Read Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart (Pimlico) Online
Authors: Frank McLynn
At the other side of the door was Vaudreuil with other guards officers. The prince was still jabbering away excitedly in French.
87
Vaudreuil addressed him calmly. ‘Monsieur, I arrest you in the name of the king.’
They took the prince deeper into the house. Vaudreuil asked him to hand over his weapons. The prince refused but said he would not resist if they disarmed him. The officers relieved him of two loaded pistols, a sword and a double-bladed knife. Vaudreuil looked questioningly at the pistols. ‘Don’t be surprised at them,’ said the prince. ‘I’ve had them on me every day since I returned from Scotland.’
88
Vaudreuil next asked the prince to give his word that he would not attempt to take his own life or anyone else’s. Charles consented. But he continued to berate Vaudreuil. ‘You carry on a vile trade,’ he reproached him. ‘I would not have been treated any worse by the Hanoverians.’
89
Vaudreuil lamely replied that he was merely carrying out the king’s orders.
As soon as he had recovered from his initial shock, the prince began to taunt his captors with cowardice: they would not have dared treat him like this if he had had his Highlanders at his side. Then he switched the thrust of his attack, trying to confuse Vaudreuil with points of etiquette. He asserted that a mere major of the guards could not arrest a prince of the blood; it had to be done by a senior officer of the musketeers.
90
While the prince raved on, Vaudreuil sought out the duc de Biron, still sitting in disguise in his carriage. Vaudreuil evidently felt ashamed at the work he was carrying out, for he asked Biron if he
could
dispense with the silken cords. The prince, he pointed out, had been disarmed and had put up no resistance. But Biron was adamant. If anything went wrong he, not Vaudreuil, would be blamed. He insisted that the prince had to be tied hand and foot for his own safety, to stop him attempting suicide.
91
Vaudreuil returned to the prince and reluctantly explained his commission. As they bound him, the prince protested vociferously at this unwonted and unwarranted treatment. Again he asked Vaudreuil to accept his word that he carried no more weapons and would offer no resistance. Vaudreuil lamented his own shame. ‘The shame is not yours, but your master’s,’ the prince assured him.
92
But relations between captor and captive turned sour when Vaudreuil, having trussed his arms and legs, added a final cord. The prince asked sardonically if they intended putting him in cross-garters.
93
‘I think you’ve done enough,’ he added. ‘Not yet,’ said Vaudreuil. This answer gained him a coldly hostile stare.
94
Next they took the prince outside to a waiting two-horse carriage. Vaudreuil sat beside Charles in the carriage with two of his captains. There was a mounted officer on either side of the coach. Six mounted grenadiers with fixed bayonets followed behind. A number of other soldiers milled around the carriage on foot.
95
As soon as Biron saw that the arrest had been successfully completed, he departed to report to Maurepas.
During the first stage of the journey, the prince continued to complain bitterly about his treatment and about the falsity of France, which had offered him a permanent refuge. ‘As for me, I would share my last piece of bread with my friend,’ he went on bitterly. When no one attempted to interrupt the flow of his recriminations, the prince began to warm to his theme. ‘I am not so vicious as is believed,’ he declared. No, the true viciousness had been shown by France. Was this the civilised and cultivated country he had heard so much about? ‘I would not have got this treatment in Morocco,’ he complained. ‘I had a better opinion of the French nation.’
96
In the Faubourg St Antoine they stopped to pick up an escort of musketeers and switch to a six-horse carriage.
97
The halt seemed to alarm the prince. ‘Where are we going, Hanover?’ he called out, half in sardonic jest, half in earnest. Vaudreuil explained soothingly that they were simply changing carriages to make the journey to Vincennes swifter.
98
But the prince continued to be suspicious. Half-believing himself the victim of an elaborate English assassination plot, he called out: ‘I thought myself among Frenchmen, but I see English guineas have made you Hanoverians.’
99
For the rest of the journey Charles Edward did not speak. It was between 7 and 8 p.m., just two hours after the arrest, that they arrived at the Chateau of Vincennes.
