diligence by a
gentleman of his train, to adhere to his word passed to his father and
himself, and to meet him the next day at two in the afternoon, three
miles from Beaufort, either like a friend, or with sword and pistol, as
he pleased."[140]

Such is the account transmitted by Lord Lovat, and intended to give the
air of an "affair of honour" to a desperate and lawless attack upon
Fraser of Salton, and on those friends who supported his pretensions to
the hand of the heiress of Lovat.

The real facts of the case were, that Fraser of Salton was to pass
through Inverness on his way to Dunkeld, where the espousals between him
and the heiress of Lovat were to be celebrated. Whether Simon Fraser
purposed merely to prevent the accomplishment of this marriage, or
whether he had fully matured another scheme:--whether he was incited by
disappointment to rush into unpremeditated deeds of violence, or whether
his design had been fostered in the recesses of his own dark mind,
cannot be fully ascertained. In some measure his revenge was gratified.
He was enabled, by the events which followed, to delay the marriage of
Fraser of Salton, and to retard the nuptials,--which, indeed, never took
place. "This wild enterprise," observes Arnot, in his Collection of
Criminal Trials in Scotland, "was to be accomplished by such deeds, that
the stern contriver of the principal action is less shocking than the
abject submission of his accomplices."[141]

Lord Salton dispatched an answer, saying, that he would meet the Master
of Lovat at the appointed time, as his "good friend and servant." But
the bearer of that message distrusted the reply, and informed the Master
that he believed it was Fraser of Salton's intention to set out and to
pass through Inverness early in the morning, in order to escape the
interview. Measures were taken accordingly, by the Master of Lovat. At a
very early hour he was seen passing over the bridge of Inverness,
attended by six gentlemen, as he himself relates, and two servants,
completely armed. This is the Master's statement; but on his subsequent
trial, it appeared that the fiery cross and the coronach had been sent
throughout all the country; that a body of four or five hundred men in
arms were in attendance, and that they had met in the house of one of
the clansmen, Fraser of Strichen, where the Master took their oaths of
fidelity, and where they swore on their dirks to be faithful to him in
his enterprise.[142]