of Lord Lovat.--Lovat's son
Simon Fraser and other Frasers at Quebec.--Malcolm Fraser and John
Nairne, future seigneurs at Malbaie.--The Highlanders and Wolfe's
victory.--The Highlanders in the winter of 1759-60.--Malcolm Fraser
on Murray's defeat in April, 1760.--The return of Canadian
seigneurs to France.--General Murray buys Canadian
seigniories.--Nairne and Fraser at Malbaie.--Their grants from
Murray.

The great British fleet which has passed up beyond Malbaie to Quebec is
important for our tale. It carried men who have since become world
famous; not only Wolfe but Jervis, afterward Lord St. Vincent, Cook, the
great navigator, Guy Carleton, who saved Canada for Britain during the
American Revolution, and many others of lesser though still considerable
fame. But for Malbaie the most interesting men in that great array were
those connected with the 78th, or Fraser's, Highlanders. On the decks of
the British ships were hundreds of these brawny, bare-legged and kilted
sons of the north, speaking their native Gaelic, and on occasion
harangued by their officers in that tongue. A few years earlier many of
them had served under Prince Charles Stuart to overthrow, if possible,
King George II, and the house of Hanover; now they were fighting for
that King against their old allies the French. Unreal in truth had been
the rising in behalf of the Stuarts. Scotland had no grievances: she did
not wish to dissolve the union with England, and if the tyranny of any
royal house troubled her it was that of the Stuarts, alien from most
Scots in both religious and political thought. But when, in 1745, some
of the chieftains called out their clansmen, loyalty made these heed the
summons, though half-heartedly. The same devotion was now given to the
house of Hanover. Years earlier Duncan Forbes of Culloden, one of the
noblest and wisest Scots of his age, had urged Walpole to call the
Highlanders to fight Britain's battles. The hint was not then taken but
later, Pitt, the greatest war minister Britain has ever had, revived
Forbes's plan. Some Highland regiments were formed. The Highland dress
that had been proscribed after Culloden as the brand of treason was now
given its place in Britain's battle array: ever since it has played
there its creditable part. Wolfe called his Highland companions in arms
the most manly lot of officers he had ever seen.

The Highland regiment that came with Wolfe to Quebec