Volume III Part 31 (1/2)

The felicity which Lord Derater enjoyed was of brief duration

According to tradition aed on to those steps which ended in his death by the violent counsels of his brother Charles, whose i, in his private correspondence, how much his rash and interess, and the principal features of the insurrection of 1715, and of the part which Lord Derater took in that event, an account has already been given[404] ”Happy,” observes the biographer of Charles Radcliffe, ”had it been for him, happy for his lady, and happy for his family, had the earl staid at home, and suffered himself to be withheld from that fatal expedition”[405]

Charles Radcliffe was at that tie; he had no experience in e, ready to offer hi, and even hopeless enterprise, and see to set no value on his life where honour was to be won Such a character soon became popular with the leaders of the ave the conduct of his tenantry into his brother's hands, Captain Shaftoe co under Mr Radcliffe

The behaviour of this young cohout the whole of the expedition was consistent with this character of intrepidity; but that which surprised ed in as the judge, which he displayed And perhaps, had his counsels been followed, the result of that ill-starred rising, in which so ht have been less disastrous to the party whoents were at Hexhaht that General Carpenter was approaching, Mr Radcliffe proposed that the Jacobite troops should go out and fight the English before they had recovered fro march; but his opinion was overruled His was that description of leans much from observation; he studied the countenances of those around him, and formed his own conclusion of their characters When any false alar's troops were near, it was his practice, undaunted himself, to watch the countenances of his officers, when they were ordered to head their corps, and ainst the enemy Some of them, he observed, turned pale, and looked half-dead with fear; the eyes of others flashed with fire and fury: on these, he was certain that a dependence ht be placed in the ti the others in any post of responsibility

Nor were his own party the only subjects of his curiosity Until this eventful period of his life, he had seen but little of the world, ”and now,” observes his biographer, ”he fancied himself on his travels” He therefore passed over no object of interest cursorily; at every town he visited, he inquired ere the customs of the place--what monuments of celebrated men, or other objects of antiquity were to be found there; and of these he made written notes; whilst in the council and the camp, he studied the tempers and passions of hlanders round declared that they would not stir a step farther, but would march with Lord Wristoun to the west of Scotland, Mr Radcliffe thought their views reasonable, and advocated the endeavour to strike a bold stroke in Scotland, and to aidom His opinion, which events justified, was overruled, and the leaders of his party were resolute in continuing their fatal and rash project of proceeding to England Mr Radcliffe, on finding that his representations were ineffectual, begged that he iven to hihlanders: this was also denied hi the force; and he was constrained to proceed with his confederates in arms to Preston

In the action at that place, Mr Radcliffe behaved with a heroisht to behold hi to aniround with unequalled bravery, obliging the king's forces to retire During the action Mr Radcliffe encountered the ut as much duty as the lowest soldiers in the ranks But his life was spared only to encounter aand weariso invested on all sides by the ene man exclaimed, ”that he would rather die, with his sword in his hand, like a allows, there to die like a dog” These exclaed to subh-spirited youth, was carried to Newgate, there to await his trial, in company with his coate, Mr Radcliffe witnessed a scene of desperation, accompanied with the ordinary circumstances of licentiousness, and reckless ulations, the prisons of that day afforded Until after the execution of Lord Derater and of Lord Kenmure had taken place, hopes of a reprieve sustained the unhappy prisoners in Newgate, and, ”flaunting apparel, venison pasties,” wine, and other luxuries, for which they paid an enorences of those ere incarcerated in that crowded receptacle[406]

Contributions were made from many different quarters for the prisoners; and the friends of the ”rebels” were observed to be also very generous to the turnkeys Numbers of ladies visited the prison, and a choice of the most expensive viands was daily proffered by the lavish kindness of their fair enthusiasts Of course erous and costly kindness; and escapes were facilitated, perhaps, not without connivance on the part of Government On the fourteenth of March an atteet out of the press-yard, by breaking through a part of the wall, from which they were to be let down by a rope; but they were discovered, and, in consequence, heavily ironed Nevertheless, on the twenty-third of March almost all of the prisoners were released froence which was a proof of the lenity of the Government, as the ordinary keepers of the prison would not have dared to have allowed it[407] After this, Mr Forster and others aame of shuttlecock, at which, relates the author of the Secret History of the Rebels in Newgate, the ”valiant Forster beat every one who engaged hih he could not do it in the field” On the tenth of April that gentleman made his escape: and henceforth, a lieutenant, with thirty of the Foot Guards, was ordered to do constant duty at Newgate

