Est-ce vous, de Henri le fils digne de l'être ? Il est roi dans les fers; qu'êtes vous sur le trône ? Tu pourrais réparer les malheurs d'Édouard," &c. The foregoing lines possess but little poetical value, but they express the sentiments that were general in Paris at the time. Some other lines, very superior to those just quoted, were attributed to Dufresnoy. They begin thus: "Peuple jadis si fier, aujourd'hui si servile, Des princes malheureux vous n'êtes plus l'asile : and a little farther on, the author continues: "Hélas! auriez-vous donc couru tant de hasards le fils de Stuart, par vous-même appelé, Mais qui dans les horreurs d'une vie agitée, Et de leurs intérêts victime déplorable, Tu triomphes, cher prince, au milieu de tes fers ; Va révoquer l'arrêt d'une race proscrite. Tes malheurs ont changé les esprits prévenus, Corrupt as was the court of Louis XV., there were not wanting individuals who felt how unworthy had been the treatment that Charles Stuart had experienced. Among those who gave expression to such a sentiment, none was more conspicuous than the young Dauphin, upon whom the hopes of his country centred at that time. On the morning after the arrest, he expressed himself to the king at the levee, without the least reserve, and in presence of many gentlemen of the court. He spoke of the event as a crime of the ministry, and as a violation of all the laws of hospitality, and many, emboldened by the Prince's example; did not hesitate to avow their participation in his sentiments. The king reminded those about him that the Dauphin's youth disqualified him from judging of such matters; but this remark did not prevent the Prince from again giving expression to his feelings, and the conversation between the king and his son became at last so animated, that the courtiers deemed it prudent not to remain witnesses of it, and one after another withdrew from the royal presence. CHAPTER XXX. CONDUCT OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT AFTER THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN-BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF THE HIGHLANDERS-INGRATITUDE TO THE LORD PRESIDENT, DUNCAN FORBES-EXCESSES OF THE SOLDIERY-WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS - TRIALS AND EXECUTION OF THE REBEL LORDS. - WHEN, in 1749, Charles Stuart left France, he could scarcely avoid feeling that the love and respect of all who had moved within his circle accompanied him into the retirement of private life. Of his history during the period of his retirement, very little information has reached us, but that he never lost sight of England, nor abandoned the wishes and hopes with which his early years were flattered, might, if other proofs were wanting, be inferred from his characteristic inflexibility and love of enterprise. Nor were circumstances wanting to justify the continuance of those expectations. The extreme severity with which the British government proceeded against the Jacobites after the battle of Culloden, and the sweeping measures adopted to prevent the renewal of any similar attempt for the restoration of the ancient dynasty, made it evident that Charles would find Scotland much changed from what it had formerly been, should he be disposed to repeat his enterprise of 1745. All the accounts coincide in describing the conduct of the soldiers, after the victory, as disgraceful to human nature; and as the Duke of Cumberland never attempted to restrain the atrocities of his men, his tacit acquiescence can scarcely be looked on in any other light than in that of an implied approval, if not of a direct encouragement. Some of the Jacobite accounts of the diabolical villanies perpetrated by the soldiers, without any attempt from the officers to restrain them, may be exaggerated; but even the statements of English officers, published shortly after the events which they narrate, prove but too undeniably the truth of many of the charges preferred against them. Those among the prisoners against whom there was the least suspicion of having formerly served in the royal army, were hanged at Inverness on the same day, by the duke's command, and on the following day the soldiers returned to the field to murder those |