shed wolves round a sheepfold. Keppoch
threatened and blustered. He would come in with all his men. He would
sack the place. The burghers meanwhile mustered in arms round the
market cross to listen to the oratory of their ministers. The day closed
without an assault; the Monday and the Tuesday passed away in intense
anxiety; and then an unexpected mediator made his appearance.

Dundee, after his flight from Edinburgh, had retired to his country seat
in that valley through which the Glamis descends to the ancient castle
of Macbeth. Here he remained quiet during some time. He protested that
he had no intention of opposing the new government. He declared himself
ready to return to Edinburgh, if only he could be assured that he should
be protected against lawless violence; and he offered to give his word
of honour, or, if that were not sufficient, to give bail, that he would
keep the peace. Some of his old soldiers had accompanied him, and formed
a garrison sufficient to protect his house against the Presbyterians
of the neighbourhood. Here he might possibly have remained unharmed
and harmless, had not an event for which he was not answerable made his
enemies implacable, and made him desperate, [335]

An emissary of James had crossed from Ireland to Scotland with letters
addressed to Dundee and Balcarras. Suspicion was excited. The messenger
was arrested, interrogated, and searched; and the letters were found.
Some of them proved to be from Melfort, and were worthy of him. Every
line indicated those qualities which had made him the abhorrence of his
country and the favourite of his master. He announced with delight the
near approach of the day of vengeance and rapine, of the day when the
estates of the seditious would be divided among the loyal, and when many
who had been great and prosperous would be exiles and beggars. The King,
Melfort said, was determined to be severe. Experience had at length
convinced his Majesty that mercy would be weakness. Even the Jacobites
were disgusted by learning that a Restoration would be immediately
followed by a confiscation and a proscription. Some of them did not
hesitate to say that Melfort was a villain, that he hated Dundee and
Balcarras, that he wished to ruin them, and that, for that end, he had
written these odious despatches, and had employed a messenger who had
very dexterously managed to be caught. It is however quite certain that
Melfort, after the publication of these papers,