ubsistence."[171]
From other accounts, however, Mr. Murray is shown to have been a man of
probity, although in great pecuniary difficulties, as many of the
younger members of old families were at that time.[172] Mr. James Murray
was sent forward into Scotland six weeks before Lord Lovat set out from
France; and the Court had the wisdom to send with the latter another
emissary in the person of Mr. John Murray, of Abercairney.

After these arrangements were completed, Lord Lovat received his
commission. He set out upon his expedition by way of Brussels, to
Calais. Not being furnished with passports, and having no other pass
than the orders of the Marquis De Torcy to the commandants of the
different forts upon the coast, he was obliged also, to wait for an
entire month, the arrival of an English packet for the exchange of
prisoners,--the captain of the vessel having been bribed to take him and
his companions on board as English prisoners of war, and to put them on
shore during the night, in his boat, near Dover.

Through the interest of Louis the Fourteenth, Lovat had received the
commission from King James of major-general, with power to raise and
command forces in his behalf:[173] and thus provided, he proceeded to
Scotland, where he was met by the Duke of Argyle, his friend, and
conducted by that nobleman to Edinburgh. Such was the simple statement
of Lovat's first steps on this occasion. According to his memorial,
which he afterwards presented to Queen Mary, he received assurances of
support from the Catholic gentry of Durham, who, "when he showed them
the King's picture, fell down on their knees and kissed it."[174] This
flattering statement appeared, however, to resemble the rest of the
memorial of his proceedings, and met with little or no credence even in
the quarter where it was most likely to be well received.

From the Duke of Queensbury, Lord Lovat received a pass to go into the
Highlands, which was procured under feigned names, both for him and his
two companions, from Lord Nottingham, then Secretary of State. After
this necessary preliminary, Lord Lovat made a tour among some of the
principal nobility in the Lowlands. He found them, even according to
his own statement, averse to take up arms without an express commission
from the King. But he remarks, writing always as he does in the third
person, "My Lord Lovat pursued his journey to the Highlands, where they
were overjoyed to see him, because they believe