abroad
that the stay of the country, the gallant Fraser, was to suffer for his
fidelity to his country's interests. Herbert de Norham, one of his
followers, and Thomas de Boys, his armour-bearer, swore, that if the
report were true, they would not survive their master. They died
voluntarily on the day of his execution.

In 1431, the Frasers were ennobled; the head of the house was created a
Lord of Parliament by James the First, and the title was preserved in
regular succession, until, by the death of Hugh, the eleventh Lord
Lovat, it reverted, together with all the family estates, now of
considerable value and extent, to Thomas Fraser, of Beaufort, great
uncle of the last nobleman. This destination of the property and honours
was settled by a deed, executed by Hugh, Lord Lovat, in order to
preserve the male succession in the family. It was the cause of endless
heart-burnings and feuds. Hugh had married the Lady Emelia Murray,
daughter of John, Marquis of Athole, and had daughters by that
marriage. He had, in the first instance, settled upon the eldest of them
the succession, on condition of her marrying a gentleman of the name of
Fraser. But this arrangement agreed ill with the Highland pride; and
upon a plea of his having been prevailed on to give this bond, contrary
to the old rights and investments of the family, he being of an easy
temper, having been imposed on to grant this bond, he set it aside by a
subsequent will in favour of his great uncle, dated March 26th,
1696.[120]

The families of Murray and Fraser were, at the time that the title of
Lovat descended upon Thomas Fraser, united in what outwardly appeared to
be an alliance of friendship. Their politics, indeed, at times differed.
The late Lord Lovat had persisted in his adherence to James the Second
of England after his abdication, and had marshalled his own troops under
the banners of the brave Dundee. The Marquis of Athole, then Lord
Tullibardine, on the other hand, had adopted the principles of the
Revolution, and had received a commission of Colonel from William the
Third, to raise a regiment of infantry for the reigning monarch.[121]
Thus were the seeds of estrangement between these families, so nearly
united in blood, sown; and they were aggravated by private and jarring
interests, and by manoeuvres and intrigues, of which Lord Lovat, who has
left a recital of them, was, from his own innate taste for cabals, and
aptitude to dissimulation, calculat