nterprise in Scotland. On
such a project Lord George Murray expressed himself cautiously, yet
somewhat encouragingly; and declared himself ready to shed the last drop
of his blood in the cause. Happily his zeal was not again put to the
test. Lord George appears, in his letters, to have cherished in his
retirement at Emmerick, a lingering hope that at some future day the
Stuarts might make another attempt. He was now in the decline of life,
and yearning to behold again the country which he was destined to see no
more. "How happily," he writes to Mr. Edgar,[204] "should you and I be
to sit over a bottle in Angus, or Perthshire, after a restoration, and
talk over old services. May that soon happen!"

Meantime some members of Lord George's family suffered the severest
distress. His uncle, Lord Nairn, had, it is true, escaped to France; but
Lady Nairn and her daughter, Lady Clementina, were reduced to the
utmost penury in Scotland. They remained in their native country,
probably with the hope of saving the wreck of their fortunes, until all
that the troops had spared was sold, and the money which accrued from
the sale was exhausted. Such was the rapacity of the plunderers, that
they took even Lady Nairn's watch and clothes. The Government, although
in possession of her estate, never gave her one farthing for
subsistence, but even made her pay a rent for the garden of one of Lord
Nairn's own houses in which she lived. But this is only one instance of
that catalogue of cruelties towards the Jacobites, which it would take
volumes to detail.

In 1751, Lord George Murray visited Dresden, where, owing to the
mediation of James Stuart, he was well received. His letters at this
period refer frequently to the exertions which he made for Lord Macleod,
the son of Lord Cromartie: to this young man a company was given in
Finland, in the Prussian service, and the Chevalier St. George furnished
him with his accoutrements and equipage.

The eldest son of Lord George Murray remained, as we have seen, in
Scotland; but the second was, through the favour of the Chevalier,
recommended to the especial notice of the court of Prussia. The visit of
Lord George to Dresden seems to have been chiefly designed to push the
interests of this young man, who was introduced to the Count and
Countess De Bruhl. The youth was to study the military science and
exercises at Dresden, and at the same time to enjoy, in the house of the
Pope's Nuncio, the advantag