7 Nov. ranald's acquitting herself so exactly and wisely in the Prince's preservation was something very singular, and the more extraordinary that (as I had been informed) she happens frequently not to be so well in her health, and therefore (one would be apt to imagine) quite unfit to manage a point of so much delicacy and danger. The Captain answered that Lady Clanranald's conduct in that affair, all things considered, was very extraordinary indeed. After giving several very remarkable instances of the miseries and dangers the Prince had been exposed to in his wanderings, I begged leave to ask at Captain Hay what notions he fol. 487. would entertain of those folks in and about Edinburgh (people of no mean sense and discretion in the common affairs of life) who when certain accounts had come of the Prince's arrival in France were pleased to say: 'O these Jacobites are strange bodies, who attribute the preservation of their Prince to the providence of God alone, when Providence could have no hand in it at all, seeing the Duke of Cumberland and his army were not willing to take him, but, on the contrary, avoided the laying hands on him when they might have done it.' At this Captain Hay held up his hands and declared his amazement that any such expression could ever proceed out of the mouth of any person whatsomever, and asked seriously if there were any persons that could have the impudence to talk so? I assured him there were such persons as had actually used the above expressions, or words to the same purpose, and that they could fol. 488. be named. He said he was indeed surprised to hear the thing, considering the strict searches that had been made for the person of the Prince, and the many narrow escapes he had made. And, moreover, that it was well known in the army that when any officers happened to bring prisoners into the camp in the north, and after the report being made at the headquarters, the Duke of Cumberland used to be in a very bad humour, and to express himself in these words: These officers don't know their duty.' The whole conversation went easily on, and lasted till between four and five o'clock at night. There were present who witnessed the above conversation, Richard Seaman, baxter in Leith, John Hay, piriwig maker 1747] JOURNAL OF ENEAS MACDONALD 281 in Edinburgh, Mrs. Bettie Seaman and Mrs. Ellie Kendal. 7 Nov. Mrs. Seaman herself went from the company pretty soon after dinner to look after her business, so that she witnessed but a small part of the conversation. John Hay, piriwig maker, declared his being very much pleased with being present at such fol. 489. a long and so particular a conversation upon the dangers and distresses of the Prince, and at the narrating some of the more moving and interesting parts he was so much affected that he shed tears. He frankly owned that he had never heard so much of the matter in all the several companies he had formerly resorted to where this extraordinary and affecting history happened to be the subject of conversation. ROBERT FORBES, A.M. JOURNAL of the Prince's imbarkation and arrival, fol. 490. 1 etc., taken from the mouth of ENEAS MAC DONALD (a banker in Paris, and brother of June. AFTER the Prince had settled everything for his subsequent 1745. undertaking, the gentlemen who were to accompany him on his voyage took different routs to Nantz, the place appointed to meet at, thereby the better to conceal their design. During 1 This Journal is printed in the Jacobite Memoirs (pp. 1-27) with some omissions, in combination with another by Duncan Cameron, f. 346, ante. 2 Dr. Burton and Bishop Forbes were both enthusiastic Jacobites, and an account of their meeting follows (f. 519). Later, a considerable correspondence passed between them, most of which the latter embodied in this manuscript. June. their residence there they lodged in different parts of the town, and if they accidentally met in the street or elsewhere they took not the least notice of each other, nor seemed to be any fol. 491. way acquainted, if there was any person near enough to observe them. During this time, and whilst everything was preparing to set sail, the Prince went to a seat of the Duke of Bouillon and took some days' diversion in hunting, fishing, and shooting, amusements he always delighted in, being at first obliged to it on account of his health. By this means he became inured to toil and labour, which enabled him to undergo the great fatigues and hardships he was afterwards exposed unto. From this place he went to a seat of the Duke of Fitz-James, seemingly upon the same errand, and thence at a proper time went in disguise directly on board the ship lying in the Loire, being the river which goes immediately from Nantz to the sea. fol. 492. Here he found eight gentlemen1 above hinted at ready to accompany and assist him in his expedition. They were the Marquis of Tullibardine, alias Duke of Athol, Sir John MacDonald (a French officer), Mr. Æneas MacDonald (a banker in Paris), Mr. Strickland, Mr. Buchanan, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Mr. O'Sullivan, and Mr. Kelly. To these I may add a ninth, viz., Mr. Anthony Welch, the owner of the ship which carried the Prince. He (this last) staid on the coast of Scotland about three weeks, and did the Prince considerable service. Here it will