Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/118

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land followed them slowly and surely. At last the rebels were brought to bay on Culloden Moor, 16 April 1746. Charles, though his forces were diminished by desertion and weakened by fatigue, resolved to offer battle. The clans, outnumbered and outgeneralled, suffered a severe and complete defeat, and the cause of the prince lost its last and only hope. After the action the highlanders were found lying in layers three and four deep. Horrorstruck and overwhelmed by the sight of the slaughter of his brave followers, the unhappy prince left the battle-field of Culloden with a few members of his staff. A vain attempt to rally his scattered forces at Ruthven was the last struggle of Charles to maintain an organised opposition to the advance of the royal troops. He fled and remained for months—from April to September 1746—hiding in various islands of the Hebrides and among the crags of the western highlands. He was hunted from place to place by the Hanoverian soldiery; an enormous sum was placed on his head; but, in spite of poverty and ignorance, the loyalty of the highlanders was proof against all temptation. At last Charles was fortunate enough in getting on board a French ship, and arrived safely at Morlaix in Brittany. Thence he proceeded to Paris, where he was cordially received by Louis XV, who renewed his assurances of assistance. Charles, however, was not unreasonably suspicious of a court which had fulfilled none of its promises of aid. He was now informed by Cardinal Tencin that Louis might be induced to grant him help on one condition. ‘And that condition? eagerly asked the prince. ‘That Ireland be ceded to France,’ replied the cardinal, ‘as a compensation for the expense the court at Versailles must necessarily be put to.’ The prince rose angrily from his seat and cried out, ‘Non, Monsieur le cardinal, tout ou rien! point de partage! point de partage!’ The king of France continued, however, to accord his visitor ‘moral support’ until 1748, when, in accordance with the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Charles was requested to leave France. The prince resolved to disobey the order. He refused to listen to all expostulations, and was at last expelled by force, removing to Avignon. An objection was raised by the English government to his stay in this city, and Charles departed of his own accord, no one knew whither. For the next few years his movements are wrapped in mystery, which recent investigation has only partially unveiled. For some time he was living secretly in Paris, though not unknown to the French government, with his mistress, Miss Walkenshaw, who had joined him soon after his return from Scotland. It is certain that he was in London in 1750, and that at this time he declared himself a protestant, under the idea that by so doing he would greatly improve his chance of obtaining the English crown. Evidence has also presented itself that he was in London in 1752 and 1754 to rouse the English Jacobites into action, but without success. Indeed his friends were disgusted with his conduct. Charles was now an inveterate drunkard; it is said that he acquired his drinking habits when exposed to the cold and wet in Scotland during the anxious months of his fugitive life. His union with Miss Walkenshaw also tended to alienate his followers. The sister of this lady was housekeeper to the Princess Dowager of Wales, and the English Jacobites, suspecting that the prince's mistress was playing false to the cause, tried to induce Charles to send her away. He refused, not, as he admitted himself, because he loved her, but because he declined to be dictated to even by his most trusted friends. In 1756 we find him making Switzerland his home, and living for the most part at Basle, with occasional visits to Paris. His ill-regulated home was now to be broken up. Miss Walkenshaw, unable to bear the brutality of the prince, left him in 1760 and took refuge with her infant daughter in the abbey of Meaux. In 1766 the Chevalier St. George died, and Charles, now titular king of England, took up his abode at Rome, expecting to be acknowledged by Benedict XIV. He was bitterly disappointed. The counsellors of the pope saw clearly that to incur the hostility of England for the sake of a creature like the present representative of the house of Stuart was not calculated to benefit the interests of the holy see, and the sovereignty of Charles was rigidly ignored by the Vatican. For some months the prince refused to visit the pope, but at length, moved by the remonstrances of his brother Henry, now created Cardinal York, and whose entry into the Romish hierarchy had given a great blow to the cause, he in 1767 agreed to pay his respects to his holiness, and became once more a member of Roman society. It was not the wish of France to see the Stuart line extinct, and Charles, on promise of a pension from the French court, married in 1772 Louisa, princess of Stolberg, whose beauty and wit won the heart of Alfieri. For a short time Charles lived happily with his wife, but he soon became enslaved again by his love of drink, and commenced that course of ill-usage which eventually compelled the princess to separate herself from her husband. In 1777 the Countess of Albany met