LOCIIABER. THE PRINCE AND LOCHIEL. G9 



to him the necessity of at least deferring, if he did not utterly abandon, his 

 expedition ; for that, at present, he had neither men, money, nor arms at his 

 command ; and until his adherents could meet and deliberate on the measures 

 to be adopted, any public manifestation of his arrival would not only derange 

 his plans, but ensure imminent danger to his person. This prudent counsel 

 was lost upon the prince. His inexperience, enthusiasm, and extravagant 

 notions of the nation's attachment to his cause, rendered him too confident of 

 success to reflect with calmness on the slender means at his disposal ; and he was 

 too impetuous in natural temperament to take a dispassionate survey of his actual 

 position. His suspicions were roused, and his pride piqued, by the tone of 

 moderation and diffidence in which Lochiel addressed him. " No," said he, 

 " it would ill become Charles Stuart to temporize or retreat, when the voice of 

 the nation has called upon him to assert his claims. I will not listen to counsel 

 that would betray my claims and faithful adherents. I will erect the standard 

 of my family on these very shores ; I will proclaim to the nation that the son 

 of their king has arrived to vindicate his rights, to reinstate himself on the throne 

 of his ancestors, or perish in the attempt. Then it will be seen whether the 

 nation will respond to the call, and whether the 'exiled Stuart' has yet a place 

 in the hearts of his people. Lochiel, the descendant of a race who have never 

 shrunk back in the hour of danger never adopted ' counsel' when they should 

 have drawn the sword Lochiel, the representative of ' Ewen Cameron,'* may 

 withhold his assistance, and withdraw to his castle. There, in inglorious retire- 

 ment, he may learn from the public bulletins who are in the front of the battle, 

 and then, if he may, enjoy the satisfaction of having abandoned his prince." 

 " Never !" exclaimed Lochiel, with impassioned voice and manner " never ! 

 If I cannot save my prince, I will share his fate ! and so shall every man over 

 whom nature or fortune have given me command !" The die was cast ! Lochiel, 

 under the dread of being impeached with cowardice, or disaffection to the cause, 

 but with a strong conviction on his mind that it was hopeless, drew the sword, 

 and by his example surrounded the prince's standard with those gallant chiefs 

 and their adherents who had hitherto stood aloof, f The issue, as predicted, 

 involved them in universal ruin. 



* Sir Ewen Cameron, of Lochiel^ was the last man in Scotland who maintained the royal cause during 

 the great civil war. His constant incursions rendered him a very unpleasant neighbour to the republican 

 garrison at Inverlochy. The governor of the fort detached a party of 300 men to lay waste Lochiel's pos- 

 sessions, and cut down his trees; but in a sudden and desperate attack made upon them by this chieftain, 

 with very inferior numbers, they were nearly all cut to pieces. The skirmish is detailed in a curious 

 memoir of Sir Ewen's life, for which see the Appendix to " Pennant's Scottish Tour." 



f The clan Cameron, headed by Lochiel himself, and 300 men commanded by Mac Donald of Keppoch, 



VOL. II. T 



