Bonnie Prince Charlie

“ Bonnie Prince Charlie
A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden
by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER I: The Return of a Prodigal. CHAPTER II: The Jacobite Agent. CHAPTER III: Free. CHAPTER IV: In France. CHAPTER V: Dettingen. CHAPTER VI: The Convent of Our Lady. CHAPTER VII: Mother! CHAPTER VIII: Hidden Foes. CHAPTER IX: Fontenoy. CHAPTER X: A Perilous Journey. CHAPTER XI: Free. CHAPTER XII: The End of the Quarrel. CHAPTER XIII: Prince Charles. CHAPTER XIV: Prestonpans. CHAPTER XV: A Mission. CHAPTER XVI: The March to Derby. CHAPTER XVII: A Baffled Plot. CHAPTER XVIII: Culloden. CHAPTER XIX: Fugitives. ”

“ However, I tell you frankly that my hope is that when the Highland chiefs see that the prince has come without arms, without men, and without even promises of support by France, they will refuse to risk liberty and life and to bring ruin upon their people by joining in such a mad brained adventure."
"I hope not, Malcolm," Ronald said, as he looked at the prince as he was pacing up and down the deck with the Duke of Athole, talking rapidly, his face flushed with enthusiasm, his clustering hair blown backward by the wind. "He is a noble young prince. ”

“ Enlist wherever you will, and I will take it upon myself to see that both you lads rise in the service as rapidly as you shall deserve.”
THE END. 248
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“ The next day, accordingly, Ronald called upon Sir Thomas Sheridan and Strickland, and telling them that the prince had determined to send him on a mission into Lancashire, asked them to present him to Secretary Murray, from whom he would receive orders for his guidance and instruction as to the persons whom he was to visit. The two gentlemen proceeded with him to the house in which Secretary Murray had taken up his abode, and introduced him, with much warmth, as a fellow passenger on board the Doutelle. ”

“ Your residence of two years in France has rubbed off any Scotch dialect you may have had, and at any rate you could pass for a northern Englishman. In the next place, your youth would enable you to pass unsuspected where an older man might be questioned. The prince agreed at once, and took shame to himself that he had not before given promotion to one who was his companion on his voyage to Scotland, the more so as he had made Johnstone a captain. Your claims are far greater than his, and moreover you have served as an officer in the French army. ”

“ He is a good looking young fellow, I can see, and a strong one. I don't wonder that he wanted to mount the white cockade; lads are always wanting to run their heads into danger. You have had your share of it, as you say; still you are wise to keep the lad out of it. I don't hold with soldiering, or fighting in quarrels that don't concern you.
Malcolm and Ronald travelled through Cumberland and Westmoreland, calling upon many of the gentlemen to whom the latter had been charged to deliver Prince Charles's messages. ”

“ Her lips trembled and her eyes filled.
“But you’ll be better,” said Baron, reading her thought. Clearly she had despaired of ever being any better. “When you’re able to have her, she’ll be so happy to visit you. I mean Bonnie May. She’s a wonderfully sociable little creature. If she were invited to come to see you she would be delighted. Attentions like that—such as you would [186] pay to grown people—have a wonderful effect upon her.” ”

“ The child was shocked by the unfriendliness—the rudeness—of this. Mrs. Baron followed up her words with more disparagement in the way of a steady, disapproving look. Precocious children ought to be snubbed, she thought.
The good lady would not have offended one of her own age without a better reason; but so many good people do not greatly mind offending a child.
“You know,” said Bonnie May, “I really didn’t have anything to do with picking out my own name. ”

“ Baron hit upon another possible grievance. “And she’s going to Sunday-school to-day,” she affirmed in a tone which seemed to take account of difficulties. “We’ve done our best to dress her decently. And I don’t intend to humor a little pagan as long as she’s in a Christian household.”
“But in that—that peculiar dress?” faltered Flora. She had a vision of Bonnie May in her fantastic old frock associating with the prim children [79] of poverty who were now the mainstay of the Sunday-school.
“She may walk with Mrs. Shepard. People may believe she belongs to her, if they want to.” ”

