if
you will be so good as to ask it for me.

"But because the first season of the waters is going fast away, I
should be glad you could do it without waiting to hear from your
Colonel about it, who, I should think, will not take it amiss when
you acquaint him with your having ventured to do so. Do not, I beg
of you, think there is any fetch in this, or anything but what I
have told you, which, upon honour, is nothing but truth, and all the
truth.

"I hope there will be no occasion of your mentioning your having had
this trouble from me to any, unless it be to your Colonel and one or
two about him, and the person, it is like, you must speak to where
you are. There is one with me, an old school acquaintance of yours
too, Mr. Stuart of Invernethy, whom you have seen dance very merrily
over a sword; and if the allowance is granted me, I hope it will not
be refused to him, for whom I promise as I do for myself.

"When I have done with the waters, I hope there will be no objection
to my returning to Italy again, if I have a mind; but I judged it
fit to mention this to you.

"The person who delivers you this, will get conveyed to me what you
will be so good to write."

Whilst he was thus in treaty with his former friend, Lord Mar was
stopped on his way to St. Prix, near Geneva, by the orders of the
Hanoverian Minister: his papers were seized and sealed up; and among
them, a copy of that which was written to Lord Stair as Captain Brown.
Lord Mar, who had borne an assumed name, disclosed his real rank, and
wrote to Lord Stair for assistance,--again urging permission to go to
the waters of Bourbon, or, if not allowed to go into France, the liberty
to return to Italy, "where," he said, "I may end my days in quiet; and
those, probably, will not be many in that climate." Whilst awaiting the
reply of Lord Stair, the Earl was treated with respect by the
authorities of Geneva; and "had only to wish that he had a little more
liberty for taking air and exercise." He expected that Lord Stair's
answer could not arrive in less than a fortnight: in the meantime, he
adds, "I shall be obliged, on account of my health, to ask the
Government here a little more tether."[158]

His indulgent friend, Lord Stair, was, meantime, urging his cause by
every means in his power. "I wish Lord Mar," he wrote to the English
Ministry, "was at liberty upon his parole to the