instances written in his own hand, but without signature, and in
the third person. In the first which he wrote to Lord Stair, Mar
announced that he had quitted the service of James, and was desirous of
making peace with King George upon the promise of a pardon, and the
restoration of his estates.

"You are to consider," says Lord Stair, writing to the Secretary of
State at home concerning this proposal, "whether it will be worth the
while to receive him. In my humble opinion the taking him on will be the
greatest blow that can be given to the Pretender's interest, and the
greatest discredit to it. And it may be made of use to show to the world
that nobody but a Papist can hope to continue in favour with the
Pretender. I wish," adds the Ambassador, "you may think as I do. I own
all his faults and misfortunes cannot make me forget the long and
intimate friendship and familiarity that has been between him and me."
It is consoling to find any politician acting upon such good
old-fashioned maxims, the result of honest feeling.

Lady Mar having now joined her husband, Lord Mar resolved to make his
escape from Geneva. Lord Stair advised him against it; but adds, in his
letters to his friends at home, "I could hardly imagine that a man of
his temper, and in his circumstances, will refuse his liberty when he
sees he has nothing but ill usage and neglect to expect from us."[159]

Thus ended this negotiation, the main conditions of which were, provided
Lord Mar kept himself free from any plots against the Government, an
offer of the family estate to his son; and, in the interim, till an act
of Parliament could be obtained to that effect, a pension of two
thousand pounds sterling, over and above one thousand five hundred
pounds paid of jointure to his wife and daughter.[160]

It was the fortune of Lord Mar on this, as on many other occasions, to
reap the ignominy of having accepted this pension, without ever
receiving the profits of his debasement.

During the absence of Lord Mar at Geneva, his Countess, who remained in
Rome, received the following letters from the Chevalier and his
Princess, Maria Clementina: these epistles show how desirous the
Chevalier still was to retain Lord Mar in his interests.[161]

"Montefiascony, Sept. 9, 1719.

"The Duke of Mar's late misfortunes and my own situation for some
months past, hath occasioned my being much in the dark as to his
prese