nions, but now deadly foes,--Lord James and Lord Mungo Murray. At
length, after gaining a complete victory, according to his own account,
at Stratheric, over the tributaries of Lord Athole, and extracting from
the prisoners an oath by which they "renounced the claims on our
Saviour and their hopes in Heaven if ever they returned to the
territories of his enemy, the guilty and unfortunate man grew weary of
his life of wandering, penury, and disgrace."

He was always fertile in expedients, and audacious in proffering his
petitions for mercy. During his father's life, a petition in the form of
a letter, written by Thomas of Beaufort, and signed by seven Frasers,
had been addressed to the Duke of Argyle, appealing to his aid at Court,
upon the plea of that "entire friendship which the family of Lovat had
with, and dependence upon, that of Argyle, grounded upon an ancient
propinquity of blood, and zealously maintained by both through a tract
and series of many ages."[157] The Duke of Argyle had, it was well
understood, made some applications on behalf of the Frasers; and Lord
Lovat now resolved to push his interest in the same friendly quarter,
and to endeavour to obtain a remission of the sentence out against his
head.

His efforts were the more successful, because King William had by this
time begun to suspect the fidelity of Lord Tullibardine, and to place a
strong reliance upon the integrity and abilities of the Duke of Argyle.
The Duke represented to his Majesty not only the ancient friendship
subsisting between the house of Campbell and that of Fraser, but also
that the King might spend "a hundred times the value of the Fraser
estate before he could reduce it, on account of its inaccessible
situation and its connection with the neighbouring clans."[158] The
Duke's account of his success is given with characteristic good sense in
the following letter:--

THE EARL OF ARGYLE TO THE LAIRD OF CULLODEN.

"Edinburgh, Sept. 5, 1700.

"Sir,

"In complyance with your desyre and a great many other gentlemen,
with my own inclination to endeavour a piece of justice, I have made
it my chief concern to obtain Beaufort's (now I think I may say Lord
Lovatt's) pardon, and the other gentlemen concerned with him in the
convocation and seizing of prisoners, which are crymes more
immediately against his Majesty, which I have at last obtained and
have it in my