s
craft and power to overthrow the whole Covenanted Reformation in Church
and State. Parliament, the slave of his behests, passed the Act of
Supremacy, giving legislative sanction to all the rights he claimed. The
Acts Rescissory followed, declaring the Covenants unlawful and seditious
deeds, and repealing all Parliamentary laws in their favour. Then came
the abolition of Presbyterianism, Indulgences, the restoration of
Prelacy, the appointment of High Commission Courts, the ejection of all
ministers who would not obey the royal mandates, and the erection of
scaffolds. The monarch seemed determined to extinguish every spark of
liberty in the kingdom. The reign of peace was supplanted by a reign of
terror. The Covenants were broken, burnt, buried, by public orders. The
Covenanters met to worship God in the moorlands and dells, setting a
watch for the dragoons of Claverhouse. Thousands upon thousands of the
noblest patriots were imprisoned, tortured, mangled, shot. At times
their indignation burst forth through arms, as at Rullion Green,
Drumclog, and Bothwell Bridge. Their most brilliant victories were on
the scaffold when they passed triumphantly to the crown; for there was
"a noble army" of martyrs, from Argyle the proto-martyr of the "Killing
times," down to the youthful Renwick, last of the white-robed throng.
The ruin wrought by Charles I. in England "we have likened," says Dr.
Wylie, "to a tropical sunset, where night follows day at a single
stride. But the fall of Scotland into the abyss of oppression and
suffering under Charles II. was like the disastrous eclipse of the sun
in his meridian height, bringing dismal night over the shuddering earth
at the hour of noon."

"The hills with the deep mournful music were ringing,
The curlew and plover in concert were singing;
But the melody died 'midst derision and laughter,
As the hosts of ungodly rushed on to the slaughter.

"When the righteous had fallen and the combat had ended,
A chariot of fire through the dark cloud descended;
The drivers were angels on horses of whiteness,
And its burning wheels turned on axles of brightness.

"On the arch of the rainbow the chariot is gliding;
Through the paths of the thunder the horsemen are riding;
Glide swiftly, bright spirits, the prize is before you,
A crown never fading, a kingdom of glory."

Throughout the long thirty years of persecution, the decimated
Covenanters still