Pickle the Spy; Or, the Incognito of Prince Charles Part 11

At this time Leslie pledged a gold repeater, the property of Mrs.

Murray, wife of that other traitor, Murray of Broughton. 'Glengarry, after selling his sword and shoe-buckles to my certain knowledge was reduced to such straits, that I pledged the repeater for a small sum to relieve him, and wrote to Mr. Murray that I had done so.' He pledged it to Clanra.n.a.ld. Mrs. Murray was angry, for (contrary to the usual story that she fled after the Prince to France) she was living with her husband at this time. {155a}

Here then, in July or August 1749, is Young Glengarry in extreme distress at London. But AEneas Macdonald, writing to Edgar from Boulogne on October 12, 1751, says, 'I lent Young Glengarry 50l. when he was home in 1744, and I saw him in London just at the time I got out of gaol in 1749, and though in all appearance HE HAD PLENTY OF CASH, yet' he never dreamed of paying AEneas his 50l! 'Nothing could have lost him but falling too soon into the hands of bad counsellors.'

I regret to say that the pious AEneas Macdonald was nearly as bad a traitor as any of these few evil Highland gentlemen. His examination in London was held on September 16, 1746. {155b} Herein he regaled his examiners with anecdotes of a tavern keeper at Gravelines 'who threatened to beat the Pretender's son'; and of how he himself made Lord Sempil drunk, to worm his schemes out of him. It is only fair to add that, beyond tattle of this kind, next to nothing was got out of AEneas, who, in 1751, demands a Jacobite peerage for his family, that of Kinloch Moidart.

So much, at present, for AEneas. If we listen to Leslie, Young Glengarry was starving in July or August 1749; if we believe AEneas, he had 'plenty of cash' in December of the same year. Whence came this change from poverty to affluence? We need not a.s.sume it to be certain that Glengarry's gold came out of English secret service money. His father had been released from prison in October 1749, and may have had resources. We have already seen, too, that Young Glengarry was accused of getting, in the winter of 1749, his share of the buried h.o.a.rd of Loch Arkaig. Lord Elcho, in Paris, puts the money taken by Young Glengarry and Lochgarry (an honest man) at 1,200 louis d'or. We have heard the laments of 'Thomas Newton' (Kennedy), who himself is accused of peculation by AEneas Macdonald, and of losing 800l. of the Prince's money at Newmarket. {156} We do not know for certain, then, that Young Glengarry vended his honour when in London in autumn 1749. That he made overtures to England, whether they were accepted or not, will soon be made to seem highly probable.

We return to his own letters. In June 1749 he had written, as we saw, from Paris, also to Lismore, and to the Cardinal Duke of York.

On September 23, 1749, he again wrote to Lismore from Boulogne. He says he has been in London (as we know from Leslie), where his friends wished him to 'conform' to the Hanoverian interest. This he disdains. He has sent a va.s.sal to the North, and finds that the clans are ready to rise. If not relieved from his debt to the French War Office he must return to England.

He did return in the winter of 1749, and he accompanied his cousin, Lochgarry (a truly loyal man), to Scotland, where he helped himself to some of the h.o.a.rd of gold. On January 16, 1750, he writes to Edgar from Boulogne, reports his Scotch journey, and adds that he is now sent by the clans to lay their sentiments before James, in Rome.

He then declares that Archibald Cameron has been damping all hearts in the Highlands. 'I have prevented the bad consequences that might ensue from such notions; but one thing I could not prevent was his taking 6,000 louis d'ors of the money left in the country by his Royal Highness, which he did without any opposition, as he was privy to where the money was laid, only Cluny Macpherson obliged him to give a receipt for it. . . . I am credibly informed he designs to lay this money in the hands of a merchant in Dunkirk, and enter partners with him. . . .' He hopes that James will detain Archibald Cameron in Rome, till his own arrival. He protests that it is 'very disagreeable to him' to give this information. {157}

As we have already seen, 'Newton,' since 1748, had been in England, trying to procure the money from Cluny: we have seen that Archibald Cameron, Young Glengarry, and others, had obtained a large share of the gold in the winter of 1749. Charges of dishonesty were made on all sides, and we have already narrated how Archibald Cameron, Sir Hector Maclean, Lochgarry, and Young Glengarry carried themselves and their disputes to Rome (in the spring of 1750), and how James declined to interfere. The matter, he said, was personal to the Prince. But the following letter of James to Charles deserves attention.

