aised especially for this
purpose. His commission was dated December 25th, 1682, and in the
following March he was sent into England with despatches from the
Council to the King and the Duke of York, who was still nominally
Commissioner for Scottish Affairs.[40]

Hitherto Claverhouse may be said to have stood conspicuous among the men
of his time for his persistent refusal to enrich himself at the public
cost. He had certainly had many opportunities, as had a still more
famous captain after him, of wondering at his own moderation, yet his
enemies had been unable to bring home to him a single instance of
malpractice. But we have now come to an episode in his life for which
an extremely virtuous or an extremely censorious moralist might, were he
so minded, find occasion to re-echo the popular epithet of rapacious.
Claverhouse was in no sense of the word an avaricious man; but, like all
sensible men, he had a strong belief in the truth of the maxim, the
labourer is worthy of his hire. He had laboured long and successfully;
and the time, he thought, had now come for his hire.

Lauderdale was dying, and from every side the vultures were flocking
fast to their prey. In those days politicians looked for promotion
mainly to the death or disgrace of their comrades, and the death of any
powerful statesman generally meant the disgrace of his family. All
parties were now busy in anticipation over the rich booty that was so
soon to come into the market. His brother and heir, Charles Maitland of
Hatton, was attacked before the breath was out of the old man's body.
Among the many lucrative posts he enjoyed, the most lucrative was that
of Governor (or General, as the style went) of the Scottish Mint. At the
instigation of Sir George Gordon of Haddo, who had become in quick
succession President of the Court of Session, Lord Chancellor, and Earl
of Aberdeen, a Commission was appointed to inquire into the state of the
coinage, with the result that Maitland (by this time Earl of Lauderdale,
for the dukedom began and ended with his brother) was declared to have
appropriated to his own use no less than seventy thousand pounds of the
revenue. In the general division of spoil which this verdict gave signal
for, Claverhouse saw no reason why he should go empty away. Eleven years
previously, when the old statesman was at the height of his evil power,
his brother had been appointed Constable of Dundee and presented with
the estate of Dudhope, ly