ates, even the truth of this popular belief has been
questioned, on the ground that the influence which he exercised over
them, in being able to urge them to engage in whatsoever side he
pleased, argues some qualities which must have engaged their
affections.[264]

He who pleads thus, must, however, have forgotten the hereditary sway of
a Highland chieftain, existing in unbroken force in those days: he must
have forgotten the sentiment which was inculcated from the cradle, the
loyalty of clanship,--a sentiment which led on the brave hearts in which
it was cherished to far more remarkable exertions and proofs of fidelity
than even the history of the Frasers can supply.

But the deepest dye of guilt appears in Lord Lovat's conduct as a
father. It was not only that he was, in the infancy and boyhood of his
eldest born, harsh and imperious: such was the custom of the period. It
was not only that he impelled the young man into a course which his own
reason disapproved, and which he undertook with reluctance and disgust
throwing, on one occasion, his white cockade into the fire, and only
complying with his father's orders upon force. This was unjustifiable
compulsion in any father, but it might be excused on the plea of zeal
for the cause. But it appeared on the trial that the putting forward the
Master of Lovat was a mere feint to save himself at the expense of his
son, if affairs went wrong. In Lord Lovat's letters to President Forbes
the poor young man was made to bear the brunt of the whole blame;
although Lord Lovat had frequently complained of his son's backwardness
to certain members of his clan. On the trial it appeared that the whole
aim of Lord Lovat was, as Sir John Strange expressed it, "an endeavour
to avoid being fixed himself and to throw it all upon his son,--that son
whom he had, in a manner, forced into the Rebellion."

Rare, indeed, is such a case;--with that, let these few remarks on the
character of Lord Lovat, conclude. Human nature can sink to no lower
depth of degradation.

Lord Lovat left, by his first wife, three children:--Simon, Master of
Lovat; Janet, who was married to Ewan Macpherson of Cluny,--a match
which Lord Lovat projected in order to increase his influence, and to
strengthen his Highland connections. This daughter was grandmother to
the present chief, and died in 1765. He had also another daughter,
Sybilla.

This daughter was one of those rare beings whose elevated minds seem to
exp