452 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



time. He ate it heartily and professed to enjoy it ; but 

 hunger is an excellent sauce, and a dram of brandy quali 

 fied the flavour. Next day (i2th May), they reached 

 Loch Uskavagh in Benbecula. A gale had sprung up 

 during the night, and it was raining heavily ; but the 

 boisterous weather proved a blessing in disguise, for it kept 

 the pursuing warships out at sea. They landed at 

 Rossinish and made a meal off a pailful of crabs. From 

 Rossinish they walked three miles to Bareness, where they 

 found a grass-keeper's bothy, and received a hospitable 

 welcome. The hut was a miserable hovel for a Prince. 

 The entrance was so low that the party could only gain 

 admittance by crawling on their hands and knees. Burke 

 dug away part of the ground, and put heather underneath 

 the Prince's knees, to enable him to make a more seemly 

 entrance. To Clanranald, who visited him in the hut, 

 Charles declared that " the devil had left because he had 

 not room enough in it." Clanranald brought the Prince a 

 supply of wines, provisions, shoes and stockings. His wife 

 thoughtfully sent six good shirts, of which he stood much 

 in need, for his shirt was " as dingy as a dish clout." 



Donald Macleod and James Macdonald, a cadet of the 

 Clanranald family, were sent across to the mainland to get 

 some money from Secretary Murray. They also carried a 

 letter from Charles to Lochiel, requesting him to endeavour 

 to find a vessel to take him to France. On 3rd May, two 

 French ships landed 40,000 louis d'ors at Borradale, after 

 beating off three English men-of-war. The treasure was 

 conveyed to Loch Arkaig, to the care of Murray of 

 Broughton ; and it is a mystery to this day what became 

 of it. When Charles left Borradale, he had 1,000 guineas 

 in his possession, and O'Neil seems to have acted as his 

 treasurer, for he had 450 guineas hidden away when he was 

 captured. After Murray had seen the Prince's messengers, 

 he determined, with Lochiel's concurrence, to go to the 

 Long Island and bring the Prince over to the mainland. 

 But it was represented to him that it would be indiscreet 

 for him, a stranger who could not speak a word of Gaelic, 



