for, rather than that his lordship should want them, and, in case they should not be found, offered to divide with him one hundred fat wedders, seeing that he was under greater obligations to him and his family than all the sheep, oxen, cows, and horses, he ever possessed, were worth; "And I beg, my lord," he adds, "that you may not be in the least apprehensive that any of those rogues, or any in my country go and disturb your tenants, for I solemnly swore to Gortuleg that, if any villain or rascal of my country durst presume to hurt or disturb any of your lordship's tenants, I would go personally, though carried in a litter, and see them seized and hanged. So, my dear lord, I beg you may have no apprehension that any of your tenants will meet with disturbance, so long as I live in this country; and I hope that my son that represents me will follow my example, so let monarchies, government, and commonwealths, take up fits of revolutions and wars, for God's sake, my dear lord, let us live in good friendship and peace together." It was but a short time when, after the retreat from England, Charles was met at Glasgow by a messenger from Lovat, requesting him to send north a party to seize Inverness, and, if possible, secure the lord president,, who, he affirmed, had done him more harm than any man living, having, by his influence, prevented more than ten thousand men from joining him. Circumstances of another kind than Lovat's advice or request,
brought Charles to Inverness, and the lord president, along with lord Loudon, was under the necessity of taking refuge in the island of Skye, where he remained till after the battle of Culloden, when he returned to reap, as many other good men have done, neglect and ingratitude for all his services. Of these services and of this neglect, the reader will not be displeased to find the following graphic description from his own pen. It is a letter to Mr George Ross, then at London, inclosing letters on the same subject to Mr Pelham, Mr Scroope, and the duke of Newcastle, date, Inverness, May 13th, 1746.
"Dear George, my peregrinations are now over. Some account of my adventures you surely have had from different hands; to give an exact one is the work of more time than I can at present afford. The difficulties I had to struggle with were many; the issue, on the main, has been favourable; and, upon a strict review, I am satisfied with my own conduct. I neither know nor care what critics, who have enjoyed ease, in safety, may think. The commissions for the independent companies I disposed of in the way that, to me, seemed the most frugal and profitable to the public; the use they have already been of to the public is very great, preventing any accession of strength to the rebels, before they marched into England, was no small service; the like prevention, in some degree, and the distraction of their forces, when the duke was advancing, was of considerable use; and now they are, by the duke, employed, under the command of E. Loudon, in Glengarry, and must be the hands by which the rebels are to be hunted in their recesses. My other letter of this date gives the reason why the returns of the officers' names, &c, was not sooner made. I hope the certificate will be sufficient to put them upon the establishment, and to procure the issuing of money for them. The returns of the several companies in the military way E. Loudon will take care of. What distressed us most in this country, and was the real cause why the rebels came to head after their flight from Stirling, was the want of arms and money, which, God knows, had been enough called for and expected. Had these come in time, we could have armed a force sufficient to have prevented them looking at us on this side Drumachter. The men were prepared, several hundreds assembled in their own counties, and some hundreds actually on the march; but unluckily the ship that brought the few arms that were sent, and the sum of money that came, did not arrive in our road sooner than the very day on which
