The original charge against Fassifern in May 1753 was that of ‘correspondence with persons attainted.’ But the game of the Government was to get rid of him on any pretext. Colonel Crawfurd had come from Fort William to Edinburgh, and, on June 4, 1753, wrote a long letter to the Lord Justice Clerk. ‘The uprooting of Fassifern,’ he says, with candour, ‘is what we ought chiefly to have in view.’[101] He has found witnesses, or rather has heard of them (it seems kinder to omit the names of these gentlemen), who avow that Fassifern tampered with them to threaten the late Glenure’s wife, and to murder Glenure. That unlucky man was factor for Lochiel’s as well as for Ardsheil’s forfeited estate, and was expected to evict Cameron tenants. ‘The Lord Advocate said that, if this did not hang Fassiefairn, it would at least send him to Nova Scotia.’ Perhaps, the Colonel thinks, Breakachie may be induced to inform against Fassifern! That culprit has only sent 100_l._ to Lochiel’s family in France, and has made Lochiel’s tenants work on his estate, instead of on the county roads. These last were not hanging matters. And, somehow, Breakachie, a perfectly loyal gentleman, and kinsman of Cluny’s, did not give the desired information. The witnesses as to the suborning of Glenure’s murder by Fassifern would not kiss the book, or, perhaps, had never promised their evidence at all. Angus Cameron and Glenevis were discharged on bail, on July 3. No proof of treasonable correspondence, or suborned murder, or anything else existed, or could be found against Fassifern. Pickle, of course, could not be produced in Court. The Colonel does not conceal the discomfort of his reflections, and Government is perplexed as to the details of the process of ‘uprooting’ the representative of Lochiel. On June 10 Fassifern and Charles Stewart petitioned that they might be put on their trial. But what were they to be tried for? It was an awkward situation. The resources of civilisation, however, were not exhausted. On August 6 the Duke of Argyll came to Edinburgh and, next day, took his seat in the Court of Session. That day the Lord Advocate sprang a fresh charge on the accused. They might not have been holding treasonable correspondence, or even suborning murder, but they had been mixed up in—forgery! The Lord Advocate suspected that certain deeds had been forged, to substantiate claims made by Fassifern on Lochiel’s estate. These claims rested on old papers and bonds of various dates, from 1713 to 1748. There was ‘credible information’ (how obtained we shall learn) that five of these deeds were forged. Fassifern’s lawyer, Mr. Macfarlane (husband of pretty Mrs. Macfarlane who shot the Captain), had no longer the vouchers, the original papers from which he drew up the claims. These vouchers had been in a bag at Mr. Macfarlane’s house; but ‘some time in Summer’ (1752) Fassifern (being in Edinburgh) had sent for the bag, and had returned it in a few hours.