t well out to sea, and so escaped further molestation. The first
land they sighted was the south end of the Long Island. Gazing with
eager eyes on the Promised Land, old Lord Tullibardine was the first to
notice a large Hebridean eagle which flew above the ship as they
approached. 'Sir,' he said, 'it is a good omen; the king of birds has
come to welcome your royal highness to Scotland.'

Charles had need of all happy auguries, for on his arrival in Scotland
things did not seem very hopeful. With his usual rash confidence he had
very much exaggerated the eagerness of his friends and supporters to
welcome him in whatever guise he might come. Never had fallen kings more
faithful and unselfish friends than had the exiled Stuarts in the
Highland chiefs and Jacobite lairds of Scotland, but even they were
hardly prepared to risk life and property with a certainty of failure
and defeat. Let the Prince appear with 5,000 French soldiers and French
money and arms, and they would gather round him with alacrity, but they
were prudent men and knew too well the strength of the existing
Government to think that they could overturn it unaided.

The first man to tell the Prince this unwelcome truth was Macdonald of
Boisdale, to whom he sent a message as soon as he landed in Uist. This
Boisdale was brother of the old Clanranald, chief of the loyal clan
Macdonald of Clanranald. If these, his stoutest friends, hesitated to
join his expedition Charles should have felt that his cause was
desperate indeed. But his mind was made up with all the daring of his
five-and-twenty years, and all the ill-fated obstinacy of his race. For
hours he argued with the old Highlander as the ship glided over the
waters of the Minch. He enumerated the friends he could count on, among
them the two most powerful chiefs of the North, Macdonald of Sleat, and
the Macleod. 'They have both declared for the existing Government,' was
the sad reply. Before taking leave of the Prince, Boisdale again urged
his returning 'home.' 'I am come _home_,' replied Charles passionately,
'and can entertain no notion of returning. I am persuaded that my
faithful Highlanders will stand by me.'

[Illustration: 'I WILL, THOUGH NOT ANOTHER MAN IN THE HIGHLANDS SHOULD
DRAW A SWORD']

On July 19 the 'Doutelle' cast anchor in Loch na-Nuagh, in the country
of the loyal Macdonalds. The first thing Charles did was to send a
letter to the young Clanranald to beg his immediate presence. The nex