After passing through Lyons, Charles hired another chaise, and proceeded to Strasbourg. From Strasbourg it is supposed that Charles went to Paris, as it is quite certain that, in the month of May, he visited that capital.
Of Charles’s wanderings, during the several years that he continued to roam on the continent, no satisfactory account has yet appeared; but recent researches have thrown some light on this obscure part of his history. It has been long known that during this period he visited Germany, spent some time privately in Paris, but resided chiefly in the dominions of his friend the Duc de Bouillon, where, surrounded by the wide and solitary forest of Ardennes, his active spirit sought, in the dangerous chase of wolves and bears, some compensation for the military enterprise from which he was excluded.[1341] Secretary Edgar, who corresponded frequently with “the dear wild man,” as he jocularly styled Charles, considered the prince’s incognito as one of the most extraordinary circumstances that had ever occurred, so great was the secrecy with which it was for several years preserved.
After his departure from Paris, the first trace that can be discovered of him is in September 1750, when he visited London.[1342] His object in coming over appears to have been to establish a regular correspondence with his friends in England, to ascertain the probability of a rising in his favour, and to fix with them upon a proper place for landing arms, &c. Before his departure he applied to his father for a renewal of his powers as regent, which James reluctantly granted.[1343] If he found matters in a favourable train, he intended to issue a declaration in which he was to offer to refer the funds to a free parliament; and to encourage the army to join him, he was to show the nullity of the oaths they had taken to the “Elector.”[1344] Charles arrived in London in the month of September, and went immediately to the house of Lady Primrose. Her ladyship sent a note to Dr. King, a zealous Jacobite, desiring to see him immediately. On the doctor’s entering the house, Lady Primrose led him into her dressing-room, and presented him to the prince. Dr. King was surprised at seeing him, and still more astonished when informed of the motives which had induced him to hazard a journey to England at such a juncture. According to Dr. King, whose statement is fully supported by documents among the Stuart Papers, the impatience of the prince’s friends who were in exile had formed a scheme which was impracticable; but although it had been as feasible as they had represented it to him, yet no preparation had been made to carry it into execution. Charles was soon convinced that he had been deceived, and after a stay in London of only five days, returned to the continent.[1345]
As Charles studiously concealed from his father all his designs and movements, the latter was entirely ignorant of his contemplated marriage with the daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. The Chevalier had suggested, in 1747, a marriage with one of the Duke of Modena’s daughters, from which family his mother had sprung; but Charles appears not to have relished the proposed match. He now urged upon him the necessity of marrying, so as to secure the succession of the family; for he could not think the prince so selfish as to consider himself only in all he did and suffered.
Though he could not but feel disappointed at the result of his journey to England, Charles did not despond, and he now resolved to sound the dispositions of the courts of Berlin and Stockholm. As Lord Marischal had resided about three years in Berlin, and was, through the interest of Field-marshal Keith, his brother, on the best footing with his Prussian majesty, it occurred to Charles that, by availing himself of the services of that nobleman, whom he looked upon as “an honest man,” Frederick might be induced to espouse his cause. Accordingly he despatched Colonel Goring to Berlin, in June 1751, with a letter to Lord Marischal. After consulting with his lordship, Goring was directed to proceed to Sweden.[1346] Of this mission nothing farther is known. An interview which took place between Lord Marischal and Goring, and another probably with the prince himself at Paris, in September following, are involved in the same obscurity. About this time Charles received notice that one Grosert, collector of the customs at Alloa, had left Scotland with an intention to assassinate him. This information was brought to France by Robertson of Blairfetty, who had been in Scotland. Grosert is said to have been married to a German woman, the daughter of the milliner of George I.[1347]
