n of a masculine understanding,
and of admirable talents, bold, insinuating, and ambitious. Her
education in the household of the great Conde, and her long attendance
upon the Princess de Conti, the hero's daughter, had qualified her for
those arduous and delicate intrigues, without which no woman of
intellect at that period in France might think herself sufficiently
distinguished.

The appointment of the Duke of Hamilton as ambassador at the Court of
Louis, rendered such a friend as Madame de la Roche, who was also
distantly related to him, very essential for the prosecution of Lord
Lovat's present schemes, which were, to obtain his release, and to
procure employment in any enterprise concerted by the Jacobites against
England.

Fate, however, relieved Lord Lovat from one apprehension. The Duke of
Hamilton was killed in a duel by Lord Mohun, in Hyde Park; and this
fresh source of danger was thus annihilated. The kindness which the
famous Colbert, Marquis de Torcy, had shown to Lord Lovat, and the
promise which he had given to that nobleman, not to break his parole,
and to return to England, seems to have been the only check to a
long-cherished project on the part of Lord Lovat to escape to London,
and to risk all that law might there inflict. It is uncertain in what
manner, during the tedious interval between intrigues and intrigues, he
solaced his leisure. It has been stated by one of his biographers that
he actually joined a society of Jesuits,--by another, that he took
priest's orders, and acted as parochial priest at St. Omers. Of course,
in compiling a defence of his life, the wary man of the world omitted
such particulars as would, at any rate, betray inconsistency, and beget
suspicion. His object in becoming a Jesuit, is said to have been to hear
confessions and to discover intrigues. With respect to the report of his
having entered the order of Jesuits, it is justly alleged in answer,
that no Jesuit is permitted to hear confessions until he has been
fifteen years a member of the society, or, at least, in priest's
orders.[192]

The rumour of his having become an ecclesiastic, in any way, no doubt
originated in Lord Lovat's joke on a subsequent occasion, when "he
declared that had he wished it, and had remained in priest's orders,
which he did not deny having assumed for some purpose, he might have
become Pope in time."[193]

Whilst Lord Lovat, contrary to the advice of Madame la Roche, was
deliberating whe