Note 801 — Chapter XXVIII

James, however, at first approved of the incognito. Writing to Sempil, on 10th March, 1744, he observes, “The prince will have been tired with his confinement; but, as matters stand, the French court was much in the right to keep him private, tho’ that will not, it is true, hinder the Elector of Hanover from taking the alarm, and his measures against the invasion.” His views were different when writing Drummond on 12th June. After complaining of the disagreeable way in which the prince had been employed on his first arrival at Gravelines, (of which no particulars are given,) he continues, “I shall not be easy till I know the prince is out of his strange and long confinement and incognito, which must be so uneasy to him, and, I think, does little honor to the King of France, while it must carry something very odd with it in the eye of the public. But there were, to be sure, reasons for it which the public never knew, but I hope I shall at last.”—Stuart Papers.