Ossian Collection > History of the Highlands and of the Highland clans > Volume 3

ARREST AND ESCAPE OF LORD LOVAT. 171
As the future progress of tne insurrection in the Highlands depended
much upon the Frasers, Lord Loudon, in conjunction with lord-pit:>ident
Forbes, resolved to march to Castle Downie, the seat of Lord Lovat,
and to obtain the be>t sati-l'action that could be got for the peaceable
behaviour uf that poweif'ul clan. For this purpose, two companies of
tlie Mackenzies, which had been posted near Brahan, were called into
Inverness on the ninth of December ; and after allowing the detachment,
which liad been at Fort Augustus, one day's rest, his lordship left Inver-
ness on the tenth, taking along with him that detachment and the two
companies, amounting together to eight hundred men, and proceeded to
Castle Downie. The earl prevailed upon Lord Lovat to go with him to
Inverness, and to live there under his own ej-e, until all the arms of
which the clan were possessed, (and of which he promised to obtain the
delivery,) were brought in. But instead of deliveiing the arms on the
day fixed, being the fourteenth of December, he made excuses and
fresh promises from day to day till the twenty-first, when Lord Loudon,
thinking that he was deceived, placed sentries at the door of the house
where Lord Lovat resided, intending to commit him to the castle of
Inverness next morning; but his lordship contrived to escape during the
night through a back passage, and, being very infirm, was supposed to
have been carried off on men's shoulders.*
Next in importance to the keeping down of the Frasers, was the relief
of the shires of Banfi'and Aberdeen, from the sway of Lord Lewis Gor-
don. To put an end to the recruiting and exactions of this nobleman, the
laird of Macleod was sent the same day that Lord Loudon proceeded to
the seat of Lord Lovat with a body of five hundred men, composed of
four hundred of his own kindred, and one hundred of the Macleods of
Assint, towards Elgin, and these were to be followed by as many men as
could be spared from Inverness, after adjusting matters with Lord Lovat.
Accordingly, on the thirteenth, two hundred men were detached under
Captain Munro of Culcairn, to follow Macleod to Elgin and Aberdeen,
and these were again to be followed successively by other small bodies, and
by Lord Loudon himself, as soon as matters were finally settled with Lovat.
The escape of that crafty chief, however, put an end to this part of the
plan, as it was considered dangerous to reduce the force near Inver-
ness any farther, while Lord Lovat was at large.
In the meantime Macleod reached Elgin, where he received intelli-
gence that a party of two hundred of the insurgents had taken possession
of the boats on the Spey at Fochabers, and that they intended to dis-
pute the passage with him. Macleod advanced to the banks of the Spey
on thefilteenth; but the insurgents, instead of waiting for him, retired on his
approach, and he passed the river without molestation. On the sixteenth
and seventeenth he marched to Cullen and Banff. iNleanwhile Munro of
Culcairn arrived with his detachment at Keith, where he was joined by
• Culloden I'apers, p. 461.