History of the Frasers of Lovat

1 62 HISTORY OF THE FRASERS.
and John Munro of Lemlair. They encamped at Speyside,
where they remained until the pacification, signed on the
18th of June, was intimated to them on the 22nd of that
month.*
In the same month a general meeting- of the nobility,
gentry, and clergy had been held at Aberdeen to concert
measures for the public peace of the nation, and to sound
the minds of the Lords and heads of clans in the North
as to their views regarding the National Covenant. The
Master of Lovat attended, accompanied by a retinue of fifty
well-mounted horsemen. There were several Commis-
sioners from the Privy Couicil present, among them the
Marquis of Montrose, who was heard to say in course of
conversation that of all the great men at the meeting, no
one seemed to have a clearer view, or to have spoken with
more solid judgment concerning the state of the nation,
than the Master of Lovat, then a young man in his
nineteenth year. But all the great expectations and pro-
mising hopes raised regarding him were nipped in the bud
by his untimely death under the following circumstances.
John Earl of Sutherland, in 1638, married Lord Hugh's
second daughter, Anne, and on the Master's return from
Aberdeen he made a tour to the Counties of Ross and
Sutherland to visit his sisters, the one at Balnagowan, and
the other at Dunrobin. On his return home in the
beginning of winter, he fell into a rapid consumption and
in the following spring, on the 20th of March, 1640, died
in spite of the art and skill of the most eminent physicians
north and south who attended him. During the last few
months of his illness, one or other of the ministers of the
three adjoining parishes attended him constantly in the
sick room. "To show that early piety and true greatness
are very consistent," says the family chronicler, "and that
both met in an eminent degree in this noble youth, I must
beg leave to set down his advice to his father and brothers
a little before his death, as I transcribed it from the writing
of one of the ministers who were present. Finding his
* History of the Mackemies, second edition, p. 249.