The King to the Prince.

'March 17, 1750.

'You will remark that at the end of Archy's paper, it is mentioned as if a certain person should have made use of my name in S---d, AND HAVE EVEN PRODUCED A LETTER SUPPOSED TO BE MINE to prove that he was acting by commission from me: what there may be in the bottom of all this I know not, but I think it necessary you should know that since your return from S---d I never either employed or authorized the person, or anybody else, to carry any commissions on politick affairs to any of the three kingdoms.'

Now this certain person, accused by 'Archy' (Archibald Cameron) of forging a letter from James, with a commission to take part of the hidden h.o.a.rd, is Young Glengarry. In his letter of October 12, 1751, AEneas Macdonald mentions a report 'too audacious to be believed; that Glengarry had counterfeited his Majesty's signature to gett the money that he gott in Scotland.' Glengarry 'was very capable of having it happen to him,' but HE accused Archibald Cameron, and the charge still clings to his name. Even now Cameron is not wholly cleared. On November 21, 1753, his uncle, Ludovic Cameron of Torcastle, wrote to the Prince from Paris:

'My nephew, Dr. Cameron, had the misfortune to take away a round sum of your highness's money, and I was told lately that it was thought I should have shared with him in that base and mean undertaking. I declare, on my honour and conscience, that I knew nothing of the taking of the money, until he told it himself in Rome, where I happened to be at the time, and that I never touched one farthing of it, or ever will.' {159}

Cluny, as well as Cameron, was this gentleman's nephew. The character of Archibald Cameron is so deservedly high, the praises given to him by Horace Walpole are so disinterested, that any imputation on him lacks credibility. One is inclined to believe that there is a misunderstanding, and that what money Cameron took was for the Prince's service. Yet we find no proof of this, and Torcastle's letter is difficult to explain on the hypothesis of Cameron's innocence. Glengarry tried to secure himself by a mysterious interview with the King. On May 23, at Rome, he wrote to Edgar. 'As His Majesty comes into town next week, and that I can't, in your absence, have an audience with such safety, not choising to confide myself on that particular to any but you; I beg you'l be so good as contrive, if His Majesty judges it proper, that I have the honour of meeting him, in the duskish, for a few moments.'

No doubt Glengarry was brought to the secret cellar, whence a dark stair led to James's furtive audience chamber.

We must repeat the question, Was Young Glengarry, while with James in Rome, actually sold to the English Government at this time? We have seen that he was in London in the summer of 1749. On August 2 of that year, the Duke of c.u.mberland wrote to the Duke of Bedford, who, of all men in England, is said by Jacobite tradition to have most frequently climbed James's cellar stair! c.u.mberland speaks of 'the goodness of the intelligence' now offered to the Government. 'On my part, I bear it witness, for I never knew it fail me in the least trifle, and have had very material and early notices from it. How far the price may agree with our present saving schemes I don't know, but good intelligence ought not to be lightly thrown away.' {160}

Was Glengarry (starving in August 1749) the source of the intelligence which, in that month, c.u.mberland had already found useful? The first breath of suspicion against Glengarry, not as a forger or thief (these minor charges were in the air), but as a traitor, is met in an anonymous letter forwarded by John Holker to young Waters. {161} A copy had also been sent to Edgar at Rome.

Already, on November 30, 1751, some one, sealing with a stag's head gorged, and a stag under a tree in the s.h.i.+eld, had written to Waters, denouncing Glengarry's suspected friend, Leslie the priest, as 'to my private knowledge an arrant rogue.' Leslie has been in London, and is now off to Lorraine. 'He is going to discover if he can have any news of the Prince in a country which, it is strongly suspected, His Royal Highness has crossed or bordered on more than once.' In the later anonymous letter we are told of 'a regular correspondence between John Murray [of Broughton, the traitor] and Samuel Cameron'-- a spy of whom we shall hear again. 'What surprises people still more is that Mr. Macdonald of Glengarrie, who says that he is charged with the affaires of his Majesty, is known to be in great intimacy with Murray, and to put Confidence in one Leslie, a priest, well known for a very infamous character, and who, I'm authorised to say, imposed upon one of the first personages in England by forging the Prince's name.'

