On the thirteenth of November Lord Lovat was joined by the Earl of
Sutherland; and, leaving a garrison in Inverness, the two noblemen
marched into the territory of the Earl of Seaforth, where they
intimidated the natives into submission. Lord Lovat also despatched a
friend to Perth, where the main portion of the Jacobite army lay, to
claim the submission of his clansmen, who were led by his rival,
Mackenzie of Fraserdale. They complied with his summons to the number of
four hundred, and Lovat, after entering Murray and Strathspey, and
exacting obedience to the King's troops in these districts, prepared to
attack Lord Seaforth, who was threatening to invest Inverness. But
Duncan Forbes, who was then serving with the army, restrained the ardour
of his neighbour, and hostilities were terminated in the North without
further bloodshed.[205]
Lord Lovat was quickly repaid for his exertions. From George the First
he received three letters of thanks, and an invitation to go to Court;
and in March, 1716, a remission of the sentence of death which had been
passed upon him, received the royal signature. He was appointed governor
of Inverness, with a free company of Highlanders. What, perhaps, still
more gratified his natural thirst for vengeance was the fate of his
rival, the husband of Amelia Lovat, Mackenzie of Fraserdale, who was
attainted of high treason, and whose life-interest in the lands and
barony of Lovat were forfeited and escheated to the Crown. To complete
the good fortune of Lovat, the King was graciously pleased, in June,
1716, to make him a present of the forfeited lands; and Lovat
immediately took possession of the estate, and entered his claim to the
honours and dignities which were appended to the lands.[206] It was now
that he added another motto to the arms of the Frasers, and struck out
the quarterings of the Bisset family, which had been made a plea for his
adversary. The ancient Frasers, or Frizells, had for their motto "_Je
suis prest_," to which this honour to their house now added the words,
"_Sine sanguine victor_," denoting that he had come peaceably to the
estate.[207]
He was now the undisputed Lord Lovat; hitherto he had borne, generally,
the convenient name of Captain Fraser, given to him in his military
capacity; and it appears, in spite of all his boastings, that he had
scarcely been called by any other title at the French Court than that of
Fraser of Beaufort. He had now an admirable opportunity of obliterating
the remembrance of his past life, and of conciliating good opinion by
the consistency and regulation of his present conduct. Notwithstanding
his crimes his clansmen turned towards him gladly; his neighbours were
willing to assist him in the support of his honours, and he enjoyed what
he had never before experienced, the confidence of his Sovereign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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