“ She ran on, and, when she reached the princes, they were actually fighting with their fists. The only one who would listen to her pleading was Prince Charlie, who readily left his brothers and went with her back to the house.
When they entered the kitchen, the old bent man was enjoying a cup of tea. He looked up and asked how Marie had managed the quarrel, as the noise seemed as great as ever.
“They would not stop, at least, I mean that six of them would not. Of course Prince Charlie came away. He does not care for fights.” ”

“ He could understand that she might have been the only child in the troupe with which she travelled, and that her older companions, weary of mimicry and make-believe when their work was done, might have employed very frank, mature speech toward each other and their young companion.
He turned away from the window with a sigh. “Won’t you take my word for it, Bonnie May, that these people mean well, and that one should speak of them with respect, even if one cannot speak of them with affection?”
“But they don’t mean well. What’s the good of stalling?” ”

“ He nodded his head. “Well, then, I’m the Romeo!”
[53] Again she regarded him critically. “You seem a little old for the part,” she suggested.
“Do you think so?” He was thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe that’s what Mrs. Baron thinks. She won’t even let me stand under a balcony, when she can help it.”
“Isn’t she quaint!” This with smiling indulgence. “But of course you don’t pay any attention to that?”
“Oh, yes I do; we—we have to!”
Bonnie May looked puzzled. “I can’t understand it,” she said. “You look like the kind that they always play the loud music for.” ”

“ Baron paused, frowning. “I meant,” he explained patiently, “that they are people who want to be as good as they can, and who want to give one another encouragement.”
The child was conscious of his wish to be conciliatory. She tried to restrain herself. “Well,” she asked, “if they want to be good, why don’t they just be good? What’s the use of worrying about it?”
“I’m afraid it isn’t quite so simple a matter as all that.”
Bonnie May’s wrath arose in spite of herself. She was recalling certain indignities. “I don’t see anything in it but a bum performance. ”

“ Nothing daunted, Bonny continued: "I'm not fooling. I'm in dead earnest. What we are after is quiet, and the prince out there, whom you have scared away with your racket, is so bound to have it that he's willing to pay handsomely for it. He's got the money, too, and don't you forget it. He wants to hire several guides and packers, also a lot of saddle-horses and ponies, but a noisy, loud-talking chap he can't abide, and won't have round. ”

“ I had to get back at that one. ‘Don’t cry, little one,’ I said. ‘Wait until it’s a pretty day and I’ll come around and take you out in my automobile.’”
“But you haven’t any automobile!”
“That,” with great emphasis, “doesn’t make any difference. There’s no harm in stringing people of a certain kind.”
“Oh, Bonnie May!” cried Baron reproachfully, [102] and with quickly restored calm he added: “Surely one should tell the truth!”
“Yes, one should, if two would. But you can’t afford to show your hand to every Bedelia that gets into your troupe. ”

“ The gravity of his answer was tinged with such a disgusted reluctance, that Bonnybell’s heart, not really at all recovered from its late intensity of fear, stood still. Loathsome old Charlie! She had always known that he would be the death of her! Would it be better to tell the{205} truth now? No! the truth was always a mistake for people like her, who had to live by their wits. ”

“ Mrs. Baron was provoked by the child’s intense earnestness. “Oh—impossible!” she said. She noted the look of despair in Bonnie May’s eyes. “There wouldn’t be enough tickets, anyway,” she added weakly.
Baron leaned back in his chair as if he had lost his appetite. What was the matter with them all, anyway, that they were afraid to get down into the crowd once in a while? Plenty of really nice people went to all manner of places—in search of novelty, for diversion, in order to get into touch with mankind. He had spoken of mad persons out at Fairyland. ”

“ You know something always happens when you sit down to a table on the stage. A servant comes in and says: ‘Beg pardon, mum, but there’s a gentleman—he says he’s your uncle from Green Bay’—and [205] then everybody gets up in a hurry, because the uncle is supposed to believe his niece has a lot of children he’s been helping to support, when she hasn’t got any at all. Or something like that.”
In brief, there were a hundred accumulating evidences to prove that Bonnie May in the Baron household was the right individual in the right place. ”

