h subsist in a real scene of the same character, although
the objects of the ambition which prompts such arts had no existence.
Men seemed to play at being courtiers in that illusory court, as
children play at being soldiers."

It would appear that Lord Pitsligo was not attainted for his share in
Mar's rebellion. He returned to Scotland in 1720, and resided at his
castle in Aberdeenshire, not mingling in public affairs, but gaining,
through his charity, kindness, and benevolence, the respect and
affection of all around him. He was sixty-seven years of age when
Charles Edward landed in Scotland. The district in which the estates of
Lord Pitsligo lay was essentially Jacobite, and the young cavaliers only
waited for a fitting leader to take up arms in the cause. According to
Mr. Home, his example was decisive of the movement of his neighbours:
"So when he who was so wise and prudent declared his purpose of joining
Charles, most of the gentlemen in that part of the country who favoured
the Pretender's cause, put themselves under his command, thinking they
could not follow a better or safer guide than Lord Pitsligo." His
Lordship's own account of the motives which urged him on is
peculiar:--"I was grown a little old, and the fear of ridicule stuck to
me pretty much. I have mentioned the weightier considerations of a
family, which would make the censure still the greater, and set the more
tongues agoing. But we are pushed on, I know not how,--I thought--I
weighed--and I weighed again. If there was any enthusiasm in it, it was
of the coldest kind; and there was as little remorse when the affair
miscarried, as there was eagerness at the beginning."

The writer whom I have already quoted goes on to say--"To those friends
who recalled his misfortunes of 1715, he replied gaily, 'Did you ever
know me absent at the second day of a wedding?' meaning, I suppose, that
having once contracted an engagement, he did not feel entitled to quit
it while the contest subsisted. Being invited by the gentlemen of the
district to put himself at their head, and having surmounted his own
desires, he had made a farewell visit at a neighbour's house, where a
little boy, a child of the family, brought out a stool to assist the old
nobleman in remounting his horse. 'My little fellow.' said Lord
Pitsligo, 'this is the severest rebuke I have yet received, for
presuming to go on such an expedition.'

"The die was however cast, and Lord Pitsligo went to m