not be amiss to give some short account of the above-mentioned attendants. The Duke of Athol was made prisoner in Scotland, having surrendred himself (as was given out by our lying newspapers) to Mr. Buchanan of Drumakill, a Justice of Peace. But the real matter of fact is that Drumakill, in his own house, basely betrayed the Duke when he thought himself safe under the protection of Drumakill's roof, having got assurances to that purpose. To confirm the truth of this, Drumakill is so much fol. 493. despised for this breach of all the laws of hospitality and honour that the gentlemen in the neighbourhood and in all 1 The Prince in his Manifesto from the Abbey of Holyrood-house calls them seven only. Perhaps Mr. Buchanan (as I have heard suggested by several persons) was reckoned amongst the Prince's domesticks. ROBERT FORBES, A. M. 1745] ATTENDANTS OF PRINCE CHARLES 283 places of Scotland where Drumakill is known will not be seen Junc. in his company, nor will they converse with him. From Drumakill's house the Duke of Athol was carried to the Castle of Dumbarton, the latter end of April 1746, whence he was removed to Edinburgh, where he remained till the 13th of May, and then was put on board the Eltham man-of-war in Leith Road, and conveyed to the Tower of London, June 21st, where he died on the 9th of July, and was there buried July the 11th, 1746. Sir John MacDonald, a French officer, surrendred himself prisoner of war at Inverness upon the day of Culloden battle. He was suffered to go out upon his parole amongst other French officers at Penrith. He is a man of no extraordinary head as a councillor. Mr. Æneas MacDonald, a banker in Paris, surrendred himself to General Campbell upon terms which, however, were not performed. He was committed to Dumbarton Castle, whence fol. 494. he was conducted to Edinburgh Castle under a strong guard the latter end of August 1746; and the week after, in the same manner, was conveyed to the Duke of Newcastle's office at Whitehall, London, and immediately committed into the custody of a messenger. One day when he was concerting a jaunt to Windsor with Miss Flora MacDonald, he was by order taken out of the messenger's hands and committed to Newgate, and thence to new prison in Southwark. All the time the Prince was in Paris he lodged at Mr. Æneas MacDonald's house. Mr. Strickland died at Carlisle when it was possessed by the Prince's army. Mr. Buchanan, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Mr. O'Sullivan, and Mr. Kelly made their escape into France. The first of these, Mr. Buchanan, upon the intended invasion at Dunkirk in 1743 was sent into England, and upon his return, in attempting to get to Calais or Dunkirk, was taken prisoner. He made a plausible story, and going by a feigned name, pre- fol. 495 tending great loyalty, etc., he artfully imposed upon one Captain Aires, who was then going into Flanders with some orders from the government, a person who has signalized himself very much upon a late occasion, though not in his profes June. sion as a soldier, yet as an evidence at St. Margaret's Hill in Southwark, etc. etc. etc. This very man, perceiving Mr. Buchanan understood French, and knew several of the French officers, proposed making use of him as a spy in Flanders, which Mr. Buchanan readily embraced, as it gave him a safe conveyance out of British dominions. Accordingly he was conducted to Ostend by Captain Aires, who was greatly surprized and no less chagrin'd to find his fellow-traveller so well known there, and to be the very man he had particular orders to find out, if possible, and to secure him, at the time when Mr. Buchanan had the address to deceive him. After this discovery Aires fol. 496. never offered to make any farther use of Mr. Buchanan, neither could he detain him there. Mr. Buchanan was many years assistant to Mr. Æneas MacDonald at Paris. The second of these, Sir Thomas Sheridan, was tutor to the young hero, whom he attended through most of his travels. His master had a real and, I may say, filial affection for him, which indeed was mutual, no man having his pupil's interest more at heart than Sir Thomas. He got safe to France. From that he went to Rome, where he waited upon his pupil's father, who reprimanded him for persuading his son to undertake such an expedition without better grounds. This reproof so far affected Sir Thomas that he fell ill and died of grief. The third of these, Mr. O'Sullivan, an Irishman, is a remarkable man, of whom the world has been greatly deceived, whether we look upon him as a soldier, a councillor, or for honesty and integrity. The fourth and last of these is the same Mr. Kelly who was so many years confined in the Tower upon a suspicion of having fol. 497. had a hand in the famous plot of Dr. Atterbury, bishop of 22 June. Rochester. Mr. Kelly's chief employment was to go betwixt his young master in Scotland and the French ministry, with some of whom he was very intimate. On Saturday the 22d of June 1745, the gentlemen (of whom the above short account is given) being all incog. to the crew, set sail out of the river Loire for Bellisle on board a vessel of 110 tons, called La Doutelle, carrying 16 guns, and commanded by Captain Durbe; having first sent expresses from Nantz to the young gentleman's father at Rome, to the king of France, |