He was one of the few Jacobites whose personal character has
reflected discredit upon his motives, and disgraced his compeers: his
story has the air of romance, but is perfectly reconcilable with the
spirit of the times in which Lord Burleigh figured.

When a very young man he became attached to a girl of low rank, and was
sent abroad by his friends in hopes of removing his attachment. Before
he quitted Scotland, he swore, however, that if the young woman married
in his absence, he would kill her husband. Upon returning home, he found
that the unfortunate object of his affections had been united to Henry
Stenhouse, the schoolmaster at Inverkeithing. The threat had not been
uttered without a deep meaning: young Balfour kept his word, and
hastening to the school where Stenhouse was pursuing his usual duties,
he stabbed him in the midst of his scholars. The victim of this
murderous attack died twelve days afterwards.

Nearly eight years had elapsed since the crime had been perpetrated, and
the wretched murderer had encountered, since that time, his trial, in
the Court of Justiciary, and had received sentence of death by
beheading; but he escaped from prison a few days previously, by
exchanging clothes with his sister. He was then a commoner; but in 1714,
the title of Lord Burleigh, and an estate of six hundred and
ninety-seven pounds yearly, devolved upon him. When the Rebellion broke
out, his restless spirit, as well, perhaps, as the loss of reputation,
and the miseries of reflection, impelled him to enter into the contest.

Such were the principal promoters of the insurrection in the south of
Scotland; they were held together by firm bonds of sympathy, and their
plans were concerted in renewed conferences at stated periods.

The twenty-ninth of May was, of course, religiously observed by this
increasing and formidable party. During the previous year (1714) the
Jacobite gentry had met at Lochmaben, under pretence of a horse-racing;
and, although it does not appear that the Earl of Nithisdale was among
those who assembled on that occasion, yet several of his kinsmen
attended. The plates which were the prizes had significant devices: on
one of them were wrought figures of men in a falling posture; above them
stood one "eminent person," the Pretender, underneath whom were
inscribed the words from Ezekiel, xxi. 27, "I will overturn, overturn,
overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is,
and I will