There on the sand will I cast myself down, 'MID leafless shrubs, on the cold earth And forget it is only a dream.

And the long smoke trail of the ocean mail There, blooming in thy lonely bed,

It is not often in these eminently practical times that the romantic and stirring episodes of a man's life should all take place after he has attained his seventieth year. Such, however, in a more heroic age, was the case with the stately old nobleman of whom we purpose to give a brief account, as his fine character and eventful career deserve to be better known than they have been hitherto. We have fortunately unusual advantages for such a record in the possession of material for which we are indebted in part to Sir Walter Scott and also to private sources of information.

which, as we have said, embodied all the more striking events of his career. Sir Walter Scott in the commencement of his review claims a special interest for the subject in the following words:

An account of Lord Pitsligo drawn from authentic documents is highly calculated, in my opinion, to interest not only those who love to look upon the noble spectacle of a brave and lofty-minded man contending with the storms of adversity, but the feelings of that lighter-minded class of readers who enjoy the interest annexed to hairbreadth escapes and the detail of singular sufferings, whether the sufferers be

heroes or rogues.

Alexander Forbes was the only son of the third Lord Pitsligo and of Lady Sophia Erskine, daughter of the ninth Earl of Mar. He was born on the 22nd of May, 1678, and succeeded his father in his title and estates in 1691. His home was at Pitsligo Castle (now a picturesque ruin), in a remote district of Aberdeenshire, but he left it at the age of nineteen to go to France with the view of completing his education. There he attracted the notice of Fénelon, and very soon their acquaintance ripened into a warm friendship, which was probably due in some degree to the fact that Lord Pitsligo, naturally enthusiastic and devout, adopted the religious opinions of the Quietists as promulgated by Madame Guion. His adherence to the doctrines of this sect is distinctly traceable in the work which he published at a later period of his life, and of which Sir Walter Scott says that

Many years ago a very quaint and matter-of-fact biography of Lord Pitsligo was published along with a work of his own composition, which was reviewed at some length by the author of "Waverley." That review, bearing all the characteristics of the great writer's well-known style, with the little book itself, is now in our hands, and the family traditions on the subject are of a very vivid description. The grandfather of the present writer was Lord Pitsligo's great-nephew and heir, on whom his impoverished estates devolved, with the territorial name shorn of its title, as the penalty of his devotion to a hopeless cause; It occupies the whole space betwixt the and his descendants the old cradle and the grave, and even passes that among man, who died at the age of eighty-five last stern limit of earthly hopes and fears, in the year 1762, has ever existed as a since the little book contains thoughts living personality and a priceless ex- concerning a man's condition" and duties ample of fortitude and self-abnegation. in this life and his hopes in the world to The motive power of his whole exist-come. ence was his unswerving fidelity to one idea · une idée fixe; he believed in the divine right of kings, and to that wellnigh obsolete theory he was content to sacrifice himself wholly and irretrievably. It will only be necessary to give a short summary of his history previous to the last two decades of his life,

These more serious tendencies did not, however, prevent Lord Pitsligo from mixing freely in the best society which Paris then afforded - such as was to be found in the Hotel de Beauvilliers, the resort of the most distinguished persons frequenting the court of Louis XIV., and where a young

man of his rank and accomplishments | from serving their country as statesmen was naturally made very welcome.

or taking any part in matters connected
with the government. Thus, on the
very threshold of his career, Lord Pit-
sligo's public life terminated, and he
might have led a tranquil and happy
existence in his old castle among the
tenants who revered and loved him,
but for his faithful devotion to the one
dominant principle which led him forth
in his manhood's prime, and again in
his resigned old age, to do battle for a
fatal cause.

