PRINCE CHARLES AND THE LONG ISLAND. 467 



hero-worshippers at the shrine of him whom they venerated 

 at that distance which saved their reverence from the fatal 

 effects of familiarity. The impression of the Prince which 

 they acquired was peculiarly permeable, and spread through- 

 out the lower orders of the Highland population, affecting 

 even those whose chiefs remained faithful to the Government. 



When the Celt venerates a person or a principle, his 

 fidelity towards both is unassailable. When he creates an 

 ideal, he clings to it with the stubborn tenacity of the 

 Saxon. With the common Highlanders, there was in this 

 case no question of principle ; the doctrine of hereditary 

 succession troubled them but little, and the heresy of 

 Divine Right not at all ; it was at the feet of the man, 

 Charles Stuart, that they laid their affections. Not 30,000, 

 nor ten times that amount, would have tempted the poorest 

 of them to desecrate their self-erected shrine. And thus it 

 came to pass, that when the Prince was lurking in the Long 

 Island, the poverty-stricken Hebrideans, to whom a sum 

 like 30,000 was literally a fabulous fortune, wilfully 

 permitted it to slip through their grasp, rather than prove 

 unfaithful to him whom many of them revered and all 

 respected. When he was at Arnish, the whole population 

 of Stornoway were aware of the fact, and when he was at 

 Coradale, more than a hundred people knew of his hiding- 

 place. Yet, to their lasting honour be it said, not one of 

 all those people attempted to earn the Government reward. 

 With a few, the fear of social ostracism may have out- 

 weighed their love of money ; but there is no room for 

 doubt that in the majority of cases, the predominant factor 

 in their fidelity was hero-worship of the purest type. Their 

 behaviour during the man-hunt in the Long Island is 

 beyond all praise : it would be difficult to find a parallel 

 for such chivalrous loyalty to a lost cause. 



The fate of the devoted followers who shared the Prince's 

 dangers and hardships in the Outer Hebrides, merits 

 description. Donald Macleod, the trusty pilot, was taken 

 prisoner on 5th July, in Benbecula, by Lieutenant Allan 

 Macdonald of Knock (Sleat), and was sent on board 



