les had called them seminaries
of rebellion. This expression, which was nothing but a flourish of
rhetoric, Lauderdale and the privy council were willing to understand
in a literal sense; and because the western counties abounded in
conventicles, though otherwise in profound peace, they pretended that
these counties were in a state of actual war and rebellion. They made
therefore an agreement with some highland chieftains to call out their
clans, to the number of eight thousand men: to these they joined the
guards, and the militia of Angus; and they sent the whole to live at
free quarters upon the lands of such as had refused the bonds illegally
required of them. The obnoxious counties were the most populous and
most industrious in Scotland. The Highlanders were the people the most
disorderly and the least civilized. It is easy to imagine the havoc and
destruction which ensued. A multitude, not accustomed to discipline,
averse to the restraint of laws, trained up in rapine and violence, were
let loose amidst those whom they were taught to regard as enemies to
their prince and to their religion. Nothing escaped their ravenous
hands: by menaces, by violence, and sometimes by tortures, men were
obliged to discover their concealed wealth. Neither age, nor sex, nor
innocence afforded protection; and the gentry, finding that even those
who had been most compliant, and who had subscribed the bonds,
were equally exposed to the rapacity of those barbarians, confirmed
themselves still more in the resolution of refusing them. The voice
of the nation was raised against this enormous outrage; and after two
months' free quarter, the highlanders were sent back to their hills,
loaded with the spoils and execrations of the west.

Those who had been engaged to subscribe the bonds, could find no
security but by turning out such tenants as they suspected of an
inclination to conventicles, and thereby depopulating their estates. To
increase the misery of these unhappy farmers, the council enacted, that
none should be received any where, or allowed a habitation, who brought
not a certificate of his conformity from the parish minister. That the
obstinate and refractory might not escape further persecution, a new
device was fallen upon. By the law of Scotland, any man who should go
before a magistrate, and swear that he thought himself in danger from
another, might obtain a writ of law-burrows, as it is called; by which
the latter was bound, u