Meanti was, a spotted fever broke out, and seemed likely to relieve the civil authorities from no shth of May, Mr Radcliffe was arraigned at the Exchequer Bar, at Westuilty In a few days afterwards he was brought there again, and tried upon the indictuilty

He soon afterwards was carried to Westminster, accompanied by eleven other prisoners, to receive sentence of death They were conveyed in six coaches to the Court As the coach in which Mr Radcliffe was seated, drove into Fleet Street, it encountered the state carriage in which George the First, as then going to Hanover for the first tied Mr Radcliffe's coach to stop; and, perceiving that he was opposite to a distiller's shop, he called for a pint of aniseed, which he and a fellow-prisoner, with a servant of Newgate, drank, and then proceeded to Westminster

Mr Radcliffe was several tiht have been pardoned; but affrighted, perhaps, by his brother's fate, and probably weary of ian to project a plan of escape, to which he was ereat success of several siilance was, indeed, resorted to in the prison, after the flight of Brigadier Mackintosh, who had knocked down the turnkey, and ran off through the streets: and all cloaks, riding-hoods, and arht in by the visiters who ca to hear, that a certain for-hoods acquired, at this time, the name of a Nithsdale, in allusion to the escape of the Earl of Nithsdale[408]

On the day appointed for Mr Radcliffe's escape, the prisoners gave a grand entertainate: this took place in a rooher part of the prison Mr Radcliffe, when the party were at the highest of theira little door open in the corner of the rooh it followed by thirteen of the prisoners; and succeeded in finding their way, un the them to be visiters to the prisoners, allowed the, and had, according to his own subsequent account to a fellow prisoner in Newgate, a ”brown tye-wig” In this ithout any disguise, but wearing his ordinary attire, did he escape, leaving within the prison walls, his friend, Basil Hamilton, nephew of the Duke of Hamilton, who, as it was deposed on his trial, was his chu with hiarden of the College of Physicians After re concealed for so a passage to France[409] He lived, for reat poverty, tantalized with pro the ungenerous treatment of the Chevalier by that Court

His nephew, John Radcliffe, as killed accidentally, assisted hiave him a small pension: his difficulties and privations must have been considerable; yet they never lessened his ardour in the cause for which he had sacrificed every worldly advantage

Either to a unrequited, Mr Radcliffe was resolved upon e The object of his hopes was Charlotte Maria, Countess of Newburgh, theof Hugh, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, and the hters by that nobleman

This lady was about a year older than hi born in 1694 It is a tradition in the family of Lord Petre, the lineal descendant of James, Earl of Derater, that Charles Radcliffe offered his hand twelve tih, and was as often refused

Wearied by his ih at last forbade hi character of Mr Radcliffe, and his strong will, suggested an expedient, and he was resolved to obtain an interview To compass this end, he actually descended into an aparth the chi her by surprise, obtained her consent to an union Of the truth of this curious courtshi+p, there is tolerably good evidence, not only in the belief of the Petre fa the fact, which is at Thorndon[410] The nuptials took place at Brussels, in the church of the Virgin Mary, on the twenty-fourth of June, 1724,[411] and in 1726, James Bartholomeho becah, was born at Vincennes[412]

Lady Newburgh had every reason, as far as prudence could be allowed to dictate to the affections, for her reluctance to a e with Mr

