A PRINCE, A PIPER, AND A ROSE

Another pibroch for the ill fortunes of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland, this time seen through the career of Richard, English Duke of Huntforth, a fervent Jacobite. The author swags the clandestine plotting for Charles' invasion with an overextended series of Richard's cool-to-violent rows with his wife Ann, whom he had married in haste. While Richard toils for Stuart in England and Scotland, he and Ann discover they do truly love one another. But Richard's abuse is meant to save Ann, a Hanoverian court favorite, from the consequences of treason; and Ann, not understanding, retaliates in kind. And so it goes until the close when George II--showing more jovial good sense than history has ever credited him with--presents the unrepentant Richard with a last minute pardon after Culloden. Except for the military action, it's all factually thin with highly unlikely situations and tiresome conjugal conflict.