Chapter 12

PICKLE AS A HIGHLAND CHIEF.—1754–1757 Progress of Pickle—Charles’s last resource—Cluny called to 276 Paris—The Loch Arkaig hoard—History of Cluny—Breaks his oath to King George—Jacobite theory of such oaths—Anecdote of Cluny in hiding—Charles gives Pickle a gold snuff-box—‘A northern —’—Asks for a pension—Death of Old Glengarry—Pickle becomes chief—The curse of Lochgarry—Pickle writes from Edinburgh—His report—Wants money—Letter from a ‘Court Trusty’—Pickle’s pride—Refused a fowling-piece—English account of Pickle—His arrogance and extortion—Charles’s hopes from France—Macallester the spy—The Prince’s false nose—Pickle still unpaid—His candour—Charles and the Duc de Richelieu—A Scottish deputation—James Dawkins publicly abandons the Prince—Dawkins’s character—The Earl Marischal denounces Charles—He will not listen to Cluny—Dismisses his servants—Sir Horace Mann’s account of them—‘The boy that is lost’—English rumours—Charles declines to lead attack on Minorca—Information from Macallester—Lord Clancarty’s attacks on the Prince—On Lochgarry—Macallester acts as a prison spy—Jesuit conspiracy against Charles