[23] French historians generally blame Fleury for his timidity, and ascribe to him the decline of the splendid French navy, which he allowed to fall into decay for fear of English jealousy.
[24] The commission is dated January 28th, 1738. See Stuart Papers in Browne’s History of the Highlands, vol. iv. p. 21.
[25] See infra, p. 25.
[26] The terms of this message are given from a state paper in the French Archives of which the following is an extract: ‘il manda en Angleterre que le zèle de ses sujets écossais était si vif, qu’il lui semblait qu’on pourrait opposer les Montagnards de ce pays à la plupart des troupes que le gouvernement avait alors sur pied, et qu’il y aurait lieu de tout espérer même sans secours étranger, pourvu que les Anglais affidés prissent de leur côté de justes mesures.’ See Colin, Louis XV. et les Jacobites, p. 1.
[27] For Sempill’s descent and claim to the title, see Appendix, p. 421.
[28] See infra, p. 21.
[29] See infra, p. 25.
[30] A. G. M. Macgregor, History of the Clan Gregor, vol. ii. p. 358.
[31] Of the Associators only three were ‘out’ in the ’Forty-five: the Duke of Perth, Lovat, and Lochiel. Lord John Drummond, who was brother-in-law of Traquair, remained inactive. Prince Charles spent the night of February 2nd, 1746, at his house, Fairnton, now Ferntower, near Crieff. Lord Traquair remained in England; he was arrested at Great Stoughton in Huntingdonshire, on July 29th, 1746, and committed to the Tower; but was released without trial before August 1748. Traquair’s brother, John Stuart, married in 1740 and retired from the Concert then. Sir James Campbell was too old for action. Macgregor of Balhaldies was in Paris during the campaign.
[32] The name ‘Macgregor’ was then proscribed, and all members of the clan had to adopt another name; that adopted by Balhaldy’s branch was ‘Drummond.’ Balhaldy’s father, Alexander, was a man of some consequence. He had been a trader about Stirling, and made some money, and he married a daughter of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, his son Balhaldy being thus a first cousin of Lochiel of the ’45. In 1714 the Clan Gregor being chiefless, certain of its leading members elected Alexander to be hereditary chief. (A. G. M. Macgregor, Hist. of Clan Gregor, vol. ii. p. 270.) He was created a Scots baronet by the Chevalier in 1740, and he died at Balhaldie House, Dunblane, in 1749. His son, William, was born in 1698. Though never in Scotland after 1743 he was attainted in 1746, and specially exempted from the act of indemnity of 1747. He married Janet, daughter of Laurence Oliphant of Gask, at Paris in January 1758. He died near Paris in 1765.