History of the Frasers of Lovat

THE FRASERS OF CULDUTHEL. 585
attempt to raise the siege of Bergen -op-Zoom, while they
lay in trenches near the French lines, a party was ordered
during the night to attack and destroy a battery occupied
by the enemy. Captain Fraser was one of them, but there
were no privates from the 42nd, and his ever present foster-
brother had to remain in the trenches. Mrs Grant of
Laggan gives the following interesting account of what
followed : —
" The party left the trenches with the utmost silence and secrecy ;
but from the utter darkness and their imperfect knowledge of the
ground, became confused and so bewildered that they knew not
exactly where to proceed. Fraser of Culduthel, the officer already
mentioned, in the act of getting over the remains of an enclosure
which stopped his path, felt his feet entangled in something. Putting
down his hand to discover the cause he caught hold of a plaid and
seized the owner, who seemed to grovel on the ground. He held the
caitiff with one hand, and drew his dirk with the other, when he heard
the imploring voice of his foster-brother. ' What the devil brought
you here?' asked Culduthel. 'Just love for you and care for your
person.' ' Why so, when your love can do me no good, and has
already done me evil, and why encumber yourself with a plaid?
'Alas! how could I ever see my mother had you been killed or
wounded, and had I not been there to carry you home to the Surgeon,
or to Christian burial ; and how could I do either without my plaid
to wrap you in?' Upon enquiry it was found that the poor man
had crawled out on his hands and knees between the sentinels, then
followed the party at some distance till he thought they were ap-
proaching the place of assault, and then again crept in the same
manner on the ground beside his master that he might be near
him unobserved."*
Captain Malcolm, who was unmarried, was killed a few
days afterwards in August, 1747, by a cannon ball as he
was looking over the trench to view the approach of the
enemy.
Alexander died before the 12th of May, 1737, for on that
date, Lord Simon, in a letter to Sir James Grant, in which
he refers to James of Castle Leathers, mentions his brother
of Balloan, and his nephew Culduthel. It is of course
obvious that James's nephew could not have been described
* Superstitions of the Highlanders, pp. 190-92, vol, ii.