Butler and Balhaldy returned to France in October. During their absence things had changed; the battle of Dettingen had been fought (June 27th, 1743), although Great Britain and France were technically at peace. King Louis was furious, and he took the matter up personally, and gave instructions to prepare an expeditionary force for the invasion of England. The main body was to consist of sixteen battalions of infantry and one regiment of dismounted dragoons, under Marshal Saxe, and was to land in the Thames. It was further suggested that two or three battalions should be sent to Scotland. Prince Charles Edward was invited to accompany the expedition, and was secretly brought from Rome, arriving in Paris at the end of January 1744. There was no affectation of altruism for the Stuart exile in King Louis’s mind, but the zeal of the Jacobites was to be exploited. He wrote his private views to his uncle, the King of Spain, communicating a project that he had formed, he said, in great secrecy, which was to destroy at one blow the foundations of the league of the enemies of the House of Bourbon. It might, perhaps, be hazardous, but from all that he could learn it was likely to be successful. He wished to act in concert with Spain. He sent a plan of campaign. Everything was ready for execution, and he proposed to begin the expedition on the 1st of January. It would be a very good thing that the British minister should see that the barrier of the sea did not entirely protect England from French enterprise.[50] It might be that the revolution to be promoted by the expedition would not be so quick as was expected, but in any case there would be a civil war which would necessitate the recall of the English troops in the Netherlands. The Courts of Vienna and Turin would no longer receive English subsidies, and these Courts, left to their own resources, would submit to terms provided they were not too rigorous.[51]
Collapse of French Expedition.
The story of the collapse of the proposed invasion is too well known to need description. Ten thousand troops were on board ship. Marshal Saxe and Prince Charles were ready to embark. On the night of the 6th of March a terrible storm arose which lasted some days. The protecting men-of-war were dispersed, many of the transports were sunk, a British fleet appeared in the Channel, and Saxe was ordered to tell the Prince first that the enterprise was postponed, and later that it was abandoned. Charles, nearly broken-hearted, remained on in France, living in great privacy, and hoping against hope that the French would renew their preparations. For a time he remained at Gravelines, where Lord Marischal was with him. He longed for action, and implored the earl to urge the French to renew the expedition to England, but Marischal only suggested difficulties. Charles proposed an expedition to Scotland, but his lordship said it would mean destruction. Then he desired to make a campaign with the French army, but Lord Marischal said it would only disgust the English. Charles removed to Montmartre, near Paris, but he was ordered to maintain the strictest incognito. He asked to see King Louis, but he was refused any audience. His old tutor, Sir Thomas Sheridan, was sent from Rome to be with him; also George Kelly, Atterbury’s old secretary, who, since his escape from the Tower, had been living at Avignon. He took as his confessor a Cordelier friar of the name Kelly, a relative of the Protestant George Kelly, and, sad to say, a sorry drunkard, whose example did Charles no good. These Irish companions soon quarrelled with Balhaldy and Sempill, who wrote to the Chevalier complaining of their evil influence, while the Irishmen also wrote denouncing Balhaldy and Sempill.
Charles left Montmartre. His cousin, the Bishop of Soissons, son of the Marshal Duke of Berwick, kindly lent him his Château Fitzjames, a house seven posts from Paris on the Calais road, where he remained for a time. Another cousin, the Duke of Bouillon, a nephew of his mother, also was very kind, and entertained him at Navarre, a château near Evreux in Normandy. But his life was full of weary days. He could get nothing from the French, and ‘our friends in England,’ he wrote to his father, are ‘afraid of their own shadow, and think of little else than of diverting themselves.’ Things seemed very hopeless: the Scots alone remained faithful.
Suspense in Scotland.
From the time that Murray left London in the spring of 1743, the Jacobite Associators had received no letters from Balhaldy. The suspense was very trying; indeed Lord Lovat felt for a time so hopeless that he proposed to retire with his son to France and end his days in a religious house.[52] Lovat’s spirits seem to have risen shortly after this owing to some success he had in persuading his neighbours to join the Cause, and he eventually resolved to remain in Scotland. It was only from the newspapers the Jacobite leaders knew of the French preparations, but towards the end of December a letter was received from Balhaldy, which stated that the descent was to take place in the month of January. Other letters, however, threw some doubt on Lord Marischal’s part of the enterprise, which included an auxiliary landing in Scotland, and once more the Jacobite leaders were thrown into a state of suspense. They felt, however, that preparations must be made, and an active propaganda began among the Stuart adherents.
Murray’s interview with Prince Charles, August 1744.
In due course news of the disaster to the French fleet reached Scotland, but no word came from Balhaldy or Sempill, and it was then determined to send John Murray to France to find out the state of matters. Murray tells the story of his mission in his Memorials. He met Prince Charles at Paris on several occasions, and told him that so far from there being 20,000 Highlanders ready to rise, as was the boast of Balhaldy, it would be unwise to depend on more than 4000, if so many. But in spite of this discouraging information, the Prince categorically informed Murray that whatever happened he was determined to go to Scotland the following summer, though with a single footman.[53]
Murray hastened home, and at once began an active canvass among the Jacobites; money and arms were collected, and arrangements were made in various parts of the country. Among other expedients was the establishment of Jacobite clubs, and the celebrated ‘Buck Club’ was founded in Edinburgh. The members of these clubs were not at one among themselves. Some of them said they were prepared to join Prince Charles whatever happened, but others only undertook to join if he were accompanied by a French expedition. At a meeting of the Club a document was drawn up by Murray representing the views of the majority present, which insisted that unless the Prince could bring them 6000 regular troops, arms for 10,000 more, and 30,000 louis d’or, it would mean ruin to himself, to the Cause, and to his supporters.[54] This letter was handed to Lord Traquair, who undertook to take it to London and have it sent to Prince Charles in France. By Traquair it was delayed, possibly because he was busy paying court to the lady who about this time became Countess of Traquair,[55] but to the expectant Jacobites for no apparent reason save apathy. After keeping the letter for four months he returned it in April 1745, with the statement that he had been unable to find a proper messenger. Another letter was then sent by young Glengarry, who was about to proceed to France to join the Scottish regiment raised by Lord John Drummond for service in the French army. It was, however, too late; the Prince had left Paris before the letter could be delivered.
Distressed that the King of France would not admit him to his presence; wearied with the shuffling of the English Jacobites and the French ministers; depressed by Lord Marischal, who chilled his adventurous aspirations; plagued, as he tells his father, with the tracasseries of his own people, Charles determined to trust himself to the loyalty of the Scottish Highlanders. He ran heavily into debt; he purchased 40,000 livres’ worth of weapons and munitions,—muskets, broadswords, and twenty small field-pieces; he hired and fitted out two vessels. With 4000 louis d’or in his cassette he embarked with seven followers at Nantes on June 22nd (O.S.).