y brilliant period of their lives, like the course of a
shooting-star, at which men wonder, as well on account of the
briefness, as the brilliancy of its splendour. A long tract of darkness
overshadowed the subsequent life of a man who, in his youth, showed
himself so capable of great undertakings; and, without the painful task
of tracing his course farther, we may say the latter pursuits and habits
of this unhappy prince are those painfully evincing a broken heart,
which seeks refuge from its own thoughts in sordid enjoyments.

Still, however, it was long ere Charles Edward appeared to be, perhaps
it was long ere he altogether became, so much degraded from his original
self; as he enjoyed for a time the lustre attending the progress and
termination of his enterprise. Those who thought they discerned in his
subsequent conduct an insensibility to the distresses of his followers,
coupled with that egotistical attention to his own interests which has
been often attributed to the Stuart family, and which is the natural
effect of the principles of divine right in which they were brought up,
were now generally considered as dissatisfied and splenetic persons,
who, displeased with the issue of their adventure and finding themselves
involved in the ruins of a falling cause, indulged themselves in
undeserved reproaches against their leader. Indeed, such censures were
by no means frequent among those of his followers who, if what was
alleged had been just, had the best right to complain. Far the greater
number of those unfortunate gentlemen suffered with the most dignified
patience, and were either too proud to take notice of ill-treatment an
the part of their prince, or so prudent as to be aware their complaints
would meet with little sympathy from the world. It may be added, that
the greater part of the banished Jacobites, and those of high rank and
consequence, were not much within reach of the influence of the prince's
character and conduct, whether well regulated or otherwise.

In the meantime that great Jacobite conspiracy, of which the
insurrection of 1745-6 was but a small part precipitated into action on
the failure of a far more general scheme, was resumed and again put into
motion by the Jacobites of England, whose force had never been broken,
as they had prudently avoided bringing it into the field. The surprising
effect which had been produced by small means, in 1745-6, animated their
hopes for more important success