On August 10 Fassifern was ‘ordained’ to receive a full copy of his examination. He was anxious that the evidence of an aged solicitor, Alexander Stewart, in Appin, a man over eighty, and unable to travel, should be taken by commission. This Stewart had written, or witnessed, several of the old disputed deeds, and was the only person alive able to testify, of his own knowledge, to their authenticity. Fassifern also remonstrated against being described, in the Lord Advocate’s charge, as ‘the immediate younger brother of Donald Cameron, late of Lochiel, attainted.’ He ‘ventures to hope that this is not meant to make a point of dittay.’ It was obviously meant to suggest prejudice. He asked for bail, after his already long imprisonment. Bail was refused by the Lords of Session, nor would they examine Alexander Stewart by commission; but they promised to remove Fassifern from the Castle to the Tolbooth. The full charges, or ‘improbatory articles’ against him, he was not to receive. On August 24 the prisoner once more protested against ‘the practice of dropping out charges one after the other,’ which unpleasantly resembles the system of Titus Oates. If the Government, as appears certain, had this accusation of forgery pigeon-holed before they locked up the prisoner in May, why did they not bring it forward at first? Fassifern’s imprisonment, he justly remarks, ‘approaches to a kind of torture.’ He is denied the free use of pen and ink, so necessary in his preparation of a defence. An armed sentinel is in his room day and night. This petition was so far successful that pen and ink were given, but what he wrote was inspected, and even his lawyer’s chief clerk, Mr. Flockhart, could only visit him by special license. He was allowed to take the air, under a guard, but he seems to have been detained in the Castle, at least the Deputy-Governor is charged to remove the armed sentinel. In January 1754 articles of accusation were placed before the Lords of Session, and witnesses were examined, including old Alexander Stewart, who was brought from Appin ‘in a chaise.’ He attested that, as early as 1713, he had written and witnessed some of the deeds, and again in 1728. Appin (whom one of the deeds especially concerned) gave evidence as to the authenticity of others, and quoted Lochiel’s remarks to him, in 1746, about 1,000_l._ borrowed from Fassifern in 1741, and a bond given for the money by himself. He averred that Charles Stewart, writer in Banavie, accused now of forging that instrument, had really written and witnessed it, with Torcastle (in exile) and others (Culchenna and Lundavra), now dead. On these grounds Fassifern petitioned for bail. He had lain in prison for ten months, and his eyes were so impaired that he could not see to read. He must sink _sub squalore carceris_, and be ‘uprooted’ in earnest.