which characterizes most of the business transactions of those who
intermeddled with the forfeited or disputed estates. It was his aim, as
the Memorial for the Lovat case, subsequently tried, sets forth, to
extirpate the clan of the Frasers, and to raise that of the Mackenzies
upon its ruins. "Accordingly," says Mr. Anderson, in his curious and
elaborate account of the house of Fraser, "he framed a deed, with the
sly contrivance of sinking the Frasers into the Mackenzies, by
encouraging the former to change their names, and providing, as a
condition of the estate, that should they return to, and reassume their
ancient name of Fraser, they should forfeit their right."[191]
The arms of Mackenzie, Macleod of Lewis, and Bisset, were to be
quartered with those of Fraser, in this deed, which bore the signature
of Robert Mackenzie, and was dated the twenty-third of February, 1706.
This decision, and the deed which followed it, appeared to complete the
misfortunes of the disgraced and banished Lord Lovat. But, in fact, the
act of injustice and rapacity, so repugnant to the spirit of the
Highlanders,--this attempt to force upon the heirs of Fraser a foreign
name, and thus to lower the dignity of the clan, was the most
auspicious event that could happen to the wretched outlaw. What was his
exact condition, or what were his circumstances, during the seven years
of his imprisonment, three of which were passed under strict, though not
harsh control, in the Castle of Angoulême, and four, apparently on his
parole, in the Fortress of Saumur, it is not easy to describe. The cause
of the obscurity of his fate at this time, is not that too little, but
that too much, has been stated relative to his movements.
It is always an inconvenience when one cannot take a man's own story in
evidence. According to Lord Lovat's own account, these weary years were
spent in visits to different members of the nobility. The charming
Countess de la Roche succeeded the Marquis de la Frezelière as his
friend and patroness, after the death of the Marquis in 1711, an event
which, according to Lord Lovat's statement, brought him nearly to the
grave from grief. The Countess was a woman of a masculine understanding,
and of admirable talents, bold, insinuating, and ambitious. Her
education in the household of the great Condé, and her long attendance
upon the Princess de Conti, the hero's daughter, had qualified her for
those arduous and delicate intrigues, without which no woman of
intellect at that period in France might think herself sufficiently
distinguished.
The appointment of the Duke of Hamilton as ambassador at the Court of
Louis, rendered such a friend as Madame de la Roche, who was also
distantly related to him, very essential for the prosecution of Lord
Lovat's present schemes, which were, to obtain his release, and to
procure employment in any enterprise concerted by the Jacobites against
England.
Fate, however, relieved Lord Lovat from one apprehension. The Duke of
Hamilton was killed in a duel by Lord Mohun, in Hyde Park; and this
fresh source of danger was thus annihilated. The kindness which the
famous Colbert, Marquis de Torcy, had shown to Lord Lovat, and the
promise which he had given to that nobleman, not to break his parole,
and to return to England, seems to have been the only check to a
long-cherished project on the part of Lord Lovat to escape to London,
and to risk all that law might there inflict. It is uncertain in what
manner, during the tedious interval between intrigues and intrigues, he
solaced his leisure. It has been stated by one of his biographers that
he actually joined a society of Jesuits,--by another, that he took
priest's orders, and acted as parochial priest at St. Omers. Of course,
in compiling a defence of his life, the wary man of the world omitted
such particulars as would, at any rate, betray inconsistency, and beget
suspicion. His object in becoming a Jesuit, is said to have been to hear
confessions and to discover intrigues. With respect to the report of his
having entered the order of Jesuits, it is justly alleged in answer,
that no Jesuit is permitted to hear confessions until he has been
fifteen years a member of the society, or, at least, in priest's
orders.[192]
The rumour of his having become an ecclesiastic, in any way, no doubt
originated in Lord Lovat's joke on a subsequent occasion, when "he
declared that had he wished it, and had remained in priest's orders,
which he did not deny having assumed for some purpose, he might have
become Pope in time."[193]
Whilst Lord Lovat, contrary to the advice of Madame la Roche, was
deliberating whether he should not leave France, he was surprised, in
the summer of 1714, by a visit from one of the principal gentlemen of
his clan, Fraser of Castle Lader, son of Malcolm Fraser, of Culdelthel,
a very considerable branch of the family of Lovat. This gentleman
brought Lord Lovat a strong remonstrance from all his clan at his
absence--an entreaty to him to return--a recommendation that he would
join himself in an alliance with the Duke of Argyle, who was disposed to
aid him; he added affectionate greetings from some of the principal
gentry of his neighbourhood, and, among others, from John Forbes, of
Culloden. This important ally was the father of the justly celebrated
Duncan Forbes, afterwards Lord President. These messages decided Lord
Lovat. After some indecision he left Saumur, and being allowed by his
parole to travel to any place in France, he went on the twelfth of
August, 1714, to Rouen, under pretence of paying a visit there. From
Rouen he proceeded to Dieppe, but finding no vessel there, he travelled
along the coast of Normandy, and from thence to Boulogne. From that port
he sailed in a small smack, in a rough sea, during the night, and landed
at Dover, November the eleventh, 1714.
