on. He was therefore set at liberty, and retired
into private life. Whether he was an impostor, or was merely the
victim of a hallucination, it is very difficult to say. In any case he
failed to prove himself the Earl of Stirling.

THE SO-CALLED HEIRS OF THE STUARTS.

After the disastrous battle of Culloden, Charles Edward Stuart, or
"The Young Pretender," as he was commonly styled by his opponents,
fled from the field, and after many hair-breadth escapes succeeded in
reaching the Highlands, where he wandered to and fro for many weary
months. A reward of L30,000 was set upon his head, his enemies dogged
his footsteps like bloodhounds, and often he was so hard pressed by
the troops that he had to take refuge in caves and barns, and
sometimes was compelled to avoid all shelter but that afforded him by
the forests and brackens on the bleak hillsides. But the people
remained faithful to his cause, and, even when danger seemed most
imminent, succeeded in baffling his pursuers, and ultimately in
effecting his escape. Accompanied by Cameron of Lochiel, and a few of
his most faithful adherents, he managed to smuggle himself on board a
little French privateer, and was at last landed in safety at a place
called Roseau, near Morlaix, in France. He was treated with great
respect at the French court, until the King of France, by the Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle, disowned all rivals of the House of Hanover. The
prince protested against this treaty, and braved the French court. He
was accordingly ordered, in no very ceremonious terms, to leave the
country, and betook himself to Italy, where he gave himself up to
drunkenness, debauchery, and excesses of the lowest kind. In 1772 he
married the Princess Louisa Maximilian de Stolberg, by whom he had no
children, and with whom he lived very unhappily. He died from the
effects of his own self-indulgence, and without male issue, in 1788.
His father, the Chevalier de St. George, had pre-deceased him in 1766,
and his younger brother the Cardinal York, having been debarred from
marriage, it was supposed that at the death of the cardinal the royal
House of Stuart had passed away.

But, in 1847, a book appeared, entitled "Tales of the Century; or,
Sketches of the Romance of History between the Years 1746 and 1846, by
John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart," and it immediately created a
considerable stir in literary circles. It was at once evident that the
three stories which the work con