The anonymous accusers were Blair and Holker, men known to Edgar and Waters, but not listened to by Charles. Glengarry, according to his anonymous accuser of February 1752, was in London nominally 'on the King's affaires.' On July (or, as he spells it, 'Jully') 15, 1751, Young Glengarry wrote from London to James and to Edgar. He says, to James, that the English want a Restoration, but have 'lost all martial spirit.' To Edgar he gave warning that, if measures were not promptly taken, the Loch Arkaig h.o.a.rd would be embezzled to the last six-pence. 'I must drop the politicall,' he says; he will no longer negotiate for James, but 'my sword will be always drawn amongst the first.'

The letter to James is printed by Browne; {162a} that to Edgar is not printed. And now appears the value of original doc.u.ments. In the ma.n.u.script Glengarry spells 'who' as 'how': in the printed version the spelling is tacitly corrected. Now Pickle, writing to his English employers, always spells 'who as 'how,' an eccentricity not marked by me in any other writer of the period. This is a valuable trifle of evidence, connecting Pickle with Young Glengarry. In an undated letter to Charles, certainly of 1751, Glengarry announces his approaching marriage with a lady of 'a very Honourable and loyall familie in England,' after which he will pay his share of the Loch Arkaig gold. He ends with pious expressions. When at Rome he had been 'an ardent suitor' to the Cardinal Duke 'for a relick of the precious wood of the Holy Cross, in obtaining which I shall think myself most happy.' {162b}

In 1754, two years after the anonymous denunciation, we find a repet.i.tion of the charge of treachery against Glengarry. On January 25, 1754, Mrs. Cameron, by that time widow of Archibald, sends to Edgar, in Rome, what she has just told Balhaldie about Young Glengarry. Her letter is most amazing. 'I was telling him [Balhaldie] what character I heard of Young Glengarry in England,'

where she had vainly thrown herself at the feet of George II., praying for her husband's life. 'Particularly Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochnell [Mrs. Cameron was a Campbell] told me, and others whom he could trust, that in the year 1748, or 1749, I don't remember which, as he, Sir Duncan, was going out of the House of Commons, Mr. Henry Pelham, brother to the Duke of Newcastle, and Secretary of State, called on him, and asked if he knew Glengarry? Sir Duncan answered he knew the old man, but not the young. Pelham replied, it was Young Glengarry he spoke of; for that he came to him offering his most faithful and loyal services to the Government in any shape they thought proper, as he came from feeling the folly of any further concern with the ungrateful family of Stuart, to whom he and his family had been too long attached, to the absolute ruin of themselves and country.'

It is difficult to marvel enough at the folly of Pelham in thus giving away a secret of the most mortal moment. Mrs. Cameron did not hear Lochnell's report till after the mischief was wrought, the great scheme baffled, and her husband traduced, betrayed, and executed. By January 1754, Pickle had done the most of his business, as will appear when we come to study his letters. In these Henry Pelham is always 'my great friend,' with him Pickle communicates till Pelham's death (March 1754), and his letters are marked by the Duke of Newcastle, 'My Brother's Papers.'

All this may be called mere circ.u.mstantial evidence. The anonymous denouncer may have been prejudiced. Mrs. Cameron's evidence is not at firsthand. Perhaps other Highland gentlemen spelled 'who' as 'how.' Leslie was not condemned by his ecclesiastical superiors, but sent back to his mission in Scotland. {164} But Pickle, writing as Pickle, describes himself, we shall see, in terms which apply to Young Glengarry, and to Young Glengarry alone. And, in his last letter (1760), Pickle begs that his letters may be addressed 'To Alexander Macdonnell of Glengarry by Fort Augustus.' It has been absurdly alleged that Pickle was James Mohr Macgregor. In 1760, James Mohr had long been dead, and at no time was he addressed as Alexander Macdonnell of Glengarry. Additional evidence of Pickle's ident.i.ty will occur in his communications with his English employers.

