From the gossip of dArgenson we have learned that Charles was no longer the same man as the gallant leader of the race to Derby, or the gay and resourceful young Ascanius who won the hearts of the Highlanders by his cheerful courage and contented endurance. He was now embittered by defeat; by suspicions of treachery which the Irish about him kindled and fanned, by the broken promises of Louis XV., by the indifference of Spain. He had become a wild man, as his fathers secretary, Edgar, calls him Our dear wild man. He spelled the name Lome sauvage. He was, in brief, a desperate, a soured, and a homeless outcast. His chief French friends were ladies Madame de Vassé, Madame de Talmond, and others. Montesquieu, living in their society, and sending wine from his estate to the Jacobite Lord Elibank; rejoicing, too, in an Irish Jacobite housekeeper, Mlle. Betti, was well disposed, like Voltaire, in an indifferent well-bred way. Most of these people were, later, protecting and patronising the Prince when concealed from the view of Europe, but theirs was a vague and futile alliance. Charles and his case were desperate.
In this mood, and in this situation at Avignon, he carried into practice the counsel which dArgenson had elaborated in a written memoir. I gave them (Charles and Henry) the best possible advice, says La Bête. My Mémoire I entrusted to OBrien at Antwerp. Therein I suggested that the two princes should never return to Italy, but that for some years they should lead a hidden and wandering life between France and Spain. Charles might be given a pension and the vicariat of Navarre. This should only be allowed to slip out by degrees, while England would grow accustomed to the notion that they were not in Rome, and would be reduced to mere doubts as to their place of residence. Now they would be in Spain, now in France, finally in some town of Navarre, where their authority would, by slow degrees, be admitted. Peace once firmly established, it would not be broken over this question. They would be in a Huguenot country, and able to pass suddenly into Great Britain. 46
This was dArgensons advice before Henry fled Rome to be made a cardinal, and before the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, closing Europe against Charles, was concluded. The object of dArgenson is plain; he wished to keep Charles out of the Popes domains, as England wanted to drive the Prince into the centre of Popery. If he resided in Rome, Protestant England would always suspect Charles; moreover, he would be remote from the scene of action. To the Popes domains, therefore, Charles would not go. But the scheme of skulking in France, Spain, and Navarre had ceased to be possible. He, therefore, adopted the fugitive and hidden life recommended by dArgenson; he secretly withdrew from Avignon, and for many months his places of residence were unknown.
Charles, says Voltaire, hid himself from the whole world. We propose to reveal his hiding-places.
CHAPTER III
THE PRINCE IN FAIRYLAND FEBRUARY 1749-SEPTEMBER 1750 I. WHAT THE WORLD SAID
Europe after Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle A vast gambling establishment Charles excluded Possible chance in Poland Supposed to have gone thither Henry Gorings letter Romantic adventures attributed to Charles Obvious blunders Talk of a marriage Count Brühls opinion Proposal to kidnap Charles To rob a priest The King of Polands ideas Lord Hyndford on Frederick the Great Lord Hyndfords mares nest Charles at Berlin Send him to Siberia The theory contradicted Mischievous glee of Frederick Charles discountenances plots to kill Cumberland Father Myles Macdonnell to James London conspiracy Reported from Rome The Bloody Butcher Club Guesses of Sir Horace Mann Charles and a strike Charles reported to be very ill Really on the point of visiting England September 1750.
Europe, after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, was like a vast political gambling establishment. Nothing, or nothing but the expulsion of Prince Charles from every secular State, had been actually settled. Nobody was really satisfied with the Peace. The populace, in France as in England, was discontented. Princes were merely resting and looking round for new combinations of forces. The various Courts, from St. Petersburg to Dresden, from London to Vienna, were so many tables where the great game of national faro was being played, over the heads of the people, by kings, queens, abbés, soldiers, diplomatists, and pretty women. Projects of new alliances were shuffled and cut, like the actual cards which were seldom out of the hands of the players, when Casanova or Barry Lyndon held the bank, and challenged all comers. It was the age of adventurers, from the mendacious Casanova to the mysterious Saint-Germain, from the Chevalier dEon to Charles Edward Stuart. That royal player was warned off the turf, as it were, ruled out of the game. Where among all these attractive tables was one on which Prince Charles, in 1749, might put down his slender stake, his name, his sword, the lives of a few thousand Highlanders, the fortunes of some faithful gentlemen? Who would accept Charless empty alliance, which promised little but a royal title and a desperate venture? The Prince had wildly offered his hand to the Czarina; he was to offer that hand, vainly stretched after a flying crown, to a Princess of Prussia, and probably to a lady of Poland.
