placing the castle of Duart under that nobleman's control,
he went to England.

He soon became a favourite at the Court of one who, if we except the
massacre of Glencoe, evinced few dispositions of cruelty to the Scottish
Jacobites. King William is said, nevertheless, to have had a real
antipathy to the Highlanders; and Queen Mary, whose heart turned to the
adherents of her forefathers, was obliged to conceal her partiality for
her Northern subjects. It had appeared, however, on several occasions,
during the absence of her consort, and was now evinced in her good
offices to the chief of the clan Maclean. That the chief was of a
deportment to confirm the kind sentiments thus shown towards him, the
character which has been given of him amply proves.

Sir John Maclean was, as the author of Sir Ewan Cameron's life relates,
"the only person of his party that went to Court, which no doubt
contributed much to his being so particularly observed by the Queen, who
received him most graciously, honoured him frequently with her
conversation, and said many kind and obliging things to him. Sir John on
his part acquitted himself with so much politeness and address, that her
Majesty soon began to esteem him. He took the proper occasions to inform
her of the misfortunes of his family, and artfully insinuated that he
and his predecessors had drawn them all upon themselves by the services
they had rendered to her grandfather, father, and uncle. She answered,
that the antiquity and merit of his family were no strangers to her
ears; and that, though she had taken a resolution never to interpose
betwixt her father's friends and the King her husband, yet, she would
distinguish him so far as to recommend his services to his Majesty by a
letter under her own hand; and that she doubted not but that it would
have some influence, since it was the first favour of that nature which
she had ever demanded."

Sir John is, however, declared by another authority to have declined the
commission thus offered to him. Although he had received King James's
permission to reconcile himself with the Government, he did not, it
appears, choose to bear arms in its defence. Such is the statement of
one historian.[86] By another it is said that "Sir John was much
caressed while he continued in the army,"[87]--a sentence which
certainly seems to imply that he had assented to King William's offer.
At all events, he managed to engage the confidence of the King so far,