that, in the meantime, his highness might remain concealed in the Highlands, where he would guarantee his full safety until the court of France could send over an armament to their aid. This, however, Charles rejected, declaring that the court of France would never believe he had a party in Scotland until an insurrection had actually commenced. Thus driven from every point of dissuasion, Lochiel had recourse to his last inducement, by entreating that his highness would remain at Borodale until the Highland chiefs could be assembled, when they might deliberate in concert what was best to be done in the present state of affairs; but this prudent proposal Charles also indignantly refused. "In a few days," he exclaimed, "and with the few friends that I have, I will erect the royal standard, and proclaim to the people of Britain that Charles Stuart is come over to claim the crown of his ancestors to win it, or to perish in the attempt: Lochiel, whom my father has often told me, was our firmest friend, may stay at home, and from the newspapers learn the fate of his prince." This taunt, which touched so keenly the honour of the high-minded chief, decided him at once, and he cried, "No! I'll share the fate of my prince; and so shall every man over whom nature or fortune has given me any power!" In this way "the gentle Lochiel" was overthrown and taken captive by what many will reckon a mere punctilio. In his case, too, it was the more to be regretted, as not only his own fate and that of his clan were at stake, but the introduction of a civil war which, but for his influence and example, would either not have happened, or have begun and terminated in a petty skirmish.
Having gained over a chief so powerful and influential, the Pretender thought that he might proceed at once to action, and accordingly he announced his purpose to raise the royal standard on the 19th of August at Glenfinnan, where all his Highland adherents were warned to be in readiness. In the meantime, Lochiel went home to muster his clan for the gathering. When the period had arrived, Charles, who had now been three weeks in the Highlands without the secret being divulged, embarked from Kinlochmoidart, with twenty-five attendants in three boats, and reached Glenfinnan on the morning of the rendezvous. And dreary was the prospect that welcomed him to his expected kingdom; for he found himself in a dark narrow glen, bounded on both sides by high rocky mountains; and instead of the gallant muster of impatient clans by whom he hoped his coming would be greeted, there were no persons but the inhabitants of the few wretched hovels sprinkled at wide intervals along the glen, who stood at their doors, or among the distant precipices, to gaze at the arrival of the strangers. Dispirited at this appearance of remissness on the part of his friends, Charles retired to one of these hovels, where after two anxious hours of suspense, his ears were gladdened by the sound of a distant bagpipe. It was the clan Cameron hastening to the trysting place, with Lochiel at their head. They were from seven to eight hundred strong, while in point of arms, discipline, and equipments, they formed the elite of that rebel army by which such singular successes were obtained both in Scotland and England. The Camerons also did not come to the meeting empty-handed, for they brought with them, as prisoners, a party of the royalist soldiers, who had been surprised in the neighbourhood of Loch Lochie. On the arrival of Lochiel and his followers, Charles, without waiting for the rest of the clans, proclaimed war in due form against the "Elector of Hanover," raised his silk banner of white, blue, and red, and proclaimed his father sovereign of the British empire. After this ceremony new volunteers arrived, by which the Prince soon found himself at the head of a little army of
