Now, it being a
fact as well known as any in his history, and, so far as I know, entirely
undisputed, that the Prince's personal entreaties and urgency positively
forced Boisdale and Lochiel into insurrection, when they were earnestly
desirous that he would put off his attempt until he could obtain a
sufficient force from France, it will be very difficult to reconcile his
alleged reluctance to undertake the expedition with his desperately
insisting upon carrying the rising into effect against the advice and
entreaty of his most powerful and most sage partizans. Surely a man who
had been carried bound on board the vessel which brought him to so
desperate an enterprise would have taken the opportunity afforded by the
reluctance of his partizans to return to France in safety.
It is averred in Johnstone's Memoirs that Charles Edward left the field
of Culloden without doing the utmost to dispute the victory; and, to give
the evidence on both sides, there is in existence the more trustworthy
testimony of Lord Elcho, who states that he himself earnestly exhorted
the Prince to charge at the head of the left wing, which was entire, and
retrieve the day or die with honour.
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