432 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



never requited ; his sole reward was a good conscience. 

 The resentment of the Jacobites against him was intense. 

 It was felt and with a good deal of reason that the 

 accession of the Macleods, the Macdonalds of Sleat, the 

 Mackenzies, and the Erasers would, in the depleted state 

 of the country's defences, have rendered the Prince's army 

 irresistible ; and it was afterwards declared by the Jaco- 

 bites that with the addition of those clans, they might have 

 made themselves masters of London.* The attitude 

 assumed by the chiefs of the clans in question was mainly 

 due to the influence of Duncan Forbes. This is plain from 

 contemporary correspondence, and it was admitted by the 

 Prince himself. Sir Alexander Macdonald, in a letter to 

 Forbes dated nth August, 1745, was very emphatic in his 

 opinion of the rising. " That we will have no connection 

 with these madmen is certain," he declares. " Young 

 Clanranald," he adds, "is deluded" . . . " and what is 

 more astonishing, Lochiel's prudence has quite forsaken 

 him." Norman Macleod stigmatised the insurrection as a 

 " mad rebellious attempt." And yet, if Murray of Brough- 

 ton is to be believed his own record is far from blameless 

 Macleod played a double-dealing game, promising his 

 support to the Prince, while assuring Forbes of his un- 

 swerving loyalty to the Government. The sympathies 

 both of Macleod and of Sir Alexander Macdonald were 

 undoubtedly on the side of the Jacobites, but Macdonald, 

 at least, never promised to take up arms for the Prince. 

 As for Lord Fortrose, Forbes himself declared that " he 

 was extremely zealous for his Majestie's Government."f 

 Simon Fraser of Lovat temporised as long as he dared, 

 and when at length, after a series of unparalleled acts of 

 duplicity, he decided to assist the Prince, the time had 

 passed for his help to be of any real service. The shifty 

 conduct of this chief whose complex character is still a 

 puzzle met its reward. In his efforts to keep on good 

 terms with both sides, he overreached himself, and finally 



* Culloden Papers, p. 272. 

 f Idem, p. 246. 



