CLUNY BIDS FAREWELL TO BADENOCH

      By 1754 Prince Charles had lost his support in the French court as well as the financial support of the English Jacobites. His financial situation was desperate. Believing that the solution lay in gaining possession of the remainder of the Loch Arkaig treasure and the personal items that he had left in Scotland, he wrote to Cluny in September ordering him to bring those items to Paris.

      By the time the letter reached Badenoch Cluny judged it to be too late in the year for easy travel and delayed his departure until the Spring. Recognising that he might never return to his beloved homeland he arranged for a large deer hunt to be held in celebration of his departure and his 49th birthday anniversary. According to a report that reached the Government authorities, a host of local gentry and clansmen participated in the hunt and the party "killed ten deer, and sent two as a present to Lady Cluny." Reports such as this infuriated these authorities and led them to consider undertaking extra-legal measures such as punishing Macpherson clansmen for aiding an attainted person.

      In late April or early May 1755 Cluny made his way south to Edinburgh but contemporary records don't reveal the details. Later folklore suggests that he travelled on horseback dressed as a country gentleman with his faithful piper riding behind as his servant. In passing through Atholl he met a factor of the sequestered estates that he knew very well who was coming the other way with a sizeable contingent. Although the piper urged him to flee into the hills, Cluny chose to continue on without quickening his pace. As it was raining, he did not stop to chat as politeness might require on a fair day. As the two groups passed, the factor cried out to him, "Your horse has lost a shoe, Sir". Cluny touched his hat, by way of thanking him, and rode quietly on. Did the factor recognise him or not? We'll never know.

      When he arrived at Edinburgh is not known but it is known that he left on 9th May and arrived in London on the 17th where he -- the Jacobite "most obnoxious to the Government" -- spent five nights. He left London on 22nd May and reached Dover that night. He crossed the Channel to Calais on the 23rd but travelled on to Dunkirk where he stayed for eight days with local Jacobite exiles. On 1st June he set out for Paris where he arrived on the 9th. Free of Hanoverian threat for the first time in ten years, what kind of a reception would he receive from the Prince and the French Court?