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
As they were marching along and talking of the fatigues the Prince
was obliged to undergoe, he said: 'MacLeod, do you not think that God
Almighty has made this person of mine for doing some good yet? When
I was in Italy, and dining at the king's table, very often the sweat
would have been coming through my coat with the heat of the climate;
and now that I am in a cold country, of a more piercing and trying
climate, and exposed to different kinds of fatigues, I really find
I agree equally with both. I have had this philibeg on now for some
days, and I find I do as well with it as any the best breeches I ever
put on. I hope in God, MacLeod, to walk the streets of London with
it yet.' Then he remarked that the waistcoat he had upon him was too
fine for a servant, being a scarlet tartan with a gold twist button,
and proposed to the master to change with him, the better to carry on
the disguise, which accordingly was done, the master's vest not being
so fine as the servant's. When the Prince was making the exchange he
said, 'I hope, MacLeod, to give you a much better vest for this yet.'
The Captain remarked it was proper they should pass the road that
leads to the Laird of MacLeod's country in the night time for fear
of parties spying them; which accordingly they did by break of day.
And the Prince looking about him, and [Sidenote: _fol._ 240.] seeing
nothing but hills all around them said, 'I am sure, the Devil cannot
find us out now.'
As they were coming near Strath, MacKinnon's country, the Captain
suggested to the Prince that now he was coming to a country where
he would be known and consequently liable to be discovered in every
corner of it, as MacKinnon and his men had been out in his service,
and therefore some shift behoved to be faln upon to disguise him
more and more still. The Prince proposed blacking his face with some
one thing or another. But the Captain was against that proposal as
what would serve rather to discover him all at once than to conceal
him. The Prince then pulling off the periwig and putting it into his
pocket took out a dirty white napkin and desired the Captain to tye
that about his head, and to bring it down upon his eyes and nose.
He put the bonnet on above the napkin and said, 'I think I will now
pass well enough for your servant, and that I am sick with the much
fatigue I have undergone. Look at me, MacLeod, and tell me what you
think. How will it do?' MacLeod told him--this would not do yet, for
that those who had ever seen him before would still discover his face
for all the disguise he was in. The Prince said, 'This is an odd
remarkable face I have got that nothing [Sidenote: _fol._ 241.] can
disguise it. I heard Mr. MacLeod declare more than once that the
Prince could do any thing or turn himself into any shape, but that of
dissembling his air.' That he could never disguise with all the arts
he could use. 'There is not a person,' he said, 'that knows what the
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