CAMEO XLIV. THE WANDERER. 1746. CAMEO Gortuleg. 1746. So in bloodshed and mist, like Arthur's final battle, had closed the struggle between Stuart and Brunswick, but the sad effects still had to be worked out. England had murmured, for it did not love the two first Georges; but it felt secure, tranquil, and prosperous, and dreaded the return of Romanism too much to stir on behalf of the old line. Scotland had more of the fire of loyalty, and regarded the Stuarts as a national possession, forgetting all their tyrannical persecutions in hatred to England. Yet even there the enthusiasm was confined to a small number, and all the prosperous middle class either sat still or joined the English party. There is a terrible record to be given of all the sufferings of the devoted partizans of the Stuarts, but we will give the present Cameo to the personal adventures of Charles Edward. A man named Edward Burke, of an Irish family long settled in South Uist, who had been servant to various gentlemen at different times, with his master Alexander M'Leod, as aide-de-camp, chanced to be near the Prince when all was lost. The Prince's horse had just been killed, and he was mounted on another, when Burke came up, and the Prince said, "If you be a true friend, pray endeavour to lead us safe off." Burke then became guide to a party consisting of Charles, Lord Elcho, Sir Thomas Sheridan, his own master, and a footman, and soon after they met with O'Sullivan. He guided them and about sixty horse to the water of Nairn, whence the Prince dismissed the horse to shift for themselves, and with the four gentlemen went on under Ned Burke's guidance to one house after another, but found no admittance until they reached Gortuleg, where they found old Lord Lovat, who had sent his son and his clan into the fray, but kept out of it himself. He was afraid even to offer the Prince a bed, and after drinking three glasses of wine they went on, and at two o'clock at night reached Glengarry's desolate castle of Invergarry, so weary and worn out that they all dropped on the floor. There was no one there, and nothing to eat; but Burke went down to the river, spied a fishing net, and pulling it in, found two salmon. But after a hasty meal, and rest till three the next afternoon, they went on to Glen An, and stayed there all night. Thence separating, they went on step by step, chiefly by night, to Borradale, whence one Donald M'Leod of Gualergill, in Skye, an old man who had had a little coasting trade in the Hebrides, met the Prince by orders from Eneas Macdonald, to whom Lord Elcho had fled. Charles was almost alone in a wood. "Are you Donald M'Leod of Gualergill, in Skye ?" 66 Ay, sir," said Donald. majesty, at your service. "I am the same man, may it please your What is your pleasure with me?" 66 Then," said the Prince, "you see, Donald, I am in distress. I therefore throw myself into your bosom, and let you do with me what you like. I hear you are an honest man and to be trusted." When Donald related this long after to Bishop Forbes of St. Andrews, who preserved many of these stories, "he grat sore." The piece of service first required was to take letters to Sir Alexander Macdonald and the Laird of MacLeod. But to this Donald replied, "What! Does not your Excellency know that these men have played the rogue altogether, and will you trust them for a' that? Na; ye mauna do it." These two chiefs were actually with some troops in search of the Prince, only about ten or twelve miles off by sea, though farther by land, and therefore it would be best to leave this place at once. In truth, the Prince owed his safety at that moment to a report that he was hidden in St. Kilda, that lonely isle beyond the Orkneys. General Campbell and all the fleet went thither, and greatly terrified the natives, who had never even heard of "that man," as they called the Prince, and only knew that their lord had gone to war with a great woman beyond the sea, probably meaning Maria Theresa. Meantime Donald procured a stout eight-oared boat, the property of a man killed at Culloden, found some boatmen, and obtained a pot for boiling pottage, and a "firlot" of meal. They embarked at Lochannua, in the very place where the Prince had landed so full of hope a year before. The party were the Prince, O'Sullivan, O'Neil, Allan Macdonald of the Clanranald family, and a Roman Catholic priest, his namesake. Besides these, the faithful Ned Burke was among the rowers, and Donald M'Leod's own son, Murdoch, a boy of fifteen, who had run away from the grammar school at Inverness, been present at the battle, and then followed the Prince from place to place, thus meeting his father. A storm was coming up, the tokens of which the Prince disregarded; but when it came on violently, with furious wind and rain, he begged CAMEO XLIV. Borradale. 