and in despite of every evil influence around them. Her mother died
in giving her birth; and Lord Lovat, perhaps from remorse for the
uncomplaining and ill-used wife, evinced much concern at the death of
his first lady, and showed a degree of consideration for his daughters
which could hardly have been expected from one so steeped in vice.
Although his private life at Castle Downie, after the death of their
mother was disgusting in detail, and therefore, better consigned to
oblivion, the gentle presence of his two daughters restrained the coarse
witticisms of their father, and he seemed to regard them both with
affection and respect, and to be proud of the decorum of their conduct
and manners. Disgusted with the profligacy which, as they grew up, they
could not but observe at Castle Downie, the young ladies generally chose
to reside at Leatwell, with Lady Mackenzie, their only aunt; and Lord
Lovat did not resent their leaving him, but rather applauded a delicacy
of feeling which cast so deep a reproach upon him. He was to them a kind
indulgent father. When Janet, Lady Clunie, was confined of her first
child, he brought her to Castle Downie that she might have the
attendance of physicians more easily than in the remote country where
the Macphersons lived. He always expressed regret that her mother had
not been sufficiently attended to when her last child was born.

The fate of Sybilla Fraser presents her as another victim to the
hardness and impiety of Lovat. "She possessed," says Mrs. Grant, "a high
degree of sensibility, which when strongly excited by the misfortunes of
her family, exalted her habitual piety into all the fervour of
enthusiasm." When Lovat passed through Badenoch, after his
apprehension, Sybilla, who was there with Lady Clunie, followed him to
Dalwhinney, and there, in an agony of mind which may be readily
conceived, entreated her aged father to reconcile himself to his Maker,
and to withdraw his thoughts from the world. She was answered by taunts
at her "womanish weakness," as Lovat called it, and by coarse ridicule
of his enemies, with a levity of mind shocking under such circumstances.
The sequel cannot be better told than in these few simple words:
"Sybilla departed almost in despair; prayed night and day, not for his
life, but for his soul; and when she heard soon after, that 'he had died
and made no sign,' grief in a short time put an end to her life."[265]

The Master of Lovat was implicated, as