“ But Bonnie May was advancing very prettily. “How do you do, Mrs. Baron?” she inquired. She was smiling almost radiantly. “I do hope I don’t intrude,” she added.
Mrs. Baron looked down at her with frank amazement. For the moment she forgot the presence of her son. She took the child’s outstretched hand.
Perhaps the touch of a child’s fingers to a woman who has had children but who has them no longer is magical. Perhaps Bonnie May was quite as extraordinary as Victor Baron had thought her. At any rate, Mrs. Baron’s face suddenly softened. ”

“ He returned to his dinner, smiling somewhat maliciously.
“Victor!” exclaimed Mrs. Baron. She flushed angrily. “You know very well I won’t go to such a place.”
Bonnie May’s voice trailed away to a whisper—almost to a whimper. “Nice people can go anywhere they want to go,” she said. “It’s only silly people who need to be afraid, because they don’t know how to think for themselves.” ”

“ Gracie was out of danger the doctor had said. Was going on splendidly—thanks, she said, to——
"To Prince Charlie, mamma! I heard the doctor say so. He's a fairy prince who comes and saves little girls." ”

“ You know just talking doesn’t prove anything. I wanted so much to have you know that I was an—an artist!”
In the theatre the orchestra was still playing while the people filed out. In the distance there was the muffled sound of the procession of motor-cars starting and of announcers shouting numbers above the din.
It was Flora’s turn to press forward and take her seat beside Bonnie May now; and while Mrs. Baron stood aside, smiling quite happily, the manager spoke to her as if he were merely continuing a conversation which had been interrupted. ”

“ You haven’t had sense enough to realize that merely being Baron wasn’t being anything at all. You’ve got to realize that all men must be measured by just one standard. You’ve got to quit thinking it’s right for you to do just the pleasant things—the things you like to do. You have got to go to work, and take orders like any other man.”
Lying in his room, he obtained a new impression of Bonnie May, too. ”

“ I'm no end fond of Charlie, and he's the best-hearted lad alive; but he can't say No, and that will play the mischief with him, if he does not take care,” said Archie in his grave, kind way.
“While father was home, I was very busy with him, so Prince got into a set I don't like. They try to be fast, and think it's manly, and they flatter him, and lead him on to do all sorts of things play for money, and bet, and loaf about. ”

“ She’s got to get down out of the clouds, to real things.”
“She doesn’t seem to fit in with our kind of realities, does she?” he conceded. And then he smiled. “If it were only right to regard even children simply as human beings! They have to be themselves sooner or later. If it were only possible to let them develop along that line from the start!”
But the kitchen door had been opened by Mrs. Shepard again—this time timorously and incompletely—and Mrs. Baron was gone.
Baron climbed two flights of stairs before he came upon the object of his next search. Bonnie May was in the attic. ”

“ After that, Charlie got well, and we have taken many long, delightful [Pg 191] drives with him, and he has been driven in a span with Bonner twenty-seven miles in one afternoon. We have had him sixteen years, and when papa was living, Charlie, when the gong sounded for dinner, would back out of his stall, and go to the office door to bring him home. Do you not think we ought to love such a faithful old horse? We do love him, and he has a nice home and kind treatment. ”

“ She was a Boone—of the Virginia Boones—when she married Baron’s father; a beauty who had [20] been wealthy, despite the disintegration of the Boone fortunes when the Civil War freed the slaves.
He pictured Bonnie May in the dim old mansion that was his home—in that aged house that never knew the voices of children; in which even adults seemed always to be speaking in low, measured tones.
“The governess isn’t as bad as she would like to appear,” was his irreverent meditation, which still related to his mother. “And Flora would take my part. ”

“ Her attitude became that of one who is tenderly maternal and pathetically old. She bent [247] over and took the child’s hands in hers. “My dear,” she said, “are you quite sure you are willing to go?”
Bonnie May looked into her eyes and smiled. She was grateful for this proof of kindness. They were the nicest people, truly! They weren’t going to permit her to feel offended. “Oh, yes!” she said brightly.
Mrs. Baron released her hands and turned away.
“I think it will be very nice to go,” added Bonnie May. “You know, when people see too much of one another, they—they get tired of one another!” ”