uence) was, that he did
not seem to have the least sense of what they had done for him; but,
after all, would afterwards say they had done nothing but their duty, as
his father's subjects were bound to do.

"And there were people about him that took advantage to represent the
Scotch to him as a mutinous people, and that it was not so much for him
they were fighting as for themselves; and repeated to him all their bad
behaviour to Charles the First and Charles the Second, and put it to him
in the worst light, that at the battle of Culloden he thought that all
the Scots in general were a parcel of traitors. And he would have
continued in the same mind had he got out of the country immediately;
but the care they took of his person when he was hiding made him change
his mind, and affix treason only to particulars."[246]

After the battle was decided, and the plain of Culloden abandoned to the
fury of an enemy more merciless and insatiable than any who ever before
or after answered to an English name, the Prince retired across a moor
in the direction of Fort Augustus, and, according to Maxwell, slept that
night at the house of Fraser of Gortuleg; and there for the first time
saw Lord Lovat. But this interview is declared by Arbuthnot, who appears
to have gathered his facts chiefly from local information, in the
Castle of Downie; and the testimony of Sir Walter Scott confirms the
assertion. "A lady," writes Sir Walter, "who, then a girl, was residing
in Lord Lovat's family, described to us the unexpected appearance of
Prince Charles and his flying attendants at Castle Downie. The wild and
desolate vale on which she was gazing with indolent composure, was at
once so suddenly filled with horsemen riding furiously towards the
Castle, that, impressed with the idea that they were fairies, who,
according to men, are visible only from one twinkle of the eyelid to
another, she strove to refrain from the vibration which she believed
would occasion the strange and magnificent apparition to become
invisible. To Lord Lovat it brought a certainty more dreadful than the
presence of fairies or even demons. The tower on which he had depended
had fallen to crush him, and he only met the Chevalier to exchange
mutual condolences."[247]

The Prince, it is affirmed, rushed into the chamber where Lovat,
supported by men, for he could not stand without assistance, awaited his
approach. The unhappy fugitive broke into lamentations. "My Lord," he