Prince Charles Edward

Dark the wave, and dark the cloud,
    Yet thy bark is on the sea;
Say "farewell" to other friends,
    Do not say "farewell" to me.

Others may desert thy cause,
    Others may desert thy side—
I cling to thee till the hour
    Death shall me and thee divide.

Fatal is thy doomed house,
    Last of an ill-fated line;
But through exile and through blood
    I will follow thee and thine.

Never more thy step will be
    On thy own, thy English shore;
Let another take thy land,
    It will know thy place no more.

Vainly through a life of care
    Have I struggled for thine own!
Must thy people know thee not?—
    Must a stranger fill thy throne?

Let the old ancestral names
    Which were bound to thee and thine,
Kneel before the rising sun—
    Worship at a newer shrine.

Spurning our dishonoured land,
    In yon bark I cross the wave:
Never will I leave thy side
    Till I leave thee for the grave!


Charles Edward Stuart, called "the Pretender," grandson of James II. of England, son of James Edward and Clementine, daughter of Prince Sobiesky, was born at Rome, in 1720. In his attempts to recover the throne of his grandfather, he was supported by the courts of Rome and Versailles, but the battle of Culloden terminated his military career. A reward of £30,000 being offered for his head, he concealed himself in the fastnesses of Scotland until the arrival of a French frigate in Lochnanach, in which he embarked for France, and bade a last adieu to Britain. In the 52nd year of his age he espoused a Princess of Stolberg-Godern, but died, in 1788, aged 68 years. His remains were entombed, at Frescati, with regal pomp.