The first step to discover was the date of the sale of the estate of Glenbucket, the price of which was probably required for the expenses of the mission, and it was found from Duff family papers, kindly communicated by the authors of _The Book of the Duffs_, that Glenbucket sold his estate to Lord Braco in 1737. The next step is told in the pages of _James Francis Edward_, where it is narrated that Glenbucket was in Paris about the end of that year, that he there presented to Cardinal Fleury a scheme for a rising in Scotland, which he proposed should be assisted by the Irish regiments in the service of Louis XV. The same work tells how Glenbucket went on to Rome in January 1738, and there conveyed to the Chevalier satisfactory assurances from the Highlands, but few from the Lowlands.[56] The result was that William Hay was sent to Scotland on the mission which eventuated in the ‘Concert’ of Jacobite leaders, Highland and Lowland, and Balhaldy’s subsequent mission to Paris and Rome. It would be interesting to know who the Highlanders were who entrusted Glenbucket with the message to Rome. Murray, in his jealous, disparaging way, remarks that it could only be Glengarry and General Gordon, but either he did not know much about Glenbucket or he was prejudiced. In an account of the Highland clans preserved in the Public Record Office, and evidently prepared for the information of the Government after he had turned traitor, Murray writes: ‘I have heard Gordon of Glenbucket looked upon as a man of Consequence, whereas, in fact, he is quite the reverse. He is not liked by his own name, a man of no property nor natural following, of very mean understanding, with a vast deal of vanity.’[57] But this word-portrait does not correspond with that drawn by a writer who had better opportunities of knowing Glenbucket. The author of the Memoirs of the Rebellion in the Counties of Aberdeen and Banff particularly emphasises the affection he inspired in the Highlanders, and significantly adds:-- ‘It is generally believed he was very serviceable to the court of Rome, in keeping up their correspondence with the Chiefs of the Clans, and was certainly . . . of late years over at that court, when his Low Country friends believed him to be all the while in the Highlands.’[58]