At this moment the Polish crown was worn by Augustus of Saxony, who was reckoned a bad life. The Polish throne, the Polish alliance, had been, after various unlucky adventures since the days of Henri III. and the Duc dAlençon, practically abandoned by France. But Louis XV. was beginning to contemplate that extraordinary intrigue in which Conti aimed at the crown of Poland, and the Comte de Broglie was employed (1752) to undermine and counteract the schemes of Louiss official representatives. 47 As a Sobieski by his mothers side, the son of the exiled James (who himself had years before been asked to stand as a candidate for the kingdom of Poland), Charles was expected by politicians to make for Warsaw when he fled from Avignon. It is said, on the authority of a Polish manuscript, communicated by Baron de Rondeau, that there was a conspiracy in Poland to unseat Augustus III. and give the crown to Prince Charles. 48 In 1719, Charless maternal grandfather had declined a Russian proposal to make a dash for the crown, so the chivalrous Wogan narrates. In 1747 (June 6), Chambrier had reported to Frederick the Great that Cardinal Tencin was opposed to the ambition of the Saxon family, which desired to make the elective crown of Poland hereditary in its house. The Cardinal said that, in his opinion, there was a Prince who would figure well in Poland, le jeune Edouard (Prince Charles), who had just made himself known, and in whom there was the stuff of a man. 49 But Frederick the Great declined to interfere in Polish matters, and Tencin was only trying to get rid of Charles without a rupture. In May 1748, Frederick refused to see Graeme, a Jacobite who was sent to demand a refuge for the Prince in Prussia. 50 Without Frederick and without Sweden, Charles in 1749 could do nothing serious in Poland.
The distracted politics of Poland, however, naturally drew the attention of Europe to that country when Charles, on February 28, vanished out of Avignon into fairyland, like Frederick after Molwitz. Every Court in Europe was vainly searched for the boy that cannot be found. The newsletters naturally sent him to Poland, so did Jacobite myth.
The distracted politics of Poland, however, naturally drew the attention of Europe to that country when Charles, on February 28, vanished out of Avignon into fairyland, like Frederick after Molwitz. Every Court in Europe was vainly searched for the boy that cannot be found. The newsletters naturally sent him to Poland, so did Jacobite myth.
The purpose of this chapter is to record the guesses made by diplomatists at Charless movements, and the expedients by which they vainly endeavoured to discover him. We shall next lift, as far as possible, the veil which has concealed for a century and a half adventures in themselves unimportant enough. In spite of disappointments and dark hours of desertion, Charles, who was much of a boy, probably enjoyed the mystery which he now successfully created. If he could not startle Europe by a brilliant appearance on any stage, he could keep it talking and guessing by a disappearance. He obviously relished secrecy, pass-words, disguises, the properties of the conspirator, in the spirit of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He came of an evasive race. His grandfather, as Duke of York, had fled from England disguised as a girl. His father had worn many disguises in many adventures. He had been Betty Burke.
Though it is certain that, in March 1749 (the only month when he almost evades us), Charles could not have visited Berlin, Livadia, Stockholm, the reader may care to be reminded of a contemporary Jacobite romance in which he is made to do all these things. A glance should be cast on the pamphlet called A Letter from H. G g, Esq. (London, 1750). The editor announces that the letter has been left in his lodgings by a mistake; it has not been claimed, as the person for whom it was meant has gone abroad, and so the editor feels free to gratify the curiosity of the town. The piece, in truth, is a Jacobite tract, meant to keep up the spirits of the faithful, and it is probable that the author really had some information, though he is often either mistaken, or fables by way of a blind. About February 11, says the scribe (nominally Henry Goring, Charless equerry, an ex-officer of the Queen of Hungary), a mysterious stranger, the Chevalier de la Luze, came to Avignon, and was received by the Prince with extraordinary marks of distinction. He understood not one word of English, which destroys, if true, the theory that the Earl Marischal, or Marshal Keith, is intended. French and Italian he spoke well, but with a foreign accent. Kelly ventured to question the Prince about the stranger, but was rebuffed. One day, probably February 24, the stranger received despatches, and vanished as he had come. The Prince gave a supper (dArgensons ball), and, when his guests had retired, summoned Goring into his study. He told Goring that there were spies about him (the Earl Marischal, we know, distrusted Kelly); he rallied him on a love-affair, and said that Goring only should be his confidant. Next morning, very early, they two started for Lyons, disguised as French officers. As far as Lyons, indeed, the French police actually traced them. 51 But, according to the pamphlet, they did not stop in Lyons; they rested at a small town two leagues further on, whence the Prince sent dispatches to Kelly at Avignon. Engaging a new valet, Charles pushed to Strasbourg, where he again met La Luze, now described as a person whose extraordinary talents had gained him the confidence one of the wisest Princes in Europe, obviously pointing to Frederick of Prussia, the master of Marshal Keith, and the friend and host of his brother, the Earl Marischal. At Strasbourg, Charles rescued a pretty young lady from a fire; she lost her heart at once to the Comte dEspoir (his travelling title), but the Prince behaved like Scipio, not to mention a patriarch famous for his continence. I am no stoic, said His Royal Highness to La Luze, but I have always been taught that pleasures, how pardonable soever in themselves, become highly criminal when indulged to the prejudice of another, adding many other noble and unimpeachable sentiments.
