Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart (Pimlico) (16 page)

Accordingly Louis summoned Balhaldy and requested him to go to Rome on a confidential mission. His instructions were to travel to the Eternal City via Switzerland, bearing a letter of invitation for the prince addressed to James. Balhaldy made ready to depart. Eight days later he was informed that there would be no letter. Although his mission to Rome was still on, he was to discourage Charles Edward from setting out for Paris until the invasion was launched. Smelling a rat, Balhaldy asked for some form of written assurance for James.
¹³
He was told this would be forthcoming and ordered to hold himself in readiness for a sudden departure.

On 23 November, at Fontainebleau, the day before he was due to depart, Balhaldy received the king’s instructions that he was to set out without a letter; the letter was deemed ‘inadvisable for security reasons’. At the final briefing session with Amelot, Balhaldy asked how he was supposed to convince James of French good faith without a letter from the king. Amelot assured him that this would be sent once the expedition had set sail. Balhaldy realised that Louis XV was manipulating him (he claimed that the king had learned artfulness and cunning from Fleury, ‘Old Papa Fréjus, as the king named him’), but felt it impolitic to insist on a letter.

He tried one last time for some documentary evidence of French
bona fides
. Amelot produced a passport for the prince.
¹⁴
At the conclusion of the interview Balhaldy asked Amelot for some specific date of departure he might mention to James. Amelot plucked the date of 12 January 1744 out of the air. In this one specific date lay the undoing of Louis XV’s carefully nurtured piece of arch-cunning.

The dimensions of Louis XV’s subterfuge are now plain. He sent
Balhaldy
to Rome to get ‘legitimating’ material from James, informing him that there was a serious invasion project in hand, and that France would call Charles Edward to join in later. Louis thus hoped to get all he needed from James but still to keep the prince at Rome, relying on James’s characteristic trait of doing everything by the book. He had reckoned without two things: the prince’s stubborn determination to get out of Rome; and Amelot’s careless slip of the tongue.

Balhaldy arrived in Rome on 19 December 1743 after a nightmarish journey through the snows of Switzerland.
¹⁵
He found Charles Edward straining at the leash, with everything ready for a swift departure. James’s declarations for England and Scotland and his commission of regency for the prince had been printed.
¹⁶
After shrugging off an attack of ’flu earlier in the year,
¹⁷
Charles had brought himself back to a key pitch of physical fitness through hunting.
¹⁸

Balhaldy spent six days in Rome, until Christmas Day, reporting French thinking to James.
¹⁹
He pointed out that the only specific task assigned to him by Louis XV was to bring back the manifestoes and declarations, but that there was a definite expedition afoot. James was puzzled. If the French king had wanted to send him a message, why a verbal one through Balhaldy? Why not through the established channels via Tencin and his nephew Bailli? James still did not have the measure of Louis XV’s duplicity. He did not realise that Tencin was not privy to the king’s secrets.
²⁰
Moreover, Machiavellianism of this kind in a brother monarch would not have been suspected by the ingenuous James.

The Jacobite monarch’s every instinct told him to get a definite written commitment from the French king. He dashed off a letter to Louis, thanking him for Balhaldy’s message and telling him he had postponed Charles Edward’s departure until he got a clearer light from France.
²¹
Here was another error. If James had written directly to Amelot, he might have received an express from the Foreign Minister, telling him on no account to send the prince. But this letter to Louis was never answered, either through the king’s indolence or because the missive got snarled up in French bureaucracy (either is plausible).
²²

At this moment Charles Edward himself made a fateful entry into the negotiations. Now thoroughly frustrated after years of prevarication from France, he pressed Balhaldy hard for evidence that the French would welcome him on their territory. It is unclear what Balhaldy said. Somehow mention of a departure date of 12 January
1744
seeped out. That was enough for the prince. Brandishing this evidence, he plagued his father to let him go.