1746. CAMEO Long Island. 1746. to run ashore, for he said he had rather face cannons and muskets than such a storm. Donald, however, entirely refused, for the coast for three miles was rock, the sea was dashing furiously against it, and it would have been certain death to all on board. He could only put out to sea; for, said he, "Is it not as good for us to be drowned in clean water as to be dashed to pieces on a rock and drowned too?" It was soon pitch dark, and they were driven before the storm for many hours, not knowing where they were; but in the morning they found themselves off Benbecula, one of the little flat islets into which Long Island is divided. Here they found an empty hut, and made a fire to dry their clothes, while a sail was spread on the ground, on which the Prince slept. A cow was found, which they killed, and boiled the beef there. They stayed for two days, and then got to the isle of Scalpa, where one Donald Campbell housed the Prince for four nights, while Donald M'Leod went to Stornoway, in Lewis, to obtain a vessel fit to reach France, under colour of a trade in meal with the Orkneys, which he had long exercised. He obtained the vessel, and sent word to the Prince, who set out for Stornoway; but while he was still on his way thither a report reached the place that he was with five hundred men going to attack it. Donald, leaving him in the house of the good old Lady Killdun, went to deal with the Mackenzies, who had risen in arms. They declared that they would not betray the Prince; but in spite of all the offers Donald could make, no one would undertake to pilot the ship; and as two of the boatmen had run away, it was judged unsafe to wait there. So they took leave of Lady Killdun, carrying with them some pieces of a cow that had been killed for them, and for which she was scrupulously paid; also some brandy and sugar; and she finally called Ned Burke aside and gave him a "pint of butter between two fardels of bread." They put off in a boat for the Isle of Eurin, twelve miles off, uninhabited, but used for drying fish, and with a hut in it which served for shelter. The dried fish were to be dressed, and Ned remembered the butter. It proved to be full of crumbs of the bread, and Ned was disgusted at it. "Was it not clean when put there?" said the Prince. Clean enough," answered Ned. "Then you are a child, Ned," said the Prince, who was the best cook in the party, and later contrived a wonderfully good bannock with the cow's brains mixed with meal. He used to drink to the health of "The Black Eye," by which his followers understood him to mean the second daughter of France,probably Anne Henriette, who died in 1752. Their table was a large stone, but the Prince ate alone. When asked whether the others ate with him, Donald answered, "Na; good faith! They! Set them up wi' that, indeed—the fallows-to eat wi' the Prince and the shentlemen! We even kept up the part of the Prince upon the desert islands, and kept twa tables, one for the Prince and the shentlemen, and one for the boatmen." For four days they stayed here, and then went on, taking two dozen fish with them, for which Charles wanted to leave payment, but his attendants did not think this prudent; and they went on revisiting Scalpa and Benbecula, and getting reduced so low for provisions that they were forced to make "drammick" with salt water, and to lick it up; but the Prince, who never complained, gave every one a glass of spirits. Off the Isle of Harris they were chased by a King's ship, but they got into water too shallow for the pursuers, who gave up, little suspecting who was in the boat, while the Prince declared that no one should take him alive. They went on to an islet in Lochuiski Bay, in Uist, where they slept at a poor grasskeeper's bothy, the doorway of which was so low that the faithful followers dug below it to make an entrance for the Prince, and laid heather on the bottom for him to creep upon. Here, and in the mountain of Coradale, in South Uist, they spent three weeks; and the Prince shot a deer, which was being cut up, and the collops cooked, when a half-clothed boy came by, and without a word thrust in his hand to seize some of the meat. Ned Burke gave him a blow to drive him off. "Oh, man!" said the Prince, "you don't remember the Scripture, that we ought to feed the hungry and clothe the naked." He actually not only gave the boy a meal, but caused some clothes to be