The Lyon in Mourning, Vol. 1: or a collection of speeches, letters, journals, etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward StuartForbes, Robert
History
The Lyon in Mourning, Vol. 1: or a collection of speeches, letters, journals, etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Forbes, Robert
Charles Edward, Prince, grandson of James II, King of England, 1720-1788; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Sources
Next morning Mrs. MacDonald went to Miss Flora's bedside before she
got up and asked of her an account of the adventure. Miss (among
other things) told her that there was not any other probable way
of saving the Prince but that single one which had been used, and
that it had the appearance of a desperate attempt at best: that Lady
Clanronald provided them with women's cloathes for the disguise, and
that she had contributed all in her power for preserving the Prince
out of the hands of his enemies. Mrs. MacDonald desired to know what
was become of the boat and the rowers. 'They returned directly,' said
Miss Flora, 'to South Uist.' Mrs. MacDonald declared great concern to
hear that, because upon their return they would immediately be seized
by the military and harshly used to tell what they knew. 'I wish,'
said Mrs. MacDonald, 'you had sunk the boat and kept the boatmen in
Sky where they could have been concealed, and then we would have
known [Sidenote: _fol._ 212.] the better what to have done with the
Prince, because his enemies by this means would have lost scent of
him. But all will be wrong by their returning to South Uist.' 'I hope
not,' said Miss, 'for we took care to depone them before they parted
from us.' 'Alas!' replied Mrs. MacDonald, 'your deponing of them will
not signifie a farthing. For if once the military get hold of them
they will terrifie them out of their senses and make them forget
their oath.'
As Mrs. MacDonald said, so it happened. The boatmen were made
prisoners instantly upon their landing in South Uist and threatened
with tortures if they did not declare everything they knew, which (to
avoid pain, and perhaps death itself) they complied with. From their
declaration no doubt it happen'd that his enemies could specifie the
particular parts of the dress the Prince was disguised in, even to
the nicety of telling the colour of the gown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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