James questioned Balhaldy further. It was obvious that this time there really was a French invasionary force poised to strike across the Channel; this was no feint. Balhaldy explained the strategy of a surprise attack: a bolt from the blue to redress the serious French reverses in Germany. Moreover, it was clear from the fact of Balhaldy’s mission alone that the French were convinced of the strength of the English Jacobite party and wanted Stuart support. And there was the clinching factor of the date mentioned by Amelot as a likely one for the prince’s departure. Suppressing his misgivings about the lack of a direct written invitation, James bowed to the combined arguments of Balhaldy and his son. He outlined his own objections, but left it to the prince to decide.
²³
There could be only one choice. It was settled that Charles Edward would indeed depart for France in early January. All that remained was to decide the itinerary.

Here Balhaldy proved extremely helpful. The route he had just travelled, through Switzerland, was out, he told the king. So too was a wholly overland passage. Apart from the rains and snow, and the dreadful roads ruined by frost, all frontiers were being carefully guarded because of the plague. Every traveller was rigorously examined on who he was, where he was from and where he was going to. In Genoese territory a fifteen-day quarantine period was imposed on everyone, irrespective of rank. Moreover, the king of Genoa forbade embarcation on a
felucca
, effectively putting the Viareggio route out of the reckoning. And the coast road from Genoa to Antibes via Monaco was thronged and clustered with customs barriers and anti-plague quarantine posts. The sole plausible route was overland through Tuscany and Genoa and thence by sea to Antibes.
²⁴

James agreed that travel through Lombardy – where his son might be examined before the governors of various towns and his identity discovered – was too perilous. There was not the same risk in Tuscany. The going would be tough, but he relied on his son’s stamina to see him through. The one thing neither James nor Balhaldy foresaw was the quarantine regulations in force at Antibes.
²⁵

Balhaldy departed from Rome on Christmas Day. Travelling at great speed through Tuscany and northern Italy, he reached Paris on 3 January 1744.
²⁶
In Rome final preparations were pushed ahead for the prince’s momentous journey.

The first task was to outwit the English spies in Italy. Sir Horace
Mann
, the British Resident in Florence, maintained a formidable stable of agents, who dogged the prince’s every move, reporting the trivia of his daily life. It was time to use their meticulous vigilance against them.

Foreseeing that the prince might some day want to make a swift getaway, James had obtained papal permission for the gates of Rome to be opened for his son at whatever hour of day or night he chose to go hunting. The usual bureaucracy surrounding the opening of the city gates was waived.
²⁷
This meant that there should be no holdups in Rome itself.

Next a trial run into the country had to be essayed, to see if there were any snags that had been overlooked. On 4 January 1744 the prince sent out a two-man scouting party on the road to Massa.
²⁸
His emissaries bore letters from the governor of posts, guaranteeing them horses. The reconnaissance mission soon proved its worth. The postmaster of Baccano, sixteen miles from Rome, refused the prince’s men horses because they had not started ‘post’ from Rome.
²⁹
This was a vital tip-off to Charles Edward not to start the journey with his own horses.

It now transpired that a most convenient cover story had presented itself. The prince had a long-standing invitation to go hunting on the duke of Caserta’s estates in Cisterna. The season’s hunting this year commenced on 9 January. Bringing his departure date forward three days, Charles Edward sent his household out to Cisterna on 7 January to make the usual preparations, oiling and cleaning his guns and setting up the cello in his chambers for the evening. Care was taken to bruit it about that the prince was looking forward to a good week’s hunting.
³⁰

The final gossamer threads were then laid across the web of deception. The principals at this stage were the prince’s groom François Vivier (a native of Tours), his aide Francis Stafford, Sir Thomas Sheridan and the Bailli de Tencin.
³¹
It was decided not to reveal what was going on to Henry. His highly emotional nature made him a poor repository for secrets of this kind, especially involving his brother.

On 8 January 1744 a poker-faced Charles Edward supped with his family as usual. Ostentatiously giving out to his brother that he was retiring early, the prince then made his way via a secret passageway to his father’s chamber for a final briefing.
³²
They talked together for an hour. James said farewell tearfully. Then, at 3 a.m., the prince set out. He would never see his father again.

