PICKLE THE SPY
or The Incognito of Prince Charles




'I knew the Master: on many secret steps of his career
I have an authentic memoir in my hand.'
THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE



PREFACE



This woful History began in my study of the Pelham Papers in the
Additional Manuscripts of the British Museum. These include the
letters of Pickle the Spy and of JAMES MOHR MACGREGOR. Transcripts
of them were sent by me to Mr. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, for use in a
novel, which he did not live to finish. The character of Pickle,
indeed, like that of the Master of Ballantrae, is alluring to writers
of historical romance. Resisting the temptation to use Pickle as the
villain of fiction, I have tried to tell his story with fidelity.
The secret, so long kept, of Prince Charles's incognito, is divulged
no less by his own correspondence in the Stuart MSS. than by the
letters of Pickle.

For Her Majesty's gracious permission to read the Stuart Papers in
the library of Windsor Castle, and to engrave a miniature of Prince