[742] Dunning, Auchterarder, Blackford, Crieff, Muthil.
[743] It is presumed this is the letter alluded to in a conversation between Lockhart of Carnwath and Captain Dougall Campbell, who is represented by him as “a person of great worth and loyalty, and a bosome friend of Argyle’s.” “Being with me (says Lockhart) at my country house, he (Campbell) asked me if I heard Argyle blam’d for having received and given no answer to a letter writt to him by the king whilst he was at Perth. I told him I had, but could not agree with those who censured him, for I had such an abhorrence of breach of trust, that had I been the duke’s adviser, it should have been to doe as he did; for tho there was nothing I so much desired as to see him engaged in the king’s cause, I wisht it done in a way consistent with his honour. Captain Campbell smiled and told me, he was to acquaint me of a secret which he must previously have my solemn word I would communicate to none, which he had given when it was revealed to him, having however obtained liberty afterwards to speak of it to me. After giving him the assurance he demanded, he told me that the letter was not delivered to the duke, for in his late Highland progress, he saw it and another to Lord Isla in the hands of the person to whose care they were committed, (but who that person was he would not tell me), who receiving them unseal’d, did not, after perusal, think it for the king’s service to deliver them, that to the duke being writt in a style by no means to be approved of; ‘and, indeed,’ added Campbell, ‘when I read them, I was entirely of the same mind, and could not but think that Mar or some other person, with a view of rather widening than healing the breaches, had prevail’d with the king to write after that manner.’ The letter to Isla was writt as to a man of business, insisting on the unhappy state of Scotland, and that nothing but a dissolution of the union by the king’s restoration, could prevent the utter ruin of that country. That to the duke did invite him to return to his loyalty and duty, threatening him, if he neglected, with revenge and the utter extirpation of his family, for what he and his predecessors had done in this and the last century. I doe not pretend to narrate the precise words of this letter, nor did Campbell mention them as such to me; however, I have narrated what he said was the aim and purport of the letter.”—Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 14, 15.
[744] What follows is in the Chevalier’s own handwriting. The original document is in the Fingask family; of course, it had never been delivered to the duke.
[CHAPTER XXVII.]
A.D. 1716–1737.
BRITISH SOVEREIGNS:—George I., 1714–1727.—George II., 1727–1760.
Trial and execution of the prisoners taken in the rebellion—Bills of attainder against the Earl of Mar and others—Proceedings of General Cadogan in the Highlands—Trials of the prisoners in Scotland—Act of grace—Removal of the Chevalier from France—Duke of Argyle dismissed from office—Continental affairs—Confederacy to restore the Chevalier—Threatened Spanish invasion—Disarming of the Highlanders—Means taken to prevent further disturbances by building forts, making roads, &c.—Aversion of the Highlanders to these innovations—The Chevalier appoints trustees to manage his affairs in Scotland—Discovery of a new Jacobite conspiracy—Habeas-corpus act suspended—Bolingbroke—Meeting of Highland chiefs at Paris—The disarming act—Disgrace of the Earl of Mar—His ambiguous conduct—Atterbury’s charges against him—The Chevalier’s domestic affairs—Death of George I.—Views of the Chevalier—Prospects of the Jacobites.
After the flight and dispersion of the insurgents, the Duke of Argyle returned to Edinburgh about the end of February, where he was magnificently entertained by the magistrates of the city, whence he set off for London on the 1st of March. He had left instructions with General Cadogan to keep up a communication with the Whig leaders in the north, and to distribute the troops in quarters contiguous to the adjoining Highlands, that they might be the more readily assembled to repress any fresh insurrection which might break out. To keep some of the disaffected districts in check, parties of Highlanders were placed by Lord Lovat and Brigadier Grant, in Brahan castle, and in Erchles and Borlum; the former the seat of the Chisholm, the latter that of Brigadier Mackintosh.
The fate of the prisoners taken at Preston remains now to be told. The first who were tried were Lord Charles Murray, Captain Dalziel, brother to the earl of Carnwath, Major Nairne, Captain Philip Lockhart, brother to Lockhart of Carnwath, Captain Shaftoe, and Ensign Nairne. These six were tried before a court-martial at Preston, and all, with the exception of Captain Dalziel, having been proved to have been officers in the service of government, were condemned to be shot. Lord Charles Murray received a pardon through the interest of his friends. The remainder suffered on the 2d of December.