The prince initiated the elaborate deception by getting into a post-chaise
with
Sheridan. Stafford and Vivier the groom went ahead with three black horses to the Porta San Giovanni.
³³
The gate was opened for the party without demur. Once outside the city walls, Charles Edward and Sheridan staged a well-rehearsed charade. The post-chaise came to a halt; the prince announced that he wished to go on by horseback. Sheridan, warming to his part, strenuously disapproved. Charles Edward answered back vociferously in Italian, making sure the postilion and servant on the chaise could hear him saying that he was going to ride to Albano and then cut across country to Cisterna.
³⁴
Vowing that he would beat the querulous old Sheridan to Cisterna, the prince galloped off down the Albano road with Stafford.

Once they were sure they were not being followed, the prince and Stafford changed clothes.
³⁵
Stafford galloped on to Frascati. Charles Edward meanwhile returned to the Porta San Giovanni and rode around the walls of Rome. He crossed the Ponte Molle, took the via della Storta, and arrived at Caprarola after riding for forty miles (including the circuit of the city walls). At Caprarola he met up with Vivier the groom. They found no difficulty in getting horses for the onward journey to Massa.
³⁶

In the meantime Sheridan arrived at Cisterna, closely followed by Henry. When Charles Edward failed to come in, there was a palpable anxiety among the Gaetani entourage and the prince’s own people (except for Sheridan).
³⁷
This was assuaged when Stafford arrived with a story that the prince’s horse had fallen near Albano, leaving its master with a bruised rib. The consequence, Stafford explained, was that the prince would be detained at Albano for three days. In a brilliant circumstantial touch, Stafford handed Henry a note purportedly penned by the prince at Albano. The note asked Henry not to tell their father about the accident, since he had so often nagged Charles about riding horses on precipitous roads; for this reason, too, no servants should be sent to Albano.
³⁸

While this elaborate comedy was being played out, complete with daily bulletins from Albano on the prince’s progress, Charles Edward and Vivier had pressed on to Massa.
³⁹
They arrived there on 11 January and then survived a truly dreadful two days on roads smothered in ice and snow before struggling in to Genoa on the evening of 13 January. For five days the prince had barely slept, had not undressed once and had had nothing to eat but eggs.
⁴⁰
Yet even in Genoa the dauntless prince did not slacken his pace. He pressed on to the port of Finale to see if he could hire a
felucca
.

The severe rain and snow meant that no small craft were leaving
that
port. Refusing to take no for an answer, the prince rode on overnight to Savona. On his arrival there on the morning of 14 January, he managed to hire a
felucca
and to find a captain and crew willing to take him on. Ironically, they proved to be based at Finale. The captain arranged to return to Finale then come up to Savona the next day to embark the mysterious traveller for Antibes.
⁴¹

But the winds were against the prince. Blowing from the south, they churned up the seas dangerously. Not even the most intrepid captain would take a small boat to sea in those conditions. For six days the prince prowled uneasily among the shipping at Savona, chafing at the delay.

The danger now was that Mann’s spies might have cracked the façade of deception and alerted Admiral Matthews and the English Mediterranean fleet.
⁴²
Yet to proceed overland was unthinkable. The land passes were guarded by the king of Sardinia, England’s reliable ally.

On the sixth day the sea calmed a little, but it was still too rough for a normal sailor to venture out. Yet the slight break in the weather was enough for the prince. Rushing down to Finale, he offered the captain a substantial bonus if he would put to sea at once, regardless of risk.
⁴³

The captain agreed. At first luck was with them. They got to Monaco on the late evening of 21 January.
⁴⁴
Next day the winds came howling back, stronger than ever. On the 23rd, with a slight lessening of the gale, they tried again. At daybreak the little boat was floundering so helplessly in the swell that it attracted the attention of Matthews’s fleet as it cruised between Monaco and Antibes. A small boat was lowered by the English to give chase, but it failed to make headway in the heavy seas.
⁴⁵
Nevertheless the English were alerted. Rumours of the prince’s escape were now creeping up the Mediterranean seaboard. It was considered more than likely that the
felucca
did indeed contain the Young Pretender.