When the Vicomte arrived, by the end of May, he resumed his position in the Royal Guard, and his evening visits to Lady Jane, or rather to Margaret. About the middle of the summer he succeeded in obtaining an authentic copy of the Act of Indemnity, which was studied with the greatest interest by us all. The terms were fair, even generous, but I was not astonished to find my name among those excluded from its favour. It mattered little to me that I was henceforward a marked man, with a price on my head, doomed to perpetual banishment; for, being in no sense an Englishman, and a Scot only by descent, exclusion from the Three Kingdoms meant little to me; blood and training had made me an alien in feeling, and fate had ever thrown me and mine on the side of the unfortunate; Maxwells and Geraldines, we had always been on the losing side; it had become second nature. But with Margaret it was far different. Her generous soul was in arms at once; my exclusion from the Act had raised me to the niche of a hero in her temple, and again it was the Vicomte who had contributed to this elevation. Margaret now began to grow anxious again concerning her brother. Why did he not join us? Could any new complication have arisen to cause his re-arrest? These and a thousand other disturbing speculations troubled her unceasingly, until they were put beyond all doubt by a letter, which fell upon us like a bomb: "_January_ 19, 1748. "My dearest Peggy,--I have resolved on a step which I can scarce expect you to approve, perhaps not even to understand at present, though I have every hope that some day you will do both. "My situation briefly is this: I have no hope whatever of another effectual attempt on the part of the Prince, and I have set my face against foreign service. Still, I was bred to the sword, and so must bide by it. As I have neither the means nor the inclination for an idle existence, and it has pleased the King to grant me my pardon without exacting any terms, I am resolved to offer him my sword and duty without reserve. "Let no one persuade you into thinking that I am playing a part, or have been won over by new friends or promises. I have won myself over from empty plots and idle dreams to an honourable career, and I have put the past from me without a regret, save that my decision will cause you pain, my dear and only sister. "Whether you write me in anger or write not at all, you cannot in any way lessen the affection in which I will always cherish you. "Your loving brother, "Archd. Nairn." "A most sensible determination," I thought, "and does much credit both to his sense of honour and his judgment," but I need hardly say I took care not to air my appreciations of his course before Lady Jane, and still less before Mistress Margaret, who was little short of distracted.