lately, and had it in commission from them to acquaint him, if he should call at South Uist in his way to the Highlands, that they were determined not to join him unless he brought with him a body of regular troops. Charles ordered his ship to be unmoored, and carrying Boisdale along with him towards the mainland, used all his eloquence to persuade him to come.into his measures, but without effect. Boisdale was inexorable, and, getting into his boat, left Charles to pursue his course, and find followers in the best manner he could.

Steering directly for the Scotish coast, Charles came to an anchor in the bay of Lochnannagh, between Moidart and Arisaig, where he sent a boat ashore with a letter to young Clanronald, who with his relation, Kinloch Moidart, hastened aboard the Doutelle. Reduced almost to despair in his interview with Boisdale, Charles addressed these two friends with great emotion, conjuring them to assist their prince and their countryman, as he falsely called himself, in his utmost need. Both, however, though well affected to the cause, positively refused, telling him, that to take arms without concert or support, was only to pull down certain destruction on their own heads. Continuing to argue and to implore, he at length caught the eye of a young Highlander, a brother to Kinloch Moidart, who having come on board to inquire for news, without knowing any thing of the quality or character of the ship's company, and hearing his chief and his brother refuse to take arms with their prince, grasped his sword, while his colour went and came, and his eyes sparkled with the wildest emotion. Charles observing his demeanour, turned at once towards him, calling out, Will not you assist me? I will, said Ranald, though no other man in the Highlands should draw a sword, I am ready to die for you. This foolish rhapsody called forth from Charles a profusion of acknowledgments, and without farther deliberation, Clanronald and his friend Kinloch Moidart agreed that they also would die for him, and the whole party immediately came on shore and were conducted to Boradale, a farm belonging to the estate of Clanronald, on the twenty-fourth of July, 1745.* At Boradale, one of the most wild and inaccessible places in

Home's History of the Rebellion, p. 28.

the Highlands of Scotland, and surrounded on all sides by the territories of chieftains disaffected to the government, Charles was at liberty to pursue his designs with the most perfect freedom. From this sequestered retreat letters were written and messengers despatched to all the chiefs from whom he expected assistance. Kinloch Moidart was the day after his landing despatched to the southward, to deliver in his way a letter to Lochiel and another to Keppoch. Young Clanronald was sent to Skye with letters to Sir Alexander Macdonald and the laird of Macleod, and one to be forwarded to lord Lovat. Lochiel had been, since the year 1729, a confident of the old pretender's, and the oracle of the Jacobites, having succeeded to the place of Lockhart of Carnwath, who, the year previous to this, had been allowed to settle quietly at home, having given up the affairs of the pretender as desperate.* We have already spoken of the association entered into by the friends of Charles, in consequence of the Spanish war. Charles was now come on the faith of that association, and the private assurances of friendship and loyalty which he had received from many individuals both in Scotland and in England, but the conspirators had already sent Murray of Broughton, afterwards his secretary, to dissuade him from prejudising his cause, and bringing ruin upon his friends, by a premature and ill advised personal appearance among them, and, they wished now to be off, in regard he had not fulfilled the stipulated condition of bringing along with him an army of auxiliaries. Lochiel, on receiving the pretender's letter, wrote to Lovat that the prince was come, and that he had the papers of which he had spoken [a commission to be lieutenant-general in the Highlands, and a patent for making him a duke,] along with him, which should be delivered on the stipulated conditions. Lovat, who was anxious to play a sure game, not having received the letter of Charles, and not sure of his way, only wrote to Lochiel generally, that he might rely on what he had formerly promised.t

• Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 405.

+ Home's History of the Rebellion. Journals and Memoirs of the Young Pretender's Expedition. Lockhart Papers, vol. ü. p. 440. Memoirs of Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat. Douglas Peerage, by Wood, vol. ii. p. 160, &c. &c.

Lochiel was not a little troubled on the occasion, and at last resolved to have nothing to do with Charles in his present circumstances. But, most unfortunately, in place of returning Charles his letter, and leaving him to his own suggestions, he considered himself in duty bound to wait upon him, and assign reasons for his conduct. With this resolution he called upon his brother, Cameron of Fassefern, early in the morning, on his way to Boradale, told him what had happened, and how he had determined to act. Fassefern approved his sentiments, applauded his resolution, and advised him to go no farther, but to send his determination by letter, for, said he, "I know you, brother, much better than you know yourself. If this prince once sets eyes upon you, he will make you do whatever he pleases." The event entirely justified the prediction. Lochiel reasoned in vain with a young man impatient to reign, and who, in consequence of this impatience, could see no difficulties in his way. The British army was all abroad, and fully occupied by marshal Saxe, who headed a far superior army. The few newly raised regiments that were in Scotland had never seen service; it was impossible they could stand before Highlanders; and the very first advantage gained over them would bring forward all his father's friends, both at home and abroad, so that he wanted nothing but the Highlanders to begin the war.

