In the course of the investigation it was incidentally discovered that he had, while distributing the money of William among the Highland Chiefs, professed to them the warmest zeal for the interest of James, and advised them to take what they could get from the usurper, but to be constantly on the watch for a favourable opportunity of bringing back the rightful King.

Breadalbane's defence was that he was a greater villain than his accusers imagined, and that he had pretended to be a Jacobite only in order to get at the bottom of the Jacobite plans.

In truth the depths of this man's knavery were unfathomable.

It was impossible to say which of his treasons were, to borrow the Italian classification, single treasons, and which double treasons.

On this occasion the Parliament supposed him to have been guilty only of a single treason, and sent him to the Castle of Edinburgh.