procured for him; but the lad was one of the very few would-be traitors, for he went and gave information to the Campbells where the Prince was; but, happily, was not believed, and only laughed at. Meanwhile Donald M'Leod went in the boat to the mainland, and saw Lochiel and Murray of Broughton, coming back with letters and such brandy as he had been able to procure. The party then got into the country of the Laird of Boisdale, in Uist; but, to their great disappointment, heard that Boisdale was a prisoner, though he had never taken up arms. His wife, however, sent all the supplies she could; but militia were pouring into the island, and ships of war were in the bay, so that the Prince decided on breaking up his party, which could no longer keep together. On the 24th of June, then, they parted, Ned Burke and the faithful Donald M'Leod " grat sore" when they spoke of the Prince's warm parting and endeavour to reward them. Burke was unnoticed, and spent the rest of his days as a sedan-chair man at Edinburgh; Donald was apprehended in Benbecula by a kinsman of his own, and brought before General Campbell, who examined him closely. When it came to asking him why he had not accepted the £30,000, which would have made him and his children happy for life, the answer was, "What then? Though I had gotten it, I could not enjoy it eight and forty hours. Conscience would have gotten up upon me. I could not have kept it down. And though I could have gotten all England and Scotland for my pains, I would not have allowed a hair of his body to be touched!" CAMEO XLIV. Uist. 1746. CAMEO XLIV. Benbecula. 1746. "I will not say that you are in the wrong," returned the General, who, nevertheless, threatened him with a machine used to torture thieves. Donald told all that related to himself, knowing that it could not hurt the Prince. He was sent off by sea to Tilbury Fort, where, like other prisoners, he suffered horrid cruelties and indignities from the sailors. Many died, but he survived; and after his release there was a subscription for him at Edinburgh, and a London Jacobite, Mr. Walkinshaw, sent him a silver snuff-box, ornamented with engravings of the places, and the inscription of his name, and the words, "The faithful Palinurus, ætat 68, 1746." When Donald showed the box to Bishop Forbes, he was asked why he had no snuff in it. "Sneeshin in that box!" he said. 'Na; the de'il a pickle sneeshin shall go into it till the King be restored; and then (I trust in God) I'll go to London ; and then will I put sneeshin in the box, and go to the Prince, and say, "Sir, will you tak' a sneeshin out of my box ?" Poor Donald! The hope was never realised. Charles remained alone with Captain O'Neil, and knowing that the royal troops were within a mile of him, they walked towards Benbecula, which is only divided from Uist by a ferry, and by and by came to a shieling, or hut, belonging to Mr. Macdonald of Milton, and there they met the sister of the owner, Flora Macdonald, whom O'Neil already knew, and who was on a visit to her brother, and to the wife of Sir Alexander Macdonald of Clanranald, who had never taken up arms, and was now absent. O'Neil asked Flora to contrive to assist the Prince, as her stepfather, Macdonald of Armadale, was captain of an independent company, and could give her a pass. She hesitated at first, lest she should bring Clanranald into danger; but at last she consented. On her way from Milton to Clanranald she was arrested by one of the militia guards at the fords which divide the island; but she desired to see her stepfather, Hugh Macdonald of Armadale, and he actually gave her a pass for herself, her man-servant, and her maid, Betty Burke, writing a letter at the same time to his wife at Armadale, in Skye, telling her that he had sent her an Irish girl to assist in the spinning. Therewith she repaired to Lady Macdonald, and tidings were sent to the Prince, "All's well." They were to meet at Rossinish, in Benbecula. But when the Prince set forth to walk thither he found that both the fords were watched by parties of militia. A man lent a boat, and he safely took them to Rossinish, where the Prince was hidden in a hut. The Lady of Clanranald provided a flowered linen gown, white apron, and cap, and went down with Flora to the hut, attended by O'Neil, and Neal M'Eachan, Flora's servant. They found Charles cooking his dinner-the heart, liver, and kidneys of a bullock-on a wooden spit at a peat fire. The ladies shed tears; but he laughed, and said it was a good lesson for Princes, and invited the ladies to share his meal. They stayed all night; but in the morning the lady of |