ge settlement,
that Mr. Mackenzie should take the name and title of Fraserdale, and
that the children of that marriage should bear the name of Fraser. The
estate of Lovat was settled upon Fraserdale in his life, with remainder
to his children by his wife.[159] It indeed appears, that the estate of
Lovat was never surrendered to Lord Lovat; that he bore in Scotland,
according to some statements, no higher title than that of Lord of
Beaufort; and that a regular receiver of the rents was appointed by the
guardians of Amelia Fraser:[160] so completely were the dark designs of
Simon Fraser defeated in their object! He was, however, graciously
received at St. Germains, whither he went whilst yet, James the Second,
in all the glory of a sanctified superstition, lived with his Queen, the
faithful partner of his misfortunes. Lord Lovat ascribes this visit to
St. Germains to his intention of dissipating the calumnious stories
circulated against him by the Marquis of Athole. The flourishing
statement which he gives in his memoirs of King James's reception, may,
however, be treated as wholly apocryphal. James the Second, with all his
errors, was too shrewd a man, too practised in kingcraft, to speak of
the "perfidious family of Athole," or to mention the head of that noble
house by the title of that "old traitor." Lord Lovat's incapacity to
write the truth, and his perpetual endeavour to magnify himself in his
narrative, cause us equally to distrust the existence of that document,
with the royal seal affixed to it, which he says the King signed with
his own hand, declaring that he would protect Lord Lovat from "the
perfidious and faithless family of Athole."[161]

The fact is, and it redounds to the credit of James the Second, that
monarch, eager as he ever remained to attach partisans to his interests,
never received Lord Lovat into his presence.[162] The infamy of the
exploits of the former Master of Lovat had preceded his visit to France:
the whole account of his own reception at St. Germains, written with
astonishing audacity, and most circumstantially worded, was a
fabrication.

Lord Lovat's usual readiness in difficulties did not fail him; he was a
ruined man, and it was puerile to shrink from expedients. He applied to
the Pope's nuncio, and expressed his readiness to become a Roman
Catholic. The suit was, of course, encouraged, and the arch hypocrite,
making a recantation of all his former errors, professed himself a
membe