Lochiel had too much good sense not to know that all this was mere folly, and entreated Charles to be better advised, and reserve himself and his friends for a more favourable opportunity. "No," he exclaimed, "I am determined to put all to the hazard. In a few days, with the few friends that I have, I shall erect the royal standard, and proclaim to the people of Great Britain, that Charles Stuart is come over to claim the throne of his ancestors, to win it, or to perish in the attempt. Lochiel, who, my father has often told me, was our firmest friend, may stay at home and learn from the newspapers the fate of his prince." Never before did the ass ape the lion with better effect. The pride and the vanity of Lochiel were at once brought into action. "No," he exclaimed, "I will share the fate of my prince, and so shall every man over whom nature or fortune hath given me any power;" and the next day

he returned to raise nis men, carrying money with him to Keppoch and the Stuarts of Appin, to enable them to do the same, and to join Charles without delay.*

While Lochiel and Charles were holding the above conversation, Clanronald returned from the Isle of Skye with an unfavourable answer, though it is not likely that Lochiel was at the time made fully acquainted with it, for the friends of Charles conducted themselves with much more prudence than he could conduct himself, and on this occasion, Clanronald, when he found that his friends in Skye were not disposed to embark in the enterprise, had the cunning to persuade them that he would be guided by their example, so that when Mr. Norman Macleod wrote to the lord president the next day, informing him of the arrival of the pretended prince of Wales, he adds, after giving an erroneous statement of his attendants, "His view, I need not tell you, was to raise all the Highlands to assist him, &c. Sir Alexander Macdonald and I not only gave no sort of countenance to these people, but we used all the interest we had with our neighbours to follow the same prudent method, and I am persuaded we have done it with that success, that not one man of any consequence benorth the Grampians will give any sort of assistance to this mad rebellious attempt.

"As it can be of no use to the public to know whence you have this information, it is, I fancy, needless to mention either of us, but this we leave in your own breast, as you are a much better judge of what is or what is not proper to be done. I've wrote to none other, and as our friendship and confidence in you is without reserve, so we doubt not of your supplying our defects properly. Sir Alexander is here and has seen this scrawl-young Clanronald has been here with us, and has given us all possible assurances of his prudence." This letter, it is evident, Clanronald expected either Macleod or Macdonald to write, and he gave such information as exactly suited the purposes of the rebels, and laid a foundation for that mistaken policy which sent Sir John Cope into the north with all the

✦ Journals and Memoirs of the Young Pretender's Expedition. Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 440. Home's History of the Rebellion, pp. 31, 32. + Culloden Papers, pp. 203, 204.

troops, leaving the whole Low Country open to the pretender's son, by which means he overcame at once the most serious difficulties he had to contend with, want of provisions and want of money, made himself master of Edinburgh, and to the astonishment of himself as well as of all Europe, penetrated into the very heart of England.

Lochiel had no sooner consented to raise his men, and to join the standard of rebellion, than letters were issued by Charles from Boradale, acquainting the chiefs that the said standard was to be unfurled at Glenfinnin, on the nineteenth of August, and requiring their presence on the occasion, or as soon after as possible.

In the meantime reports of what was going on among the clans were various and manifold, and the governor of Fort Augustus thought it prudent to send two companies to re-enforce the garrison of Fort William. These two companies, under the command of captain John Scott, afterwards general Scott, left Fort Augustus early on the morning of the sixteenth, and were approaching High Bridge, which is built over the water of Spean, within eight miles of Fort William, when they were saluted with the noisy music of the bagpipe, and observed a number of Highlanders on the other side of the bridge, leaping about with swords and firelocks. Ordering a sergeant, with his own servant forward, to learn who they were, the captain made a halt, when two Highlanders darted out upon his messengers, seized them, and carried them to the party beyond the bridge. Ignorant of the number of his enemies, and knowing that he was in a part of the country where the inhabitants were, to a man, disaffected, he thought it more prudent to retreat than to commence hostilities.

This was exactly what the Highlanders wanted; there were only eleven of them, and they had sent to raise the country on all sides, and no sooner had he got back into the narrow defile leading along the side of loch Lochie, than he was fired upon from the woods and the rocks, by enemies whom he could not see, but who were increasing every moment. Captain Scott, however, had reached the east end of loch Lochie, when he descried, upon a hill, at the west end of loch Oich, a number of Highlanders, whose appearance was suspicious, in