As for the fatal vice of drink, it is hinted at on April 15, 1747, by
an anonymous Paris correspondent of Lord Dunbar's. Charles had about
him 'an Irish cordelier,' one Kelly, whom he employed as a secretary.
Kelly is accused of talking contemptuously about James. 'It were to
be wished that His Royal Highness would forbid that friar his
apartment, because he passes for a notorious drunkard . . . and His
Royal Highness's character, in point of sobriety, has been a little
blemished on this friar's account.' {28a}

The cold, hunger, and fatigue of the Highland distresses had, no
doubt, often prompted recourse to the national dram of whiskey, and
Charles would put a bottle of brandy to his lips 'without ceremony,'
says Bishop Forbes. The Prince on one occasion is said to have drunk
the champion 'bowlsman' of the Islands under the table. {28b}

What had been a jovial feast became a custom, a consolation, and a
curse, while there is reason, as has been seen, to suppose that
Charles, quite early in life, showed promise of intemperance. In
happier circumstances these early tastes might never have been
developed into a positive disease. James himself, in youth, had not
been a pattern of strict sobriety, but later middle age found him
almost ascetic.

We have sketched a character endowed with many fine qualities, and
capable of winning devoted affection. We now examine the rapid
decline of a nature originally noble.

Returned from Scotland in 1746, Prince Charles brought with him a
head full of indigested romance, a heart rich in chimerical