The Lyon in Mourning, Vol. 1. Forbes Robert
harder, and the crew, being timorous, begg'd to turn back again. But he refused, and to encourage them sung a merry Highland song. About eleven the same night he landed at a place in the island of Sky called Nicolson's Rock, near Scorobry (Scorobreck), in Troternish, being about ten miles from Glam. He remained there all night without any kind of refreshment, not even so much as a [fol. 141.] fire to dry his cloathes, being quite wet. In this wet condition he was for the space of 48 hours.
4 July
The next day about 7 o'clock in the evening he left this rock, being accompanied by Mr. Malcolm MacLeod, the latter passing for the master, the former for the man, who always carried the little baggage64 whenever they saw any person or came near any place. They marched all night through the worst of roads in Europe, and did not halt till they arrived at Ellagol or Ellighuil, near Kilvory or Kilmaree, in Strath, not far from a place in some maps called Ord or Aird, in the Laird of MacIntosh's65 country, being full 24 miles long.
After two hours rest and some little refreshment the Prince seem'd quite alert and as ready for fatigue as ever, and diverted himself with a young child in the house, carrying him in his arms and singing to him, and said that perhaps that child may be a captain in my service [or] might live to be of great use to him hereafter.
5 July
At that place the old Laird of MacKinnon came to him, and they set out together that day, being July 5th, for the [fol. 142.] mainland in a small boat, tho' the night was very tempestuous and the coast very bad. The next day, July 6th, they landed safe in Knoidart, which is 30 miles from the place they set out from. At that place he left the Laird of Mackinnon, who was the next day taken prisoner. In their passage they met with a boat in which were some militia, with whom they spoke. As they did not much exceed their own number, they were resolved to make all the head they could, and to fight them in case they had been attack'd.
What method the Prince took to conceal himself on the mainland of Scotland, or what route he took till the 20th of September, being the time he embarked for France, will be made publick at another time.
1747 11 July
Mr. Alexander MacDonald of Kingsburgh and his lady were paying their compliments to my Lady Bruce, when it was proposed to read the above Account or Journal in the hearing of Kingsburgh, that so he might give his observations, or rather corrections upon it. He and the whole company (about 14 in number) declared their satisfaction in the proposal. There were present, John Fullarton, senior of Dudwick; James MacDonald, joiner in Leith; Lady Lude, with her eldest son and her daughter; Mrs. Graham and her son; Mrs. Rattray, Mrs. Jean and Rachel Houstons, etc.
The Account was accordingly read, and Kingsburgh made [fol. 143.] the following observations:
Page66 130, near the foot. Instead of Invergar, it should be Invergarry; a place belonging to the Laird of Glengarry.
Page 132, near the foot. Instead of Selpa, it should be Scalpa, commonly called the Island Glass.
Page 134, at the foot. Instead of Irsky, it should be Eriska.
Page 139, at the top. Kingsburgh said it was not fact that the boat was searched, and that the Prince should have heard what passed.
Ibid. Instead of 15 long miles south south-east, it should be 7 long miles.
Ibid. Kingsburgh was at pains to represent to the Prince the inconveniency and danger of his being in a female dress, particularly from his airs being all so man-like, and told him that he was very bad at acting the part of a dissembler. He advised him therefore to take from him a suite of Highland cloaths with a broadsword in his hand, which would become him much better. But in the meantime that he should go out of his house in the female dress, lest the servants should be making their observations, and stop at the edge of a wood upon the side of a hill, not far from the house, where he and others should come to him with the Highland cloathes, broadsword, etc.
Mrs. MacDonald said that she behoved to employ her daughter as handmaid to the Prince for putting on his womens [fol. 144.] cloaths, 'For,' said she, 'the deel a preen he could put in.' When Miss MacDonald (alias Mrs. MacAllastar67) was a dressing of him, he was like to fall over with laughing. After the peeness, gown, hood, mantle, etc., were put on, he said, 'O, Miss, you have forgot my apron. Where is my apron? Pray get me my apron here, for that is a principal part of my dress.'
