e to his family and pretensions; but the people were unarmed and
undisciplined, consequently passive under his dominion. By this time,
however, the prince-pretender was joined by the earl of Kilmarnock, the
lords Eleho, Balmerino, Ogilvie, Pitsligo; and the eldest son of lord
Lovat had begun to assemble his father's clan, in order to reinforce the
victor, whose army lay encamped at Duddingston, in the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh. Kilmarnock and Balmarinowere men of broken and desperate
fortune; Elcho and Ogilvie were sons to the earls of Wemyss and Airly;
so that their influence was far from being extensive. Pitsligo was
a nobleman of very amiable character, as well as of great personal
interest; and great dependence was placed upon the power and attachment
of lord Lovat, who had entered into private engagements with the
chevalier de St. George, though he still wore the mask of loyalty to the
government, and disavowed the conduct of his son when he declared for
the pretender. This old nobleman is the same Simon Fraser whom we have
had occasion to mention as a partisan and emissary of the court of St.
Germain's, in the year one thousand seven hundred and three. He had
renounced his connexions with that family; and, in the rebellion
immediately after the accession of king George I., approved himself a
warm friend to the protestant succession. Since that period he had been
induced, by disgust and ambition, to change his principles again, and
was in secret an enthusiast in jacobitism. He had greatly augmented his
estate, and obtained a considerable interest in the highlands, where,
however, he was rather dreaded than beloved. He was bold, enterprising,
vain, arbitrary, rapacious, cruel, and deceitful; but his character
was chiefly marked by a species of low cunning and dissimulation, which,
however, overshot his purpose, and contributed to his own ruin.*

*He solicited, and is said to have obtained of the chevalier
de St. George the patent of a duke, and a commission for
being lord-lieutenant of all the highlands.

While Charles resided at Edinburgh, the marquis de Guil-les arrived at
Montrose, as envoy from the French king, with several officers, some
cannon, and a considerable quantity of small arms for the use of that
adventurer.

PRECAUTIONS TAKEN IN ENGLAND.

While the young pretender endeavoured to improve the advantages he had
gamed, the ministry of Great Britain took every possible measure to