He met his kinsman, Alexander Fraser, on the quay at Dover, and with him
proceeded to London. His former friend, the Duke of Argyle, was now
dead; but alliances, as well as antipathies, are hereditary in Scotland,
and John, Duke of Argyle, was well disposed to assist one whose family
had been anciently connected with his own. Besides, the state of public
affairs was now totally changed since Lord Lovat had left England, and
it was incumbent upon the Government to avail themselves of any tool
which they might require for certain ends and undertakings.
Queen Anne was now dead,--the last of the Stuart dynasty in this
kingdom. Whatever were her failings and her weaknesses as a woman, she
has left behind her the character of having loved her people; and she
was endeared to them by her purely English birth, her homely virtue of
economy, and her domestic unpretending qualities. Her reign had been one
of mercy; no subject had suffered for treason during her rule: she had
few relations with foreign powers; and when, in her opening speech to
the Parliament, she expressed that her heart was "wholly English," she
spoke her real sentiments, and described, in that simple touch the true
character of her mind.
She was succeeded by a German Prince, who immediately showered marks of
his royal favour upon the Whigs; whilst the Tories, who formed so large
a party in the kingdom, were alienated from the Government by the
manifest aversion to them which George the First rather aimed to evince
than laboured to conceal.
The Jacobites differed in some measure from the Tories, inasmuch as the
latter were generally well affected to the accession of the Hanoverian
family, until disgusted by the choice of the new administration.
Dissensions quickly rose to their height; and when the Government was
attacked in the House of Commons by Sir William Wyndham, the unusual
sounds, "the Tower! the Tower!" were heard once more amid the inflamed
assembly.
The spirit of disaffection quickly spread throughout England; the very
life-guards were compelled by an angry populace, when celebrating the
anniversary of the Restoration of the Stuarts, to join in the cry of
"High Church and Ormond!" Lord Bolingbroke had withdrawn to
France--treasonable papers were discovered and intercepted on their way
from Jacobite emissaries to Dr. Swift, tumults were raised in the city
of London and in Westminster, and were punished with a severity to which
the metropolis had been unaccustomed since the reign of James the
Second. All these manifestations had their origin in one common
source,--the deeply concerted schemes which were now nearly brought into
maturity at the Court of St. Germains.
The following extract of a letter dated from Luneville, and taken from
the Macpherson Papers, shows what was meditated abroad; it is in
Schrader's hand.
(Translation.)
"Luneville, June 5th, 1714.
"It is likely the Chevalier St. George is preparing for some great
design, which is kept very private. It was believed he would drink
the waters of Plombière for three weeks, as is customary, and that
he would come afterwards to pass fifteen days at Luneville; but he
changed his measures; he did not continue to drink the waters, which
he drank only for ten days, and came back to Luneville on Saturday
last. He sets out to-morrow very early for Bar. Lord Galmoy went
before him, and set out this morning. Lord Talmo, who came lately
from France, is with him, and some say that the Duke of Berwick is
incognito in this neighbourhood.
