was at once
despatched, and he, happening by a curious chance to meet with Cluny and
Dr. Cameron on a dark night in Badenoch, gave them his message, and an
express was at once sent to the Cage. On September 13, at one in the
morning, the party--which now included Cluny, Lochiel, Macpherson of
Breakachie, and some others of the Prince's more important
followers--set off for the coast. They travelled by night, remaining in
concealment by day, but so lonely was the country, so recklessly high
were the Prince's spirits, that one whole day he amused himself by
flinging up caps into the air and shooting at them.

[Illustration]

Again he passed through the well-known country round Loch Arkaig, past
Auchnacarry, the home of the Lochiels, which was lying in ruins, over
the rugged hills where he had been hunted like a wild creature a few
weeks before, down to the familiar waters of Lochnanuagh, back to the
warm-hearted household of Borodale.

A considerable number of Jacobite gentlemen who had lain for months in
hiding had been drawn to Lochnanuagh by the report of the landing of the
French ships; amongst these were young Clanranald, Glenaladale, and
Macdonald of Daleby. On the Prince's ship there sailed with him
Lochgarry, John Roy Stuart, Dr. Cameron, and Lochiel. 'The gentlemen as
well as commons were seen to weep, though they boasted of being soon
back with an irresistible force,' says the newspaper of the day. For the
greater part they never came back, never saw again the homes they loved
so well. Most were to spend a life of hope deferred and of desperate
longings for home, as dependents on a foreign Court. Dr. Cameron was ten
years later taken prisoner in London and executed, the last man who
suffered as a rebel; Lochiel died two years after he left Scotland, a
heart-broken exile. 'Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but
weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more nor see
his native country.'[9]

FOOTNOTES:

[5] 'I had three sons, who now hae nane,
I bred them toiling sarely,
And I wad bare them a' again
And lose them a' for Charlie!'

[6] In this he resembled his father, who, on leaving Scotland after the
failure of 1715, sent money to Argyll to compensate the country folk
whose cottages had been burned in the war; an act without precedent or
imitation.

[7] Charles, about 1743, introduced golf into Italy, according to Lord
Elcho.

[8] The