He has all along used them as puppets, by whose means he can, when he chooses, annoy or coerce England.

But I have no belief that he will render any useful aid, either now or hereafter.
"Use then, cousin, all your influence to keep Drummond at home.
Knowing him as I do, I have no great hope that it will avail; for I know that he is Jacobite to the backbone, and that, if the Prince lands, he will be one of the first to join him." Maggie had not carried out Keith's injunction.

She had indeed told her husband, when she received the letter, that Keith believed the enterprise to be so hopeless a one that he should not join in it.
But she was as ardent in the cause of the Stuarts as was her husband, and said no single word to deter him when, an hour after he heard the news of the prince's landing, he mounted and rode off to meet him, and to assure him that he would bring every man of his following to the spot where his adherents were to assemble.

From time to time his widow had continued to write to Keith; though, owing to his being continually engaged on campaigns against the Turks and Tartars, he received but two or three of her letters, so long as he remained in the service of Russia.

When, however, he displeased the Empress Elizabeth, and at once left the service and entered that of Prussia, her letters again reached him.
The connection between France and Scotland had always been close, and French was a language familiar to most of the upper class; and since the civil troubles began, such numbers of Scottish gentlemen were forced either to shelter in France, or to take service in the French or other foreign armies, that a knowledge of the language became almost a matter of necessity.