"The Chevalier appears pensive,--that, indeed, is his ordinary
humour. Mr. Floyd, who has been these five days at the Court of his
Royal Highness, told a mistress he has there, that when he leaves
her now, he will take his leave of her perhaps for the last
time:--in short, it is certain that everything here seems
sufficiently to announce preparations for a journey. It is said,
likewise, in private, that the Chevalier has had letters that the
Queen is very ill. I have done everything I could to discover
something of his designs. I supped last night with several of his
attendants, thinking to learn something; but they avoid to explain
themselves. They only say that the Chevalier did not find himself
the better for drinking the waters; that he would now go to repose
himself for some time at Bar, until he goes, the beginning of next
month, to the Prince De Vandemont's, at Commercie, where their Royal
Highnesses will come likewise. They say they do not know yet if they
will remain in this country or not; that they will follow the
destiny of the Chevalier, and that it is not known yet what it shall
be."[194]
When Lord Lovat thus precipitately threw himself once more on the mercy
of his country, he could not have been ignorant that the cabals which
had long been carried on against the Hanoverian succession, were now
shortly to break out in open rebellion; and it was, without doubt, in
the hope of profiting in some measure during the confusion of the coming
troubles, that he had hastened, at the risk of his life, to England.
He entrusted the secret of his arrival immediately to the Duke of
Argyle, whom he met in London. That nobleman, one of the few
disinterested men whose virtues might almost obtain the name of
patriotism in those days, saw the danger which Lord Lovat would incur if
he returned to Scotland. Sentence of death had been passed upon him; it
might be acted upon by an adverse judge at any moment. He besought Lovat
to remain in England until a remission of that sentence could be
obtained; and for this purpose addresses to the Court for mercy were
circulated for signature throughout the northern counties of
Scotland.[195] To further the success of this scheme, Lord Lovat had
recourse to his neighbour and early friend, John Forbes, laird of
Culloden, whose after-services in the royal cause, and whose strict
alliance of friendship with the Duke of Argyle, secured to him a
considerable influence in that part of Scotland in which he resided.
"Much honoured and dear Sir,"--thus wrote Lord Lovat to the
Laird,--"The real friendship that I know you have for my person and
family makes me take the freedom to assure you of my kind service,
and to entreat you to join with my other friends between Sky and
Nesse, to sign the addresse which the Court requires, in order to
give me my remission. Your cousin James, who has generously exposed
himself to bring me out of chains, will inform you of all steps and
circumstances of my affairs since he saw me. I wish, dear Sir, from
my heart, you were here; I am confident you would speak to the Duke
of Argyle and to the Earl of Isla, to let them know their own
interest, and their reiterated promises to do for me. Perhaps they
may have, sooner than they expect, a most serious occasion for my
service. But it is needless to preach now that doctrine to them;
they think themselves in ane infallible security; I wish they may
not be mistaken. However, I think it's the interest of all who love
this Government, betwixt Sky and Nesse, to see me at the head of my
clan, ready to join them; so that I believe none of them will refuse
to sign ane adresse to make me a Scotsman. I am perswaded, dear Sir,
that you will be of good example to them on that head. But secrecy,
above all, must be keept; without which all may go wrong. I hope you
will be stirring for the Parliament, for I will not be reconciled to
you if you let Prestonall outvote you. Brigadier Grant, to whom I am
infinitely obliged, has written to Foyers to give you his vote, and
he is ane ungrat villian if he refuses him. [If] I was at home, the
little pitiful barons of the Aird durst not refuse you. But I am
hopefull that the news of my going to Brittain will hinder
Prestonall to go north; for I may come to meet him when he lest
thinks of me. I am very impatient to see you, and to assure you most
sincerely how much I am, with love and respect, Right Honourable,
your most obedient and most humble servant,
"LOVAT."
"The 24th of Nov. 1714."