After a romantic adventure with English or Scottish assassins, in which His Royal Highness shot a few of them, the travellers arrived at Leipzig. La Luze now assumed his real name, and carried Charles, by cross roads, to a certain Court, where he spent ten days with much satisfaction. He stayed at the house of La Luze (Berlin and the Earl Marischal appear to be hinted at, but the Marischal told Pickle that he had never seen Charles at Berlin), secret business was done, and then, through territories friendly or hostile, a certain port was reached. They sailed (from Dantzig?), were driven into a hostile port (Riga?), escaped and made another port (Stockholm?) where they met Lochgarry, whom the Prince thought had been one of those that fell at Culloden.
This is nonsense. Lochgarry had been with Charles after Culloden, and had proposed to waylay Cumberland, which the Prince forbade. Murray of Broughton, in his examination, and Bishop Forbes agree on this point, and James, we know, sent, by Edgar, a message to Lochgarry on Christmas Eve, 1748. 52 Charles, therefore, knew excellently well that Lochgarry did not die at Culloden. After royal, but very secret entertainment in this kingdom (Sweden?), Charles went into Lithuania, where old friends of his maternal ancestors, the Sobieskis, welcomed him. He resumed a gaiety which he had lost ever since his arrest at the opera in Paris, and had an interview with a most illustrious and firm friend to his person and interest. Though his marriage, says the pamphleteer, had been much talked of, he has always declined making any applications of that nature himself. It was his fixed determination to beget no royal beggars. DArgenson reports Charless remark that he will never marry till the Restoration, and, no doubt, he was occasionally this mood, among others. 53 The pamphleteer vows that the Prince loves and is loved, but will not marry till his affairs take a more favourable turn. The lady is of consummate beauty, yet is that beauty the least of her perfections.
The pamphlet concludes with vague enigmatic hopes and promises, and certainly leaves its readers little wiser than they were before. In the opinion of the Messrs. Sobieski Stuart (who called themselves his grandsons), Charles really did visit Sweden, and his jewel, as Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Stockholm, is still preserved there. 54 The castle where he resided in Lithuania, it is said, is that of Radzivil. 55 The affectionate and beautiful lady is the Princess Radzivil, to whom the newspapers were busy marrying Charles at this time. The authors of Tales of the Century, relying on some vague Polish traditions, think that a party was being made to raise the Prince to the Polish crown. In fact, there is not a word of truth in Henry Gorings letter.
We now study the perplexities of Courts and diplomatists. Pickle was not yet at hand with accurate intelligence, and, even after he began to be employed, the English Government left their agents abroad to send in baffled surmises. From Paris, on March 8, Colonel Joseph Yorke (whom dArgenson calls by many ill names) wrote, I am told for certain that he [the Prince] is now returned to Avignon. 56 Mann, in Florence, hears (March 7) that the Prince has sent a Mr. Lockhart to James to ask for money, but that was really done on December 31, 1748. 57 On March 11, Yorke learned from Puysieux that the Prince had been recognised by postboys as he drove through Lyons towards Metz; probably, Puysieux thought, on an affair of gallantry. Others, says Yorke, have sent him to Poland or Sweden, which, even in 1746, had been getting ready troops to assist Charles in Scotland. 58 On March 20, Yorke hints that Charles may be in or near Paris, as he probably was. Berlin was suggested as his destination by Horace Mann (April 4). Again, he has been seen in disguise, walking into a gate of Paris (April 11). 59 On April 14, Walton, from Florence, writes that James has had news of his son, is much excited, and is sending Fitzmorris to join him. The Pope knows and is sure to blab. 60 On May 3, Yorke mentions a rumour, often revived, that the Prince is dead. On May 9, the Jacobites in Paris show a letter from Oxford inviting Charles to the opening of the Radcliffe, where they assure him of better reception than the University has had at Court lately. 61 Mann (May 2) mentions the Radzivil marriage, arranged, in a self-denying way, by the Princesse de Talmond. On May 17, Yorke hears from Puysieux that the French ambassador in Saxony avers that Charles is in Poland, and that Sir Charles Williams has remonstrated with Count Brühl. On May 1, 1749, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams wrote from Leipzig to the Duke of Newcastle. He suspects that Charles is one of several persons who have just passed through Leipzig on the way to Poland; Count Brühl is almost certain of it. 62 On May 5 (when Charles was really in or near Venice), Hanbury Williams sends a copy of his remonstrance with Brühl.