the Prince wherever he might be found on French soil, and transport
him to sea by Civita Vecchia. {68} It will be shown later that, at
least in the autumn of 1749, this ignorance was probably feigned.

What is really known of the movements of the Prince in 1749?
Curiously enough, Mr. Ewald does not seem to have consulted the
'Stuart Papers' at Windsor, while the extracts in Browne's 'History
of the Highland Clans' are meagre. To these papers then we turn for
information. The most useful portions are NOT Charles's letters to
James. These are brief and scanty. Thus he writes from Avignon
(January 15, 1749), 'We are enjoying here the finest weather ever was
seen.' He always remarks that his health 'is perfect.' He orders
patterns for his servants' liveries and a button, blue and yellow,
still remains in a letter from Edgar! The button outlasts the
dynasty. Our intelligence must be extracted from ill-spelled,
closely scrawled, and much erased sheets of brown paper, on which
Charles has scribbled drafts for letters to his household, to Waters,
his banker in Paris, to adherents in Paris or London, and to ladies.
The notes are almost, and in places are quite, illegible. The Prince
practised a disguised hand, and used pseudonyms instead of names.
Many letters have been written in sympathetic ink, and then exposed
to fire or the action of acids. However, something can be made out,
but not why he concealed his movements even from his banker, even
from his household, Oxburgh, Kelly, Harrington, and Graeme. It is
certain that he started, with a marriage in his eye, from Avignon on
February 28, 1749, accompanied by Henry Goring, of the Austrian
service. There had already been a correspondence, vaguely hinted at
by James's secretary, Edgar, between Charles and the Duke and a
Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. On February 24, 1749, Charles drafted,
at Avignon, a proposal for the hand of the Duke's daughter. He also