100
The drawbridge was lowered to admit the carriage, then hurriedly raised. Inside Vincennes the governor marquis de Châtelet came to greet him. Châtelet had just received orders to confine the prince in a dungeon and to cede his authority to the duc de Biron and his men.
101
The prince was determined to squeeze the last drop of pathos from his predicament. ‘Come to me, my friend!’ he cried. ‘You see I can’t come to you.’
102
Châtelet was horrified to see the prince bound and ordered him untied. With trembling hands the deeply embarrassed governor took part in the untying. Together the prince and Châtelet then mounted the first fifty steps to his cell.
103
The cell was furnished with a straw-backed chair and a truckle bed. ‘
Ce n’est pas magnifique
,’ the prince remarked caustically. ‘What are these?’ he went on, pointing to a row of symbols on the wall. Châtelet explained that it was the handiwork of a priest who had made a long stay in that room.
104
Vaudreuil intervened to point out that the prince had not been strip-searched. Châtelet asked the prince if he had anything else about his person. Charles gave his word that he had not. Vaudreuil motioned Châtelet aside. They huddled together a long time in whispered conversation. Then they returned and searched the prince so thoroughly that Vaudreuil even groped around his genitals. The prince riposted with an indignant look but said nothing. The search produced nothing but a wallet.
105
The prince then remonstrated about the size of his cell. He was a man used to taking exercise, yet he would have to face four ways just to walk up and down. Was it the French intention, he wondered aloud, that he should fall ill from foul air, claustrophobia and lack of exercise?
Châtelet indicated that there was a large cell next door which he would assign to the prince if he gave his word of honour not to escape. Coldly nodding in Vaudreuil’s direction, the prince said that he had given his word once and it had not been accepted.
106
He did not intend to court humiliation twice. Nevertheless, Châtelet took it upon himself to move Charles Edward into the larger cell.
Vaudreuil departed. Once he was left behind with Châtelet, the prince relaxed a little and the atmosphere became lighter. Châtelet had tears in his eyes. ‘I am in despair. This is the unhappiest day of my life,’ he lamented. Displays of overt emotion always had an effect
on
the prince. ‘You are known as my friend,’ he reassured him. ‘Be certain I’ll never confuse the friend with the agent of government.’
107
Vaudreuil had left instructions from the duc de Biron that there were always to be two officers with him in the cell and half a dozen sergeants in the adjoining room.
108
After refusing supper, the prince took to twitting his captors. ‘I hope you didn’t tie up my English supporters like this,’ he said. ‘If you treated Sir James Harrington as you treated me, he must have suffered, being so fat.’
109
The officers did not reply. They were under orders not to discuss his case. After a bit of pacing to and fro, the prince threw himself fully clothed on the bed. He found it difficult to get off to sleep. When he did, he slept fitfully, with much tossing and turning.
He awoke at 6 a.m. It was still dark. ‘It seems the nights here are on the long side,’ he remarked, essaying a jest.
110
He then talked freely with his guards on general subjects and waited for his next meeting with Châtelet.
Throughout Wednesday the 11th the prince reviewed his position. Louis XV had tried to make the issue one of whether he or the prince was sovereign in France. The prince had tauntingly replied that he was willing to accept French laws but not those dictated by the Elector of Hanover.
111
But surely now the prince’s defiance had run its course. The news that came in during the day convinced Charles that some compromise was inevitable. His home had been thoroughly searched by lieutenant of police Berryer, and his followers Goring and Harrington sent to the Bastille.
112
He had a moral responsibility for their welfare also.
After an attempt at levity with Châtelet, when he asked how the singer Jeliotte had done at the opera, in the performance he had missed,
113
the prince got down to serious business. He asked Châtelet to make discreet enquiries as to how he could extricate himself and his followers from their plight.
Châtelet sent a note to Puysieux. Puysieux consulted with Louis XV. As a hardliner, Puysieux wanted the king to stick to his original resolution of delivering the prince to Civitavecchia under armed guard. But Louis felt he had made his point and did not want to push relations with the Stuarts to breaking point. Once Charles Edward had agreed in writing to leave French territory, he was free to go wherever he wished, either beyond the Alps or to Lorraine or Avignon. The only proviso was that he would have to be accompanied to the French border by a body of French musketeers who would then report his definite departure to the king.
