should likewise abstain from Conventicles; and further, that they should not associate nor commune with Ministers who had forfeited their places, nor confer with vagrant Preachers. A Committee of Council was appointed to accompany the with ample powers for its direction in matters of police; they were also clothed with Justiciary powers, constituted a Criminal Court, and directed the Sheriffs and Magistrates how to act.

The forces being now collected to the amount of nearly 5000, they had great store of ammunition, four field-pieces, a great number of spades, shovels, and mattocks; they had also iron shackles, as if they were to lead back a vast number of slaves; and thumb-locks, to use during examinations and trials. So formidable a company in time of profound peace, caused great consternation in the country; and the officers of the army were amazed when they found, wherever they went, peace and quietness, instead of actual rebellion.

At Glasgow the Committee of Council met, and having opened their instructions, they proceeded to disarm the peaceable citizens, and to enforce the Bond. They instructed the Sheriffs to convene the heritors and others within their Counties, for the purpose of subscribing the Bond, and disarming the insurgents. Heritors and all other persons were to subscribe, excepting Privy Counsellors, officers and soldiers in the King's pay, noblemen, and gentlemen of quality who were licensed to wear their swords. In Glasgow, the Bond was subscribed by James Campbell, Provost, John Johnston, John Campbell, and James Colquhoun, Baillies, the whole Council, and some Merchants and Tradesmen, amounting in whole to one hundred and fifty-three. The refusal to sign the Bond, formed a pretext for the desolation of the country, and the personal severities which took place about this time. The Committee remained ten days in Glasgow; they sat on Sunday during divine service, administering the Bond, while the soldiers, who were now termed the Highland Host, were let

loose for plundering those citizens and persons in the neighbourhood who would not sign the Bond.

Upon the 2d of February 1678, the Host, by order of the Committee, began their march to Ayrshire, and, by the 7th, were scattered over Cunningham and Kyle. During their march, they behaved in the most unwarrantable manner, seizing upon all the horses in the ploughs and carts which came in their way, and committing every outrage on the country people. The loss sustained in Ayrshire, before the Committee of Council arrived, cannot be accurately estimated. The Parish of Straiton, alone, suffered by quartering soldiers, plundering, killing sheep and black cattle, and the ransom of prisoners, no less than 12,000l. The Parishes of Ayr and Alloway, by quartering and by robbery, and breaking open dealers' shops, 12,1207; and the Parishes of Kilmarnock and Finwick, by quartering and plundering, 14,1317. The whole loss of Ayrshire, containing forty-five Parishes, was calculated at 137,499l. 6s. Scots.

Other oppressive measures were yet in store. The Council, upon 11th February, issued a proclamation, discharging masters from receiving tenants and servants, without certificates that they had taken the Bond; and, on 14th February, the Council passed an Act for the public peace, by which all persons were bound, in six days notice, to appear at a particular Court, and enact themselves that they would keep the peace; and every heritor who should refuse to take the Bond should be fined in two years' valued rent, and subject to the same penalty for the non-compliance of their tenants or servants; they were also to pay a penalty of 50l. sterling for each time that they, or their tenants or servants, attended a Conventicle.

The Committee of Council, being at length wearied out with enacting, and finding by experience, that the people in the West Country would neither sign the Bond nor rise in arms, as the Prelates expected, ordered the Highlanders home by the end of February; accordingly, they all marched off ex

cept 500, who, with the standing forces, remained until orders came to dismiss them in the end of April. Upon their return, loaded with baggage, the produce of their spoils, they continued to take free quarters. When they came to the Gorbals of Glasgow, the river Clyde had swelled so very high, as not to be fordable. The Students of the College, and other young men of Glasgow whose friends had formerly suffered by their depredations, determined that they should not again ravage their houses; they, therefore, opposed their passage at the bridge, and ultimately permitted only forty of them to pass at a time, and, after obliging them to deposit their plunder, they conducted them out by the West Port, without allowing them to go through the City.

The Committee of Council followed, and came to Glasgow on the 10th of April; when, having laid down certain regulations to be followed out by the citizens, they returned to Edinburgh on the 24th current, when the whole of their proceedings were submitted to the King, and approved of by his letter to the Council, of 26th March 1678, and afterwards ratified by an Act of Council, on the 2d of May.

