Series 1 > Loyall dissuasive

50
THE LOYALL DISSUASIVE
the late Earl Marishal,1 a man as good as great, and his
brother the Earl of Kintore2 vigorously and above board
espoused your interest for that very reason against the Laird
of M‘Intosh in your Debate before the Councill, and after you
had obtained your Solemn Decreit and Sentence, the Earl of
Kintore did you the honour to invite you to an Entertainment
which ended in a Rout and Ramble, lasted for three days
space, during which time to the hearing of the Earl of Aboyn,3
Mr. Archibald Steuart,4 brother to the Earle of Moray,5 and
some other persons of Quality, his Lordship owned his relation
to your family and proposed you might do my Lord Marishal
and him the honour (as his Lordship was pleased to phrase it)
but to see him at their Country houses, that a mutuall friend¬
ship upon the head of your relation might be drawn up in
writing betwixt you, which you promised at that time to do,
tho’ I doubt it be not as yet performed.
But passing this at present as a matter not controverted, I
come to speak of another in the ensuing Section no less clear
and evident, tho1 our good friends the MTntoshes endeavour
to darken it all they can, who, not contented to question our
pedigree, take upon them likewise to attack our Loyaltie.
Sect. VIII
That our predecessors and family were with the Earl of Marr,
and for their lawful Sovereign at the Battle of Harlaw.6
This the MTntoshes contradict and with their usual assur-
1 George, eighth Earl Marischal, succeeded his brother William in 1661, and
died in 1694. He was a good soldier and royalist.—Douglas’s Peerage.
2 John Keith, created Earl of Kintore in 1677. He was mainly instrumental
in saving the Scottish Regalia from Cromwell.—Douglas’s Peerage.
3 Charles, second Earl of Aboyne, succeeded his father in 1681 and died in
1702. He had many difficulties in taking his seat in Parliament in Edinburgh,
being a professed Papist but declaring himself a Protestant.
4 Archibald Stuart was fourth son of James, third Earl of Moray, in the Stuart
line. He possessed Dunearn and had a large offspring, with whom many Scotch
families are connected.
5 Alexander, fourth earl, succeeded his father in 1653. He died at Donibristle
in 1700.
6 Fought at Harlaw, near Inverury, 24th July 1411. Mackintosh, according
to the Kinrara Manuscript, was next to Donald himself, and the chief of M‘Lean