leading them to the charge
down the slopes of Drumclog; and he would have led them against his
brothers-in-arms Ross or James Douglas, had they turned rebels, as
straightly and keenly as he led them against Hamilton and Burley. At the
same time both his letters and his actions show that he did his best to
discriminate between the ringleaders and the crowd: between the brawling
demagogues or the meddlesome priests and the honest ignorant peasants,
whose only crime was that they wished to worship God after a fashion the
Government chose to discountenance. It is not necessary to assume that
he was moved thereto by any softness of heart: common-sense, and a
sense, too, of justice, would suffice to show him where to strike. And
it will hereafter be seen that, where his commission was large enough,
he more than once exercised a discretion not entirely to the taste of
the more thorough-going zealots of the Edinburgh Council-board.

The only distinct evidence we have of him at this time is contained in
the aforesaid Orders of Council. From these it appears that he had been
charged by the Scottish Treasury with appropriating the public moneys to
his use. He had been appointed for his services trustee to the Crown of
the estate of one Macdowall of Freugh, an outlawed Galloway laird; and
of this estate it was alleged that he would render no accounts, nor of
the fines he had been commissioned to levy on the non-abjuring rebels.
With characteristic fearlessness Claverhouse went straight to London,
and in a personal interview satisfied Charles of his innocence, who
forthwith ordered him to be reinstated in his commission and all the
privileges belonging to it.[35] It is clear, however, that during the
greater part of the year 1680 Claverhouse was suspended from both his
civil and military employments, and this will account for the duty of
punishing the authors of the Sanquhar Declaration devolving not upon
him, but upon his lieutenant, Bruce of Earlshall.

The prime mover of the Sanquhar Declaration was Richard Cameron, who had
now become the head of the extreme party, henceforth to be known by his
name--a name which still survives as that of a distinguished regiment of
the British army. It was framed in much the same language and to much
the same purpose as its predecessor of Rutherglen, though it would not
be right to degrade Cameron to the level of Hamilton and his ruffianly
associates. It took its title from having been fixed to