Bonnie Prince Charlie: a Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden

As Henty points out in his preface it is perhaps better that Prince Charles' attempt to win back his father's throne failed. For if the end of the battle had been different at Culloden it "might have been followed in time by another revolution, another expulsion of the Stuarts..." The hero in this story is Ronald Leslie, who as a young child is smuggled out of France, and from out of the clutches of the king of France. For Ronald's father, a young soldier, had married the daughter of Marquis de Recambours. The Marquis is a noble who objected strongly to his daughter's association with a common soldier, and in fact was not even told of what had taken place. When the Marquis learned what his daughter had done, she was shut up in a convent and Colonel Leslie was put in a dungeon. Ronald grows up in the household of Andrew and Janet Anderson, whose brother had escaped with Ronald out of France. Suspicions are aroused against Ronald when he warns a Jacobite leader of the police who are coming to get him. But Ronald manages to keep out of farther trouble, with Andrew's help. Time goes on, and before long Ron and Malcolm are off to find out if Ron's father is still alive, and to see about rescuing him and his wife. But danger threatens, and after dueling with Duke of Chateaurouge Ronald must fly. So it is that the two become mixed up in Prince Charles fight for the throne of James the second. This is an exciting story, and also an excellent history lesson about Britain's history.