From Appleton's Journal. Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco, California), Tuesday, January 16, 1872 Contact: Myrtle Bridges May 4, 2016
FLORA MACDONALD Sketch of the Heroine of the Isle of Skye An interesting illustration of how that which in one generation is arrant treason becomes in another an heroic myth, is presented by the erection on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland, a monument to Flora Macdonald. He who reads history but to glean its romance cannot fail to remember the significance of her name, and the dramatic incidents in which she became the heroine of the famous Scottish rebellion of '45. In those days, to be a Jacobite, and even to sympathize with the Pretender Charles Edward, was to risk personal liberty; to act for him, not improbable death. More than one proud Scottish chief suffered the extreme penalty after "Butcher Willian," Duke of Cumberland, throttled the rebellion on Culloden Moor. Gradually, however, the bitterness against the Jacobites who clung almost hopelessly, to the house of Stuart, softened and faded, until at last Sir Walter Scott, an historical partisan of the pretender, though obsequiously loyal subject of George IV., could, with popular applause, publish prose epics or fiction which embalmed the Jacobite chiefs as heroes, and Flora Macdonald as a heroine to be worshiped for her courageous treason. It was she who, when Charles Edward, defeated at all points in his rash enterprise, was hiding on the western seaboard, saved his life by embarking with him on a stormy night among the dangerous Hebrides and conducting him to a place of safety, albeit he was worn out with the excess of a dissipated life; and long afterward, when he had degenerated into a mere drunken sluggard, whenever Flora's name was mentioned, he always raised his hat in veneration for the Scottish beauty who had preserved his life at the peril of her own. Gruff Dr. Johnson, that "colossus of cockneys," on his memorable tour to the 'cannyland' which he was always sneering at, visited the Isle of Skye, where Flora Macdonald was still living, now in the ripe prime of womanhood. "She is a woman," says he, in his notes of the journey, "of middle stature, soft features, gentle manners and elegant presence." Indeed, Flora was far from being one of those idle heroines who boldly use physical as well as moral exertion in performing notable deeds, and who are strong of body and stout-minded; she was slight and frail, shy and shrinking, inexperienced, a high-bred Highland lassie; and what she did she achiebed by that spirit of self-abnegation which, on occasion, sometimes shines out and startles the sterner sex in weak and timid wormn. She believed Charles Edward to be her true … lord and king, and her proud Highland blood taught her that loyalty was religion. The reward of thirty thousand pounds for Charles Edward's head, offered by the government, only nerved her the more for her attempt, and she gloried in encountering for him the dangers of a tempestuous, island-studded sea, in courting martyrdom, and in risking life itself that the true monarch might be saved from the hand of the usurper. Flora was taken prisoner after the success of her venture, and when Charles Edward was once more safe in France; and even than, her sincere heroism and loyalty to her belief so outshone her treason, that the officers of the war-ship in which she was brought to London always stood bareheaded in her presence, and the rought old British captain showered comforts, in his uncouth way, upon her. She was released, after a short imprisonment, by the act of indemnity; was there- upon lionized to weariness by Jacobite lords and Scottish chiefs; returned to her native Skye and quietly married her cousin, Macdonald of Kingsborough; lived a long and always peaceful life, adored by her neighbors and all the peasants round for her many virtues, making, on one occasion, a brief visit to our own shores; and died in a green old age, leaving behind her five stalwart Highland sons, who fought for King George as loyally as their mother before them had served her crownless prince.-From Appleton's Journal.
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