be wise to trust Claverhouse with secrets of grave
affairs. It was prophesied that this amazing and incongruous marriage,
the mating of opposites, would only work ruin to his career, and that
indeed this was the beginning of the end for Claverhouse. Lady
Cochrane, raging like a fiend in Paisley Castle, did not fail, in the
interludes of invective against her daughter for disgracing their good
name and giving herself into the hands of the cruelest enemy of the
kirk, to remind Jean also that she was doing the worst injury to the
man she professed to love, and that in the end Claverhouse would be
twice damned--for his sin against the Covenanters and for his
disloyalty to his own cause. Jean was, of all women, most capable of
holding her own even with her masterful mother, and Claverhouse was
perfectly confident that neither Lady Cochrane nor her family would be
able to shake Jean's fidelity. But there were times, and they were her
bitterest hours, when Jean was not sure whether she had not done
selfishly and was not going to satisfy her love at the expense of her
lover. On his part, he could not help being anxious, for it seemed as
if every man of his own party had turned his hand against him. With
all his severity, Claverhouse had a just mind, and he offended
Queensberry by protesting against the severity of the law; while the
Duke of Perth, an unprincipled vagabond, ready to play traitor to
either king or religion, hated Claverhouse because he was an honorable
man. Claverhouse thought it necessary to write to the Duke of York,
explaining the circumstances of his marriage and assuring him of his
continued loyalty, and to the Duke of Hamilton, whose daughter was to
be married to young Lord Cochrane, testifying to the integrity of
Jean. "For the young lady herself, I shall answer for her. Had she
been right principled she would never in despyt of her mother and
relations made choyse of a persecutor, as they call me. So, whoever
think to misrepresent me on that head will find themselves mistaken;
for both the king and the church's interest, dryve as fast as they
think fit, they will never see me behind."

Lord Dundonald himself was pleased because the marriage secured
Claverhouse's influence, and so were his personal friends, such as
Lord Ross, who knew and admired Jean; Claverhouse could not hide from
himself, however, that the world judged the marriage an irreparable
mistake, and Grimond, so far as he dared--but he had now