Argyle; and after the undecisive battle of Sheriffmuir, the confederacy
which he had formed, but was unable to direct, dissolved like a
snow-ball, and the nobles concerned in it were fain to fly abroad. This
exile was Lord Pitsligo's fate for five or six years. Part of the time
he spent at the Court, if it can be called so, of the old Chevalier de
Saint George, where existed all the petty feuds, chicanery, and crooked
intrigues which subsist in a real scene of the same character, although
the objects of the ambition which prompts such arts had no existence.
Men seemed to play at being courtiers in that illusory court, as
children play at being soldiers."

It would appear that Lord Pitsligo was not attainted for his share in
Mar's rebellion. He returned to Scotland in 1720, and resided at his
castle in Aberdeenshire, not mingling in public affairs, but gaining,
through his charity, kindness, and benevolence, the respect and
affection of all around him. He was sixty-seven years of age when
Charles Edward landed in Scotland. The district in which the estates of
Lord Pitsligo lay was essentially Jacobite, and the young cavaliers only
waited for a fitting leader to take up arms in the cause. According to
Mr. Home, his example was decisive of the movement of his neighbours:
"So when he who was so wise and prudent declared his purpose of joining
Charles, most of the gentlemen in that part of the country who favoured
the Pretender's cause, put themselves under his command, thinking they
could not follow a better or safer guide than Lord Pitsligo." His
Lordship's own account of the motives which urged him on is
peculiar:--"I was grown a little old, and the fear of ridicule stuck to
me pretty much. I have mentioned the weightier considerations of a
family, which would make the censure still the greater, and set the more
tongues agoing. But we are pushed on, I know not how,--I thought--I
weighed--and I weighed again. If there was any enthusiasm in it, it was