Radcliffe He was, at this time, an outlawed man, with a sentence of death passed upon hi, even after the death of his nephew, the family honours and estates Yet, in the ardour and fearlessness of Charles Radcliffe's character there must have been much to compensate for those circu There seeely formed was infelicitous; and indeed, from family documents, it is evident that the family so marked out by fate for sorroere happy in their h's first e, Anna, the eldest, was married to the Count de Mahony, whose descendants, the Gustiniani h, were they not debarred by being born aliens Another was Frances, who died unmarried This lady is mentioned in a letter written by Charles Radcliffe, recently before his death, when he was confined to the Toith peculiar affection, as ”that other tender mother of my dear children”[413]

In the year 1733, Mr Radcliffe visited England, and resided several months in Pall Mall; yet the ministry did not consider it necessary to take any notice of his return, nor, probably, would they ever have concerned theht the unfortunate ain returned, and endeavoured by the mediation of friends to procure a pardon, but was unsuccessful in that attempt[414]

Irritated, perhaps, by that refusal, and still passionately attached to the cause which he had espoused; undeterred by the execution of his brother, or by the sufferings of his friends, fro himself in the tur out of the insurrection of 1745, again ventured his life on the hazard He had no lands to lose, no estates to forfeit; but he had all to gain; for the death of his nephew made him the head of the unfortunate house of Radcliffe After that event, he assumed the title of Earl of Derater, and it was of course assigned to him at the court of St

Germains, and indeed always insisted upon by him; but the estates were alienated, and there appeared no hope under the present govern those once enviable possessions Under these circumstances, Mr Radcliffe was naturally a likely object for the representations of the sanguine, or the intrigues of the designing to work upon; and in this temper of hton, at Paris, where that gentleman remained three weeks; and became inti others, as a ”wretched dependant on French pensions, with difficulty obtained, and accompanied with contempt in the pay therams upon the Rebellion, a s of twenty French officers, and sixty Scotch and Irish, who e these was Charles Radcliffe and his eldest son At this ti attempt in Scotland,--sometimes in derision,--soer Strafford,” writes Horace Walpole (Sept 1745), ”has already written cards for my Lady Nithesdale, my Lady Tullebardine, the duchess of Perth and Berwick, and twenty more revived peeresses, to invite them to play at whist, Monday three months: for your part, you will divert yourself with their old taffetys, and tarnished slippers, and their aardness the first day they go to Court in clean linen”[415] ”I shall wonderfully dislike,” observes the sa a loyal sufferer in a threadbare coat, and shi+vering in an attic chalish to the young princes at Copenhagen Will you ever write to ive you a faithful account of all the proe and Prince Edward make whenever they have a neord, and intend to reconquer England”

One of the first adverse circumstances that befel the Jacobites in 1745, was the capture of the vessel in which Mr Radcliffe hoped to reach the shores of Scotland It was taken during the month of November by the Sheerness man-of-war; and Mr Radcliffe and his son were carried to London and imprisoned in the Tower

On the twenty-first of Noveuard froht to the bar, by virtue of a Habeas Corpus, and the record of his former conviction and attainder was at the sa read to hiht be allowed hily assigned to hiranted to prepare the defence, and on the twenty-fourth of the ht up; he pleaded that he was not the person named in the record, as described as Charles Radcliffe, but maintained that he was the Earl of Derater He also requested that the trial ht be put off, that titnesses, one froht be sued one of the jury, but that challenge was overruled During these proceedings the lofty, arrogant e of Mr Radcliffe drew from his counsel the ree, Mr Justice Foster, who tried the case, bore his conteht into Court, to be arraigned, he would neither hold up his hand, nor plead, insisting that he was a subject of France, and appealing to the testimony of the Neapolitan Minister, who happened to be in Court But not one of these objections was allowed, and the trial proceeded

No fresh indictment was framed, and the point at issue related merely to the identity of the prisoner The award in Mr Radcliffe's case was agreeable to the precedent in the case of Sir Walter Raleigh, and execution arded on his for been given on the forht be law, but no one after the lapse of thirty years, and the frequent colish Govern as _justice_: and, as in the case of Sir Walter Raleigh, it brought odium upon the e the Second alust at the course adopted

The evidence in this case was far fro such as would be accepted in the present day