The companions of Pickle: Being a sequel to 'Pickle the spy'Lang, Andrew
History
The companions of Pickle: Being a sequel to 'Pickle the spy'
Lang, Andrew
Jacobites
Young Glengarry’s conduct, as far as we know, is stainless, till, after
endeavouring to ‘conform’ in October 1747, he presently poses as a
religiously faithful subject, or devotee, of James in January 1748. He is
starving in London, which he visits in July 1749, his father being soon
after released from Edinburgh Castle. Young Glengarry, in the winter of
1749, visits Cluny at Dalwhinnie, in company with Glenevis, Lochgarry,
and Angus MacIan. Glengarry obtains, by his own admission, a share of
the treasure, and then formally charges Archy Cameron with looting 6,000
_louis d’or_. Archy accuses him of forgery; they carry their quarrel
before James in Rome. Early in 1751 Glengarry, though he is not known
to have taken the oaths, is allowed to reside in London, and announces
his approaching marriage with an English lady. But Glengarry is already
suspected, and he knows it; for when Leslie, the priest, is charged
with treason by the Jacobites, Glengarry says that the blow is aimed
at _him_. Nothing is proved against Leslie, but stories of Glengarry’s
intimacy with Murray the traitor, and the spy Samuel Cameron, called
Crookshanks, are anonymously brought by Blair and Holker. In October 1751
Samuel’s brother, Glenevis and Downan, arrested for their share with
Glengarry in the matter of the French gold, accuse Glengarry of informing
against them. They lie in gaol in Fort William; Glengarry (though the
Government know him to be their accomplice) lives freely in London, and
travels where he pleases.
In November 1752, April 1753, we have the affair of the Elibank Plot. On
one side is Pickle, who is to lead Highlanders in London; Pickle, without
whom his clan, and the North, can do nothing; Pickle, a friend of Prince
Charles, and a correspondent of the exiled King in Rome; Pickle, who is
‘very weake’ after a serious illness in Paris (February-March, 1753);
Pickle, the constant associate of the Earl Marischal; and on the other
side is Glengarry, who claims every one of these notes for himself. Both
Pickle and Glengarry are friends of Baron Kennedy’s. Glengarry is known
to Government to be a trafficker with France, and with the dreaded envoy
of Prussia, the Earl Marischal, but Government consults Pickle in place
of arresting Glengarry. Pickle has had great promises made to him by his
employer, Henry Pelham, so has Glengarry. Both complain of the breach of
these promises after Pelham’s death. Pickle comes and goes to Prince
Charles in France in August 1753. Glengarry is accused, to Government, of
visiting France at the same time as a Jacobite agent. Jacobites are being
arrested all over the country, but not a finger is laid on Glengarry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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