He was not likely to adopt the name of Pickle before the publication of Smollett's 'Peregrine Pickle' in 1751, though he may have earlier played his infamous part as spy, traitor, and informer.

NOTE.

The Family of Glengarry.

ALASTAIR RUADH MACDONELL, alias Pickle, Jeanson, Roderick Random, and so forth, died, as we saw, in 1761. He was succeeded by his nephew Duncan, son of AEneas, accidentally shot. at Falkirk in 1746. Duncan was followed by Alastair, Scott's friend; it was he who gave Maida to Sir Walter. Alastair, the last Glengarry who held the lands of the House, died in January 1828. Scott devotes a few lines of his journal to the chief (January 21, 1828), who shot a grandson of Flora Macdonald in a duel, and disputed with Clanra.n.a.ld the supremacy of the Macdonalds. Scott says 'he seems to have lived a century too late, and to exist, in a state of complete law and order, like a Glengarry of old, whose will was law to his Sept. Warm-hearted, generous, friendly, he is beloved by those who knew him . . . To me he is a treasure . . . ' {165} He married a daughter of Sir William Forbes, a strong claim on Scott's affection. He left sons who died without offspring; his daughter Helen married Cunninghame of Balgownie, and is represented by her son, J. Alastair Erskine- Cunninghame, Esq., of Balgownie. If Charles, half brother of Alastair Ruadh (Pickle), who died in America, left no offspring, the House of Glengarry is represented by AEneas Ra.n.a.ld Westrop Macdonnell, Esq., of the Scotus branch of Glengarry. According to a letter written to the Old Chevalier in 1751, by Will Henderson in Moidart, young Scotus had extraordinary adventures after Culloden.

The letter follows. I published it first in the Ill.u.s.trated London News.

To the King. From W. Henderson in Moydart.

'October 5, 1750.

'Sir,--After making offer to you of my kind compliments, I thought it my indispensable duty to inform you that one Governor Stewart of the Isle of Lemnos on the coast of Ethiopia in ye year 1748 wrot to Scotland a letter for Stewart of Glenbucky concerning Donald McDonell of Scothouse younger, and John Stewart with 20 other prisoners of our countrymen there, to see, if by moyen of ransome they could be relieved. The substance of the Letter, as it came with an Irish s.h.i.+p this year to Clyde, is as follows:

'That Donald McDonell of Scothouse, younger, and first cousin german to John McDonell of Glengarry, and with John Stewart of Acharn and other 20 persons mortally wounded in the Battle of Culloden, were by providence preserved, altho without mercy cast aboard of a s.h.i.+p in Cromarty Bay the very night of the Battle, and sailed next morning for Portsmouth, where they were cast again aboard of an Indiaman to be carried, or transported without doom or law to some of the british plantations, but they had the fate to be taken prisoners by a Salle Rover or a Turkish Privatir or Pirat, who, after strangling the captain and crew, keeped the 22 highlanders in their native garb to be admired by the Turks, since they never seed their habit, nor heard their languadgue befor, and as providence would have it, the Turks and Governor Stewart came to see the Rarysho, and being a South country hiland man, that went over on the Darien expedition, and yet extant, being but a very young boy when he went off, seeing his countrymen, spok to them with surprize in their native tong or language, and by comoning but a short time in galick, found in whose's army they served, and how they suffered by the fate of war and disaster, after which he ordered them ash.o.a.r, and mitigated their confinement as far as lay'd in his power, but on them landing, by the Turks' gelosie [jealousy?] they were deprived of all writting instroments, for fear they sho'd give their friends information of the place they were in, and so it would probably happen them during life: if John Stewart of Acharn had not got his remot cousin Governor Stewart to writt a letter and inclosed one from himself giving particular information of Scothouse, wis.h.i.+ng and begging all frinds concerned to procure written orders from the King of France to his Amba.s.sador at Constantinopol for to make all intercession for the reles.e.m.e.nt of the forsaid Two Gentlemen and other 20 British christians in the King His Majesty's Name, or to recommend their condition to his holyness to see if by ransome they might be relived.

