out to draw the Highlanders into arms. He communicated his message
to a person of confidence, who undertook to send it after his
lordship; and this was the utmost which either he or I could do in
such a conjuncture.

You were now visibly departed from the very scheme which you had
sent us over, and from all the principles which had been ever laid
down. I did what I could to keep up my own spirit, as well as the
spirits of the Chevalier, and of all those with whom I was in
correspondence: I endeavoured even to deceive myself. I could not
remedy the mischief, and I was resolved to see the conclusion of the
perilous adventure; but I own to you that I thought then, and that I
have not changed my opinion since, that such measures as these would
not be pursued by any reasonable man in the most common affairs of
life. It was with the utmost astonishment that I saw them pursued
in the conduct of an enterprise which had for its object nothing
less than the disposition of crowns, and for the means of bringing
it about nothing less than a civil war.

Impatient that we heard nothing from England, when we expected every
moment to hear that the war was begun in Scotland, the Duke of
Ormond and I resolved to send a person of confidence to London. We
instructed him to repeat to you the former accounts which we had
sent over, to let you know how destitute the Chevalier was either of
actual support or even of reasonable hopes, and to desire that you
would determine whether he should go to Scotland or throw himself on
some part of the English coast. This person was further instructed
to tell you that, the Chevalier being ready to take any resolution
at a moment's warning, you might depend on his setting out the
instant he received your answer; and, therefore, that to save time,