PRINCE CHARLIE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1938, Page 7

PRINCE CHARLIE

STORY OF HIS ESCAPE.

The National Library of Scotland has acquired some valuable documents of Flora MacDonald, the friend of Bonnie Prince Charlie. They consist of two narratives and a covering letter, dated October 21, 1789, written at Flora MacDonald’s dictation when she was sixty-seven years old and sent to Sir John Macpherson, formerly Gov-ernor-General of India. The first narrative tells how Flora, on a visit to South Uist, was asked by Colonel O’Neil what she would give for a sight of the Prince. She replied that a sight of him would make her happy, though ho was on one hill and she on another. Some time afterwards, she was aroused from her bed about midnight by Colonel O'Neil, who proposed that she should take the Prince with her disguised in female clothes. She consented, and a whistle brought the fugitive out of the darkness. Hugh MacDonald, of Armadale, who was commanding officer there and Flora s step-father, provided a pass and a letter to her mother describing the Prince as an Irish girl, "an excellent spinstress, Burke by name,” who would be very useful to her. The night of the escape was dark and rainy, but “the Prince was very cheerful the whole night and sung several songs, among the rest, ‘The King Shall Enjoy His Own Again.’” The second document describes Flora’s life in North Carolina, where her husband raised neighbouring Highlanders to fight for the British Government in the revolutionary wars.