of women." The inference seems to be, that, in some circumstances, no absolute infamy was attached even to those acts of violence, from which it seems impossible to divide it: and we remember a woman on the banks of Loch Lomond, herself the daughter of such a marriage, who repelled, with great contempt, the idea of its being a real grievance on the bride, and said that, in her time, the happiest matches were always so made. These particulars are only quoted to mark public opinion; but it may be a better answer that, as Duncan Forbes was not so squeamish as to quarrel with the society of Colonel Charteris, there is the less wonder that he endured that of Lovat.'

In 1698, Simon Fraser was summoned to answer before the Privy Council, for the crimes of unlawfully assembling the lieges in arms, and for the violence offered to the Lady Dowager Lovat. Against the first (which was no great crime in a Highland chief), he offered no defence; but the Earl of Argyle stated, that he was willing to refer the circumstances of the marriage to his wife's oath. He did not, however, appear; and a variety of witnesses being examined, tending to establish the crime in its fullest extent, sentence of outlaw

1 He had defended Charteris in a trial for a rape, and obtained from his gratitude the gratuitous use of a little villa near Musselburgh, called Stoney-hill. We ought to add that, in spite of poets and satirists, or whatever might be Charteris's general character, the charge of rape was an atrocious attempt to levy money from him by terror. Still there is something ludicrous in the coincidence, that two special friends of so respectable a man should have both been in trouble on so infamous an accusation.

ry went forth against the delinquent. He skulked for some time in the Highlands, and displayed both address and courage in defeating many attempts made by the Athole men to seize his person; but at length he was compelled to fly to the continent. Mean while the young heiress, at whose hand he had originally aimed, was wedded to Alexander Mackenzie, son of one of the Judges of Session, called Lord Prestonhall, who assumed, upon this marriage, the title of Fraserdale.

The earnest solicitations of the Duke of Argyle (hereditary enemy to the family of Athole) had, through the medium of Mr Carstairs, obtained from King William a remission of the crime of high treason, of which Simon Fraser had been declared guilty; but the rape being one of a more private and atrocious complexion, his pardon did not extend to it; and thus he still remained an exile from Scotland. His daring and intriguing spirit carried him now to the court of Saint Germain's, where he proposed a plan of invasion, if men and money could be furnished by the French king, and pledged himself that the invading forces should be joined by the principal Highlands, with ten thousand men. approve of the personal security on required to hazard his subjects and treasures, although Fraser, to give more weight to it, had publicly adopted the Catholic religion. He was sent over, however, to intrigue in Scotland, with the friends of the exiled family, accompanied by Captain James Murray, who was to act as a spy, or

chiefs of the Louis did not which he was

But

check, upon him. But finding a slackness in the Tory party, to whom he applied himself, for most of them were contented with the government of Queen Anne, now upon the throne, Fraser began to try what could be gained on the other side. He opened, accordingly, an intercourse with Queensberry and Leven, heads of the opposite party, who instantly saw the advantage they might derive from involving the Dukes of Hamilton, Athole, and other rivals of their power, in a Jacobitical plot; and that it might ripen into something more decisive, they granted a passport for Fraser to return to France, under a feigned name. this emissary's purposes of hatching up a conspiracy, which he might forward or betray, as best suited his interest, proved too weighty for his means of executing them. The Tory party got scent of his intrigues with Queensberry and Leven; and as there was every prospect of his hand-grenade exploding while it was yet in his grasp, he fled, in great haste, to France, where he was immediately committed to the state prison of Angoulême. He regained his liberty, but, distrusted as he now was on all sides, he had no opportunity to engage in any new intrigues, until the memorable year 1715.

At the time when all the Jacobite clans were in arms, and drawn towards the midland counties, it appeared to the Duke of Argyle and to Mr Forbes of Culloden, of great consequence to excite such opposition in their rear as might check them in their plan of moving southward. Inverness was occupied by a party of the insurgent forces, under

Sir John Mackenzie; and Alexander Mackenzie, of Fraserdale, who assumed the authority of chief of the Frasers, in right of his lady, had marched with about four hundred of that clan to join the Earl of Marr, at Perth. But the Frasers of Struy, Foyers, Culduthel, and other gentlemen of the name, refused to follow him, and maintained a sort of neutrality until the pleasure of Simon, whom they regarded as their proper chief, should be known. As this clan was powerful, both from numbers and situation,-occupying both sides of Loch Ness, and being thus masters of the communication between the north and central Highlands, it became of the utmost consequence to detach, from the Stuarts' standard, those Frasers who had already joined Marr, and to determine the others who remained doubtful. Fraser of CastleLader was therefore despatched to invite Simon to return to Scotland, for the purpose of heading his clan in behalf of King George and the government. The summons was joyfully obeyed, and, indeed, had been already solicited; for, on the 24th November, 1714, Simon had written to Culloden, to intercede with Argyle and Isla in his favour, adding, "that it was the interest of all between Spey and Nesse, who loved the government, to see him at the head of the clan ready to join them:"so that the reluctance which he has affected in his Memoirs to quitting the Jacobite interest, is only a piece of double-dyed hypocrisy (p. 32). He returned, however, to Britain; and here the reader may remark the strength of the clannish principle

This chief had not been formally acknowledged as such he had never been master of his inheritance, and his rival had enjoyed for years all the means of acquiring and securing attachment which possession could give ;-there was nothing in his personal character to admire; it was stained, on the contrary, with much guilt and with dark suspicion; -and lastly, the cause which he now espoused was not that to which his followers would have inclined had they consulted their own feelings and partialities. But he was their rightful CHIEF; and such was the strength of authority which that word implied, that those Frasers who had stood neuter, at once declared for Simon and his cause; and those who had marched with Fraserdale, deserted him to a man, and returned northward to join his standard. The body of the clan thus assembled, amounted to five or six hundred. They blockaded Inverness on one side, while the men of Culloden and of Ross of Kilrarock, who were also in arms for the government, assailed it upon the other; so that Sir John Mackenzie was compelled to evacuate the place under favour of a springtide.

Lovat lost no time in improving the advantage which circumstances now afforded him. He had his eye upon his rival Fraserdale's plate; but it appears that he was anticipated by General Wightman, who got possession of the treasure from the person with whom it was deposited, and who, certainly, says Mr Forbes's correspondent, "did not make the prize for Lovat" (p. 46, 50). Simon,