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Beset
with dangers on every hand, Bonnie Prince Charles and his companion
directed their steps towards Benbecula, and, about midnight, came to a
hut into which O'Neil entered. Providentially for Charles, O'Neil here
found Miss Flora Macdonald, with whom he had got lately acquainted at
Ormaclade, the seat of Clanranald, in Benbecula, when on a visit to the
chief, whose kinswoman she was. This lady, whose memory will ever be
held in esteem by posterity, for her generous and noble
disinterestedness in rescuing the prince from the imminent perils which
surrounded him, was the daughter of Macdonald of Milton, in the island
of South Uist. Her father left her an orphan when only a year old, and
her mother had married Macdonald of Armadale, in the isle of Skye, who
commanded one of the militia companies raised in that island by Sir
Alexander Macdonald, and was now in South Uist at the head of his corps.
Miss Macdonald was about twenty-four years of age, of the middle size,
and to the attractions of a handsome figure and great vivacity, she
added the more estimable mental qualities of good sense, blandness of
temper, and humanity. |
