ence in favor of such stories is of the
slightest; there is nothing in the prince's earlier conduct to justify
the accusation, and there is sufficient evidence in favor of the much
more likely version that Charles was with difficulty prevented from
casting away his life in one desperate charge when the fortune of the
day was decided. It is part of a prince's business to be brave, and if
Charles Stuart had been lacking in that essential quality of
sovereignty he could scarcely have concealed the want until the day of
Culloden, or have inspired the clans with the personal enthusiasm which
they so readily evinced for him. Nor is it necessary for us to follow
out in full the details of the unhappy young man's miserable flight and
final escape. Through all those stormy and terrible days, over which
poetry and romance have so often and so fondly lingered, the fugitive
found that he had still in the season of his misfortune friends as
devoted as he had known in the hours of his triumph. His adventures in
woman's dress, his escape from the English ship, the touching devotion
of Flora Macdonald, the loyalty of Lochiel, the fidelity of Cluny
Macpherson--all these things have been immortalized in a thousand tales
and ballads, and will be remembered in the North Country so long as
tales and ballads continue to charm. At last, at Lochnanuagh, the
prince embarked upon a French ship that had been sent for him, and
early in the October of 1746 he landed in Brittany.

[Sidenote: 1746--Cumberland's vengeance]

The horrors that followed Culloden suggest more the blood feuds of some
savage tribes than the results of civilized warfare. Cumberland,
flushed by a victory that was as unexpected as it was easy, was
resolved to kill, and not to scotch, the snake of Jacobite
insurrection. The flying rebels were hotly pursued--no quarter was
given; the wounded on the field of battle were left cold in their
wounds for two days, and then mercilessly butchered. There is a story,
which might well be true, and {227} which tells that as Cumberland was
going over the field of dead and dying he saw a wounded Highlander
staring at him. Cumberland immediately turned to the officer next to
him, and ordered him to shoot the wounded man. The officer, with an
honorable courage and dignity, answered that he would rather resign his
commission than obey. The officer of the story was the heroic Wolfe,
who was afterwards to become a famous general and die