and Lothian was appointed high commissioner to the
general assembly. The parliament was adjourned to the fifteenth day
of April, because it was not yet compliant enough to be assembled with
safety; and the episcopal clergy were admitted to a share of the church
government. These measures, instead of healing the divisions, served
only to inflame the animosity of the two parties. The episcopalians
triumphed in the king's favour, and began to treat their antagonists
with insolence and scorn: the presbyterians were incensed to see
their friends disgraced, and their enemies distinguished by the royal
indulgence. They insisted upon the authority of the law, which happened
to be upon their side: they became more than ever sour, surly, and
implacable; they refused to concur with the prelatists or abate in
the least circumstances of discipline; and the assembly was dissolved
without any time or place assigned for the next meeting. The
presbyterians pretended an independent right of assembling annually,
even without a call from his majesty; they therefore adjourned
themselves, after having protested against the dissolution. The king
resented this measure as an insolent invasion of the prerogative, and
conceived an aversion to the whole sect, who in their turn began to lose
all respect for his person and government.

As the highlanders were not yet totally reduced, the earl of Breadalbane
undertook to bring them over, by distributing sums of money among their
chiefs; and fifteen thousand pounds were remitted from England for this
purpose. The clans being informed of this remittance, suspected that the
earl's design was to appropriate to himself the best part of the money,
and when he began to treat with them made such extravagant demands that
he found his scheme impracticable. He was therefore obliged to refund
the sum he had received; and he resolved to wreak his vengeance with
the first opportunity on those who had frustrated his intention. He
who chiefly thwarted his negotiation was Macdonald of Glencoe, whose
opposition rose from a private circumstance which ought to have had
no effect upon a treaty that regarded the public weal. Macdonald had
plundered the lands of Breadalbane during the course of hostilities; and
this nobleman insisted upon being indemnified for his losses, from the
other's share of the money which he was employed to distribute. The
highlander not only refused to acquiesce in these terms, but, by his
influe