ed the words "illegal cruelty" because Claverhouse is not only
commonly believed to have far surpassed all his contemporaries in his
treatment of the Scottish Covenanters, but to have even gone beyond the
sanction of a law little disposed to be illiberal in such matters. Some
reason has, I trust, been already shown for at least reconsidering the
popular verdict. But as we are now approaching that period of his life
when, for a time all too short for his own reputation, Claverhouse at
last found free play for those eminent abilities which none have denied
him, it will be well, before passing into this larger field, to be
finally rid of a most tiresome and distasteful duty. The controversial
element is, I fear, inseparable from this part of the subject, but I
shall endeavour to do with as little of it as possible.

Although the significant title of "the Killing Time" seems to have been
occasionally used in Scotland during the subsequent century to cover the
whole period from Lauderdale's administration to the Revolution, yet the
phrase was originally and more properly applied to the years of James's
reign alone. The most notorious of the acts attributed to Claverhouse
were, as a fact, committed within that time; but it will be more
convenient not to adhere too rigidly to chronological sequence, and to
take the charges rather in order of their notoriety and of the
importance of those who have assumed them to be true. Following this
order, the two first on the list will naturally be the death, by
Claverhouse's own hand, of John Brown, and the deaths, by drowning on
the sands of Solway Firth, of the two women, Margaret Maclachlan and
Margaret Wilson--popularly known as the Wigtown Martyrs.

An attempt has been made to prove that this last affair is a pure
romance of Covenanting tradition. It has never been disputed that the
women were tried for high treason (that is to say, for refusing to
abjure the Covenant and to attend Episcopal worship) and condemned to
death; but it has been denied that the sentence was ever carried into
effect, on the strength of a reprieve granted by the Council at
Edinburgh before the day of execution. That a reprieve, or rather a
remand, was granted is certain, as the pages of the Council register
remain to this day to testify. But it is not so certain that the
decision of the Council at Edinburgh ever reached the magistrates at
Wigtown; and that, if it did reach them, they at least paid no attenti