, but not till you are dead," &c. The prisoner
then spoke again; hoping by this reiterated reference to his services,
to obtain a mitigation of the sentence; but he spoke to those who heard,
without compassion, the petitions for mercy which fell from an aged,
tottering, and miserable old man. Well has it been said, "Whatever his
character or his crimes might be, the humanity of the British Government
incurred a deep reproach, from the execution of an old man on the very
verge of the grave."[254]

At last, the Lord High Steward put the final question; "Would you offer
anything further?"

"Nothing," was the reply, "but to thank your Lordships for your
goodness to me. God bless you all; I bid you an everlasting farewell. We
shall not meet all again in the same place,--I am sure of that."

Lord Lovat was reconducted to the Tower--that prison on entering which
he had boasted, that if he were not old and infirm they would have found
it difficult to have kept him there. The people told him they had kept
those who were much younger. "Yes," he answered, "but they had not
broken so many gaols as I have."

He now met his approaching fate with a composure that it is difficult
not to admire, even in Lovat. And yet reflection may perhaps suggest
that the insensibility to the fear of death--an emotion incident to
conscientious minds--bespeaks, in one whose responsibilities had been so
grossly abused, an insensibility springing from utter depravity. Let us,
however, give to the wretched man every possible allowance. He wrote, in
terms of affection, a letter full of religious sentiments to his son,
after his own condemnation. When the warrant came down for his
execution, he exclaimed, "God's will be done!" With the courtesy that
had charmed and had betrayed others all his life, he took the gentleman
who brought the warrant by the hand, thanked him, drank his health, and
assured him that he would not then change places with any prince in
Christendom. He appears, indeed, to have had no misgivings, or he
affected to have none, as to his eternal prospects. When the Lieutenant
of the fortress in the Tower asked him how he did? "Do?" was his reply;
"why I am about doing very well, for I am going to a place where hardly
any majors, and very few lieutenant-generals go."

Some friends still remained warmly attached to this singular man. Mr.
William Fraser, his cousin, advanced a large sum of money to General
Williamson, to provide for his w