deed Women, both young and old, are so good when there's any thing
pitiful to be done, that I make no doubt that the _Coronach_ would have
been sung if the old Rebel had gone back to Scotland; and if there were
found those to weep for Nero, I see no reason why some tears should not
have been shed for Simon, Lord Lovat.

But there is no denying, after all, that Simon Fraser was a very
complete Scoundrel. His whole life, indeed, had been but one series of
Crimes, one calendar of Frauds, one tissue of Lies. For at least seventy
out of his eighty years of life he had been cheating, cogging,
betraying, and doing the Devil's service upon earth; and who shall say
that his end was undeserved? A Scots Lord of his acquaintance was heard
to say that he deserved to be hung twenty times in twenty places for
twenty heinous Crimes that he had committed; and let this be borne in
mind, that this was the same Lord Lovat that, as Captain Fraser, and
being then a Young Man, was outlawed for a very atrocious Act of
Violence that he had committed upon a young Lady of Fashion and Figure,
whom he carried away (with the aid of a Band of his brutal Retainers)
in the dead of night, married by Force, with the assistance of a
hireling Priest of his, cutting the very clothes off her body with his
Dirk, and bidding his Pipers strike up to drown her cries. And yet such
a Ruffian as he undoubtedly was could maintain an appearance of a facete
disposition to the last; and he seems to have taken great pains to quit
the Stage, not only with Decency, but with that Dignity which is thought
to distinguish the Good Conscience and the Noble Mind. There is only one
more thing to be set down, and that is one that I, being the Warder who
(with Bandolier) attended him throughout his confinement, can vouch for
the truth of. It was falsely said at the time that this Lord sought to
defraud the Axe by much drinking of Wine: now I can aver that while in
custody he never drank above two pints a day; and the report may have
arisen from the considerable quantities of Brandy and Rum which were
used, night and morning, to bathe his poor feet and legs.

Now, Tranquillity being happily restored to these Kingdoms, and the
Chevalier safely gotten away to France (whither, however, that luckless
young Man was expelled, and in a very ignominious manner, at the Peace
of Aix-la-Chapelle), I do confess that I began to weary somewhat of my
fine Red Doublet, and of the Rosettes in my sh