The nature of the address to which this letter refers was not only an
appeal to the King in behalf of Lord Lovat, but also an engagement, on
the part of his friends, to answer for the loyalty of Lord Lovat, in any
sum required. It is remarkable that when James Fraser, the kinsman of
Lovat, arrived in the county of Inverness, and declared the purpose of
his journey, the lairds who were well-affected to the nobility, joined
in giving their subscriptions; and the Earl of Sutherland, the Lord
Strathallan, and the nobility of the counties of Ross and Sutherland,
signed them also. The Duke of Montrose, however, boldly opposed them,
and described Lord Lovat as a man unworthy of the King's
confidence.[196]
A year, however, had elapsed, whilst Lovat was hanging about the Court,
before the address was brought to London by Lord Isla, brother of the
Duke of Argyle, and afterwards Archibald, Duke of Argyle. The address
was presented on Sunday, the twenty-fourth of July, 1715. "The Earl of
Orkney," says Lord Lovat, "who was the lord in waiting, held out his
hand to receive them from the King, according to custom. The King,
however, drew them back, folded them up, and, as if he had been
pre-advised of their contents, put them into his pocket."[197] And with
this sentence, denoting that the crisis of his affairs was at hand, end
the memoirs which Lord Lovat either wrote or dictated to others, of the
early portion of his life.
Meantime, the Earl of Stair, the English ambassador at Paris, had
discovered the embryo scheme of invasion, and had communicated it to the
British Court, although, unhappily for both parties, not in sufficient
time to damp the hopes of the unfortunate Jacobites. On the sixth of
September, 1715, the Earl of Mar set up his standard at Braemar.
Consistent with the usual fatality attending every attempt of the
Stuarts, this event was preceded only five days by the death of Louis
the Fourteenth--the only real friend of the excluded family; but the
Jacobites had now proceeded too far to recede.[198]
Lord Lovat resolved, however, to profit in the general disasters. His
influence among his clansmen was obvious: whether for good or, in some
instances, for evil, there is much to admire in the resolute adherence
of those faithful mountaineers, who had resisted the assumption of a
stranger, and invited back to their hills the long-absent and ruined
chief, whom they regarded as their own.
Lord Lovat now found means to represent to the English Government, that
if he could have a passport to go into the Highlands, he might be
instrumental in quelling the rebellion. The Ministry, in their
perplexities, availed themselves of his aid, and a pass was granted to
him, under the name of Captain Brown.
He once more set out for his own country, and reached Edinburgh in
safety, attended only by his kinsman, Major Fraser. From Edinburgh he
resolved to proceed in a ship--when he could procure one, for the
country was all in commotion. Meantime he took up his abode, still
maintaining his disguise, in the Grass Market.
His real name was soon discovered, and information was given to the Lord
Justice Clerk, who granted a warrant for his apprehension, as a person
"outlawed and intercommuned;" and to prevent any difficulty in
apprehending the prisoner, a party of the town guard was ordered to
escort the peace officers to the lodgings of Lord Lovat.
The officer who had the command of the town guard happened, however, to
be acquainted with Lovat, and he interposed his aid on this occasion. He
listened to the account which Lovat gave of the business which had
brought him to Edinburgh. The Provost was next gained over to the
opinion, that it would be wrong to oppose any obstruction to one who had
his Majesty's passport: he ordered Lord Lovat to be set at liberty; and
in order to give some colour of justice to this act, he declared that
the information must have been wrong, it being laid against Captain
Fraser,--whereas, the person taken appeared to be Captain Brown.
Lovat was once more in safety: he changed his lodgings, however; and, as
soon as possible, set sail for Inverness. Again danger, in another form,
retarded his arrival among his clan. A storm arose, the ship was obliged
to put into the nearest harbour, and Lord Lovat was driven into
Fraserburgh, which happened to be within a few miles of the abode of his
old enemy and rival Lord Saltoun.
Mr. Forbes, one of the Culloden family, was now fortunately for Lord
Lovat, with him on his Majesty's service. After some consultation
together, he and Lovat decided to make themselves known to Mr. Baillie,
town-clerk of Fraserburgh: they did so, were kindly received, and
provided with horses to convey them to Culloden House, the seat of the
future Lord President of Scotland, Duncan Forbes. Here they arrived in
November, after incurring great risks from the Jacobite troops, who were
patroling in parties over the country.[199]
Culloden House, famed in history, was inhabited by a race whose views,
conduct, and personal character present a singular contrast, with those
of Lord Lovat, or with those of other adventurers in political life. The
head of the family was, at the period of the first insurrection, John
Forbes, a worthy representative of an honourable, consistent, and
spirited family. The younger brother of John Forbes was the celebrated
Duncan Forbes, a man whose toleration of Lord Lovat, not to say
countenance of that compound of violence and duplicity, seems to be the
only incomprehensible portion of his lofty and beautiful character.
