However, I had my revenge, for Lady Jane herself was unpleasantly startled that same day as we sate at dinner in our room, and the Governor chose to pay us another visit without warning.

There was a frantic scurry for a few moments as we removed all traces of my place, and his Excellency must have had a suspicious train of thought running through his head as he waited for me to unlock the door. This I did with unmoved countenance, and Lady Jane made the excuse of being somewhat en déshabillé, as the room was over-warm with the fire, and it passed without further remark, though I could see he eyed me from time to time as I stood behind her chair. I waited on them, I flatter myself, quite as perfectly as the most highly trained servant—for the table is a point to which I have always devoted much attention, and my knowledge stood me in good stead now.

Whatever his suspicions were, he did not dare to make them known; Lady Jane was a person of too recognised a position not to make it highly inconvenient for any one who might interfere with her without due justification; and the next day we sailed without hinderance.

Upon our arrival at the Hague, the first letter we received was one from the Vicomte to Margaret, assuring her of her brother's safety, and informing her it was commonly reported in London that Prince Charles had escaped to the continent in the train of Lady Jane Drummond, so we knew to a certainty the Governor had mistaken me for the Prince, and informed the Court of his suspicions.

Whether the mistake was flattering to me or not, I cannot fairly judge. So far as the Prince stood morally or intellectually, he was beneath my contempt, but physically, my impression is that he was handsome—at least he had a fine carriage and bearing. It is most difficult to judge any man in his position; all my training and education, and that of my ancestors for generations before me, had been such that I have scarce been able to look on a king save with a feeling close akin to reverence. So with these reservations I allow the dubious compliment to pass. But whatever I might think, there was no doubt but the circumstance had raised me many degrees in Margaret's estimation. And this also I owed to the unwitting services of the Vicomte, who had successively helped me on to nearly every advance in her affections.

From the Hague we journeyed by easy stages to Paris, where Lady Jane found suitable lodgings for herself and Margaret in the rue Dauphine, while I found a humble one, better fitted to my purse, in the rue du Petit-Bourbon.

I at once made application to join my old regiment, but to my chagrin I was only put off from month to month, and, insisting on an answer, I was curtly informed there was no captaincy vacant, and I must remain satisfied with the small pension the king was pleased to give me as officer in the Scottish expedition, or accept a subaltern's position.

When the Vicomte arrived, by the end of May, he resumed his position in the Royal Guard, and his evening visits to Lady Jane, or rather to Margaret. About the middle of the summer he succeeded in obtaining an authentic copy of the Act of Indemnity, which was studied with the greatest interest by us all. The terms were fair, even generous, but I was not astonished to find my name among those excluded from its favour. It mattered little to me that I was henceforward a marked man, with a price on my head, doomed to perpetual banishment; for, being in no sense an Englishman, and a Scot only by descent, exclusion from the Three Kingdoms meant little to me; blood and training had made me an alien in feeling, and fate had ever thrown me and mine on the side of the unfortunate; Maxwells and Geraldines, we had always been on the losing side; it had become second nature. But with Margaret it was far different. Her generous soul was in arms at once; my exclusion from the Act had raised me to the niche of a hero in her temple, and again it was the Vicomte who had contributed to this elevation.

Margaret now began to grow anxious again concerning her brother. Why did he not join us? Could any new complication have arisen to cause his re-arrest? These and a thousand other disturbing speculations troubled her unceasingly, until they were put beyond all doubt by a letter, which fell upon us like a bomb:

“January 19, 1748.