ng expedition, was, literally bound hand
and foot, and to which he seems disposed to yield credit. Now, it being a
fact as well known as any in his history, and, so far as I know, entirely
undisputed, that the Prince's personal entreaties and urgency positively
forced Boisdale and Lochiel into insurrection, when they were earnestly
desirous that he would put off his attempt until he could obtain a
sufficient force from France, it will be very difficult to reconcile his
alleged reluctance to undertake the expedition with his desperately
insisting upon carrying the rising into effect against the advice and
entreaty of his most powerful and most sage partizans. Surely a man who
had been carried bound on board the vessel which brought him to so
desperate an enterprise would have taken the opportunity afforded by the
reluctance of his partizans to return to France in safety.

It is averred in Johnstone's Memoirs that Charles Edward left the field
of Culloden without doing the utmost to dispute the victory; and, to give
the evidence on both sides, there is in existence the more trustworthy
testimony of Lord Elcho, who states that he himself earnestly exhorted
the Prince to charge at the head of the left wing, which was entire, and
retrieve the day or die with honour. And on his counsel being declined,
Lord Elcho took leave of him with a bitter execration, swearing he would
never look on his face again, and kept his word.

On the other hand, it seems to have been the opinion of almost all the
other officers that the day was irretrievably lost, one wing of the
Highlanders being entirely routed, the rest of the army outnumbered,
outflanked, and in a condition totally hopeless. In this situation of
things the Irish officers who surrounded Charles's person interfered to
force him off the field. A cornet who was close to the Prince left a
strong attestation that he had seen Sir Thomas Sheridan seize the bridle
of his horse and turn him round. There is some discrepancy of evidence;
but the opinion of Lord Elcho, a man of fiery temper and desperate at the
ruin which he beheld impending, cannot fairly be taken in prejudice of a
character for courage which is intimated by the nature of the enterprise
itself, by the Prince's eagerness to fight on all occasions, by his
determination to advance from Derby to London, and by the presence of
mind which he manifested during the romantic perils of his escape. The
author is far from claiming fo