Chapter 5

THE PRINCE IN LONDON; AND AFTER.

MADEMOISELLE LUCI

(SEPTEMBER 1750-JULY 1751)

The Prince goes to London--Futility of this tour--English Jacobites described by AEneas Macdonald--No chance but in Tearlach--Credentials to Madame de Talmond--Notes of visit to London--Doings in London--Gratifying conversion--Gems and medals--Report by Hanbury Williams--Hume's legend--Report by a spy--Billets to Madame de Talmond--Quarrel--Disappearance--'The old aunt'--Letters to Mademoiselle Luci--Charles in Germany--Happy thought of Hanbury Williams--Marshal Keith's mistress--Failure of this plan--The English 'have a clue'--Books for the Prince--Mademoiselle Luci as a critic--Jealousy of Madame de Talmond--Her letter to Mademoiselle Luci--The young lady replies--Her bad health--Charles's reflections--Frederick 'a clever man'--A new adventure.

The Prince went to London in the middle of September 1750; and why did he run such a terrible risk? Though he had ordered great quantities of arms in June, no real preparations had been made for a rising. His Highlanders--Glengarry, Lochgarry, Archy Cameron, Clanranald--did not know where he was. Scotland was not warned. As for England, we learn the condition of the Jacobite party there from a letter by AEneas Macdonald, the banker, to Sir Hector Maclean--Sir Hector whom, in his examination, he had spoken of as 'too fond of the bottle.' {103} AEneas now wrote from Boulogne, in September 1750. He makes it clear that peace, luxury, and constitutionalism had eaten the very heart out of the grandsons of the cavaliers. There was grumbling enough at debt, taxes, a Hanoverian King who at this very hour was in Hanover. Welsh and Cheshire squires and London aldermen drank Jacobite toasts in private. 'But,' says AEneas, 'there are not in England three persons of distinction of the same sentiments as to the method of restoring the Royal family, some being for one way, some for another.' They have neither heart nor money for an armed assertion of their ideas. In 1745, Sir William Watkins Wynne (who stayed at home in Wales) had not 200l. by him in ready money, and money cannot be raised on lands at such moments. Yet this very man was believed to have spent 120,000l. in contested elections. 'It is very probable that six times as much money has been thrown away upon these elections'--he means in the country generally--'as would have restored the King.' AEneas knew another gentleman who had wasted 40,000l. in these constitutional diversions. 'The present scheme,' he goes on, 'is equally weak.' The English Jacobites were to seem to side with Frederick, the Prince of Wales, in opposition, and force him, when crowned, 'to call a free Parliament.' That Parliament would proclaim a glorious Restoration. In fact, the English Jacobites were devoured by luxury, pacific habits, and a desire to save their estates by pursuing 'constitutional methods.' These, as we shall see, Charles despised. If a foreign force