Read Online Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography by Carolly Erickson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Carolly Erickson
Ads: Link
Berwick on his father's death. He proposed to James that Charles be allowed to join the besieging forces and after some hesitation James agreed. Charles was eager to go—as was Henry, only nine years old but burning to be off on campaign with his brother, and mortified when James told him he would have to stay home. After a farewell visit to the pope, who blessed him and sent him on his way with a large coffer of coins, Charles left for the wars, taking Murray, Sheridan, a half-dozen servants and two friars with him. The day after his departure James wrote his son a letter, and sent it off together with a scabbard which, he said, "may be of use to you." "Remember and practice all I said to you yesterday," he reminded Charles, "and then you will I hope be one day both a great and a good man, which I pray God to make you, and that I may have good accounts of you, which will be the greatest comfort I can have during your absence." 6
The group arrived at Gaeta to find that the siege was in its final stages. Nevertheless Berwick took Charles immediately to where Don Carlos was holding court and there Charles was greeted as Prince of Wales and shown every formal courtesy. According to Murray, who sent a detailed account of events in Gaeta to James in Rome, Charles was grateful for these honors but asked that he be shown no special distinction as he was under his father's orders to remain incognito. When the king arrived, Murray went on, Charles went to meet him and talked to him "very prettily" and without the least display of awkwardness or embarrassment. Indeed he talked to Don Carlos "with the same ease as he used to do to any of the Cardinals at Rome," introducing Murray and Sheridan to him and keeping up a gracious flow of conversation. It was noticeably more gracious than that of Don Carlos, who was, according to Murray, ''of a bashful temper" and inclined to be brittle in his manner. 7
The following morning Charles returned to the court and dined there, after which Don Carlos, who conferred on him the honorary rank of general of artillery, took him by boat to the vicinity of the military camp, to a house from which he was accustomed to watching the fighting. The king's advisers told him the house was the officers' command post, Murray wrote, but in fact officers only went there while Don Carlos was there, to lend credibility to this fiction. The house was of no significance whatever, and was perfectly safe from the enemy's guns. Everyone but Don Carlos himself seemed to know the truth, and the soldiers laughed at him behind his back, the thing being "a joke to the whole army,"
If he were not to be laughed at, Charles would have to get a great deal closer to the action than this, yet, as Murray realized, the Spaniards would be "mortified extremely" if Charles were seen to display more courage than Don Carlos, who was six years his senior. Military etiquette too had to be considered, and permission given from the commander Montemar. These issues were apparently resolved, for Berwick took his young cousin into the trenches, where ''he showed not the least concern at the enemy's fire, even when the balls were hissing about his ears."
The following day Berwick had suddenly to leave the house where he was staying, when five of the siege guns began firing on it at once, making gaping holes in the walls. The duke got out, but Charles, who arrived on the scene only moments later, insisted on going into the house despite the evident danger, and stayed there "a very considerable time with an undisturbed countenance." 8 Berwick, apprehensive not only for his cousin's safety but because he had promised James he would be responsible for the boy, tried to take Charles into the trenches only at times when the enemy guns were customarily silent, so that he would run "little or no risk." And Murray wrote, a little cynically, that by visiting the trenches at a safe hour Charles was gaining "in a few days a great reputation at a very cheap
The group arrived at Gaeta to find that the siege was in its final stages. Nevertheless Berwick took Charles immediately to where Don Carlos was holding court and there Charles was greeted as Prince of Wales and shown every formal courtesy. According to Murray, who sent a detailed account of events in Gaeta to James in Rome, Charles was grateful for these honors but asked that he be shown no special distinction as he was under his father's orders to remain incognito. When the king arrived, Murray went on, Charles went to meet him and talked to him "very prettily" and without the least display of awkwardness or embarrassment. Indeed he talked to Don Carlos "with the same ease as he used to do to any of the Cardinals at Rome," introducing Murray and Sheridan to him and keeping up a gracious flow of conversation. It was noticeably more gracious than that of Don Carlos, who was, according to Murray, ''of a bashful temper" and inclined to be brittle in his manner. 7
The following morning Charles returned to the court and dined there, after which Don Carlos, who conferred on him the honorary rank of general of artillery, took him by boat to the vicinity of the military camp, to a house from which he was accustomed to watching the fighting. The king's advisers told him the house was the officers' command post, Murray wrote, but in fact officers only went there while Don Carlos was there, to lend credibility to this fiction. The house was of no significance whatever, and was perfectly safe from the enemy's guns. Everyone but Don Carlos himself seemed to know the truth, and the soldiers laughed at him behind his back, the thing being "a joke to the whole army,"
If he were not to be laughed at, Charles would have to get a great deal closer to the action than this, yet, as Murray realized, the Spaniards would be "mortified extremely" if Charles were seen to display more courage than Don Carlos, who was six years his senior. Military etiquette too had to be considered, and permission given from the commander Montemar. These issues were apparently resolved, for Berwick took his young cousin into the trenches, where ''he showed not the least concern at the enemy's fire, even when the balls were hissing about his ears."
The following day Berwick had suddenly to leave the house where he was staying, when five of the siege guns began firing on it at once, making gaping holes in the walls. The duke got out, but Charles, who arrived on the scene only moments later, insisted on going into the house despite the evident danger, and stayed there "a very considerable time with an undisturbed countenance." 8 Berwick, apprehensive not only for his cousin's safety but because he had promised James he would be responsible for the boy, tried to take Charles into the trenches only at times when the enemy guns were customarily silent, so that he would run "little or no risk." And Murray wrote, a little cynically, that by visiting the trenches at a safe hour Charles was gaining "in a few days a great reputation at a very cheap
Similar Books
