his eloquence and charm of manner was forced to answer the proclamation of had its usual effect. "An angel could not the Government offering a reward for his resist such soothing close applications," own head, by a counter-proclamation set- said Cluny Macpherson, lately captain in ting a price on that of the Elector of Hano- the Hanoverian service, but soon at Charles's ver. His rival and contemporary Cumber-side with all his clan. He lived with them land, unfortunately, was not moved by so all like a brother, falling into their patrifine a sense of honour. Throughout the archal familiar habits. Even his own royal story, indeed, Charles shows himself the affairs and melancholy family life were talked preux chevalier to whom, alas! permanent of among the genial affectionate company. victory is slow to come. His was not the At Nairn House, on the way south, "one genius of battle, nor the merciless policy of the company happened to observe what which could take advantage of all chances. a thoughtful state his father would now be A tender heart and noble consideration for in, from the consideration of those dangers others are, no doubt, qualities of a great and difficulties he had to encounter with, leader; but these have rarely been exhibited and that upon this account he was much to for the benefit of the enemy. Charles be pitied, because his mind behoved to be was not a great leader; he was a spotless much upon the rack. The Prince replied knight. His foe disarmed was, if not his that he did not half so much pity his father friend, at least his fellow-creature, to be as his brother; for,' said he, the King dealt with in a spirit of splendid humanity; has been inured to disappointments and the very assassins who threatened his own distresses, and has learnt to bear up easily life called forth, at worst, a pitiful con- under the misfortunes of life; but poor temptuous mercy. It is Sir Lancelot who Harry! his young and tender years make moves across those fields of brief battle, him much to be pitied, for few brothers love those gleams of briefer triumph. Such a as we do.'" character, while it rouses all the generous admiration of which the mind is capable, awakes at the same time a pang of compassion. It is doomed from the commencement of its career. It is unqualified for that bloody arena which is no longer governed by the laws of knighthood. The general whose compassionate soul melts over his enemy's forces, who has not the heart to shoot a traitor or keep a prisoner, whose mind is set on conducting his warfare by feats of personal valour, by lofty generosity and consideration, can never win more than Charles won a swift, short, brilliant campaign; until the common herd, surprised, takes courage in its numbers; and the rude soldier, careless of blood or suffering, resumes his hard supremacy. It is Cumberland, shooting the wounded on the field, giving no quarter, crushing down the country with his iron boot, who wins the day.

The march of the Prince and his followers as far as Edinburgh was in its way a royal progress. Cope having taken himself out of the way, too timid or too prudent to try his fortune among the Highland passes, had withdrawn by sea to the low country, and

This reference to the melancholy Roman home completes the picture. In the midst of his dangers the Prince had a sigh to spare for the brother into whose life this wild and bright romance was never to fall. Poor Harry! who made no struggle for any rights, real or supposed, but placed his cardinal's hat, like a weight of stone, forbidding all possibility of resuscitation, upon the grave of the Stuarts. No such possibility was then apparent; but yet his gallant brother grieved for the lad, left alone, with nothing better than a hunting-party to stir his blood, in place of the swelling tide of life in his own veins. In Athole "he was very cheerful, taking his share in several dances, such as minuets and Highland reels." In almost every great house he passed, some little feast was prepared for the Chevalier. When he entered Perth it was amid acclamations, but with one louis d'or only in his pocket, the last of the 4000 he had brought with him. Thus the most fatal risk and the strangest triumph, universal acclamations and absolute destitution, all lightly borne with the sweet daring of youth, mingled in his life. The merchants at the fair, notwithstanding his poverty,

