obility in Scotland.
He was thus deeply pledged to aid the undertaking at that time (the year
1707); and in a letter to the Chevalier, the Earl expressed his hopes
that he might have the happiness of seeing his Majesty, "a happiness for
which," he adds, "we have long sighed, to be delivered from oppression."
The Countess of Errol also addressed a letter to the mother of James
Stuart, as the Queen of England, declaring that the delays which the
Scotch had suffered had not "diminished their zeal, although they had
prolonged their miseries and misfortunes."[77] Whether, upon the rising
in 1715, the views of Lord Errol were altered, or that female influence
had been lessened by some circumstance, does not exactly appear. He kept
himself neutral in the subsequent outbreak, notwithstanding his
appearance at Braemar, and although his clan were for the most part
against the Government.[78] The Earl of Errol died, unmarried, in 1717:
his adherence to his Jacobite principles were not, therefore, put to the
test in 1745.

To these noblemen were united Seaton, Viscount of Kingston, whose
estates were forfeited to the Crown; Livingstone Viscount of Kilsyth,
one of the representative peers, who died an exile at Rome in 1733; Lord
Balfour of Burleigh; Lord Ogilvy, afterwards Earl of Airly, and Forbes,
Lord Pitsligo. This last-mentioned nobleman was a man of a grave and
prudent character, whose example drew many of his neighbours to embark
in an enterprise in which so discreet a person risked his honours and
estate. He was the author of essays, moral and philosophical; and either
from respect to his merits, or from some less worthy cause, his
defection in 1715 passed with impunity. But, in 1745, the aged nobleman
again appeared in the field, infirm as he was: and one of the most
pleasing traits in Charles Edward's noble, yet faulty character was his
walking at the head of his forces, having given up his carriage for the
use of this tried adherent of his father. Attainder and forfeiture
followed this last attempt, but the sentence was reversed by the Court
of Session, from a misnomer in the attainder; and the venerable Lord
Forbes, surviving many who had set out on the same course with him, had
the comfort of breathing his last in his native country. He died at
Auchiries in Aberdeenshire, in 1762.[79]

Several of these noblemen had been long contemplating the possibility of
James's return to Scotland. Like the Earl of Errol, they had b