Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/53

Rh In the beginning of the year 1717, we find him resuming the subject of the grant, and he requests Duncan Forbes to employ Sir Walter Pringle, and any one else he pleases, and consult together of some legal way for his keeping possession of his estate; "for," says he, "I must either keep violent possession, which will return me my old misfortunes, or I must abandon the kingdom and a young lady whom my friends have engaged me to marry. So, my dear general, I beg you may give me some prospect of not being again forced to leave the kingdom, or to fight against the king's forces. The one or the other must be, if I do not find any legal pretence of possessing the estate but by this gift." And all this was because a Mr Murray or a lord Murray had made a motion in the house of commons, for a redeeming clause to be added in favour of Fraserdale's lady, which occasioned a few hours' debate, and was improved for making-remarks on lord Lovat's character and conduct, but at last came to nothing. Perhaps he was also a little disturbed by the movements of the Spanish court in favour of James, which were still more contemptible than any party motion that ever was made in the house of commons.

For a number of years after this, Lovat was fully occupied with the legal campaigns which he carried on under the direction of Duncan Forbes, for the final settlement of the Lovat estate, during all which time the affairs of the pretender gave him no trouble; nay, they seem to have been totally forgotten. After the lapse of a number of years, however, when he had got every thing secured in his own way, we then find him again treating with the pretender for a generalship and a dukedom, and all his old uneasinesses returning upon him. Having no more to expect from his "dear general" the lord president, he ceased to correspond with him; and on the breaking up of the black watch, one of the companies of which had belonged to him, he withdrew his affections entirely from the existing government, and became ready once more to act for the exiled family of Stuart.

The nation was now involved in war; and the friends of the pretender, stirred purpose but to make him a tool on such occasions began to bestir themselves. Lovat, whose political views were very limited, never doubted but that France had at all times the power to restore the pretender, if she had but the will, and now that her promises were so magnificent, he fell at once into the snare, and was the first to sign, in the year 1740, that association which brought entire ruin upon the cause, and nearly all that had connected themselves with it. Still he acted upon the old principle: he stipulated that he was to have a patent creating him a duke, and a commission constituting him lieutenant of all the Highlands, and of course elevating him above even the great Argyle.

Though Lovat had now committed himself, and was fairly in the way of "having all his old troubles returned upon him," common sense, as in most cases, did not forsake him all at once. He was employed in making preparations for the new scenes of grandeur that to his heated fancy lay before him, but he did not run the hazard of disappointment by any ridiculous parade, or any weak attempts prematurely to realize them. When prince Charles landed at Boradale, accompanied, not, as had been agreed upon with the association, at the head of which Lovat had unfortunately placed his name, by thirteen thousand men with all necessary equipments, but with seven persons and a few domestics; his friends were perfectly astonished, and none of them more so than Lovat. Accordingly, when he received Lochiel's letter stating that Charles was come, and that he had brought the papers stipulated upon, viz. the patent for the dukedom, and the general's commission, Lovat returned a cold and general answer, that he might rely upon what he had promised. Lochiel, however, being