Pickle the Spy; Or, the Incognito of Prince Charles

Download or read book Pickle the Spy; Or, the Incognito of Prince Charles written by Andrew Lang and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 1897 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Subject of this book - The last rally of Jacobitism hitherto obscure - Nature of the new materials - Information from spies, unpublished Stuart Papers, &c. - The chief spy - Probably known to Sir Walter Scott - ÔRedgauntletÕ cited - ÔPickle the SpyÕ - His position and services - The hidden gold of Loch Arkaig - Consequent treacheries - Character of Pickle - PickleÕs nephew - PickleÕs portrait - Pickle detected and denounced - To no purpose - Historical summary - Incognito of Prince Charles - Plan of this work. The latest rally of Jacobitism, with its last romance, so faded and so tarnished, has hitherto remained obscure. The facts on which ÔWaverleyÕ is based are familiar to all the world: those on which ÔRedgauntletÕ rests were but imperfectly known even to Sir Walter Scott. The story of the Forty-five is the tale of Highland loyalty: the story of 1750-1763 is the record of Highland treachery, or rather of the treachery of some Highlanders. That story, now for the first time to be told, is founded on documents never hither to published, or never previously pieced together. The Additional Manuscripts of the British Museum, with relics of the government of Henry Pelham and his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, have yielded their secrets, and given the information of the spies. The Stuart Papers at Windsor (partly published in BrowneÕs ÔHistory of the Highland ClansÕ and by Lord Stanhope, but mainly virginal of type) fill up the interstices in the Pelham Papers like pieces in a mosaic, and reveal the general design. The letters of British ambassadors at Paris, Dresden, Berlin, Hanover, Leipzig, Florence, St. Petersburg, lend colour and coherence. The political correspondence of Frederick the Great contributes to the effect. A trifle of information comes from the French Foreign Office Archives; French printed ÔMŽmoiresÕ and letters, neglected by previous English writers on the subject, offer some valuable, indeed essential, hints, and illustrate CharlesÕs relations with the wits and beauties of the reign of Louis XV. By combining information from these and other sources in print, manuscript, and tradition, we reach various results. We can now follow and understand the changes in the singular and wretched development of the character of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. We get a curious view of the manners, and a lurid light on the diplomacy of the middle of the eighteenth century. We go behind the scenes of many conspiracies. Above all, we encounter an extraordinary personage, the great, highborn Highland chief who sold himself as a spy to the English Government. His existence was suspected by Scott, if not clearly known and understood.