officers, and gentlemen of loyal principles, during the reign of Charles
II., I believe that no candid person would be surprised at the severe
retaliation which was made. It must be remembered that the country was
then under military law, and that the strongest orders had been issued
by the Government to the officers in command of the troops, to use every
means in their power for the effectual repression of the disturbances.
The necessity of such orders will become apparent, when we reflect that,
besides the open actions at Aird's Moss and Drumclog, the city of
Glasgow was attacked, and the royal forces compelled for a time to fall
back upon Stirling.

Under such circumstances it is no wonder if the soldiery were severe in
their reprisals. Innocent blood may no doubt have been shed, and in some
cases even wantonly; for when rebellion has grown into civil war, and
the ordinary course of the law is put in abeyance, it is always
impossible to restrain military license. But it is most unfair to lay
the whole odium of such acts upon those who were in command, and to
dishonour the fair name of gentlemen, by attributing to them personally
the commission of deeds of which they were absolutely ignorant. To this
day the peasantry of the western districts of Scotland entertain the
idea that Claverhouse was a sort of fiend in human shape, tall,
muscular, and hideous in aspect, secured by infernal spells from the
chance of perishing by any ordinary weapon, and mounted upon a huge
black horse, the especial gift of Beelzebub! On this charger it is
supposed that he could ride up precipices as easily as he could traverse
the level ground--that he was constantly accompanied by a body of
desperadoes, vulgarly known by such euphonious titles as "Hell's Tam,"
and "the De'il's Jock," and that his whole time was occupied, day and
night, in hunting Covenanters upon the hills! Almost every rebel who was
taken in arms and shot, is supposed to have met his death from the
individual pistol of Claverhouse; and the tales which, from time to
time, have been written by such ingenious persons as the late Mr. Gait
and the Ettrick Shepherd have quietly been assumed as facts, and added
to the store of our traditionary knowledge. It is in vain to hint that
the chief commanders of the forces in Scotland could have found little
leisure, even had they possessed the taste, for pursuing single
insurgents. Such suggestions are an insult to martyrology; and many