Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/269

 PRINCE CHARLES STUART 179 letter dated 1742. In later life the Duke of York showed no military aptitude. A kind of progress which Charles made through the cities of Italy, aroused his desire to be a prince in more than name. The English Government quarrelled with the Republic of Venice about the royal honors paid to the prince, and his ambition was awakened. His education, we have said, was very imperfect. Murray of Broughton, indeed, credits him with Latin, Greek, history, and phi- losophy. But his spelling in both French and English was unusually bad, even in an ags. of free spelling; he wrote tyoles for jpaules, "Gems" for " James," " sord" for "sword." He did not neglect physical exercise ; was wont to make long marches without stockings, to harden his feet (as he told a follower during his Highland distresses). He was a good shot, fond of hunting, and, about 1742, was probably the first man who ever played golf in Italy. Murray describes him as " tall above the common stature, his limbs cast in the most exact mould, his complexion of an uncommon delicacy, all his features perfectly regular and well turned, and his eyes the finest I ever saw." Whether they were blue or hazel is undecided ; they are hazel in at least one contemporary portrait. As a boy, engravings show him pretty, merry, and buoyant ; an air of melancholy may be remarked as early as 1 744. With bright nut-brown hair, golden in the sun, and worn long beneath his peruke, he certainly justified the endearing name of " Bonny Prince Charlie." The distinction of his air could be concealed by no disguise, as his followers loved fondly to declare. He certainly had the royal memory for faces. At the opera, in 1773, he noticed an English officer opposite, whom he sent for. The gentleman visited the royal box, accompanied by a Scotch servant. " I have seen you before," said Charles to this man. "You once brought me a message at Falkirk, in 1746." Such was Prince Charles when, in 1742, Murray of Broughton became ac- quainted with the royal exile in Rome, and was appointed secretary for Scotland. With Lochiel arid others, Murray formed a Jacobite association in his native country. Negotiations were begun with the French court, which hung off and on, as did the English Jacobites. They would rise, if France supplied men, money, and arms. France would do this, if sufficiently assured of support in England. The king had no enthusiasm for the enterprise. He was weary of promises and of leaning on that broken reed, Louis XV. Murray intrigued in Scotland, Lord Elcho in England, Kelly at the French court. Lord Semple confused all by false hopes ; Charles was much in the hands of Irishmen Sheri- dan, Sullivan, O'Brien, and O'Neil ; already a "forward," or Prince's party was growing, as opposed to the waiting policy and party of the disheartened and un- ambitious James. To what extent English Jacobites were pledged is uncertain. There was much discontent with the Hanoverian dynasty in England, but the dread of popery was strong among the middle classes. The butchers were ad- vised that Catholics ate no meat on Sundays, the official clergy preached Protes- tant sermons, the Jacobite gentry feared for their lives and estates in case of fail- ure, and the sagacity of the Government has never revealed the extent to which the Duke of Beaufort and others were committed to King James. The universi-