Kingsburgh and his lady both declared that the Prince behaved not like one that was in danger, but as chearfully and merrily as if he had been putting on women's cloathes merely for a piece of diversion.
Agreeable to Kingsburgh's advice they met at the edge of the wood, where the Prince laid aside his female rags, which were deposited in the heart of a bush till a proper opportunity should offer of taking them up; for these that were present resolved to preserve them all as valuable tokens of distress. After the Prince had got himself equipt in the Highland cloathes with the claymore in his hand, the mournful parting with Kingsburgh ensued. Away he went to struggle through a series of fresh dangers, the faithful MacKechan still attending him.
Ibid. Instead of 15 long miles to Portree or Purtry, it should be 7 long miles.
Page 140, line 1. Instead of 10 miles, it should be 6.
Ibid, near the foot. Instead of Scorobry, it should be Scorobreck.
Page 141. Kingsburgh said that MacIntosh's country there named behoved to be an error in the writer, for that MacIntosh had no property in Sky, and it ought to be named MacKinnon's country.
[fol. 145.] Page 142. Kingsburgh said that he thought the Prince with old MacKinnon had landed in Moror and not in Knoidart; but he own'd MacKinnon behov'd to know best. He said he was pretty sure that old MacKinnon was made prisoner in Moror, which might happen after his coming from Knoidart.
When all the Journal was read over, Kingsburgh observed that the persons from whose mouths it had been taken had not medled with his part of the story; 'and,' said he, 'they were indeed right, for they know very little about it.'
Then particular questions were put to him with respect to that pamphlet called 'Alexis, Part 1st.' To give some instances, it was asked him, Whether or not it was true that he took along with him out of Sir Alexander MacDonald's house a bottle of wine and some bread in his pocket for the refreshment of the Prince; that he had great difficulty to find him, and that it was owing to the accidental running of a flock of sheep that at last he found him sitting upon a rock? He answered, 'All these things are exactly true as related in that small pamphlet.' Then it was asked, Whether or not the Prince made briskly up to him with a thick short cudgel in his hand, and asked, If he was Mr. MacDonald of Kingsburgh? He said, 'It was really so, and that the Prince very pleasantly said, Then all is well; come, let us be jogging on;' but that he told him he had brought some refreshment along with him, which he behoved to take before they set out; [fol. 146.] which accordingly was done, they sitting upon the top of the rock.
Asked further. If it was true that the Prince lifted the petticoats too high in wading the rivulet when going to Kingsburgh, and that honest MacKechan68 hastily called to him to beware? He said, 'It is fact; and that MacKechan cried, "For God's sake, Sir, take care what you are doing, for you will certainly discover yourself;" and that the Prince laughed heartily, and thanked him kindly for his great concern.'
Asked further. If the cursing and blasphemous speech of the Duke of Cumberland was such as represented in 'Alexis, Part 1st.' 'Exactly so,' said he, for I had it almost in the very same words from the mouth of Sir Alexander MacDonald, who was witness to the Duke's expressing himself in that rough way. 'Whom,' added he, 'I indeed never saw in the face.' Then he said that 'Alexis' was exactly and literally true in every ace (not only as to facts but even circumstances) that concerned his management of and conversation with the Prince, the brogs not excepted, and that he looked upon the recovery of Cœlestius69 as
Two shirts, one pair of stockings, one pair of brogs, a bottle of brandy, some scrapes of mouldy bread and cheese, and a three-pint stone bottle for water. – F.
Altered to MacKinnon's. See f. 144.
These pages will be found by the marginal folios.
This is interlined in the manuscript. See f. 216. She married Ronald MacAlister, of the family of Loup.
Neil MacEachan or MacKechan, the attendant of Flora MacDonald, was a descendant of the MacDonalds of Howbeag in South Uist. He followed the Prince to France, and settled there. One of his sons was Marshal MacDonald, Duke of Tarentum, one of Napoleon's most distinguished generals. – MacGregor's
This was Roderick Mackenzie, who was killed by Cumberland's soldiers near Fort Augustus, and in dying tried to put an end to the pursuit of the Prince by pretending that it was he whom they had slain. See ff. 482, 1800.