Pickle the Spy; Or, the Incognito of Prince Charles Part 6

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 Mult.i.tude 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 a.s.ses 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 a.s.sures that he will expose n.o.body but himself, supposing the worst.' Sir Charles Goring is to send a s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p 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 'friends.h.i.+p 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 n.o.body 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 quant.i.ties of arms in June, no real preparations had been made for a rising. His Highlanders--Glengarry, Lochgarry, Archy Cameron, Clanra.n.a.ld--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 const.i.tutionalism 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 Ches.h.i.+re 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 a.s.sertion 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 const.i.tutional 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 'const.i.tutional 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'a.s.surant 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.