selected. According to Colonel Hay, she was
the mistress of General Dillon, one of the most ardent adherents of the
Stuarts, and the spy of the Earl of Mar.[166] For four or five years,
nevertheless, after Prince Charles's birth, she continued to be his
governess, and to sway the feelings of his mother, in the same manner as
confidants and dependants usually direct the angry passions of their
mistresses into the most dangerous channels.

During the height of Colonel Hay's favour, the confidence of the
Chevalier in Lord Mar visibly declined, as appears in the following
letter to one of his adherents in Scotland.

"I have always been unwilling to mention Marr, but I find myself
indispensably engaged at present to let my Scots friends know that I
have withdrawn my confidence entirely from him, as I shall be obliged to
doe from all who may be any ways influenced by him. This conduct is
founded on the most urgent, strongest, and most urging necessity, in
which my regard to my faithfull subjects and servants have the greatest
share.

"What is here said of Marr, is not with a view of its being made
publick, there being no occasion for that, since, many years ago, he put
himself under such engagements, that he could not serve me in a publick
capacity, neither has he been publickly employed by me."

To this it was answered, by the confidential friend to whom the remarks
were addressed, "It is some time agoe since your friends here had doubts
of the Earl of Marr; and thence it was that I was directed to mention
him in the manner I did in my last two letters, it being matter of no
small moment to us to know in whom wee might confide thorowly, and of
whom beware,--especially when a person of his figure was the
object."[167]

Affairs were in this state; the Chevalier distrustful of Lord Mar, and
devoted to his rival, Colonel Hay; the Princess heading an opposite
faction, nominally commanded by Mrs. Sheldon, but secretly instigated by
Lord Mar; when, in 1722, the conspiracy of Atterbury was discovered by
the British Government.

The Earl of Mar was at that time in Paris, and Lord Carteret who was at
the head of affairs in England, remembering the Earl's former
negotiations with Lord Stair, dispatched a gentleman to Mar, with
instructions to sound that nobleman as to his knowledge of the plot.
Lord Mar happening to be in Colonel Dillon's company when the messenger
reached Paris, and soon divining after one interview the nature