ng been
spoken when word came down in haste from Glasgow that the Whigs were up.
Since the Sanquhar Declaration and the deaths of Cameron and Cargill,
the Covenanters had been comparatively quiet. The work of pacification
had indeed not slackened, but rather taken a fresh departure in the
appointment of a Court of High Commission, or Justiciary Circuit, which
in the summer of 1683 was held in the towns of Stirling, Glasgow, Ayr,
Dumfries, Jedburgh, and Edinburgh. Claverhouse was expressly ordered to
attend the justices in their progress as captain of the forces, except
at places where the Commander-in-Chief would naturally be present. But
though the discovery of the Rye House Plot had just then stirred the
kingdom to its centre, and given fresh energies both to the Government
and its enemies, only three men suffered during this circuit, of whom
two were convicted murderers. In each town members of the gentry as well
as of the common people flocked to take the Test; some to clear
themselves of suspicion, others only to air their loyalty, but all, in
the words of the report, cheerfully. Where time, moreover, was asked for
consideration, it was granted on good security. But from the end of
July, 1683, to the day of his marriage, Claverhouse seems to have been
occupied almost entirely with his duties as Councillor at Edinburgh, and
only to have left the capital for brief tours of inspection through the
western garrisons.

But with the day of his marriage came a change. On the previous Sunday
news had been brought to Glasgow of an unusually large and well-armed
conventicle to be held at Blacklock, a moor on the borders of
Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire. Dalziel (who was in church when the
message came, but who did not suffer his duty towards God to interfere
with his duty towards man) put the soldiers on the track at once; but
for the next eight-and-forty hours the country from Hamilton northwards
to the ford of Clyde was scoured in vain. The Covenanters marched fast,
and the country folk, many of them probably still fresh from the Test,
kept their secret well. Claverhouse was sent for in haste from Paisley.
He was in the saddle and away before the bridal party could recover from
their first shock of surprise. But even Claverhouse was foiled. His
lieutenant, however, had better luck. Colonel Buchan, as he was
returning to Paisley by way of Lismahago, came upon an ambuscade of two
hundred Covenanters, whose advanced post fired