No trace can be discovered of Charles’s wanderings, after his return from London, till the 5th of April 1752, when he was seen by a gentleman of the name of Mackintosh at Campvere, in the island of Middleburg, where he remained four days.[1348] He is said to have revisited London in the course of the following year, and to have formally renounced the Catholic religion in a chapel in Gray’s Inn Lane under his own name of Charles Edward Stuart; but for this statement there appears to be no sufficient authority.[1349] Dr. King, who corresponded with Charles for several years, makes no allusion to this visit, nor is there the least trace of it to be found among the Stuart Papers. The story of a third visit, on occasion of the coronation of George III., at which Charles is said to have attended, rests on the authority of a letter of David Hume, written in 1773. As to his reported change of religion, a rumour was generally prevalent in 1752—a year before the date of his alleged apostacy at London—that Charles had become a Protestant; but its accuracy was doubted of by some of his friends.[1350] It is certain, however, that Charles was not disposed to imitate the self-denial of his father and grandfather, who preferred their faith to a crown.[1351]
In consequence of the state of comparative security which the British government enjoyed after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, it became less vigilant than before in watching the motions of the exiled adherents of the house of Stuart. Some of them accordingly ventured, from time to time, to revisit their native country and friends. Amongst others, Dr. Cameron came over in 1749 to recover part of a large sum of money which had been left by Charles in charge of Macpherson of Cluny when he quitted Scotland. He made a second journey to Britain in 1753, for what particular purpose is not certainly known, although it is supposed his visit had some connection with a scheme for another rising, then under the consideration of the Jacobites, but which luckily was nipped in the bud. Having been apprehended in Scotland, he was carried to London, confined to the Tower, and his identity being proved in the court of king’s bench by several witnesses, he received sentence of death, and was barbarously executed at Tyburn. He conducted himself with manly fortitude and decorum, and his fate was generally pitied.[1352] Some of the best wishers to the Government thought the sacrifice of this unfortunate gentleman a most unnecessary and wanton act at such a juncture, and at such a distance of time from the period of his attainder.[1353] It is said that King George himself, as he reluctantly signed the warrant for Cameron’s execution, exclaimed, “Surely there has been too much blood spilt upon this account already!”
Down to 1754 Charles kept up a regular communication with his friends in England, several of whom visited him personally, and though they saw many reprehensible things in his conduct, yet they were willing to make every allowance for the peculiarities of his situation. There was one circumstance, however, which they could not overlook. When in Scotland, Charles had a mistress named Clementina Walkinshaw, who, by all accounts, possessed no great attractions, bodily or mental. Some years after he was sent out of France he sent for this woman, who managed to become acquainted with all his plans, and was trusted with his most secret correspondence. As Miss Walkinshaw had a sister who acted as housekeeper to Frederick, Prince of Wales, at Leicester house, all the persons of distinction in England attached to Charles grew alarmed, being apprehensive that this paramour had been placed in his family by the English ministers. They, therefore, despatched a gentleman, named M’Namara, to Paris, where Charles then was, with instructions to insist upon Miss Walkinshaw’s removal for a certain time from his presence. Mr. M’Namara, who was a man of excellent understanding, urged the most powerful reasons, and used all the arts of persuasion to induce him to comply, but to no purpose. M’Namara then informed him that an immediate interruption of all correspondence with his most powerful friends in England, and the ruin of his interest, would be the certain consequence of his refusal; but Charles was inflexible. M’Namara staid some days in Paris beyond the time prescribed, in hopes of ultimately prevailing; but all his entreaties and remonstrances were ineffectual. At parting, M’Namara could not help exclaiming, with great indignation, “What has your family done, Sir, thus to draw down the vengeance of Heaven on every branch of it, through so many ages?” During his conferences with M’Namara, the prince declared that he had no violent passion, or, indeed, any particular regard for Miss Walkinshaw, and that he could see her removed from him without any concern; but that he would not receive directions for the regulation of his private conduct from any man alive. When M’Namara returned to London and reported Charles’s answer to the gentlemen who had sent him to Paris, many of whom were persons of the first rank, and all of them men of fortune and distinction, they were amazed and confounded, and resolved at once to break with him.[1354]
Lord Marischal was then residing at Paris as ambassador from the king of Prussia to the court of Versailles, and was apprised by M’Namara of everything that passed between him and the prince. Had M’Namara’s mission been successful, his lordship, whose services Charles was anxious to obtain, meant, on the expiration of his embassy, to have entered Charles’s household; but disgusted with the conduct of the prince, who even had the ingratitude to threaten to publish the names of his English friends, he declined to take any farther interest in his affairs, and embracing the mediation of the king of Prussia, reconciled himself to the British government.[1355]