It was at this period also that he first openly manifested his faithful attachment to the exiled princes of the house of Stuart, which was the cause of all his subsequent misfortunes. After some time spent in this brilliant and attractive society, he left Paris to return to his own country and assume the duties of his position both socially and publicly. Lord Pitsligo took his seat in Parliament in the year 1700, and found himself obliged at once to The accession of the Hanoverian make his choice between the two great Prince George I. on the death of contending factions into which the Queen Anne was the signal for the realm was politically divided. The first attempt in Scotland to restore the most powerful of these was undoubt-exiled Stuarts to the throne of their edly the court party, who desired to ancestors. In September, 1715, the bring about a settlement of the crown Earl of Mar, with the fiery impetuosity to the exclusion of the exiled royal of his race, raised the standard of King family, and ultimately to effect the James at Kildrummie, and called on all union between England and Scotland, true men to rally their forces under while their opponents, under the desig- that banner. He was immediately nation of Jacobites, labored for the joined by Lord Pitsligo, who was his independence of Scotland and the res- near relation, and still more closely toration of the ancient monarchical allied to him in unity of aim and prinrace. There was no shrinking or hes- ciple; but on that occasion the end itation on the part of Lord Pitsligo in came speedily. Sir Walter Scott says giving his entire allegiance to these that last, albeit he must have been quite conscious even then that theirs was likely to be the losing side. Sir Walter Scott thus sums up the position :

Mar, an able statesman and intriguer, had consulted his ambition rather than his talents when he assumed the command of such an enterprise. He sank beneath the far superior genius of the Duke of Argyll, and after the indecisive battle of Sheriff Muir the confederacy which he had formed dissolved like a snowball and the nobles concerned in it were fain to fly abroad.

The advantages which were in future to arise from the great measure of a national union were so hidden by the mists of prejudice that it cannot be wondered at that Lord Pitsligo like many a high-spirited man saw nothing but disgrace in a measure Lord Pitsligo had played a brave part forced on by such corrupt means and call-in that unfortunate attempt, and after ing in its commencement for such mortify- a short period of concealment among ing national sacrifice . . it was not till his tenants, who manifested the utmost the best part of a century after the event sympathy both for himself and the that the inestimable fruits of the treaty began to be felt and known. .. Looking upon the Act of Settlement of the Crown and the Act of Abjuration as unlawful, Lord Pitsligo retired to his house in the country and threw up attendance on Parliament.

When the measure was finally enforced, the extension to Scotland of the oath of abjuration effectually prevented all adherents of the house of Stuart

cause for which he suffered, he suc-
ceeded in escaping to Holland. He
was welcomed there as the friend of
Fénelon, who was gone indeed from
this world, but whose memory was
especially dear to the people of that
land, and there he remained waiting
the issue of efforts made by his friends
at home to induce the government to
allow him to return to his own country,
as he was not one of the nobles at-

tainted for their share in the rising of nected with Scotland; but these alli1715. Their negotiations failed, how- ances seem to have counted for very ever, and, submitting to his fate, he little in his life, as the notices of the travelled in Italy for some time, till he ladies which occur in his history are so was induced by a pressing invitation to extremely scanty that it is impossible join the court of James at Rome, where to form any opinion respecting them. he found Lord Mar and other adherents His first wife was the mother of his of that prince. He still remained there only child, the master of Pitsligo, who after the shadowy semblance of royalty was in no way remarkable, and who had passed to the Chevalier St. George, died without issue. although the petty intrigues and feuds of that illusory court were very distasteful to a man of his upright and honorable character. Some of his letters during this period of exile have been preserved, and the following passage from one to a friend at home shows the spirit in which he endured his painful position:

After five or six years spent in this exile, Lord Pitsligo became so disgusted with the cabals and corruption of the mimic court that he resolved to quit it, and at all hazards to venture back to his home. He seems, indeed, to have received some private assurance that his secret return would not be noticed by the government, and he took up his abode once again in Castle Pitsligo, where he lived in complete retirement and was held in the highest respect by all around him. He devoted himself to the care of his tenantry and the poor, and also gave up much time to literature. He introduced into that part of Scotland a taste for the mystic

In all events, my dear friend, study to keep your mind easy; we live but from moment to moment, and the whole earth, though we had it and all our wishes, is not able to give us real happiness, and consequently our disappointments may be called nothing but the loss of some amusements, or rather the change of one for another, for we have something to amuse us every-writers he had learned to admire on where, and to tell you the plain truth I have been sometimes but indifferently diverted abroad.

