emoved from the government of the
castle of Edinburgh, and was succeeded in that confidential post by the
Duke of Gordon, a Roman Catholic. [134]

And now a letter arrived from London, fully explaining to the Scottish
Privy Council the intentions of the King. What he wanted was that the
Roman Catholics should be exempted from all laws imposing penalties and
disabilities on account of nonconformity, but that the persecution
of the Covenanters should go on without mitigation. [135] This scheme
encountered strenuous opposition in the Council. Some members were
unwilling to see the existing laws relaxed. Others, who were by no means
averse to some relaxation, yet felt that it would be monstrous to admit
Roman Catholics to the highest honours of the state, and yet to
leave unrepealed the Act which made it death to attend a Presbyterian
conventicle. The answer of the board was, therefore, less obsequious
than usual. The King in reply sharply reprimanded his undutiful
Councillors, and ordered three of them, the Duke of Hamilton, Sir George
Lockhart, and General Drummond, to attend him at Westminster. Hamilton's
abilities and knowledge, though by no means such as would have sufficed
to raise an obscure man to eminence, appeared highly respectable in one
who was premier peer of Scotland. Lockhart had long been regarded as
one of the first jurists, logicians, and orators that his country had
produced, and enjoyed also that sort of consideration which is derived
from large possessions; for his estate was such as at that time very few
Scottish nobles possessed. [136] He had been lately appointed President
of the Court of Session. Drummond, a younger brother of Perth and
Melfort, was commander of the forces in Scotland. He was a loose
and profane man: but a sense of honour which his two kinsmen wanted
restrained him from a public apostasy. He lived and died, in the
significant phrase of one of his countrymen, a bad Christian, but a good
Protestant. [137]

James was pleased by the dutiful language which the three Councillors
used when first they appeared before him. He spoke highly of them to
Barillon, and particularly extolled Lockhart as the ablest and most
eloquent Scotchman living. They soon proved, however, less tractable
than had been expected; and it was rumoured at court that they had been
perverted by the company which they had kept in London. Hamilton lived
much with zealous churchmen; and it might be feared that Lockhart,