on of
them."[240] He declared that he would "cut off" in a moment any of his
tenants who refused to join the cause, and expressed his conviction that
as sure as the sun shined his "master would prevail."

This was in the latter part of the summer: on the twenty-first of
September the battle of Preston Pans raised the hopes of the Jacobites
to the highest pitch, and Alexander Macleod was sent to the Highland
chieftains to stimulate their loyalty and to secure their rising. Upon
his visiting Castle Downie he found Lovat greatly elated by the recent
victory, which he declared was not to be paralleled. He now began to
assemble his men, and to prepare in earnest for that part which he had
long intended to adopt; "but," observes Sir Walter Scott, "with that
machiavelism inherent in his nature, he resolved that his own personal
interest in the insurrection should be as little evident as possible,
and determined that his son, whose safety he was bound, by the laws of
God and man, to prefer to his own, should be his stalking-horse, and in
case of need his scape-goat."[241]

Lord President Forbes, who had been addressing himself to the Highland
chieftains, exhorting the well-affected to bestir themselves, and
entreating those who were devoted to the Pretender not to involve
themselves and their families in ruin, expostulated by letter with Lord
Lovat upon the course which his son was now openly pursuing, pointing
out how greatly it would reflect upon the father, whose co-operation or
countenance he supposed to be impossible. The letters written on this
subject by Forbes are admirable, and show a deep interest not only in
the security of his country, but also in the fate of the young man, who
afterwards redeemed his involuntary errors by a career of the highest
respectability.

"You have now so far pulled off the mask," writes the President, "that
we can see the mark you aimed at." "You sent away your son, and the best
part of your clan," he adds, after a remonstrance full of good sense and
candour, "to join the Pretender, with as little concern as if no danger
had attended such a step. And I am sorry to tell you, my Lord, that I
could sooner undertake to plead the cause of any one of those unhappy
gentlemen who are actually in arms against his Majesty; and I could say
more in defence of their conduct, than I could in defence of your
Lordship's."[242]

Can any instance of moral degradation be adduced more complete than
this?