gnty of the British empire.

This very pretty story might have passed with the public as a mere
romance, and, possibly, the two names on the title-page might have
been regarded as mere _noms de plume_, if vague reports had not
previously been circulated which made it apparent that the motive of
the so-called Stuarts was to deceive the public rather than to amuse
them.

There seemed, indeed, to be little ground for believing this romantic
story to be true, and when it was made public it was immediately rent
to pieces. One shrewd critic, in particular, tore the veil aside, and
in the pages of the _Quarterly Review_ revealed the truth. He plainly
showed the imposture, both by direct and collateral evidence, and
traced the sham Stuarts through all the turnings of their tortuous
lives. By him Commodore O'Haleran, who is said to have carried off the
child, is shown to be Admiral Allen, who died in 1800, and who
pretended to have certain claims to the earldom of Errol and the
estates of the Hay family. This gentleman, it seems, had two sons,
Captain John Allen and Lieutenant Thomas Allen, both of whom were
officers in the navy. The younger of these, Thomas, was married on the
2d of October 1792 to Catherine Manning, the daughter of the Vicar of
Godalming. In this gentleman, Lieutenant Thomas Allen, the reviewer
declares the prototype of the mysterious "Red Eagle" may clearly be
recognised; and he works his case out in this way:--The "Red Eagle"
calls himself captain, and is seen in the story in connection with a
man-of-war, and displaying remarkable powers of seamanship during a
storm among the Hebrides; Thomas Allen was a lieutenant in the navy.
The "Red Eagle" passed for the son of Admiral O'Haleran; Thomas Allen
for the son of Admiral Carter Allen. The "Red Eagle" married Catherine
Bruce, sometime after the summer of 1790; Thomas Allen married
Catherine Manning in 1792. In the last of the three "Tales of the
Century," Admiral O'Haleran and the mysterious guide of Dr. Beaton are
represented as endeavouring to prevent the "Red Eagle" from injuring
the prospects of his house by such a _mesalliance_ as they considered
his marriage with Catherine Bruce would be; and there is a scene in
which the royal birth of the "Red Eagle" is spoken of without
concealment, and in which the admiral begs his "foster son" not to
destroy, by such a marriage, the last hope that was withering on his
_father's_ foreign tomb. In his will Admiral Al