Another letter is of a very quaint description, having been really written to his wife; but as he did not dare to correspond openly with Lady Pitsligo, he writes as if from a.third person in a humble sphere of life, giving an account of her husband:

DEAR MADAM, I am so much in use of the familiar style that I must give you the same compellation I do my other friends, but the criticks tell me "dear" is not only a kind word, but it intimates respect too- I was very well pleased with your last letter. I suppose the best news I can tell you is that your husband is well. He says he has many neighbors to thank for their civilities to you in his absence.

those

the Continent, and with some of whom
he still kept up his intercourse. Sir
Walter Scott gives an amusing descrip-
tion of the long journey undertaken by
Dr. Heylin, distinguished in
days as the mystical doctor, for the
purpose of enjoying a personal inter-
view with Lord Pitsligo. When the
good man had overcome the distance
as far as Edinburgh, and found that he
had still two hundred miles to travel,
au fin fond de l'Ecosse, as Froissart
says, he shrank from the undertaking
and returned home, leaving Castle
Pitsligo unvisited.

In this peaceful and studious manner Lord Pitsligo's life passed on quietly till, in 1745, the young Prince Charles Edward landed in the West Highlands with only seven attendants to claim the throne of his ancestors on behalf of his father, the old Chevalier St. George. Lord Pitsligo was then approaching his seventieth year, and was subject to We may mention here that Lord asthma, which rendered him very unfit Pitsligo was twice married, on both for hardship and exposure; but the occasions to English ladies uncon- enthusiastic attachment to the house

You guessed right that I was not very fond of travelling; contentment is a good thing when people can come at it. Believe me, dear madam, I wish you all manner of happiness.

12

of Stuart which distinguished the ad- have yet met with for presuming to go herents of the cause, though stimu- on such an expedition." lated in the case of younger men by He took one faithful attendant with the romantic nature of the enterprise, him, who used long afterwards to dewas founded with Lord Pitsligo solely scribe the risks and hardships to which on principle and a sense of duty. He his venerable master was exposed and was ready at any cost to obey the call the anxiety he felt as to the ultimate of him whom he held to be his right-result, for Lord Pitsligo himself was so ful monarch. His age and infirmities full of ardor and determination that he might have justified him in confining seemed inspired with new life for the his exertions to raising a native regi- hazardous undertaking. He went at ment and animating the patriotism of once to meet his friends at the rendezothers; but the north of Scotland vous he had appointed in Aberdeen, abounded with high-spirited cavaliers, and found to his satisfaction that the bent on fighting for their prince, and a Jacobite gentlemen of the district leader was all they required. In this formed a body of well-armed cavalry, crisis they demanded of Lord Pitsligo, to the uumber of one hundred men. so universally esteemed and beloved, When they were drawn up in readiness that he should place himself at their to start their aged leader moved to the head, and insisted on being allowed at front, lifted his hat, and looking up once to enroll themselves under his to heaven said solemnly: "Lord, thou command. His assuming this perilous knowest that our cause is just." And position was vehemently opposed by then gave the signal for departure: his relations and friends, who knew" March, gentlemen!" the state of his health, and in a letter written some years afterwards he records the doubts he himself felt as to the wisdom of such a step:

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, and I weighed and weighed again... there was as little remorse when the affair miscarried as there was eagerness at the beginning. . . When I heard of the attainder I was not in the least surprised at it, only I knew not why those should be called traitors who had betrayed no trusts nor discovered any secrets.

Nevertheless, his unshaken loyalty and strong sense of duty prevailed, and when he had once announced his determination to take the field at the head of his men, he allowed no entreaties or remonstrances to delay him even for an hour. Before starting on the fatal expedition he went to take leave of a neighbor, and the little son of his friend brought out a stool to assist him in mounting his horse.

Lord Pitsligo and his followers joined Charles Edward at Edinburgh, a few days after the Highland victory at Preston, and the prince gave him the grateful welcome which was due to so important an acquisition to his forces. An eye-witness of Lord Pitsligo's arrival recorded afterwards the impression made on all present, saying that, It seemed as if religion, virtue, and justice were entering the camp under the appearance of this venerable man." He was appointed a member of the prince's council, and was always treated by him with special regard. Lord Pitsligo himself, writing to a friend, says:

66

I got to Edinburgh in very tolerable health, but it soon broke, and I had occasion to discover the prince's humanity-I ought to say tenderness, and this is giving

myself no great airs, for he showed the same disposition to everybody.

Lord Pitsligo remained with the prince's forces during their march into England and their retreat from thence, and as he was little able to bear the fatigues and privations of such a cam"My little fellow," said Lord Pit-paign through a whole long winter, the sligo, "this is the severest reproof I prince often insisted on his making use