466 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



standing qualities, the possession of which distinguishes the 

 leaders of men from the men who are led. Many a man 

 in the ordinary walks of life is equally as charming, good 

 natured, and brave as the Young Chevalier, and yet by no 

 conceivable stretch of the imagination, can be considered 

 a great man, or an inspiration to his fellows. How then 

 did Charles secure his ascendancy in the hearts of his 

 Highlanders ; a race peculiarly susceptible, perhaps, to the 

 influences of a good appearance and fine manners, but not 

 to the point of the devotion displayed in the "forty- five" ? 

 The fascination which the personality of Prince Charles 

 Edward exerts at the present day, is perfectly intelligible. 

 There is still in our midst a small band of stalwart Jacobites, 

 who cherish his memory as the last militant representative 

 of the principles they avow. But for the great majority of 

 the British race, who neither see visions nor dream dreams 

 of restoring impossible conditions, the sustained interest in 

 the Prince is due to the romantic character of the group 

 of incidents, of which he forms the central figure. The 

 charming ballads which have perpetuated the Jacobite 

 sentiment, and the impressionist portraits of Sir Walter 

 Scott, have, in no small measure, contributed to the same 

 result. The Highlanders who formed the subsidiary 

 figures in the group of incidents, were clearly fascinated 

 by that inscrutable power of personal magnetism, which 

 Charles possessed in an extraordinary degree. It was an 

 easy gradation for the impressionable Celts to idealise their 

 Bayard ; not only to exaggerate the virtues which he 

 actually possessed, but to endow him with imaginary 

 qualities in which he was really deficient. The chiefs who 

 rallied round him can hardly be supposed to have lost their 

 power of discrimination ; and those of them who primarily 

 succumbed to his charm, gradually threw some of their 

 illusions overboard. But with the rank and file of the 

 Highlanders, it was otherwise. Originally indifferent to 

 the personality of the Prince, or the House which he 

 represented ; concerned only with the behests of their 

 chief, whose will was their law ; they gradually became 