The Western Shires being now disarmed, and the Host disbanded, prosecutions were conducted with vigour against all those who had not taken the Bond. In prosecutions against Conventicles, even boys were included and imprisoned.

Among the numerous persons who were prosecuted, were Dame Margaret Stewart, the Lady of Sir William Fleming of Farme, Commissary of Glasgow, in as much that having acknowledged that she was present at a Conventicle at Langside, and at another at the Craigs of Glasgow, and that Presbyterian Ministers preached at her house in Edinburgh, the Court, on the 4th of March 1679, fined her husband 4000 merks, and ordered him to pay it immediately, or find security to pay it in ten days. This is only one of the numerous instances where husbands were made to pay on the alleged, or acknowledged, guilt of their wives.

The Council now passed an Act, commanding all officers and soldiers of the standing forces, to disperse by force of arms, persons who should be found at Conventicles; and in case of resistance, mutilation or death should ensue, the Council engaged to indemnify them from the consequences. To execute this, a new levied force was sent to Glasgow, under the command of Lord Ross, who made strict search for all suspected Ministers and field Preachers, and other obnoxious persons. The Covenanters, aware of the schemes which were laid to exasperate them, had hitherto forborn from all acts of hostility, but an incident at last occurred, which suited the views of the Council: William Carmichael, a man of very dissolute life and abandoned manners, was employed by Archbishop Sharp to search for and prosecute non-conformists in the shire of Fife; this person executed his commission in the most cruel manner. A number of persons who had suffered by his tyranny, being aware that the avenues to legal redress were all shut up, resolved to lay violent hands on him; understanding that he was to be at a hunting party on the 3d of May, nine of them went out early in the morning to meet him, and, by a strange accident, they met with the master, when looking for the man; the Archbishop, returning from Edinburgh to St. Andrews with his daughter, was accosted by these persons in Magus Moor, dragged from his carriage, and put to death with many wounds. The persons who had committed the violence retired to a house three or four miles distant, where they continued till the evening: four men were afterwards executed for this murder, who were nowise concerned with it; and Mr. Hachstown, of Rathillet, was also executed for being present when the murder was committed.

After the death of the Primate, the Council proceeded with more than usual rigour against the Presbyterians; those who frequented Conventicles in small numbers, found it necessary, on account of the insults of the soldiers, to keep more closely together, and even to carry arms for their own defence;

hitherto they contented themselves with having sermons in the fields, and defending themselves when attacked, but their numbers increasing as well as their, zeal, they assembled at Rutherglen, on the 29th of May 1679, with Mr. Robert Hamilton, brother to the Laird of Preston, and Mr. Thomas Douglas, a Minister, at their head. Here they published a declaration and testimony against their persecutors, and then publicly burned at the Cross the Acts of the Parliament and Council against Conventicles and in favour of the Bond.

Their proceedings made a great noise, and being highly exaggerated, created considerable alarm; Mr. Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards Viscount Dundee, and at that time a Captain in one of the new levies, received a commission from the Council to kill and destroy all he found in arms at any meeting, to deal with them as traitors, to seize, and, upon resistance, kill all who had any share in the affairs at Rutherglen.

Claverhouse hearing that Mr. Thomas Douglas was to preach, on Sunday the 1st of June 1679, near Loudon-Hill, a few miles from Strathaven, resolved to march against them; public worship had just begun, when the accounts of Claverhouse's approach was received; those who had arms withdrew, being fully resolved to meet the soldiers. Having soon mustered about 200 foot and 40 horsemen, all provided with ammunition, though untrained, yet abundantly brisk for action, they came up with Claverhouse and his party in a moor near a place called Drumbog; this little undisciplined army, without officers, received Claverhouse's first attack with great bravery, and returned it with much gallantry. After a short but warm engagement, the soldiers were defeated with a loss of 40 men killed, and a great number wounded; Claverhouse's horse was shot under him; a number of prisoners were taken, when they were disarmed and dismissed. If Mr. Robert Hamilton, who commanded the party, had been acquainted with military tactics, and pursued Claverhouse direct to Glasgow, he might