by
English _cordons_, through which he slipped at night up the bed of a
burn, when the sentinels had reached their furthest point apart, Charles
led a little expedition which cut off the cattle intended for the
provender of his enemies. (MS. "Lyon in Mourning.") He would not even
let a companion carry his great-coat. He knew every extremity of hunger,
thirst, and cold; and perhaps his most miserable experience was to lurk
for many hours, devoured by midges, under a wet rock. Unshorn, unwashed,
in a filthy shirt, his last, he was yet the courteous prince in his
dealings with all women whom he met, notably with Flora Macdonald, the
stainless and courageous heroine of loyalty and womanly kindness. At
last, late in September, 1746, Charles, with Lochiel and many others,
escaped in a French barque from Loch Nahuagh, where he had first landed.
It has been said of him by his enemies, especially by Dr. King, a
renegade, that he was avaricious and ungrateful. Letters and receipts in
the muniment room of a Highland chief show him directing large sums,
probably out of the Loch Arkaig treasure, to be paid to Lochiel, to
"Keppoch's lady," and to many poor clansmen. The receipts, written in
hiding, and dried with snuff or sand, attest that the money came to the
persons for whom it was intended.

Charles' expedition could only be justified by success. That it failed
was due to no want of courage, or audacity, or resolve on his part, but
to the very nature of a Highland army, to the jealousies of Irish and
Scotch, to the half-heartedness of his English partisans, and to the
English horror of his father's religion. By his own creed he held very
loosely.

[Illustration: The First Meeting of Prince Charles with Flora MacDonald.]

In France Charles was a popular hero, and adored by ladies. His
appearance at court was magnificent, and for him the Princesse de
Tallemant made every sacrifice. But the Government was deaf to his
appeals, a journey to Spain was fruitless; worst of all, his brother
Henry, to whom he had been tenderly devoted, accepted a cardinal's hat,
on July 3, 1747. This was fatal. The English would never forgive a son
of their so-called king who became a Romish priest; and the shadow of
the hat fell on Charles. From letters of James to the prince, it is
plain that, for some reason, the Duke of York could not look forward to
marriage and to continuing the Stuart family. The young man, therefore,
having also a vocation with