And they'll always be gratefull to their Deliverurs, to this pious end. I make chuse of you to inform your Master, who's the capablest person under G.o.d to do for them, which will with other infinit t.i.tles endear you to your fast friends in Scotland, and especially to your Will Henderson, who lives there 13 years past among the MacDonalds of Clanra.n.a.ld, so I hope you'll make use of what I have wrot, to the end I intend, and G.o.d will give the due reward . . . I remain, etc.'

In fact, the younger Scotus was not taken prisoner at Culloden, but remained in the Highlands, and is mentioned by Murray of Broughton, in his account of his expenditure, and of the Loch Arkaig treasure, published by Robert Chambers as an Appendix to his 'History of the Rising of 1745.'

CHAPTER VIII--PICKLE AND THE ELIBANK PLOT

The Elibank plot--George II. to be kidnapped--Murray and Young Glengarry--As Pickle, Glengarry betrays the plot--His revelations-- Pickle and Lord Elibank--Pickle meets Charles--Charles has been in Berlin--Glengarry writes to James's secretary--Regrets failure of plot--Speaks of his illness--Laments for Archy Cameron--Hanbury Williams seeks Charles in Silesia--Pickle's 'fit of sickness'--His dealings with the Earl Marischal--Meets the Prince at the masked ball--'A little piqued'--Marischal criticises the plot to kidnap George II.--'A night attack'--Other schemes--Charles's poverty--'The prophet's clothes'--Mr. Carlyle on Frederick the Great--Alleges his innocence of Jacobite intrigues--Contradicts statesmen--Mr. Carlyle in error--Correspondence of Frederick with Earl Marischal--The Earl's account of English plotters--Frederick's advice--Encouragement underhand--Arrest of Archy Cameron--His early history--Plea for clemency--Cameron is hanged--His testimony to Charles's virtues--His forgiveness of his enemies--Samuel Cameron the spy--His fate--Young Edgar on the hidden treasure--The last of the treasure--A salmo ferox.

The Stuart Papers, we have said, contain no hints as to the Elibank plot of November 1752, unless Goring's scruples were aroused by it.

It was suggested and arranged by Alexander Murray, younger brother of Lord Elibank, whom young Edgar describes as 'having a very light head; he has drunk deep of the Garron' (Garonne?). {169} With a set of officers in the French service, aided by Young Glengarry (who had betrayed the scheme) and 400 Highlanders, Murray was to attack St.

James's Palace, and seize the King. If we may believe Young Glengarry (writing to Edgar in Rome), Charles was 'on the coast,' but NOT in London. Pickle's letters to his English employers show that the design was abandoned, much to his chagrin. As Glengarry, he expresses the same regret in a letter to Edgar. We now offer Pickle's letters. He is at Boulogne, November 2, 1752.

Add. B.M. MSS. 32,730.

'Boulogne: November 2, 1752.

My dear Sir,--My friends will be most certainly greatly surprised at my silence, but I have such reasons that I can clear all at meeting.

I have been so hurried, what with posting, what with Drinking, and other matters of greater weight than they dream of, that I have not had a moment, as the french says, Sans temoigne, till now; thus rendered my writing impracticable. Next Post brings a letter to my friend, and I hope he will not grudge to send Credit to this place, for I am to take a trip for ten days, the Jurny is of importance, it's likewise very expencive, and I must give mony. After this trip, my stay here will be short, for I dare not be explicite on a certain point. I can answer for myself--but how soon my letter is received, I beg remittance. You'll think all this very strange, and confus'd, but I a.s.sure you, THERE YOU'L SOON HEAR OF A HURLY BURLY; but I will see my friend or that can happen. I wish I had the Highland pistoles. If Donald wants mony, pray give him. He is to come with a Shoot of Close to me, when I receive Credit. I WILL RUN AT LEAST TOW HUNDRED LEAGUES POST. You'l hear from me when I write to my friend.

Aquent them of what I write, and ever believe me

'Yours unalterable 'JEANSON. {171}

'Don't proceed in your jurney, till you have further advice--Direct for me as Johnny directs you.