114
This was good enough for the prince. On 12 December he wrote
to
Louis to say that he was ready to leave his domains immediately and was only sorry that he could not explain his position in person.
115
But even now there was a Parthian shot of defiance. The prince wrote to Louis XV as from monarch to monarch in an easy, almost patronising style.
116
Instructions were then issued to the marquis de Perussi, maréchal de camp of the 1st company of musketeers, to escort the prince to Pont de Beauvoisin on the borders of France and Savoy.
117
The prince was meanwhile asked to swear out a statement in the presence of Châtelet and four other officers. This made clear that the prince would be taken to Pont de Beauvoisin, accompanied only by persons mentioned on the escort warrant. Moreover, the prince would be pledged not to stay at Lyons or any other large city en route, not to re-enter Paris on his way from Vincennes, nor to seek sanctuary in Avignon at the end of the journey.
118
The prince gave his word of honour publicly.
Not everyone was happy with these lenient terms. Puysieux thought that Louis was too soft: the prince should be taken all the way to Civitavecchia, not just Pont de Beauvoisin.
119
Maurepas agreed, pointing out that if the prince went to Lorraine or Avignon, in defiance of his parole, French problems would begin anew.
120
Perussi too stressed that there was nothing he could do about it if the prince decided to proceed to Avignon.
121
Charles prepared to leave. But on the evening of 13 December, at the agreed departure time, he fell ill. There was severe coughing and vomiting.
122
In this the prince ran true to form. Long periods of stress, followed by defeat, as after Derby, invariably produced this reaction.
On the 14th the prince’s faithful servants Stafford and Sheridan were taken to Vincennes to accompany their master on his journey.
123
The prince was still vomiting, unable to eat anything except bouillon.
124
Nevertheless, he decided to attempt the first leg of his journey, as far as Fontainebleau. It was a decision he regretted. He was violently ill all the way there. On the night of the 14th he ran a high temperature and barely slept.
125
Perussi was keen to press on and exerted as much leverage as he could on the prince to mount up again on the 15th. But Charles wanted to stay at Fontainebleau until he was completely recovered. A compromise was hit on. They would leave at 5 a.m. on the morning of the 16th.
126
During the day of grace allowed him, the prince tried to put his affairs in order from his sick bed. General Bulkeley and the Princesse de Talmont asked permission of Maurepas to visit the prince in
Fontainebleau
. Maurepas referred the request to Puysieux. Puysieux replied curtly that if the pair had anything to say, they could say it in writing.
127
There was another worry for the French about the prince’s stay in Fontainebleau. General St Clair, on his way back from a military mission in Turin together with his secretary the philosopher David Hume, arrived to occupy the room above the prince’s at the Cabaret de la Poste inn.
128
The advent of the man who had landed troops at L’Orient in Brittany at the precise moment in September 1746 when the prince was coming to safe haven at Roscoff looked like too much of a coincidence to be true. This ‘synchronicity’ could be explained more rationally either as some anti-French plot between the prince and the English or, more plausibly, as a British attempt to assassinate him. Perussi’s pressure on the prince to move on became more insistent.
On 16 December, at 3 a.m., Perussi and the prince headed south again. The first night’s stop was at Joigny.
129
Then they passed through Auxerre to another resting place at Vermenton.
130
By the 20th, after exhausting riding, they had got as far as Beaune.
131
It took until the 23rd to get to Pont de Beauvoisin. Here Perussi’s task was complete. He bade a formal adieu to the prince.
132
But curiosity led him to send one of his men after the prince to see what he did next. The spy reported that after crossing the Pont de Beauvoisin, the prince bought three horses and then rode hard to Chambéry. Leaving the exhausted horses there, the prince disguised himself in a uniform lent to him by an Irish officer in the service of Spain. Then he, Stafford and Sheridan took the post to Orange.
133
They arrived exhausted, not having slept since the 23rd. From Orange they took a coach to Avignon. It seemed that Maurepas’s prediction was coming true. The French had scotched the snake, not killed it. The prince in Avignon would be a continuing headache to the ministers at Versailles.