Bonnie Prince Charlie | Page 5

and, letting us out
by a back way, started with us across the country.
"After walking twenty miles he brought us to the house of another
adherent of the Chevalier, where we remained all day. So we were
passed on until we reached the coast, where we lay hid for some days
until an arrangement was made with the captain of a fishing boat to
take us to sea, and either to land us at Calais or to put us on board a
French fishing boat. So we got over without trouble.
"Long before that, as you know, the business had virtually come to an
end here. The Earl of Mar's army lay week after week at Perth, till at
last it met the enemy under Argyle at Sheriffmuir.
"You know how that went. The Highland clans in the right and centre
carried all before them, and drove the enemy from the field, but on the
left they beat us badly. So both parties claimed the victory. But, victory
or defeat, it was fatal to the cause of the Chevalier. Half the Highland
clans went off to their homes that night, and Mar had to fall back to
Perth.
"Well, that was really the end of it. The Chevalier landed, and for a
while our hopes rose. He did nothing, and our hopes fell. At last he
took ship and went away, and the affair was over, except for the
hangings and slaughterings.
"Leslie, like most of the Scottish gentlemen who succeeded in reaching
France, took service with the French king, and, of course, I did the
same. It would have done your heart good to see how the Scottish
regiments fought on many a field; the very best troops of France were
never before us, and many a tough field was decided by our charge.
Leslie was a cornet. He was about my age; and you know I was but
twenty when Sheriffmuir was fought. He rose to be a colonel, and
would have given me a pair of colours over and over again if I would
have taken them; but I felt more comfortable among our troopers than I

should have done among the officers, who were almost all men of good
Highland family; so I remained Leslie's right hand.
"A braver soldier never swung a leg over saddle; but he was always in
some love affair or another. Why he didn't marry I couldn't make out. I
suppose he could never stick long enough to one woman. However,
some four years ago he got into an affair more serious than any he had
been in before, and this time he stuck to it in right earnest. Of course
she was precisely one of the women he oughtn't to have fallen in love
with, though I for one couldn't blame him, for a prettier creature wasn't
to be found in France. Unfortunately she was the only daughter of the
Marquis de Recambours, one of the wealthiest and most powerful of
French nobles, and there was no more chance of his giving his consent
to her throwing herself away upon a Scottish soldier of fortune than to
her going into a nunnery; less, in fact. However, she was as much in
love with Leslie as he was with her, and so they got secretly married.
Two years ago this child was born, but she managed somehow to keep
it from her father, who was all this time urging her to marry the Duke
de Chateaurouge.
"At last, as ill luck would have it, he shut her up in a convent just a
week before she had arranged to fly with Leslie to Germany, where he
intended to take service until her father came round. Leslie would have
got her out somehow; but his regiment was ordered to the frontier, and
it was eighteen months before we returned to Paris, where the child had
been in keeping with some people with whom he had placed it. The
very evening of his return I was cleaning his arms when he rushed into
the room.
"'All is discovered,' he said; 'here is my signet ring, go at once and get
the child, and make your way with it to Scotland; take all the money in
the escritoire, quick!'
"I heard feet approaching, and dashed to the bureau, and transferred the
bag of louis there to my pocket. An official with two followers entered.
"'Colonel Leslie,' he said, 'it is my duty to arrest you by order of his
gracious majesty;' and he held out an order signed by the king.
"'I am unconscious of having done any wrong, sir, to his majesty,
whom I have served for the last sixteen years. However, it is not for me
to dispute his orders;' thereupon he