"I know there will be fulsome addresses from | fresh from the influences of the interrupted the different corporations of England; but I hope sermons, were seized with such a panic as, they will impose on none but the lower and more to do them justice, women are seldom asignorant people. They will no doubt endeavour sailed by when patriotism demands a sacrito revive all the errors and excesses of my grand- fice from them. They clung to their valfather's unhappy reign, and impute them to iant defenders with tears and outcries. Why your Majesty and me, who had no hand in them, should a husband and father risk his preand suffered most by them. Can anything becious life against the wild Highlander, whose

more unreasonable than to suppose that your Majesty, who is so sensible of and has so often trade was fighting? The honest burghers considered the fatal error of your father, would felt with their wives that the idea was monwith your eyes open go and repeat them? strous. They melted away imperceptibly, "Notwithstanding the repeated assurance your stealing off through friendly close and shelMajesty has given in your declaration that you tering wynd, and when their captain looked will not invade any man's property, they en- round, outside the gate, he found himself deavour to persuade the unthinking people that followed by the merest handful, not more one of the first things they are to expect will be than a score of men! Such a satire upon to see the public credit destroyed; as if it would human nature could scarcely have been perbe your interest to render yourself contemptible petrated by any poet. It is history alone in the eyes of all the nations of Europe, and make which dares to indulge in such wild ridicule all the kingdoms you hope to reign over poor at of its subordinate figures. While the tremhome and insignificant abroad. bling militia pulled off their rusty blades in the secret seclusion of home, the wild eager enemy outside their gates dispersed almost

"I find it a great loss that the brave Lord Marishall is not with me. His character is very high in the country, and it must be so wherever

French, who, if they should come only as friends to assist your Majesty in the recovery of your just rights, the weak people would believe came as invaders. There is one man in this country whom I could wish to have my friend, and that is the Duke of Argyll, who I find is in great credit among them, on account of his great abilities and quality, and has many dependents by his large fortune; but I am told I can hardly flatter myself with the hopes of it. The hard usage which his family has received from ours has sunk deep into his mind. What have those princes to answer for who by their cruelties have raised enemies not only to themselves but to

it is known. I had rather see him as a thousand by a breath the troopers who had made bold to go and look at them; and its chiefs once more summoned the city to surrender. The bailies met and talked and trembled, and could not tell what to do. They tried to gain time and negotiate, hoping in Sir John Cope, who was about landing at Dunbar. All the next day was spent in their futile frightened struggles. But early on Tuesday morning, Lochiel, with five hundred Camerons, took the matter in hand; and the burghers and their wives woke up to find that, with less trouble than they had experienced in getting out of their uniforms, the Highlanders had taken possession of their city! - a strange little dramatic touch of laughter in a story too full of tears.

their innocent children?"

The scenes that followed have been so described as that none may venture to repeat them. Yet as the stranger treads the longdeserted floors, and lingers in the recessed windows of that gallery at Holyrood, hung with all its impossible kings, he will find another picture come up before him with a pathos too profound for words. All those gallant soldiers doomed to so speedy and violent an end-the winding-sheet high on their breasts, as the superstition of their country says- -some to perish on the scaffold, some under the brutal coup de grace of Cumberland's butchers; one, the highest of all, reserved for a more lingering, more dreadful fate; — all those fair women, whose hearts, for a moment gay, were to be wrung with what tortures of anxiety, what vain efforts, what sickening hopes! Never could be more pathetic merry-making than Charles Edward's ball in the old house of his fathers. The coronach seems to sound over the

On the 15th of September the city of Edinburgh, in which the Whig party had a stronghold, was plunged into the wildest commotion. The fire-bell was set tolling on the sober Sunday afternoon while all the population were at church. Frightened and excited, the towns-people rose in the midst of the sermons, some of which at least were far from complimentary to the approaching Prince, and rushed out into the streets, where the trainbands of the town were assembled, and through which Hamilton's dragoons were marching on the way to defeat and flight. Then there ensued a scene of extravagant farce in the midst of the heart-rending tragedy. It is almost Shakespearian in the depth of contrast. The volunteers cheered the dragoons; and the dragoons, scarcely less faint-hearted in the moment of danger than their amateur coadjutors, replied by answering cheers and the clash of their doughty swords. At these sounds the Edinburgh wives and mothers,