thole's political tenets. Under these conflicting
and unsettled opinions the young Marquis of Tullibardine was reared.

There seems little reason to doubt that his father, the Duke of Athole,
continued to act a double part in the troublous days which followed the
accession of George the First. It was, of course, of infinite importance
to Government to secure the allegiance of so powerful a family as that
of Murray, the head of whom was able to bring a body of six thousand men
into the field. It nevertheless soon appeared that the young heir of the
house of Athole had imbibed very different sentiments to those with
which it was naturally supposed a nobleman, actually in office at that
time, would suffer in his eldest son. The first act of the Marquis was
to join the Earl of Mar with two thousand men, clansmen from the
Highlands, and with fourteen hundred of the Duke of Athole's
tenants;[45] his next, to proclaim the Chevalier King. Almost
simultaneously, and whilst his tenantry were following their young
leader to the field, the Duke of Athole was proclaiming King George at
Perth.[46] The Duke was ordered, meantime, by the authorities, to remain
at his Castle of Blair to secure the peace of the county, of which he
was Lord-Lieutenant.

The Marquis of Tullibardine's name appears henceforth in most of the
events of the Rebellion. There exists little to shew how he acquitted
himself in the engagement of Sherriff Muir, where he led several
battalions to the field; but he shewed his firmness and valour by
remaining for some time at the head of his vassals, after the unhappy
contest of 1715 was closed by the ignominious flight of the Chevalier.
All hope of reviving the Jacobite party being then extinct for a time,
the Marquis escaped to France, where he remained in tranquillity for a
few years; but his persevering endeavours to aid the Stuart cause were
only laid aside, and not abandoned.

During his absence, the fortunes of the house of Athole sustained no
important change. The office of Privy Seal was, it is true, taken from
the Duke and given to the Marquis of Annandale; but by the favour of
Government the estates escaped forfeiture, and during the very year in
which the Rebellion occurred, the honours and lands which belonged to
the unfortunate Tullibardine were vested, by the intercession of his
father, in a younger son, Lord James Murray. The effect of this may have
been to render the Marquis still more determined in h