dness of
the Court of France, and the rashness of the Prince, gave great sorrow
to his harassed mind. Soon after his arrival in Paris he opened a
correspondence with the Chevalier St. George, and represented to him
that the misfortunes which had befallen the cause were not
irretrievable, and that if ten regiments only could be landed in
Scotland before the depopulating system adopted by the English
Government had taken effect, an insurrection might again be raised with
good grounds for the hope of success.

Still hoping thus to return to his country, and again to take arms in
her service, as he deemed it, it was long before Lochiel consented to
accept the command of the French regiment, "intending still," as he
said, "to share the fate of his people." "I told his Royal Highness," he
wrote to the Chevalier St. George, "that Lord Ogilvy or others might
incline to make a figure in France, but my ambition was to save the
crown and serve my country, or perish with it. His Royal Highness said,
he was doing all he could, but persisted in his resolution to procure me
a regiment. If it is obtained, I shall accept it out of respect to the
Prince; but I hope your Majesty will approve of the resolution I have
taken to share in the fate of the people I have undone, and, if they
must be sacrificed, to fall along with them. This is the only way I can
free myself from the reproach of their blood, and show the disinterested
zeal with which I have lived, and shall dye.

"Your Majesty's most humble, most obedient, and most faithful
servant."[296]

When Prince Charles, disheartened at the growing indifference of the
French Court to his interests, contemplated leaving Paris, Lochiel
objected to a proposal which seemed to imply an abandonment of the
cause which he had pledged himself to support. His representations to
the Prince were ineffectual, for a stronger influence had arisen to
baffle the endeavours of Charles's friends; and he was under the sway of
one who was, not inaptly, termed "his Delilah." He left Paris and
arrived at Avignon, to which place Lochiel addressed to him a letter
full of the most cogent reasons why he should not leave Paris. From his
arguments it appears that the English Jacobites had expressed their
willingness to rise, had the Prince either supplied them with arms or
brought them troops to support them.

"For Heaven's sake, sir," wrote Lochiel,[297] "be pleased to consider
these circumstances with the attenti