"Duncan Forbes was born," observes a modern writer, "of parents who
transmitted their estate to his elder brother, and to all their children
an hereditary aversion to the house of Stuart, which they appear to have
resisted from the very commencement of the civil wars, and upon the true
grounds on which that resistance ought to have been made."[200] By a
singular fortune the hereditary estates of Culloden and Ferintosh had
been ravaged, the year after the Revolution, by the soldiers of Buchan
and Cannon, on account of the Jacobite principles of the owners. A
liberal compensation was made in the form of a perpetual grant of a
liberty to distil into spirits the grain of the Barony of Ferintosh,--a
name which has become almost as famous as that of Culloden. It was the
subsequent fate of Culloden to witness on its Moors the total
destruction of that cause which its owners had so long resisted and
deprecated.
Duncan Forbes, who, during a course of many years, was bound by an
inexplicable alliance with Lovat, was at this period about thirty years
of age. He had already attained the highest reputation for eloquence,
assiduity, and learning at the Scottish bar, and during his frequent
opportunities for display before the House of Lords. But it was his
personal character, during a period of vacillating principles, and
almost of disturbed national reason, which obtained that singular and
benignant influence over his fellow-countrymen for which the life of
Duncan Forbes is far more remarkable, far more admirable, than for the
exercise of his brilliant and varied talents. He had "raised himself,"
observes the same discriminating commentator on his life and
correspondence, "to the high station which he afterwards held by the
unassisted excellence of a noble character, by the force of which he had
previously won and adorned all the subordinate gradations of
office."[201] He adorned this unenvied and unsullied pinnacle of fame
by virtues of which the record is ennobling to the mind. "He is,"
observes another writer, "in every situation, so full of honour, of
gentleness, of kindness, and intrepidity, that we doubt if there be any
one public man in this part of the empire, or of the age that is gone,
whose qualities ought to be so strongly recommended to the contemplation
of all those who wish to serve their country."
It was in such society as this that Lord Lovat, by a rare fortune, was
brought, after his long and disgraceful exile. It was to such a home of
virtue, of intelligence, of the purest and best affections, that he was
introduced after a long course of contamination in the lowest scenes of
French corruption, which had succeeded an equally demoralising
initiation into the less graceful vices of the Court of George the
First. The inestimable privilege came too late in one sense. Lord Lovat
had gained nothing but wariness by the lapse of years; but the benefit
to his worldly condition was considerable.
From this time until a few years before the insurrection of 1745, Lord
Lovat may be regarded as a jealous partisan of the house of Hanover. No
doubt, a general survey of the state of society in Scotland would,
independent of his own personal views, have satisfied him that in such a
course was the only chance of permanent safety. The wretchedness of the
state of things at that period, can scarcely be adequately comprehended
by those who live in times when liberty of opinion is universally an
understood condition of civilized intercourse.
It is difficult for any person who lives now to carry himself back, by
reading or conversation, into the prospects or feelings of the people of
Scotland about a hundred years ago. The religious persecutions of the
Stuarts had given a darker hue to the old austerity of their Calvinism.
The expectation of change constantly held out by that family divided the
nation into two parties, differing on a point which necessarily made
each of them rebels in the eyes of the other; and thus the whole kingdom
was racked by jealousies, heart-burnings, and suspicions. The removal,
by the Union, of all the patronage and show of royalty, spread a gloom
and discontent, not only over the lower, but over the higher ranks. The
commencement of a strict system of general taxation was new, while the
miserable poverty of the country rendered it unproductive and unpopular.
The great families still lorded it over their dependants, and exercised
legal jurisdiction within their own domains; by which the general police
of the kingdom was crippled, and the grossest legal oppression
practised. The remedy adopted for all these evils, which was to abate
nothing and to enforce everything under the direction of English
counsels or of English men, completed the national wretchedness, and
infused its bitterest ingredient into the brim full cup.
The events of the year 1715 present but a feeble exemplification of the
truth of this description compared with the annals of 1745, for the
first Rebellion was, happily, soon closed.