" This
correspondence will show the confidence which then existed between
the Government and Lord Fortrose.
On the 9th of December the two Mackenzie companies were marched
into Inverness. Next day, accompanied by a detachment from
Fort-Augustus, they proceeded to Castle Dounie for the purpose of
bringing Lord Lovat to account. The crafty old Simon agreed to
come in to Inverness and to deliver up his arms on the 14th of the
month, but instead of doing so he of course made good his escape.
After the battle of Prestonpans, the Government, on the recommendation
of the Earl of Stair, forwarded twenty blank commissions to
President Forbes, with orders to raise as many companies of 100
men each, among the Highlanders. Eighteen of the twenty were sent
to the Earls of Sutherland and Cromarty, Lords Fortrose and Reay,
the Lairds of Grant and Macleod, and Sir Alexander Macdonald of
Sleat, with instructions to raise the Highland companies in their
respective districts. The Earl of Cromarty, while pretending to
comply with the instructions of the Lord President, offered the
command of one of the companies to a neighbouring gentleman, whom
he well knew to be a strong Jacobite, and at the same time made
some plausible excuse for his son's refusal of another of the
commissions.
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