The chiefs of Grant - Electric Scotland

314 BEIOADIKH-CKNEKAL Al.KXANDl'.ll CHANT OF OKANT. [171G-
longation of leave for these geiitleinen, wliicli 1 inn persuaded Ills Majesty
will grant, knowing that you desire it." '
A foi-nial conge in favour of Colonel (iraut was at. length signed by the
Frencli King. It was to date from ;>lst December 1 7 ; 0, and to last for
f>ix montlis. The Earl '
this to Colonel Craiit. The led ^
Pontchartrain, wherein he tell ; me
'i' Dartir; 'uth, on tlie athJaiaiai'v i
r
iJowiii'
.
announces
pi'ocerJs, "I have recei . i-d a- le' ier from Mr.
you are at liberty to continue in Ennland
for six months from the 3 1st I'f December last, at the expirati'in of which
term that Court expects that yourself and the rest of tlie gentlemen taken on
board the Ostend packet-boat, should return to France as prisonei'S of war.'"-
Although the Government of Queen Anne was unwilling to accede
to the terms of the French Court relative to an exchange of jirisoners,
they were not wanting in endeavours to obtain for Colonel Grant
and his comrades all the liberty possible. The Earl of Dartmouth
wrote Colonel Grant as follows :— " Her INIajesty having directed me
to write to ]\Ir. Pontchartrain concerning several ])risone)-s of ^var, it is
|iroper I should know whether you desire to have your conge pro-
longed, or whether it is your intention to go back when the time for
Avhich it is already granted expires."^ Colonel Gnmt's answer is evident
from the terms of another letter from tlie Earl, dated exactly a month later.
He says, " I send you inclosed a paragraph of a letter I received this
morning from Monsietu- Pontchartrain, with the agreeable news that your
conge is prolonged. I desire you will Ije pleased to communicate it to
the rest of the gentlemen concerned.""' In the paragraph referred to, six
months' additional leave of absence is given to Messrs. Grant and Stewart,
their exchange for Messrs. ]\Iiddleton is again jiroposed, failing which they
are required to return to France at the expiry of this conge. P)y this
last jiass freedom to remain in Scotland until the close of December 1711
was secured to Colonel Grant. But the French Government seem to have
overlooked tliis fact, and to have considered tliat Colonel Grant was con-
tinuing in England beyond the period of his parole. This led them to
' Original Letter (in French) in Marlborough's ^ Origin.il Letter, dated '24th Ajiril 1711, at Castle
Despatches: Sir Ceorge Murray, vol. v. p. 170. Grant.
2 Original at Castle Grant. * Letter, dated 24th May 1711, (7,;./.