of the
embassy, it was agreed between him and Dillon that they would do James's
cause a service by leading the British Government off the right scent.
They therefore drew up, in conjunction, an answer to Lord Carteret. What
was the nature of that reply,[168] does not appear; but its result was
such as to cast upon Lord Mar a degree of odium far greater than that
which he had incurred in Lord Stair's business. He was accused by
Atterbury with having, on that occasion, written such a letter as had
been the cause of his banishment; with having betrayed the secrets of
the Chevalier St. George to the British Government; and of several other
charges of "base and treacherous practises, discovered by the Bishop of
Rochester, that the like had scarce been heard of, and seem'd to be what
no man, endued with common sense, or the least drop of noble blood,
could perpetrate; and that the King's friends were at a loss in not
knowing what credit to give to such reports, tho' they apprehended the
worst, from the directions he had lately given of having no
correspondence with Mar or his adherents, from whom he had withdrawn all
confidence."

Shortly after this declaration the Chevalier declared Colonel Hay to be
his Secretary, and created the favourite Earl of Inverness; between whom
and the Earl of Mar an antipathy, which had now become open hostility,
prevailed. "The Duke of Mar," wrote the Earl of Inverness to Lockhart,
"has declared himself my mortal enemy, only because I spoke truth to
him, and could not, in my conscience, enter into his measures nor
approve his conduct, tho' I always shunned saying any thing to his
disadvantage, but to the King alone, from whom I thought I was obliged
to conceal nothing."[169]

With respect to the treachery towards Atterbury, the justification of
Lord Mar rests upon the testimony of Colonel Dillon, and other persons
who saw the Earl's letter to Carteret. It is also certain that James
accorded his approval to Mar's conduct in that affair. No positive
intention of mischief can be made out against Mar; but his habit of
rarely acting a straightforward part, his insatiable love of
interference, and his mistaking cunning for policy, brought upon him the
mournful indignation of the exiled Atterbury, and fixed upon him a grave
imputation which it were almost impossible to wipe away.

Another charge brought by Atterbury against Lord Mar, was his advising
James to barter his pretensions to the Crown for