len bequeathed his
whole fortune to his eldest son, and only left a legacy of L100 to
Thomas; so that it may reasonably be inferred that his displeasure had
been excited against his youngest born by some such event as an
imprudent marriage. This Thomas Allen had two sons, of whom the elder
published a volume of poems in 1822, to which he put his name as John
Hay Allen, Esq.; while the marriage of the other is noted in
_Blackwood's Magazine_ for the same year, when he figures as "Charles
Stuart, youngest son of Thomas Hay Allen, Esq." These are the
gentlemen who, more than twenty years later, placed their names to the
"Tales of the Century," and styled themselves John Sobieski Stuart and
Charles Edward Stuart, thus seeking to persuade the world that they
were the direct heirs of Prince Charlie.

There can be no doubt as to their motive; but is it probable, or even
possible, that the occurrences which they describe with so much
minuteness could ever have taken place? The imaginary Dr. Beaton's
story as to the birth is altogether uncorroborated. What became of the
attendants on the Princess Louisa, of the lady who was in the
bed-chamber, of the nurse who held the child in her arms, and of the
little page who announced the advent of the royal heir to the
mysterious guide? They knew the nature of the important event which is
said to have taken place, yet they all died with sealed lips, nor,
even "in the service of the king," revealed the fact that an heir had
been born. The officers and crew of the frigate, also, must have
gossiped about the commodore's midnight adventure, and the strange
shipment of a lady and child off the Italian coast on a moonlight
night; but not one of them ever gave a sign or betrayed the fact. Such
secrecy is, to say the least, very unusual. Then, returning to Prince
Charlie himself, it is indisputable that when his wife left him in
disgust in 1780, he had no recourse to his imaginary son to cheer his
old age, but turned instinctively to Charlotte Stuart, his
illegitimate child, for sympathy. In July 1784 he executed a deed,
with all the necessary forms, legitimating this person, and bestowing
upon her the title of Albany, by which he had himself been known for
fourteen years, with the rank of duchess. To legitimate his natural
daughter, and give her the reversion of his own title, was very unlike
the action of a _pseudo_-king who had a lawful son alive. In 1784,
also, when the pretender executed hi