Note 1287 — Chapter XXXVIII

The original of the above letter, from which this copy was taken, is among the Stuart Papers, and is written in a remarkably bold and steady hand. The Chevalier sent a copy of this letter to Charles on 20th January, 1747. “I send you,” says he, “a copy of poor Lord Balmerino’s letter. I shall inquire about his widow, and send her some relief if she stands in need of it.”—Stuart Papers. James was as good as his word. See Mr. Theodore Hay’s letter to Secretary Edgar, of 10th June, 1747, and Lady Balmerino’s receipt, 18th May following, for £60, in the Stuart Papers. The letter of Lord Balmerino, and the circumstances of his death, are feelingly alluded to in a letter written by Lady Balmerino to the Chevalier, from Edinburgh, on 15th June, 1751:—“Before my dear lord’s execution, he leaving this world, and having no other concern in time but me, wrote a letter to your Majesty, dated 17th August, 1746, recommending me and my destitute condition to your Majesty’s commiseration and bounty. You are well informed of his undaunted courage and behaviour at his death, so that even your Majesty’s enemies and his do unanimously confess that he died like a hero, and asserted and added a lustre which never will be forgot to the undoubted right your Majesty has to your three realms. He had the honour to have been in your Majesty’s domestick service in Italy, and ever preserved, before his last appearance, an inviolable, constant attachment to your royal house and interest, which at last he not only confirmed by his dying words, but sealed it with his blood, than which a greater token and proof it is not of a subject to give of his love and fidelity to his sovereign.”