plot to restore the Stuarts. In 1736, when he
was Sheriff for the county, he received the celebrated Roy Stuart, who
was imprisoned at Inverness for high treason, when he broke out of gaol,
and kept him six weeks in his house; sending by him an assurance to the
Pretender of his fidelity, and at the same time desiring Roy Stuart to
procure him a commission as lieutenant-general, and a patent of dukedom.

This was the secret spring of his whole proceeding. It is degrading to
the rest of the Jacobites, to give this double traitor an epithet ever
applied to honourable, and fervent, and disinterested men. The sole
business of Lovat was personal aggrandizement; revenge was his
amusement.

Henderson, in his "History of the Rebellion," attributes to Lord Lovat
the entire suggestion of the invasion of 1745. It is true that the
Chevalier refused to accede to the proposal made by Roy Stuart of an
invasion in 1735, not considering, as he said, that the "time for his
deliverance was as yet come." But, after consulting the Pope, it was
agreed that the present time might be well employed in "whetting the
minds of the Highlanders, and in sowing in them the seeds of loyalty
that so frequently appeared." In consequence of this, Lord Lovat's
request was granted; a letter was written to him from the Court, then at
Albano, giving him full power to act in the name of James, and the title
of Duke of Fraser and Lieutenant-General of the Highlands was conferred
upon the man who seems to have had the art of infatuating all with whom
he dealt.[230]

Lord Lovat immediately changed the whole style of his deportment. He
quitted the comparative retirement of Castle Downie; went to Edinburgh,
where he set up a chariot, and lived there in a sumptuous manner, though
with little of those ceremonials which we generally associate with rank
and opulence. He now sought and obtained a very general acquaintance.
Few men had more to tell; and he could converse about his former
hardships, relate the account of his introduction to Louis the
Fourteenth, and to the gracious Maintenon. He returned to Castle Downie.
That seat, conducted hitherto on the most penurious scale, suddenly
became the scene of a plenteous hospitality; and its lord, once
churlish and severe, became liberal and free. He entertained the clans
after their hearts' desire, and he kept a purse of sixpences for the
poor. As his castle was almost in the middle of the Highlands, it was
much frequen