Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 | Page 4

of the Stuarts did not
take place until a later period. In the interim, the youth, who afterwards
distinguished himself so greatly, served his first apprenticeship to arms
in the British forces in Flanders. In 1719, when only fourteen years of
age, a fresh plan of invasion being formed by Spain, and the Marquis of
Tullibardine having again ventured to join in the enterprise, Lord
George showed plainly his attachment to the Jacobite cause. He came

over with the Marquis, with a small handful of Spaniards, and was
wounded at the battle of Glenshiels on the tenth of June. Of his fate
after that event, the following account has been given by Wodrow,[7]
who prefaces his statement with a congratulatory remark that several of
the Jacobites were by their sufferings converted from their error. "At
Glenshiels," he writes, referring to Lord George Murray, "he escaped,
and with a servant got away among the Highland mountains, and lurked
in a hut made for themselves for some months, and saw nobody. It was
a happy Providence that either he or his servant had a Bible, and no
other books. For want of other business, he carefully read that
neglected book, and the Lord blessed it with his present hard
circumstances to him. Now he begins to appear abroad, and it is said is
soon to be pardoned; and he is highly commended not only for a
serious convert from Jacobitism, but for a good Christian, and a youth
of excellent parts, hopes, and expectations."
It appears, however, that Lord George, however he might be changed in
his opinions, did not consider himself safe in Scotland. He fled to the
Continent, and entered the service of Sardinia, then, in consequence of
the quadruple alliance, allotted to the possessions of the Duke of
Savoy.
Meantime, through the influence of his family, and, perhaps, on the
plea of his extreme youth when he had engaged in the battle of
Glenshiels, a pardon was obtained for the young soldier. His father, as
is related in the manuscript account of the Highlands before quoted,
"had found it his interest to change sides at the accession of George the
First." His second brother, as he was now called, James Murray, or
Marquis of Tullibardine, was a zealous supporter of the Hanoverian
Government, although it proved no easy matter to engage his Clan in
the same cause.
During many succeeding years, while Lord George Murray was serving
abroad, cultivating those military acquirements which afterwards,
whilst they failed to redeem his party from ruin, extorted the admiration
of every competent judge, the progress of events was gradually
working its way towards a second great attempt to restore the Stuarts.

Notwithstanding the apparent tranquillity of the Chevalier St. George,
he had been continually though cautiously maintaining, during his
residence at Albano, as friendly an intercourse with the English visitors
to Rome as circumstances would permit. Most young men of family
and condition travelled, during the time of peace, in Italy; many were
thus the opportunities which occurred of conciliating these youthful
scions of great and influential families. As one instance of this fact, the
account given by Joseph Spence, the author of the "Anecdotes" and of
"Polymetis," affords a curious picture of the eagerness evinced by
James and his wife, during the infancy of their son, to ingraft his infant
image on the memory, and affections of the English. Mr. Spence visited
Rome while Charles Edward was yet in his cradle. He was expressly
enjoined by his father, before his departure from England, on no
account to be introduced to the Chevalier. Yet such were the advances
made to him, as his own letter[8] will show, that it was almost
impossible for him to resist the overture: and similar overtures were
made to almost every Englishman of family or note who visited Rome
at that period.
In addition to these efforts, a continual correspondence was maintained
between James and his Scottish adherents. The Chevalier's greatest
accomplishment was his art of writing letters; and he appears eminently
to have excelled in that power of conciliation which was so essential in
his circumstance.
Meantime Charles grew up, justifying, as he increased in stature, and as
his disposition revealed itself, the most ardent expectations of those
who wished well to his cause. One failing he very early evinced; that
remarkable devotion to certain favourites which marked the conduct of
his ancestors; and the partiality was more commonly built upon the
adulation bestowed by those favourites than founded in reason.
It was in the year 1741 that the royal youth, then scarcely nineteen
years of age, became acquainted with a man whose qualities of mind,
and attractions of manner, exercised a very considerable influence over
his destiny; and whose character, pliant, yet bitter, intriguing and
perfidious, came