Middleton, as well as with the French ministry, Lovat obtained a commission to visit Scotland in 1703, but rather as an emissary of the French government, than an accredited agent for James. The object of the French government was to have an immediate diversion created in the Highlands, and they furnished his lordship with six thousand francs (250) to defray the expenses of his journey, and a commission to be a major-general, with pouer to raise troops and appoint officers, as he should find needful. At the same time, to be the witness of his behaviour, they joined with him John Murray of Abercairney, a gentleman who ought to have been ashamed of such a companion as Lovat, and had the address to send James Murray, brother to Murray of Stanhope, so as to be in Scotland at least a month before him, where he told it openly, that Lovat was on his way, as agent for the pope and the king of France, to raise a civil war in Scotland, contrary to the positive orders of the king and his mother the queen. Owing to this arid the well known character of Lovat, many of the Jacobites were shy of communicating with him, though he certainly found a few willing to depend upon his promises, and to enter into his projects. His principal object, however, most probably was to see if there were yet any openings whereby he might reconcile himself with the government, and be allowed to take possession of the estate of Lovat, the first and the last grand object of his ambition. He accordingly threw himself in the way of Queensberry, to whom he betrayed all perhaps more than he knew, respecting his old friend, lord Murray, now, by the death of his brother and the queen's favour, duke of Athol, and his associate in politics, the duke of Hamilton; but his best friend the duke of Argyle dying at this time, he appears to have obtained nothing more than a free passport, and perhaps some promises in case of further discoveries; and with this he passed again into Fiance. Having, while in London fallen in with, or rather been introduced to, a well known Jacobite, William Keith, and the well known framer of plots, Ferguson, who was shortly after taken up, the whole of his transaction took air before he had time to reach Paris. The companion of his travels, too, Sir John Maclean, coming to England about the same time, surrendered himself prisoner, and, in consideration of obtaining his liberty and a small pension, laid open the whole of Lovat's proceedings from first to last, so that he was discovered to both courts at the same time. The reader, however, if he supposes that Lovat felt any pain at these discoveries, is in a great mistake. They were unquestionably the very events he wished, and from which he expected to rise in worldly estimation and in wealth, which is too often the chief pillar upon which that estimation is founded. There was at this period, among all parties, a thirst for emolument which was perfectly ravenous, and scrupled at no means by which it might attain its gratification. Of this fatal propensity, the present affair is a remarkable instance. Lovat had received from king James the present of his picture, which, with a commission for a regiment of infantry, he had inclosed in a box made for the purpose. This, on leaving Scotland, he committed to his friend, Campbell of Glendaruel, to keep for him, and his back was scarcely turned when Glendaruel went to the duke of Athol, and offered him the box, with its contents, provided he would give him a company in a regiment that was held by Campbell of Finab, and was worth about one hundred and seventy pounds a year, which he at once obtained, and the box with its contents was in a short time lodged in the hands of queen Anne. Lovat, in his memoirs, relates the transaction, and exclaims against its treachery, though it was wholly his own contrivance; the box being given for the express purpose of procuring a pension for his friend, and giving Anne and her ministers ocular demonstration of his own importance.
