extract of letter referred to on page 85.
from william mackenzie, esquire, of gairloch, to george mackenzie, esquire, of avoch, dated leamington, 24th may 1856.
when in stockholm in 1824, lord blomfield, our minister there, did me the honour of presenting me to the king, bernadotte, father of the present king of sweden.
at the king’s special request, the audience was a private one, and i was further especially requested to oblige by coming in my full highland dress. the audience lasted fully an hour. such an interest did napoleon’s first and most fortunate marshal take in everything that was highland, not even the skiandhu escaped him.
i now come to your family portion of the audience.
as we chatted on, old bernadotte (leaning familiarly upon my o’keachan claymore) was pleased to say in that suaviter in modo for which his eagle eye so fitted him, “yes, i repeat it, you highlanders are deservedly proud of your country. your forefathers and your people are a race apart, distinct from all the rest of britain in high moral as well as martial bearing, and long, i hope, may you feel and show it outwardly by this noble distinction in dress. but allow me to observe, sir, that in your family name, in the name of mackenzie, there is a very predominant lustre, which shall never be obliterated from my mind. pray, are you connected in any way with sir alexander mackenzie, the celebrated north american traveller, whose name and researches are immortalised by his discoveries in the arctic ocean, and of the river which since then does honour to his name?” i informed his majesty that as a boy i had known him well, and that our family and his were nearly connected. this seemed to give me still greater favour with him, for, familiarly putting his hand on my shoulder-brooch, he replied that on that account alone his making my acquaintance gave him greater satisfaction. he then proceeded to tell lord blomfield and me how your father’s name had become familiar to him, and so much valued in his eyes. he said that at one time napoleon had arranged to distract the affairs of britain by attacking her in her canadian possessions—not by a direct descent upon them, but by a route which men expected would take england quite by surprise and prove infallible.
that route was to be up the mississippi, ohio, etcetera, up to our canadian border lakes. for this arrangements were to be made with america, new orleans occupied as a pied à terre by france, etcetera, etcetera. the organisation and command of this gigantic enterprise, as bernadotte said, “was given to me by the emperor, with instructions to make myself master of every work which could bear upon it, and the facilities the nature of the country afforded. foremost amongst these the work of your namesake (sir alexander mackenzie) was recommended, but how to get at it, with all communications with england interdicted, all knowledge of english unknown to me, seemed a difficulty not easily to be got over. however, as every one knows, my then master, l’empereur, was not the man to be overcome by such small difficulties. the book, a huge quarto, was procured through the smugglers, and in an inconceivably short space of time most admirably translated into french for my especial use. (a copy of this translation was found in napoleon’s library at st. helena.) i need hardly say with what interest i perused and reperused that admirable work, till i had made myself so thoroughly master of it that i could almost fancy myself,” this he said laughing heartily, “taking your canadas en revers from the upper waters; and ever since i have never ceased to look upon the name and think of the author with more than ordinary respect and esteem.”
after a short pause and a long-drawn breath, almost amounting to a sigh, accompanied by a look at blomfield and a most expressive “ah, milord, que de changes depuis ces jours-là,” bernadotte concluded by saying that the russian campaign had knocked that of canada on the head until russia was crushed! but it had pleased god to ordain it otherwise, “et maintenant me voilà roi de suède”—his exact words as he concluded these compliments to your father.
the end
