He was
of a mean appearance, and, like his father, pusillanimous to a
degree. The meanness of his appearance disgusted, and his
pusillanimity discouraged the Scotch when he made his appearance
amongst them in the year 1715, some time after the standard of
rebellion had been hoisted by Mar. He only stayed a short time in
Scotland, and then, seized with panic, retreated to France, leaving
his friends to shift for themselves as they best could. He died a
pensioner of the Pope.
The son of this man, Charles Edward, of whom so much in later years
has been said and written, was a worthless ignorant youth, and a
profligate and illiterate old man. When young, the best that can
be said of him is, that he had occasionally springs of courage,
invariably at the wrong time and place, which merely served to lead
his friends into inextricable difficulties. When old, he was
loathsome and contemptible to both friend and foe. His wife
loathed him, and for the most terrible of reasons; she did not
pollute his couch, for to do that was impossible--he had made it so
vile; but she betrayed it, inviting to it not only Alfieri the
Filthy, but the coarsest grooms. Doctor King, the warmest and
almost last adherent of his family, said, that there was not a vice
or crime of which he was not guilty; as for his foes, they scorned
to harm him even when in their power.
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