with him, when all the world had forsaken him and gone to the Prince of Orange ?-Colin said their fidelity to so good a master would ever be the same; they had nothing to do with the Prince of Orange,-Lord Dundee made the strongest professions of duty;- Will you two, as gentlemen, say you have still attachment to me?'- Sir, we do.'--' Will you give me your hands upon it, as men of honour?'-they did so,- Well! I see you are the men I always took you to be; you shall know all my intentions. I can no longer remain here but as a cypher, or be a prisoner to the Prince of Orange, and you know there is but a small distance between the prisons and the graves of kings; therefore I go for France immediately; when there, you shall have my instructions,-you, Lord Balcarres, shall have a commission to manage my civil affairs, and you, Lord Dundee, to command my troops in Scotland.'

Colin

"After the King was gone," continues Earl James, waited upon the Prince of Orange, to whom he was well known, having been married to Mademoiselle Beverwaert,* his cousin, whom he valued, and he had been often at their house, when in suit of the Princess Mary. He declared his favour to Colin, and that he doubted not of his attachment to him at the convention. Colin owned that, although he had the utmost respect to his Highness, yet he could have no hand in turning out his King, who had been a kind master to him, although im

Mauritia de Nassau de Beverwaert, Earl Colin's first wife, to whom he was married on his visit to court. She died in child-bed within a year afterwards.

prudent in many things. The Prince, perhaps, valued him the more for this, and twice thereafter spoke to him upon the same subject; but at last told him to beware how he behaved himself, for if he transgressed the law, he should be left to it.”

Such a hint could not be misunderstood; the Prince had been equally unsuccessful with Dundee, and the two friends, having concerted their plans, set off for Scotland with a guard of about twenty-four troopers, and arrived safely at Edinburgh towards the end of February 1689.

The proceedings of the adverse parties till the discovery of Sir James Montgomery's plot, in 1690, are fully detailed in the following pages. On its discovery, expecting no favour from William, Lord Balcarres escaped to Hamburgh, and from thence proceeded through Holland, Flanders, and France, to St Germains, where "the King received him with the utmost affection, the Queen no less so, having ever been favourable to him; and both acknowledged his zeal and activity in their service."

It was then and there that he presented to the exiled monarch the memoir which I have now the pleasure of offering, for the first time in its genuine state, to the notice of the Bannatyne Club.

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Colin," continues his son,

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was still of opinion that much might be done for the King's restoration, and twice offered him schemes for that end; when he presented a third to him, he owned, that what he had formerly wrote was specious, but that there was an error in all his views; that his foundation of them

was wrong, as he relied upon the assistance of France for his restoration, which neither he nor his family would ever obtain ; that France would ever find her advantage in the confusions of Britain, and its being ruled over by kings who had not its true. interests at heart, and that he hoped nothing from them.-Colin often said that this unhappy King (except in affairs where religion was concerned) was a wise and good man. Bishop Burnet, in his Memoirs, says no less, though one of his most zealous enemies."

After passing six months at St Germains, in great familiarity with the King,* Colin came to be thought too much in favour by Melfort and the Priests; they artfully forged a calumny against him, and he was forbid the Court. He retired to the south of France, and wrote an expostulatory letter to the King,

* Earl James has preserved a couple of anecdotes of the exiled court at this time, which may be worth insertion in a note :-" At a supper the King fell a speaking of his daughters; he never, he said, had any resentment against Mary, she had no will nor sentiment but her husband's; for Anne he could not say so much, yet said something to soften her behaviour to him. This much offended David Floyd, one of the grooms of the bedchamber, a brave sea-captain, with a blunt wit, indulged in speaking; he left the room, but put back his head, and said, 'B—ches both, by G-!' Upon a like occasion, ono came in to the King while at supper, and informed him that a ship was arrived from China, with great news, that the Emperor's eldest son was certainly converted to the Christian Religion. Don't you rejoice at this news, Davie ?' says the King. No, Sir!' says he; I am sorry for the Prince; they will certainly turn him out!''

I have little doubt that the hero of these anecdotes was David Lloyd, Esq. of Foesy-Blaidud, ancestor of the Lloyds of Dan-yr-alt; see Burke's Hist. of the Landed Gentry, iv. p. 474.-The report of the Chinese Prince's conversion arose probably from the extraordinary footing the French Missionaries were obtaining at that moment in China, owing to their skill in astronomy and the scientific tastes of the young Emperor,

of which he kept a copy; when he came home, he found a letter from his father wrote to King Charles the Second upon a like occasion, and almost every word the same as his, and the sentiments likewise. He had, by means of Lord Clarendon, been forbid the Court, but soon was invited back again.* So likewise was Colin, by a letter from the King, wrote with great goodness, owning that he had been imposed upon. He was made sensible of this by James Malcolm, who had been commissarygeneral of the army, and brother of Lord Lochor of the Session; both had owed their fortunes to Colin. James would not leave the Court to go with Colin till justice was done him, yet Colin would never return as his enemies governed all. He passed a year in France, returned to Brussels, then to Utrecht, and sent for his wife † and family from Scotland. He passed there some years with tranquillity, in society with Bayle, Leclerc, and other learned and agreeable men."

* Being "taken," according to Baxter, "for the head of the Presbyterians with the King," he was consequently obnoxious to the High Church party. King Charles during his absence expresses himself thus in a letter to Lord Arlington, "Our little court are all at variance, but Lord Balcarres will soon return, and heal us with his wisdom." -Earl Colin had from his youth joined the Episcopal church, to which his family have ever since adhered.

+ Lady Margaret Campbell, daughter of James second Earl of Loudoun, his fourth and last wife, and mother of James Earl of Balcarres, the writer of the above.

This was varied, however, by at least one visit to St Germains, as appears from the conclusion of a letter addressed to him, under the assumed name of Du Gat, at Paris, in 1694, by his friend and relation Lord Perth, the ex-chancellor.-" My heart has not been capable of any joy like what yours must feel, now when you are to see our King and Queen.-I'm sure it must be such a one as to me is unconceivable at present. I'm told from home, that there's no defence against the forfaulture of my family. I thank God, I have never been tempted to wish it might subsist upon any other terms

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As he had ever been careless of his fortune, and his pension of L.1000 a year had been stopped at the Revolution, this long exile brought his affairs in Scotland into great disorder. Many applications were made to King William to allow him to go home. The permission was at last obtained by Carstairs, the King's Secretary. Colin," says his son, "had walked on foot, as usual," (being an active pedestrian,) " to the Hague, to solicit his favour; Carstairs told the King, a man he had once favoured was in so low a condition that he had footed it from Utrecht that morning to desire him to speak for him. If that be the case,' says he, 'let him go home; he has suffered enough.'" Lord Balcarres accordingly returned home, towards the close of the year 1700, after ten years' exile, and had the happiness of once more embracing his aged mother, who was still living in her retirement at Stirling, and indeed survived his return several years. Macky describes him at his period of his life as a " gentleman of very good natural parts, hath abundance of application, handsome in his person, very fair, and towards sixty years old,”—in appearance, it must be added, for he was not in reality much more than fifty.

For the next fifteen years, he resided for the most part quiet

than to be serviceable to my dearest master; if things go well with him, I need not fear; and if not, should I beg a morsel of bread, I hope I shall never complain. Give him and his lady my duty, and kiss our young master his hand for me; I have no longing but to see them all together, and I must confess I languish for that happiness. I'm sure if some body have any thing, you will not want, so you may call for it until your own money arrives. Continue to love, my dearest lord, yours entirely, &c."