is sons. As they
parted from each other with tears and embracings, the gallant Charles
Edward exclaimed, "I go to claim your right to three crowns: If I fail,"
he added earnestly, "your next sight of me, sir, shall be in my coffin!"
"My son," exclaimed the Chevalier, "Heaven forbid that all the crowns in
the world should rob me of my child!"[15] Mr. Murray of Broughton was
present at this interview; the prelude to disasters and dangers to the
ardent young man, and of anxieties and disappointments to his father,
feelingly depicted in the Chevalier's touching letters to his
children.[16]

By a stratagem the young Prince effected his journey from Rome without
its becoming known, and eleven days after his departure from that city
elapsed before it was made public. He was accompanied by Henry Benedict,
who was at this time a youth of great promise. He is described as having
had, as well as his brother, a very fine person, though somewhat shorter
in stature than that ill-fated young man, and of a less delicate
complexion. He seems to have been, perhaps, better constituted for the
career of difficulty which Charles Edward encountered. He was of a
robust form, with an unusual fire in his eyes. Whilst his brother united
the different qualities of the Stuart and the Sobieski, Henry Benedict
is said to have been more entirely actuated by the spirit of his great
ancestor, King John of Poland; by whom, and the handful of Christians
whom he headed, a hundred and fifty thousand Turks were defeated. Even
when only nine years of age, the high-spirited boy, whose martial
qualities were afterwards subdued beneath the taming influence of a
Cardinal's hat, resented the refusal of his father to allow him to
accompany his brother to assist the young King of Naples in the recovery
of his dominions; and could only be pacified by the threat of having his
garter, the beloved insignia of English knighthood, taken from him as
well as his sword.[17][18]

It soon became evident that the designs of France were not unknown at
St. James's. The celebrated Chauvelin, Secretary of State to Louis the
Fifteenth, had long been employing his influence over the Cardinal
Fleury to counteract the wishes of the English. By a slight accident his
designs were disclosed to Queen Caroline. Chauvelin had,
unintentionally, among other papers, put into the hands of the Earl of
Waldegrave, then ambassador in France, a letter from the Chevalier. Lord
Waldegrave immediate