Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Boarding L'Heureux

On September 21, 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart boarded L'Heureux, a French frigate, escaping from Scotland after the failed '45.  Stuart was aided by Flora MacDonald, who disguised Stuart as her maid "Betty Burke" during part of his journey.

Walter Scott's novel "Waverley" is set in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, with Bonnie Prince Charlie as a central character.  From Waverley"

'The exchange of mutual protection between a Highland gentleman and an officer of rank in the king's service, together with the spirited manner in which the latter asserted his right to return the favour he had received, is literally true. The accident by a musket shot, and the heroic reply imputed to Flora, relate to a lady of rank not long deceased. And scarce a gentleman who was 'in hiding' after the battle of Culloden but could tell a tale of strange concealments and of wild and hair's breadth's capes as extraordinary as any which I have ascribed to my heroes. Of this, the escape of Charles Edward himself, as the most prominent, is the most striking example. The accounts of the battle of Preston and skirmish at Clifton are taken from the narrative of intelligent eye-witnesses, and corrected from the 'History of the Rebellion' by the late venerable author of 'Douglas.' The Lowland Scottish gentlemen and the subordinate characters are not given as individual portraits, but are drawn from the general habits of the period, of which I have witnessed some remnants in my younger days, and partly gathered from tradition.'

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